We woke to a bright morning in Culpepper Lagoon.  In order to make a safe passage out through the narrow rapids, we needed to wait until 11:00 AM for the rising tide.  Everyone took advantage of the slow morning to sleep in and work on projects.  This meant boat maintenance for Jordan, knitting and friendship bracelets for the girls on Grand Adventure, a full pancake breakfast for the rest of Grand Adventure, and the sharing of photos and jigsaw puzzles for Inception.

When it was time to go, all the boats championed through the rapids under blue skies, bright clouds and green mountains.  Our trip today was short between Culpepper Lagoon and Rescue Bay with only about 3 hours of travel time.  Right away we saw a sleeping humpback in Kynoch Inlet followed by a couple more spouts, lit by the sun.  Our travel went quickly through the Mathieson Channel, and we arrived at Rescue Bay early in the afternoon, where we reunited with Discovery.  We tucked into this scenic bay that had a great view back out to the open water and the receding blue mountains.

Everyone decided to anchor out on their own this evening.  After we settled in, we went out in the dinghies for a tour around the small nearby islands and the Jackson Narrows just around the bend.  In the dinghies we cruised through some bull kelp beds and over fields of eel grass.  Along the rocky shores of the narrows, through the clear water we saw many urchins, sea stars, sea cucumbers and even some nudibranchs and a gumboot chiton!

Each crew had their own dinners on board, and settled in for a long sunset on the calm water.  Nights are long, and the stars take a long time to appear, but when they do, they are well worth the wait!  These are the nights of the Perseid meteor showers, and for those who can stay awake that long, the show is spectacular.  It is also possible to see bioluminescence in the water once the dark finally falls, and it is magical!