Sounds more impressive than it is, but that’s the charm in most of these places. They are mostly family owned and “rustic”. We’re having a lot of fun meeting all the characters that live and cruise these areas. In between places with docks where we spend happy hour with all the new friends we’re meeting, there are gorgeous, quiet, coves that we duck into for the wilderness experience.

Anyway, here we are. Cocktails at 5PM, pizza cooked in the pizza oven on the dock at 6.

That’s been part of the adventure the last three or so days.

We left Shoal Bay on Thursday for Blind Channel. Blind Channel has a Rapids in the channel outside the docks, so you have to take care timing your arrival. We timed for slack and just about made it. The current never completely stops there, so a bit of scrambling at the last minute, but a safe arrival. Once settled we had a nice hike through forest to an 800 year old cedar. A massive tree – so impressive! Then our stay was topped by a spectacular dinner – Blind Channel is known for its culinary treats – a nice change from cooking “at home”.

Next up – timing the passage through Greene Point Rapids and Whirlpool Rapids. Normally a Rapids is not too hard to time, but in this case, these two are 8 miles apart, there’s no really good place to stop and they “turn” at the same time. You want to get through both and in our case to Douglas Cove in Forward Harbor. After much discussion with folks who know – and a few who pretend they know – how to do it, we settled on going through Greene Point two hours early and hope to ride the late ebb and hit Whirlpool at slack, since it is deemed the more “attention getting” of the two. We almost timed it, but the flood at Greene Point slowed us down to 3 knots over ground for several miles. This put us at Whirlpool half an hour late and the whirlpools WERE starting, but not difficult that early in the tide. Phew! Ducked into Douglass Bay shortly after and tucked up in for the night.