Pacific NW

Expeditions

We are experiencing night-time darkness again. There was a rapid transition as we sailed south and east from Prince William Sound. Suddenly (in two days days) we went from our world of eternal light to a full-blown 5 hours of stars, twighlight, and blackness. It is catching me off-guard, limiting our navigational options, and causing us to go to bed and wake up earlier. For the first time in two months I had to turn on our anchor light while we slept! Soon after waking Justin and I became extremely excited to explore the mineshaft again. We gathered together ropes, candles, lifejackets, and all kinds of flashlights and extra batteries. We carried in several long and stout wooden beams to span distances of unknown depth, a long iron bar that we found, and the flare gun. And food in the event we spent the whole day in there. When we reached yesterday’s endpoint we roped up and began testing the integrity of the old mine. Eventually we got past the water area and followed the shaft all the way to its terminus in the bowels of the mountain. On our way back Justin dropped the iron bar into the deepest water pit. We heard it clank as it hit the rock ledges below, then sank deeper and deeper until the clanking became too faint to hear. Back in the world above ground we sailed out into the ocean and enjoyed the sunshine. As soon as we neared land it began to rain and then pour. The usual kabillions of salmon swatted and slapped the water all about. We set our crab trap at the entrance of DeGroff inlet. A deer greeted us as we made our way into anchor. DeGroff inlet is a very nice place, it has a good feel to it as some places do. The weather broke for a few hours and we enjoyed a sunset that turned the sky pink and the spruce trees yellow.