We were up at 4 and on the water by 6. We wanted to catch the hide tide and we were successful. The first bird that we saw as we crossed the open water towards Prince Rupert was the:
Rhinoceros Auklet
The crossing to Prince Rupert had the potential to be quite windy and wavy and to have lots of boat traffic heading to the town. Being on the water so early helped with minimal traffic and we were fortunate to have the current with us as well as some nice winds on our backs. We were approaching Prince Rupert before noon and had paddled 18 miles.
Great conditions this morning.
As we approached the town the first thing we saw was a large loading dock surrounded by numerous piles of unidentified minerals.
It was quite noisy and dusty as we passed the loading dock.
The next large operation was an enormous container ship that was being unloaded.
We had a vision of what happens when a container ship looses some of its cargo at sea.
There were 4 containers being unloaded at a time here.
We were headed to the Prince Rupert Rowing and Yacht club. We had sent them a box of our food and Don had Seward Kayaks send them a foot peddle replacement. We were hoping that our packages would be there. As we approached the docks a women was walking on the docks, when she saw us she asked if we were looking for a place to put our kayaks. We said that we were looking for the Prince Rupert Rowing and Yacht club. She said that is who I work for. And then she asked are you Don and Donna? I have some packages for you! Great ! She showed us where to put our kayaks and we unloaded our gear on to the docks.
We are getting good with the dock unloading.
We grabbed a cart and wheeled it up to the building.
This is the last year for this building. It is to be torn down and a new one built in its place.
This turned our to be a beautiful sunny day, tomorrow afternoon the rain and wind is predicted to begin. With that in mind we decided that we should take off tomorrow. One needs to leave here at high tide which means a late morning departure. We are excited to see our three packages and Amanda who I had talked to in May has graciously allowed us to store all of our gear in the back room. Don and I divide up our tasks.. He heads off to reserve us a room in a nearby hostel and to repair his kayak. I have the fun job of organizing our food and repacking it into our bear proof containers. Several hours later we feel our gear is good to go and head to the hostel for showers and to do laundry. This is the second time in a month that we will be sleeping in clean sheets. Clean does feel good! We take a walk around the town, find the Safeway store and delight in buying fruit, yogurt and ice cream. Good internet connections and we were able to talk to our son Jeff. Coming up are once again more crux moves of the route so we do some reading of the hazards that we may encounter. Since we can not leave till high tide, there is no reason to get up early. Yeah!
Nautical Miles traveled 18.2