April Point to Thurlow Island, June 14th 2015.

I was up and launched early to make sure I was there on time to meet Al Dunham. He was also early (we made contact over the VHS radio) and we proceeded towards the dreaded Seymour Narrows. The Race to Alaska rules require that I contact Vessel Traffic on my VHF radio and check in at a few places like Seymour. My radio seems to be very weak, and I have trouble contacting anyone. Al had better luck with his radio and was able to check me in. Vessel Traffic warned us about some approaching tug boats but Al said those were not going to get in our way. Al rafted up and showed me me where we should go and what to expect.

We roared down the tongue of the rapids. My eyes were mostly glued to the water ahead of me, but I spared a few glances at my GPS which read 11.5 knots at one time. Then we had to zig-zag back and forth to stay in the edges of a bunch of whirlpools. Suddenly we were in front of Brown Bay and two miles past the entrance of the narrows. I turned around to take some pictures, and the ALASKA FERRY WAS RIGHT BEHIND US! They were far over on the east side of the channel, but Vessel Traffic had not mentioned them at all. This was the first time I said that the Alaska Ferry "lapped" me. Al and I parted ways here. He went to Brown Bay to wait for the tide to turn so he could get a ride home, I continued on to get some more miles under my belt before the tide turned.

I headed north until Chatham Point and then turned west into the Johnstone Straits. Chatham is the location of Rock Bay Provincial Park with some nice looking coves, islands and a lighthouse. It might be a nice place to explore, but I was in a race and had to keep going. As I worked my way north the tide turned against me and I eddy hopped along the shore. Around the corner when I could see down the length of Johnstone, I was brought to a standstill by the current around one point. It was about noon, so I landed on a rock ledge and had lunch, then tried to nap for an hour or so until the tide calmed down enough for me to proceed. Once underway again, I crossed over to the north side of Johnstone. I should not have to cross any more shipping channels for many days now.

I rode eddies for a while until around 4:00 PM the tide turned to go my way. But by 5:30 I had to get off the water to camp. I often take chances camping with the height of the tide. The nice gravel beach I found had a high dry spot that looked good. It had non-salt tolerant plants on it which had not seen salt water in a while. But I have been fooled by that before. I studied the tide tables and measured the height of the beach with my eyes. It looked close and the tide had 10 more feet to rise. I set an alarm to wake me up at midnight (an hour before high tide) to check. The water was alarmingly high then, but surely it was OK.