(Still no cell coverage – sent by shortwave radio)

OK, it rained all morning so we weren’t in a hurry to try and leave. Besides we have to time the next rapids and slack water today was at 0600. I don’t think so. It’s not too far away, but tomorrow looks like better weather and a more reasonable time. Even then, we’ll have to get up at 0530 to have time to work our way out past the rocks into “safe” water and then a couple miles up to “Upper Rapids” which have been called “terrifying” when not at slack water. We’re getting used to this.

Today’s entertainment was two-fold. First was the eagle that sat on a rock, unperturbed, while we dinghied by him about 30 yards away taking pictures. Wow, what a huge and majestic bird when you get that close!

The second (which was the reason we were in the dinghy) was a trip to an island that had the driftwood sculpture museum. This is a little one room cabin in the Octopus park area that was actually used as a vacation spot for a family at one point. They used to have guests who started making driftwood sculptures to commemorate their vacation stays with the family. Over the years this grew to include folks who visited from boats and in later years as the family stopped using the cabin, cruising boats who stopped by would continue to add to the collection. The property was finally sold some years ago and the new owners of the island have kept the cabin intact and it is now a shrine of sorts. It is open – there are no longer windows or a door – and the inside is crammed with driftwood sculptures left by all the boats that have visited. The oldest we saw, just casually looking around, was from 1996. There are literally hundreds in this little 20 foot by 20 foot cabin. Some were extremely creative with extensive carving and shells for teeth and such things. Others were pieces of driftwood brought alive with marker pen drawings. Only have a faint idea of what the place was about and not knowing exactly what we would find there, we brought an American flag on which we wrote our names and voyage route starting five years ago in Berkeley, California. We pinned that up, left a marker pen and a note to ask future American voyagers to go ahead and add their names, etc. to the flag. Now that we know, next time we visit we will carve something to leave.

On the way back to Charisma we stopped to visit with new friends Gordon and Glenda(who told us about the Mariner’s Shrine) on S/V Rest Assured. We met them back in Heriot Bay and are looking forward to seeing more of them along the way, as they too are heading north into the Broughtons. In the mean time we were treated to a beer and some good conversation. In fact, we lost track of the time and didn’t get back to Charisma “for lunch” until 3:30PM.

A serendipitous cruising day.