5/19: Awoke, thankful for the quiet nite, the sound sleep, and for Great Empty, yet not impaled upon low-tide shore.

I love to explore old historic stuff, and there ashore some old industrial structure. It would be the first try of the raft i'd bot.

Planning the trip, I knew of course i'd need a way to get to shore when anchored, either to go to town for groceries or whatever when not docked (docking costs $$ unless you come & go quick), or to explore when anchored out in wilderness. Normal cruisers do it with an inflatable 3+-person "dinghy", AKA "tender", with outboard.

If your boat is 40' long with a crane, this is most definitely the ideal alternative.

But, dude, get real. No way to store a tender half the length of my entire boat. Nor can i tow it (as many do) when i'm going 20mph (my economical cruising speed, not top speed). [My only claim to superiority over just about every other cruiser out there is i am fast: almost 2x faster than the typical cruising trawler, almost 3x a sailboat, even when it's under power; ok, i'm exaggerating, but only a little. In any case: neener neener.]

Back when i sailed Baja, i took 2 cheap little inflatables like you'd play in your pool with, 1 a "3-man" (yeah, right, like a 3-person backpacking tent), 1 a 2-man. And they were absolutely entirely adequate, hauling 40-litre fuel containers and, well, ~adequate quantities of cerveza; indeed i used 1 of them on my East Coast trip as well, til i shredded the bottom [really: shredded] dragging thru ~coral at St.Augustine, Florida.

[And once in Baja, i rafted ashore on a too-windy day. For the return, the first big wave dumped me back to the beach and i knew i was in trouble. So i swam it back to the boat thru the surf. Holding onto it, what could go wrong? except leg cramps.]

But for this trip, did i want to be seen in the accompany of a pool toy? I think not.

I settled on the Sea Eagle, a 1-person inflatable intended for serious backcountry fisherfolk, rugged, well-made, respectable (in a fisherfolk sort of way), and, i hoped, adequately practical.

A key criteria: where can it be stored, without having to inflate/deflate every use?

• Bow? That would block my view (as of ubiquitous floating logs, whales, kayakers, random supertankers).
• Hanging astern of the stern? I already have stuff hanging off stern: outboard, outboard fuel tank.
• OK, inside the stern, i.e. what sail-ers call the cockpit? (I'm not sure what powerboaters call it. It's where they do their fishing.) Don't even go there! My essential battery-selector switch is concealed under a large hinged full-boat-width panel spanning the stern. But before you can open that to get to the essential switch, you must open the hinged engine compartment cover which then occupies the entire cockpit, thereby making fishing and anything else, like moving, impossible. So: this really pisses me off, every time: to get started in the morning: i must 1)clear everything normally stored there (2 anchors, 2 Home Depot buckets of rode, the cooler holding perishable food as it perishes, the occasional case of beer, Groover) into the cabin, and flip the red fenders to hang over the side; 2)raise the engine cover; 3)raise the stern panel; 4)activate the battery switch; 5)reverse steps 3, 2, and 1. Now suggest adding 1 more complication, a 7' long, 32-pound raft, which must be tied down to prevent it blowing away, perched atop that entire mess?
• So i'd put it on the roof. But whatever chosen must not be too heavy (i'd have to lift it up there, and i'm an old man; also i must not capsize) or too long.

Hence: Sea Eagle, manufactured in America since the 1960s.

I was very disappointed.

OK, i figured it'd barely fit me, it would be awkward getting in/out of the raft from the boat, etc. I was prepared for that.

But this i couldnt understand: they put the row lock mounts down off the top of the raft, on the ~sides, such that: every single stroke, in order to get the oars out of the water to move them ahead for another power stroke, they scrape along the top of the raft, most importantly bumping into 2 extremely hi-quality American-made carrying handles!

Not only did this make it extremely difficult to get anywhere, but, had anyone been watching, i would'v looked like a complete idiot! And i don't want anyone to know. That i'm a complete idiot.

Finally ashore: it was cool.

Of course i truly wanted to look inside. But the British Columbian forest that has grown up around this symbol of the transience of humanity is absolutely impenetrable.

So this human transient was off again for another day.

The sky was warm sun blue, the sea glassy thru the narrow passage. Ribbon waterfalls.

But emerging to a large bay where many channels came together, suddenly there were cruisers everywhere.

I'd seen very few out on the water, really (tho many in marinas). I realized that there are many routes to Alaska, but here, in this bay, they all converge to 1 last channel to the substantial town of Prince Rupert, so here had all the Cruisers converged, and now, as i'd heard, they'd perfectly timed it to ride the in-flowing tide upstream, then the out-flowing tide downstream, and i'd stumbled along and arrived at the very right time.

I out-ran them all.

- -

The headwind developed, it made me feel i was racing to Prince Rupert, the hull Dopler-staccatoed across low but frequent waves. I'd been out a long time; i anticipated the pleasures of civilization: which is to say: Internet. I had a blog to get out. (And so too, necessarily: coffee. Good coffee.) I navigated among the islands, rocks, and buoys, and there finally in the distance were the container cranes and container ships of the Port of Prince Rupert.

I wanted to find a marina, the easy life, access to the comforts, so i stopped out on the water, checked the internet, phoned ahead, arranged a slip. I was really looking forward to this.

And then the engine would not re-start.

- -

no, really, it would not start.

My first thot was i'll have to call a tow. (i get weird out there, the beauty, & motor drone that goes on & on. I'll come in for gas, the nice folks'll ask me friendly simple questions, and i feel... disoriented. Disconnected. I understand what they're saying, but no idea how to respond.)

[Sorta like when i was programming. Someone from the ~real world would arrive at my cubicle, say something intended to me, and it quite literally felt like i was, unexpectedly, slowly, indeed reluctantly, surfacing from some deep depth of abstract intellect. Disoriented.]

Then i remembered duh, this is precisely what i have the outboard for.

So i headed to the marina on outboard.

It was taking forever. Further, the outboard runs on its own little 2-gallon tank. Would i have enuf fuel to get there? Because it's still a long way.

So i made a decision and bailed to an alternate, ~close, Porpoise Harbor.

The tide was against me. I made 2mph.

I found a spot at the dock, don't know legal or not, but it's sunday, no one around, and tomorrow's holiday as well.

Halfway to Skagway, eh?