Photo: Dawson's Landing in the morning sun.

I'm puzzled by the morning silence at the dock. All those big powerboats and nobody stirring. Usually powerboats are the first ones to leave a harbor, anxious to travel when the winds are down and the seas are quiet. Then I realize that none of the powerboats have dinghies. The power boaters are all out fishing in their fancy dinghies. For them Dawson's Landing is a base of operations; for us it's a supply stop.

We leave the dock and continue north up Darby Channel, planning to make a loop around Walbran Island, down Rivers Inlet, around Kelp Head and into Smith Sound which will be our jump off point for the passage around Cape Caution. It's another beautiful sunny day with a strong northwesterly predicted. We spend the whole day tacking back and forth, around islands and headlands and in and out of fog banks. We finally reach Millbrook Cove at 5:15 in the afternoon. We've sailed all day to make a distance of 39 miles -- only 16 miles as the crow flies.