Day 19- Friday, August 31, 2012- Shelter Inlet- Something's Missing!

Day 19- Shelter Inlet-  Something’s Missing!

We left our cozy little anchorage in Hootla Kootla and went on the outside waters for the short sixteen mile run to Ahousat as I desperately needed to make some calls and check my e-mails and we heard that they had a pay phone there.  In fact they did.  The Ahousat General Store actually had a pretty nice selection of basics…my measurement is if they have more than one flavor of Pringles.  Unfortunately, I kind of got sick of making bread and the store had run out but Val did get some other basic necessities.

After the store owner and I got our wires crossed and crossed about the Internet, I finally understood that he didn’t have WiFi for my laptop but I could use his computer and his dial up connection.  It’s been years since I’ve used a dial up connection.  Wow!  Every e-mail took about 3 minutes to load…arghhh!  But, I read the ones I needed to.  I paid him for the groceries Val bought, thanked him for the use of his computer and sent Connor to the boat to get him a bag of jerky for his kindness.  I took my laptop and headed for the phone booth.  This (or others like it) is where I spent many hours the last three weeks.  Notice my laptop computer tucked in the corner in it’s case.

One of my colleagues informed me during one of those calls that Monday was a holiday.  I was stunned that it was going to be Labor Day.  I informed Val and Connor and we all laughed that we been so far removed from any kind of schedule or calendar that we didn’t even know it was a holiday weekend.  That’s one of the great blessings of boating.

Well, we topped off the water tank (80 gallons), had basic groceries, communications were adequately up to date, and we were ready for a long holiday weekend.  We sailed north through a very pretty passage and ended up in a place called Shelter Inlet way up in the very tip where there was just the most amazing anchorage with lots of fun things to do.

Connor launched the dinghy and the kayak and we all took off to explore the Watta River.  Connor was towed in the kayak by the rest of us in the dinghy.  It was stunning.  The water was so crystal clear and the current was flowing hard.  The mountains were sky high with sheer, rock cliffs.  It was like Yellowstone on the water.  The pictures just don’t even come close to doing it justice.  We went as far as we could and we knew the tide was dropping so I gave the crew 30 minutes to hike as far as we could and then get back to the dinghy before we were stranded waiting for the next high tide.

Thirty five minutes we got back to the dinghy and the tide had dropped the river a good foot.  We banged all the way down the river and left a lot of gel coat on the Watta River rocks.  The dogs had to walk and Connor went solo in the kayak leaving me to pull my bride over the rocks.  We made it but another 15 minutes and we’d have been in a real jam.

We explored the cove together and found some little waterfalls, lots of different kinds of birds, but, most amazing of all was just the grandeur of God’s amazing creation here.

Back on the boat, Val started making a feast fit for Neptune.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story.  It was amazing!  We are eating very, very well!

I thought some of you might like to see inside the boat.  Now, you have to remember that life on board a 33’ footer with three people and two dogs is a bit cramped.  Everything has a purpose or two or three.  Our dinette for example, also serves as forward facing seats during transits and a dinette for meals and also makes into a bed, if we need a third berth.  So, there you have three uses or purpose for the dinette.  The head is one room that also serves as shower.  You can do your toilet duties while taking a shower….nice.  The galley has a small fridge, a two burner stove, a convection/microwave oven, and a one bowl sink.  We also have a chest freezer in the fish hold compartment under the back deck as well as a cooler where we keep our beverages and ice.  We have a hot water heater that is heated by the engines or the genset so we always have hot water.  The diesel furnace keeps us warm and dry on cold or rainy days.  We use it as a dryer and turn it up and open all the windows…it’ll cook us right out of here but only burns about a cup of fuel an hour…I love it.  Connor has his own berth as do Val and I.  In fact, our bed is almost as big as a king size bed and a portion of it is removable during the day to make it a nice dressing room as well.  With the inverter and the genset we also have 110 power any time we need it.  Val likes her hair dryer, curling iron, and oven.  All in all, it is really remarkably comfortable for it size.

Our chest freezer fits perfectly one of the fish holds.

Dinnette seat also faces forward and also makes into a bed.

Connor's Berth/Classroom

Well, after Val’s amazing meal, I went to get my computer to blog and realized it was not on the boat!  Oh crap!  I left it in Ahousat in the phone booth!  Oh no!  I have done some pretty stupid things on this trip (that you’ll never know about) but this one was close to the top.  I can’t even tell you how much my laptop means to me.  I didn’t sleep very good thinking about it every moment I woke up.  With no cell signal, I couldn’t call the store to have them find it.  I had resigned myself to the fact that it was likely gone.  At least I had it all secured and I still had my smart phone.
We had to cruise very close to Ahousat the next day anyway so I was just praying, literally, that someone would have brought it to the store as lost and found.  Praying!

That’s the Friday update but I didn’t write this on Friday because my laptop is missing!  Continued on next entry…