Pacific NW

Expeditions

We had one of the laziest mornings of the voyage today. There was plenty of warm sunshine when we woke up, some time around 1030. Last night before going to sleep I realized that it is perfectly light out at 0130. By 0300 it looks the same but is getting lighter. Our sleeping patterns have changed dramatically. We usually fall asleep between 2 or 3 in the morning and get up around 10 or later. We experience the “eternal sunset” every night but miss out on the sunrise. Right as the sun dips below the mountains, the bugs come out in swarms. Ryan and I are in constant “attack mode” against the mosquitos in the cabin. We are getting really good at lunging at them, and their squished bodies can be found on the bulkheads in great numbers. In lieu of the “terror alert” level warning system that doesn’t exist in our world, I have established a bug alert system. Right now as I write we are at “severe bug, code red”, and I will now pause a minute to stuff cheesecloth and rags around the dorade vents. Actually though, they are not that bad, in that they only affect us for a few hours each day. The sea breezes and sailing the boat eliminate them altogether. But when you step on land…that’s a different story. I can’t imagine being in a kayak right now. Lots of tent time I guess. Anyways, we enjoyed a bug-free morning with the last cup of coffee on the boat. We’re running low on all food supplies, but headed into town in a few days. I filled our watertanks at a gushing waterfall on our way out of the bay. The waterfalls out here make a great kitchen faucet. Maintenance-free, good water pressure, and can’t beat the taste of fresh snow-melted water. Just minutes old from the top of the mountain. All around Jackpot Bay we saw patches of white underwater that looked just like submerged rocks. At first I was nervous, because there were uncharted rocks all around the bay. I carefully approached one of the “shoals” and we found it to be a mass of jellyfish! The Moon jellyfish were drifting in huge, dense globs all over the bay! Tens of thousads of jellyfish were in each ball, which measured roughly 30 by 50 feet long and who knows how deep. I had encountered this phenomenon in Puget Sound before. They are a bit scary because they look like a shoal, and are so thick that the boat actually slows down and the tiller vibrates as you sail through them. And today, in Jackpot Bay they lay all about in the water in greater numbers than I have ever imagined. We trolled for salmon all the way to our next anchorage, Masked Bay. No luck, and we were so hungry too. I baked up some bannock bread for dinner and we played our customary heated evening game of dominoes. The cheesecloth seems to have worked for now. The mosquitos are playing a symphony under the dodger.