Summary of Learning - Part 2

• After a month at sea, what we look forward to the MOST are a few comments on our blog.... hint hint...
  
• On a 1:80,000 chart 'green' means:

1. Passable at low tide
2. Not passable at low tide
3. Beautiful sandy beach
4. Jagged scary giant rocks
5. Shallow but open coastline
6. Cluttered with thousands of islands

• Angela needs a pee buddy
• When you can't find a campsite - look around the corner...
• Check what time it is before going to bed... 6:45pm might be a little early
• Don't be fooled by the 'Kayaker's Mirage' its not a sandy beach, its driftwood (and jagged rocks)
• Mini Disc Players float! - and then make sounds as if dieing slowly...
  
• If you think it is raining - first check to see if Angela is paddling near by...
• Not everyone thinks it is normal to walk around town in a drysuit
• It is hard to hide in a giant yellow suit
• You can eat a mars bar a day and still lose weight!
• Sometimes the highest point of land still isn't quite high enough...
• If you can land the boats... you can call it home
• 100 ft of line might be a little deep...
• When the meat eater calls for help from the vegetarian... you know it is a big fish...

Various Pictures - Christine

The longest day... paddled until the sun set.

Dragging our boats over the kelp - BIG tidal changes right now!

They go on forever!

The meat eater redeems herself

That fits in our boats?

Our kingdom

Ode to the People We've Met! - Christine

We cannot carry on without mentioning those that have helped us get this far! We don't see a lot of people and our interactions are limited at best (probably a little strange through the eyes of others!). But some how we have been blessed, it seems there is always an extended hand and a heart of gold awaiting us.

We haven't figured out yet if we just look like a couple of nice girls... or if we come across as needing all the help we can get... but either way... grin. The far stretches of people's generosity has been bestowed upon us.

Two days after all our fresh fruit and veg was gone... just over a week since Port McNeil, we met 'Fred and Connie' (we have been sworn to secrecy and cannot reveal their real names), two lovely caretakers at a remote fishing lodge. We came looking for water and left with apples, oranges, kiwis, orange juice, a coke (for Angela), potatoes, onions.... oh, and water. Feeling like we had just been adopted and completely taken care of we happily trotted back to camp with our loot like five year-olds on Halloween. Later that night we were invited back and we again met open arms... were drawn into a heated house (how strange!), given more juice, and had a wonderful evening chatting together... We of course didn't leave empty handed... they were sure to fill our pockets with chocolates...

A long day out of Bella Bella, fighting the wind a current, but determined to visit our first lighthouse we arrived on Ivory Island at about 7pm... we hadn't had dinner and we would still have to find somewhere to camp but we filled our pockets with snacks and then walked across the island on the old condemned boardwalk to visit the light house keepers. Greeted by Lise and her husband we were immediately offered juice, which turned into the use of a spare building to watch TV (weird!), have showers, and were even given an entire Casserole to eat all ourselves!!! which we did eat... almost all of, ourselves! On their suggestion we camped back where our boats were... sleeping on the condemned boardwalk, full, warm, clean and happy!

A couple of days before Prince Rupert, almost 2 weeks since our last town we paddled into a sleepy little village on a Sunday... seeming deserted our hopes of chocolate and apples were starting to disintegrate... and then we met Vanessa... Sticking out like sore thumbs (as usual we were wondering around in our bright yellow dry suits) Vanessa was smiling before we even approached her to ask if there was any chance of a store. Learning that we were looking for chocolate she said 'come with me, I will feed you'. Perhaps it is the kindergarten teacher in her... but she thought of our ever need and provided! First she gave us chocolate chip cookies... which we promptly ate (it was only 10:30am). Then she opened up the computer lab so we could check email and make phone calls and when we were finished that... she took us home, made us tea, served us FRESH PINEAPPLE!, offered us showers, and then sent us on our way with apples, oranges and chocolate covered raisins! Feeling like we were leaving a long time friend we hugged her goodbye and again... trotted back to our kayaks feeling like five year olds on Halloween.

But the generosity did not end there... on the Docks we met Chad, a fellow sea going lad that has been traveling up the coast from Seattle in an old converted fishing boat. Chad just happened to have too much salmon... which we assured him we could help him with. First he produced a huge fillet that he had just cooked on his grill... we promptly ate it... all... to everyones disbelief... seeing that get devoured he went back and got another huge fillet, raw for us to take for dinner...

It seems like every where we go we meet people that are compelled to help us, be it problem solving, letting us use school computer labs (the school in Bella Bella also let us use their computers!), searching for needed supplies, giving us discounts, offering us lifts, simply providing.

Not surprisingly the key to our eternal love is food and chocolate... Oh, and internet!

THANK YOU!

Various Pictures - Angela

Thank you to Fred and Connie on Calvert Island for the treat!





























West Coast action!














Hmmm, crab feast.














Sunrise somewhere on the northern tip of Vancouver Island

Dilemma - Christine

I have had this on going dilemma for the past several years. Wanting to advance in the technical world... take the next step in the future of portable music... join the iPod generation... but there is the dilemma of mine... I still had a mini disc player that worked. I know many of you are going... 'a what player?' so I will say it again... a mini disc player.

I was given an iPod once and I even went so far as to return it because I just couldn't justify casting aside a perfectly good piece of equipment on the basis that I just desired something newer and fancier...

So I have been carrying around this mini disc player and all of it's many mini discs for years now. It has been from Africa to Antarctica and the many places in between... It just keeps on working.

My mini disc player and I have watched the progression of iPods... getting bigger yet smaller, changing colour and shape and now we have seen the introduction of the iTouch... talk about desire. My mini disc player almost lost me with that one... I came close to faultering... even had it in my hands... so close, but then practicality set in, I remembered my trusty mini disc player that... still worked.

I solved my dilemma!

In case anyone is wondering... mini disc players float...

Trouble is, an iPod is only desirable when there is music on it... so perhaps I should have taken a little longer to solve my dilemma... say... another 2 and a half months...

At the risk of starting the cycle of my dilemmas all over again... anyone have a mini disc player I can borrow/buy/steal? Mine was so trusty I never got around to transferring data from the mini discs to my computer...

Technology stumps me again!

What God Gave man, Let women now have!-Angela

As females we do not have the necessary equipment to pee standing up. But as the technologically advanced society that we are, this is changing. Women now have access to the freshette, and the she pee. Another technique that Christine Hawes has perfected is peeing in a jar, while sitting in a sea kayak, on rough seas, in a drysuit (yes, she is a female). What enables her to do this with such ease is her perfect balance, placememnt of the jar, and a front zip on her drysuit and long underwear. It is a marvel to behold as she can pee in her kayak, in under a minuet, with no spills.

I have come to adopt this technique under duress (7 1/2 hours is the longest we have been in our boats without touching land). My technique is slightly different as I do not have a front pee zip, only a butt zip. So, I must lye on the back deck of my kayak to unzip my butt zip and pull down my pants. This is a most precarious position at best. Then I must squat in my kayak, position the jar underneath me and pee. This is not as precarious, but is still not fully controlled. I them must lye back on the back deck of my kayak to pull up my pants and do up my butt zip.

Generally I attempt this in calm waters with the help of my paddling companion. But on one particular day, I had other plans. Feeling confident in my balancing abilities, I began the process of peeing in the jar. I successfully unzipped, peed, and began to do up my zipper. Before I was a 1/4 done zipping, a swell caught me off balance and sploosh, cold water came rushing to greet me, all of me. All of me, in my drysuit, which was still open. As soon as my legs came out of my now upside down boat, I quickly finished zipping my butt zip. But too late, the damage was done and the legs of my drysuit were filled with water up to my waist. I began gasping the seisure like gasps of one suddenly and quickly thrown into cold water unexpectedly. I righted my kayak and began to attempt to get back in. But no matter how hard I tried, the water that filled the legs of my drysuit wouldn't allow me to get back in.

My paddling partner, now aware of the situation, paddled over and assisted me as I got back into my boat. I pumped out the water, emptied my drysuit legs of water (with the balancing aid of Christine) and we continued on our way.

Despite the fact that I laugh every time I recall the story, my ego is still bruised. So I have decided to use christines help EVERY time I have to Pee in a jar, in a dry suit, in a kayak, on the Pacific Ocean.

Soul Musings-Angela

I am sitting on a moss covered log that spans a tanin colored creek. Gazing out over the west coast of Canada, I marvel at how dreams can become reality. I sit in amazement at our beautiful coast, so rugged and unique.

All night long we listened to the wind howling through the trees and the surf crashing on the beach. We stalled our decision to make a large crossing to the outside coast. After a cup of hot chocolate, we decided to do the crossing. The peaceful beach soon became a flurry of activity as the tent came down, water bladders were filled, boats packed and launched.

A humpack whaled greeted us halfway through the 6 mile crossing. Rhinocerous aucklets, surf scoters, and loons escorted us on the outside of Calvert Island. It was spectacular. Swell after swell crashed into the cliff walls, boomers sent incredible spray into the air and turned the ocean into a wild whitewater arena.

I always feel better in a boat. Freedom is mine, my interaction with the world changes, gravity takes on a new meaning. I breathe a sigh of contemtment and revel in the ease with which my movement propels me through this unique element we call water.

What a marvellous way to live. To have no schedule, no demands. To have a body that is worked into shape and a mind that is juggling tides, current, weather and time. To have the time to watch as the world unfolds. I wish everyone could experience the world in this way. To meld themselves so closely to nature. To feel the cold detachment of a predator's eyes on you, to eat fish from the ocean, to sit next to hundred year old trees and feel the wisdom that is there.

Video Clips-Angela