We had a quiet week recovering from the Blues Festival and left Pender Harbour at 11 o'clock today to time our arrival with slack at Malibu Rapids – our sixth visit. A lot of people don't understand our attraction. I suppose you either get it or you don't. But, for us, the 40 nm trip inland is worth the time and effort because the experience is always different and new – from the weather to dockmates to our moods. And this year it's not the destination that counts; above all, it's the journey. So we have the time.
The barometer's sitting at 1019 and showing sunshine, but it's not meant to be. It's cloudy, grey, and looks as if it could shower at any moment – the perfect day for travelling because the solar panels (which have been putting in 140 to 150 amp hours daily) wouldn't be able to produce much in these conditions. On the other hand, we can see that there's still quite a bit of snow on the mountains and it would be a beautiful trip up-inlet if the sky were clear – maybe on the way out. But today we're left with a view that looks like an overexposed photograph – lacking colour and vibrancy – and the granite, slightly wet, appears metallic matching our moods perfectly.
We made good time and had to slow down considerably so as to not arrive too early even though it was only going to be a one metre tide. We still managed to get to Malibu Rapids before slack and were the third boat through. You could see a small upwelling here or whirlpool there and the current was still running at more than one knot. Once through, David throttled up in order to pass the other two boats so that we'd have first choice at the dock – the cheeky bugger! To our surprise, it was nearly full and there were four boats at anchor. Of favourite spot, down at the end so our solar panels are out of the way, was already taken, and we ended up front and centre next to the space allocated for tour boats and float planes – we'll see how that goes.
Neither one of us was up for socializing and it had been a long day, so I made dinner, walked the dog, and we tucked in for the night safe in the knowledge that there's always tomorrow.
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