Day 10 - Oliver Cove to Bottleneck Inlet

Up at 5am this morning and anchors aweigh. Today we traveled about 4 hours to Bottleneck Inlet which (as its name suggests) has an extremely narrow entrance and we had to time our arrival for high tide or close to it. It has been pouring all day but the skies appear to be lightening up so we are hopeful. The center wiper is not working so that makes navigation challenging in the pouring rain. Despite John’s efforts for the first couple hours this morning, he can’t get it working yet. I sense a project for today upon arrival at Bottleneck. We passed a tree this morning (see picture) that was apparently kicked out of the forest and decided to take up residence as a floater. Remarkable that it stayed upright, must have a very balanced rootball. Arrived at Bottleneck around 10am to some light drizzle but what a gorgeous anchorage! Pristine narrow inlet with plenty of room for anchorage. We got the kayaks down and I went for a long paddle around the bay, with the drizzle coming and going but it was calm and relatively warm. Shannon’s friend Cathy was going to paddle with me but had an unfortunate mishap getting into the kayak (albeit the tippy one), and instead went for a dip. Needless to say nobody was too interested in joining me in a paddle after that. I made Cathy and crew some consolation “Super Cookies” that afternoon as a peace offering. It was well received. There appear to be lots of shellfish but when we went digging later in the day we found it was slim pickings. Shannon put her shrimp pots out today and I put a crab pot out. She was skunked on the shrimp but I managed to land 3 keepers as of this morning (5/23), so we will live another day with sustenance. Dinner was white chicken chili and cornbread on the Lucky Dog sans my bag o’salad which I keep being asked to bring then forget to bring it. It’s becoming the joke “when will we eat that salad?” Early to bed for everyone, another long day.

Recipe: Super Cookies: 1 c. softened butter, ½ c. white sugar, 1 c. brown sugar, packed, 2 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 c. flour, 1 c. quick oats, ¾ c. shredded coconut, ½ c. dry toasted unsalted pecans (trader joe’s), 1 pkg dark choc chips. Mix butter, sugars and egg by hand for best result, add remaining ingredients and mix well. Drop onto greased cookie sheet and cook at 375˚ for 10 min or until set. Cool for a couple minutes on the cookie sheet then remove to parchment paper.