Finally Here And On The Water.

The moment of truth. The moment when the Virgin Australia says "Oh no we don't fly yellow kayaks on a Saturday" or some such stricture that has slipped through my repeated reading of the oversize baggage small print on their website. Despite being at the check in over two and half hours before departure the queue was horrendous but a lovely Virgin lady took us aside when she realised how much luggage we had and escorted us straight past the queue and we were checked in no time. She did mention in a concerned voice that we would have to pay $100 excess baggage and was that all right? 

$100 to take a 6m kayak all the way to Seattle - I think we'll manage, thanks.

Hey look, there's someone with almost as much luggage as us!

 

Wayne, schooner and tall ship captain was at Seatle airport to meet us and we soon settled in at his and partner Nicolle's cosy property on Marrowstone Is near Port Townsend, the wooden boat capital of western sea board. 

Dinner with friends of theirs who know Alaskan waters like the back of their hand included a feast of clams dug from the tidal flats that afternoon. 

The next few days were a mix of simply catching up with old friends and slowly getting ready. We bolted the kayak together and went for a short paddle just up the road at Mystery Bay to ensure we were reasonably watertight. This as a matter of course included a BBQ and beer looking out over the array if lovely wooden boats gently bobbing on their moorings. All to quickly food was bought and all our gear was being packed in waterproof bags for the paddle from Marrowstone to Bellingham to catch the ferry to Alaska. 

Coincidentally Australian friends of Lynne's and Wayne's from the tall ship Eye of the Wind arrived the day before we had to leave so we had quite a farewell party as finally on the water we set off across Admiralty Inlet about midday Thursday. 

We had planned to be at the ferry at about lunchtime on Saturday for departure at 6pm but fair weather, calm seas and some sailing breezes had us pulling up to the public slipway literally 100m from the ferry terminal at 10.30 Saturday morning.

Friday we had stormed along arriving at our campsite on Saddlebag Is State Park for lunch after 35km. The day was not without it's concerns though in these busy waterways, everything from fast runabouts to car ferries jostling for space in Guemes Channel, it's the first time I have wished we had a rear view mirror on the kayak. 

There was though a moment of dread in the slipway at Bellingham when I discovered I had left a couple of pieces of our trolley at home, luckily, very luckily they were not absolutely essential so we could after all get the kayak onto the ferry!