I wanted to check the hull (it is ok) after the rock bumps so took a refreshing swim off the dock before our departure. We departed around 10 with smooth seas, warm sunshine, pine covered Islands and then a short 10 mile crossing of the Jack Fish Channel over to the Slate Islands. The pine trees up here are skinny and straight. Mark says they might be Lodge Pole Pines, but he is guessing.
We have 5 days of travel before our next opportunity for food or fuel (or internet for you to get this). We have plenty of food but really need to watch our fuel. 14.75 Gallons of Fuel on board and a schedule of how much we think we need to have left at the end of each travel day. Winds will greatly assist our fuel project, but so far on this segment winds have been absent, seas calm. The sunshine is sooo warm, the skies blue, and the days quite relaxed. We can put in less miles each day because we have yet to be held over for weather.
We arrived at the Slate Islands around 2. Wow, what a beautiful place. We are alone in this very pristine little harbor, surrounded by clear water, small pine Islands, rocks, loons calling, and lots of birds. The Slate Islands are now a Canadian National Park and were thought to have been formed by an asteroid. There is a herd or caribou on the Islands. We are at a very low old dock on the SW corner of Mcnoll Island. A young caribou was on shore and we saw an older one with big antlers and a white breast walking along the shore across our small bay. After dinner of BBQ Chicken Mark started a camp fire on shore. We were very entertained by watching the loon dive for fish, two snowshoe hairs stopped by, ducks with baby ducks, and Mark saw a beaver earlier. We have seen some nice large trout swimming under Albion, but so far, no fish for dinner.
Slate Islands
8/2/2008
