R&R

Spent a second day in Sekiu so that I could catch up on a bunch of boat maintenance, sewing, sleep, laundry, mail, and eating. Stayed up waaaay to late last night watching 'High Plains Drifter'. I so love this movie - Clint Eastwood at his best.





Shed a bit more gear, will re-pack again tonight and see where I'm at volume-wise. At the moment I'm using a flat bag on the rear deck as my overflow bag when I re-stock groceries and such and would like to reduce it down a bit. Having the weight up high like that isn't doing me any favours. I'm sure there's still more to shed ;O)



Though it's nice having the creature comforts, Persephone is so much lighter in the water with less, and when I'm paddling the weight on regular basis it's very easy to forsake a sleeping bag and tent for a tarp and rain gear. One of these days I'll put up a gear list. Not much, not much at all...



I'm trying to fatten up a bit for the next leg of the trip. Small towns like this have such great little cafes. Home-made spicy tomato soup, and a grilled provolone and swiss cheese sandwich - YUM!



Persephone is on the beach, loaded and ready to go. My belly is full. It's a twenty n.mile paddle to Neah Bay. Should be a pretty paddle, the shoreline keeps getting better the closer I get to the Cape. I'll be getting in at dusk as I'm starting late today. I find with towns it's better to come in quietly in the evening and sleep on the beach beside my girl. No-one bothers me and I can re-supply in the morning before the rabble-rousers are rabbling. Landing on unknown beaches is best done early afternoon - dawn launches these days.



Had a gentleman on the beach this morning tell me the story of his daughter. Very sad... she was young and naive and went off to the big city to work and be on her own. She got in with the wrong crowd, a rough crowd. Things went bad to worse, and she put a gun to her head and shot herself, the first shot passed through her skull but didn't kill her, so she put the gun in her mouth and shot again... this shot took out her eye and a good part of her brain. She lived... poor girl.. poor man... I stood there for an hour after he walked away looking out to the ocean. I realized something about myself. I love the ocean, and the soil, and nature very much - not for the wonder of it all - though it is indeed wonderous... because it is honest, and true... predators are unabashedly predators. The eagle never lies to the fish before it eats it.



The tides come and go, a storm is a storm, a wave is a wave. Night and the moon, day and the Sun.



Possibly we ask too much of life by forcing it to adhere, be defined, predicted, follow patterns that we can understand? Straight lines are so obviously out of place on the sea, the horizon yes, a roofline is obviously man-made many miles away.



I'll be a drifter, unapologetic for who I am, floating alongside the lines of flotsam, a traveler, an observer, a participant, and sometimes a victim. At least the one who victimizes feels no malevolence, doesn't need to and can't. I'll tell the stories of journies and not apologize for who I am, or be anything I'm not... please... tomorrow let me continue to voyage.



Today was a spiritual day... Jim came down from his resort where he was such a hospitable host - Curley's resort if you ever find yourself in Sekiu. Clean sheets, nice people. A pleasure to shake your hand Jim. I did a few rolls for him in the Bay on my way out - a thank-you from a paddler.