Day 5 - Campbell River to Port McNeill

So this post is mostly about cooking, so you can pass on reading if that isn't of interest to you. Left the dock this morning at 5:30am so we can hit the slack at Seymour Narrows at 7am. We have to be precise with our arrival time because it goes from slack to running 14.7 knots in 3-1/2 hours today. Going through at 14.7 knots is quite dangerous; the power of the water is to be respected. Passage went very well and we continued our journey up the Johnstone Straits and into Port McNeill. Another quiet day on the water thankfully, nothing much to report. No whale sightings but saw a few porpoises. Arrived in Port McNeill and pulled into the fuel dock only to run into our friend Marc Onetto, a retired french businessman that we met last year at Pierre's Echo Bay. Last year Marc introduced us to these frozen croissants that he stocks onboard, like every good french skipper would do! He has a friend that owns Les Boulangers in Seattle which is a wholesale baked goods manufacturer and he connected us up. These croissants are about 3" x 3" when frozen and after a few hours on the counter rise dramatically and are ready for the oven. They are INcredible. We bought ourselves a case this year and enjoyed them yesterday for breakfast, you'd swear they were fresh from the oven of a patisserie in Paris, such a treat on the water. Anyway, today was a baking day. I decided to take my sourdough starter out of the fridge and feed it and boy was it happy, it rose to triple size, so naturally I had to do something with it. I ran up to the store while John was fueling the boat and stocked up on yeast and bread flour and made my first attempt at sourdough bread. It turned out great but needed a little more sourdough flavor so I have some research to do. Shannon and her friend Cathy served us a wonderful Indian dinner onboard the Lucky Dog tonight and I provided dessert which was a rhubarb almond cake. After Shannon made fun of me for buying rhubarb when we were in Campbell River, I had to show her what can be done (see recipe below). For you cooks out there, this recipe is a WINNER, I cut it out of a magazine so I can't claim credit. Follow the directions exactly, so when it says beat for 4 minutes (twice), do the entire 4 minutes - trust me it will pay off. Tomorrow is our biggest crossing of the trip, the Queen Charlotte Straits. Wish us well.