We are anchored here off Hurricane Island for the evening.  A beautiful spot in the Hakai Conservancy that offers some excellent kayaking opportunities.  Alan and Linda aboard Aquila explore around the islands – it’s Alan’s first time in a Kayak, and what better place?  After they’ve returned Vanessa, the onboard Naturalist with Deception joins Dave aboard Ajax for a paddle.  They find an amazing array of seaweed (to her delight) including impressive Kelp beds.  The rocky shoreline with clean, clear water provide an opportunity to see starfish and sea anemones, and various shell fish life – including some enormous mussels that would prove good eating if we could reach them.

This afternoon the fleet added a new notch to their sailing belts – Spitfire Channel.  The Douglass’ cruising guide ‘Exploring the North Coast of British Columbia states: “We have hear that the biggest vessel to make the transit was a 50-footer whose skipper claimed he made it only because the underwater configuration of his hull happened to correspond exactly to the shape of the rocks on either side of the narrows!”

Well, the 60’ vessels in our fleet proved that indeed a larger boat can fit through just fine. Each crew stationed a look out on the bow, to help spot the rocks just on either side of the vessels as they turn into the narrows.  Melissa aboard Navigator admits she was nervous after reading up on the passage, but later in the evening was quite literally hooting her own horn – she had discovered that a Kelp bulb cut just so can (almost) serve as a makeshift trumpet! She and Steve continue to crack us up with their good spirits, and both were pretty entertaining with their efforts to solicit some noise out of the make shift instrument!

Linda aboard Aquila has earned a NW Explorations hat.  Alan had to correct Captain Brian when he got on the radio to congratulate him on his excellent navigational skills: “Sorry Brian, but that is Linda at the helm.”

So do we have advice for future sailors looking to make the narrows? As Cap’t Brian put it: “make sure you see the rocks, make sure you avoid the rocks”.