Woohoo! We made it!

Friday, January 19

At 6:30 am, in the chilly darkness, Walt and Hans freed the boat from the dock and headed Braesail toward Princess Louisa Inlet about 6 hours away. Walt found it a bit challenging to rely completely on the cockpit instruments and not on his eyes as the boat glided through the pre-dawn gloom. The rest of the crew awoke but didn’t rise and emerge into the cockpit until about 9:30 am, where a breakfast of instant oatmeal kept us warm.
 The wind died as we progressed through the mountain-rimmed, mist-enfolded reaches of Jervis Inlet; we arrived at the Malibu Rapids, the “gateway” to Princess Louisa Inlet, at slack water, as planned (no threateningly turbulent currents!), and we cruised the four miles to the Princess Louisa Inlet shore-side dock in the rain that had developed earlier, taking photos, as we motored, of the fantastic frozen waterfalls, wrapped in curling streamers of mist, on both sides of the inlet.

After Braesail was secured, Hans, Martin, and Karen picked their way across the snow and ice on the dock and then over some fallen branches on the shore, and saw lion’s-mane jellies in the clear, still water; seals popping up their heads to observe their observers; and a heron standing stoically near partly-frozen Chatterbox Falls at the inlet’s end.

With no connectivity, Walt and I relaxed and read our books and did some writing on a showery afternoon, and in the evening, we all enjoyed a celebratory feast of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts, fine wine, and decadent Nanaimo bars for dessert. WE’D MADE IT TO OUR LONG-DESIRED GOAL AT LAST!