DAY 26 TO DAY 31: HARWICKE ISLAND TO CATTLE ISLAND

7th June 2023

6th June: Day 31 
Port McNeill to Cattle Island 
Distance 29.8km 

I was right it was such sweet sorrow saying goodbye, that last hug, that ‘here is my number and stay in touch!’ The last double check that you have packed everything! Time to get on the water!! 
Now, if you will, after reading this I want you to imagine what our first couple of hours on the water was like – just close your eyes and let that imagination run wild!! Imagine an infinity pool with a 30km width, on the left you have a rugged coastline with 30-50foot pine and fir trees; the beach is made up of pebbles and boulders with an underwater forest of brown kelp. Then on the right you have snowcapped mountains out of a Swiss Chocolate ad running for miles and here we are in the middle paddling on a mirror! The only noise on the water was our paddles breaking the surface, the calls of various sea birds and an orca just popping up and diving down again!! That was our start!!! It just blows me away!! 
Then the second part! The wind started to pick up creating a lovely swell rolling through. The forest of kelp looked like a rolling oil slick on the water, the paddling through the kelp was fun at first with the de-dunk de-dunk as you go over the top, then it became a thing! It felt like we were on an ice breaker breaking through sheet ice! Fighting for every stroke trying to keep some sense of balance going from nothing apart from water to something solid as your paddle lands on the kelp! We are on Cattle Island and looks like it should belong somewhere in the tropics! White sandy beach landing for us! Back into camp routine and tonight we are dining al fresco!!

4th-5th June: Day 29/30
Port McNeil 
We had to stop over for a resupply and wait for a change in the weather! No taking chances; trust the navigation, trust in the skipper, trust the weather! Make the right call. We got hosted by Craig and his wife Debra! Now don’t ask me how he did it but that man has set the bar for prawns for the rest of my life! And that standard won’t be compromised even if it means I’m going into the kitchen and grabbing the chef by his ears! 
What a magical little place Port McNeill is! This place will have a special place in my heart for as long as I have breath in my lungs! The love, kindness and acceptance that we as a team have had since we have landed is remarkable! The highlights of my trip so far are Steilacoom and Port McNeill! The stories of the past, fishing stories, stories of demolition and mining, logging stories, taking horses across Europe, finding a whale which died of old age and then utilising every part of the animal, stories of amazing people – I wish I could just spend another lifetime just documenting the amazing tales of the people living here! And the hugs!! Oh the hugs like you are a long lost relative that came in from the cold and you feel loved!! I can’t put into words the feelings of kindness, gratitude and pure love we have! Tomorrow is going to be a sad and a hard day for me! The sweet sorrow of saying goodbye; the last glance over your shoulder as you paddle away. There is a saying: “it’s not a stranger – it is just a friend you haven’t met!” 

3rd June: Day 28 
Alder Bay to Port McNeil 
Distance 14km 

Breaking down camp, muscles stiff and sore, quick bite to eat and a coffee, time to get on the water! You meet the most random people on this expedition – I had a very long interesting chat around a dumpster with an author of two books published and his busy with his third! First two books were about Big Foot and his encounters with them and then his third is a cooking book! A nice chilled out paddle distance-wise after our two big days, just cross that water, jump from headland to headland, follow the coastline! I felt like an extra in a James Bond movie, we were just enjoying the solace, the silence on the water, then Boom! 15 jet skis all racing, bouncing up and down, spray and little waves everywhere! It was a tour to Ketchikan – they have done the same amount of kilometres in three days that we did in 28 days! We had about a mile left to do to come into the harbour – in hush tones and pointing we saw another black bear just cruising around the beach! We just sat back in awe watching the apex predator not paying us any notice! Need to up our camp routine, food in bear bags, don’t eat in camp, don’t cook near camp or the kayaks! 
What a amazing welcome into the harbour!! New friends who came to meet us! Steve and his sweetheart Claire, Linda, Bill and his wife Romany, Craig and his wife Debra, Sandy and the legend that is Una! That lady – what an absolute blast; never met a sweeter lady with such a wicked sense of humour! We got hosted by Linda – she opened up her home and heart to eight scruffy, bad smelling tired kayakers! The whole community dropped off little bits of food – burgers, salmon and pies. Oh the pies!! It was worth kayaking 740 km just for those! And a shower with a normal towel!! You have no idea how amazing it feels just to dry yourself and not get half of the beach on your skin! 

2nd June: Day 27 
Naka Creek to Alder Bay
Distance 38km 
Today was the hardest day for me so far! Everything hurts and I mean everything! I need a zimmer frame to take my carcass for a shower! I struggled through the day – I missed a hump back whale breaching first thing in the morning! This day tested me like no other, and there is only going forward! There isn’t an easy way out; no one is coming to pull you along on a motorboat, it’s stick your paddle in, aim up and keep on moving forward! We stopped for lunch and all I did was starfish on the beach. I slept through another hump back whale breaching, tale splashing and the almighty noise reverberating through the channel! You go to a very dark place when your body is hurting – that conversation you have with yourself; those self-deprecating thoughts; those feelings of despair and looking for that glimmer of strength to carry you through! This is where the team shines – nothing like the other double just paddling up next to you and giving you a Snickers bar! Now a Snickers bar is like gold dust! It means everything because we only got two each on our shopping dash at Blind Channel. That Snickers bar is somebody’s moral; that something to look forward too; that something to make the day feel better; that bit of energy that you need for yourself! And then it’s decided that it will be better served by giving it away!! I have a lump in my throat thinking about it! That no one is bigger than the team, everyone is valued, all of us are going to make this even if it means sacrificing something that means everything to yourself! This is what it means to be valued and being a little cog in a machine! 
Alder Bay was like a slice of heaven – nothing like a burger and fries to make the day feel better! Then camp routine, get some sleep and rest up!

1st June: Day 26 
Harwicke Island To Naka Creek 
Distance 42km 

Hardwicke Island looks like something out of a horror story! These old gnarly trees, moss and decaying pieces of driftwood – but also a very welcome sight! We planned to be on the water at 09:00 but the midges and mosquitoes had another plan for us! The swarming midges like a rolling fog up and down the beach towards their next victim! The kayaks got packed in record time, bags going everywhere! Don’t care if it’s in the right place, let’s get off the beach!! We had to smash out the longest day so far!! 42km – well I can tell you one thing: that was not a pleasant experience! Because my foot peg snapped the rails we had to do a temporary fix to get me on the water, now changing your position just slightly takes it from comfortable like paddling your living room couch to absolute agony! For the last two and half hours of the day I couldn’t feel anything below my hips!!! It’s the small things that bring us joy and at Naka Creek it was the level ground at the camp site – no typewriter for me! The welcoming sound of zzzzip as you zip up the outer layer of your tent, then zzzzip the inner layer, then the zzzzip of your sleeping bag getting enveloped in this little cloud like a lover’s embrace when you go to sleep – it was an early night for me!!