5May10

We popped out of the east side of Walker Group Cove at sunrise to make a long run up to Bella Bella... a bit over 12 hours today. The sky was blue with just the occasional puffy cloud and about 10 knots of wind and only 4 to 5 foot seas around Cape Caution, most of that being a low westerly swell. Excellent conditions remained as we ran up Fitz Hugh sound to Fisher Channel, which was so flat it looked glassy. Lots of logs to dodge, however, so no dozing was allowed. (Or so I say... I was always catching myself nodding off due to the early departure).

Kermodei had a tough day in that he didn't get his usual exercise in the morning, and while he peed on his pad as he's supposed to while underway, he refused to do anything else until we got the hook down and launched the dink. I took a very grateful dog to shore to do his business. After that, he chased the ball and swam after the ball until he was feeling himself again. Being a big puppy, its tough to confine him to the boat all day. He can play ball for hours and hours at a time.

Tomorrow will be better... a run on shore in the morning and then not too long a cruise. Peter called and asked where our next day's destination was, and I frankly hadn't thought about it. I know what channels I need to run up, but I usually like to leave the destination open until there's a good reason to think about it. Like if the weather is changing or night is coming or I'm just getting tired. I know that's a really casual way to travel, but there are so many places to take shelter in northern BC and the weather forecast is so good that I'm going to just figure it out under way. Doesn't make me a very good guide, I guess. People like plans and objectives and goals. My only one at the moment is to get into Ketchikan on Sunday or Monday, worse case Tuesday. Given its Wednesday night now, that's not an issue. Given the weather, we could make it Friday night if we had to.

Only bad nees of the day is that my sat phone refuses to power up. Going to have to figure our where the black boxes are and hope its a fuse or something simple.

I thought I'd take a moment and address some of the responses folks have posted on the blog:

Alan Muskett wrote to let me know that an improved form of Scopolamine (seasickness medicine) was availble. Instead of patches, which have issues with over/under dosing, Alan mentioned you can now get a prescription for oral Scopace 0.4mg--one or two tablets.

Tim Morris asked if I had a way to delete last years position data to unclutter the page. The only way I know is to delete the old positions one at a time in a very cumbersome and slow manner. I'll have to ask Sailblogs support if there is a way to wipe out all the old locations.