We had planned on leaving today, but rain all night and into the early hours (0530) when the alarm clock went off left us thinking it might be best to stay put. Good choice! The rain never let up all day long. Well, maybe for 20 minutes…but that is all! Tomorrow looks better and the weather forecast suggests (it’s never better than a rough suggestion of things to come) the rain should stop “by noon”. We may still leave in the rain, since we have to leave here at 0630 to pass the Upper Rapids at slack water, but the latter half of the day looks more promising.

Our plan is to head north and west to Discovery Channel, then a hard left to the northeast up Nogales Channel to a spot called Chameleon Bay. Inside Chameleon Bay is a small cove called Hanfield that was recommended to us by some folks who have cruised up here a while. That’s pretty much our strategy. We plan one or two days ahead and change plans when we talk to folks we meet who have actually cruised up here and change our plans to visit their recommended spots. It’s worked so far!

Now that we’re getting up to an area that’s much more “exposed” to the weather on the BC coast, I spent much of today’s rainy respite inside Charisma organizing “weather products”. I sourced good weather faxes/times from the Kodiak, Alaska weather station as well as got more serious about listening to “Victoria Radio’s” weather forecast on the VHF. Now, even if we don’t have the internet I’ve been relying on, we have good weather resources to ensure we hunker down if rough weather is coming our way – a distinct possibility up here.

Other than that, we got some good reading done. A chill day. And most importantly in the grander scheme of things – Ann made some of her most famous ginger cookie dough. To paraphrase my daughter Christine, “Charisma smells of happiness” with the joyful smell of just-cooked ginger cookies!