Sincerely, Denise

PORT McNEILL TO PRUTH BAY

Thursday, May 21st

Off the dock this morning and underway by 5:30am. We tried to watch a movie last night but both of us were nodding off at 7:30pm, so we went to bed and I think both had a pretty good sleep. Today is a very long run, about 90 miles, crossing Cape Caution which is the largest body of open water we will face on this trip (unless we go on the outside of Chichagof and Baranof in July, which John is hoping to do, me not so much!). Crossing Cape Caution we are exposed to the mighty Pacific for about 3-4 hours, so it has to be fairly calm. Today the swells are predicted to be 4' with 10 second spacing, and the wind is predicted to be no more than 10 knots, so we are hoping the weather Gods cooperate. John does extensive research and planning, utilizing many sources to determine whether it's safe to cross. Then all we can do is hope that the forecasters are right! With the spacing of the swells it should be a ferris wheel ride of slowly going up and down. Will report back later when we have finished today's journey.

UGH, first sea otter sighting just outside Port McNeill. For those that have read my blog in the past, you know how I feel about them. Yes they are cute, but they demolish the shellfish populations, prawns, crab, clams, everything. The otter populations are out of control, and headed for the San Juans next.

AFTERNOON UPDATE: We had a great crossing after a  little bit of a rough start. The waves began building and white caps appeared about 2 hours into our journey and we hadn't even reached the open water yet. I was hoping that it wasn't going to escalate. Thankfully, as predicted, the water smoothed out over the course of the morning and we had a really pleasant transition past Cape Caution and on to Pruth Bay, on Calvert Island. We tucked back into a nice protected finger off of the main bay, where Abells anchored on their own and we rafted (tied the two boats together) with Bryans on one anchor as an experiment. Combined, our boat and Bryan's boat is collectively about 250,000 lbs so quite a bit of weight on one anchor. Our hope is that in settled water that the three boats can raft together over the summer, as it is infinitely more fun when we are tied together. Since it was the very first time that the Bryans and Abells had crossed Cape Caution, it was time to celebrate and toast the accomplishment! We all gathered on our boat for cocktails and snacks around 3:30, which stretched into a several hours, many cocktails, and no dinner. We all know how that goes! What a fun afternoon! Happy to be across the Cape and on to our next leg of inside waters for the next week, except for a brief trip into Milbanke Sound as we round the corner to dart back inside. BONUS: We were greeted by many eagles upon arrival, their distinct chatter music to our ears. 

Lorraine took this picture from her boat in 3rd position behind us and Abells as we headed out into the open ocean Cape Caution Crossing. 

Heading out to cross Cape Caution, Huntress in front, UnforgetAbell second, taken from Far Niente

Here's another one that Lorraine took a few days ago that turned out nice.