18 July: Day-40, Total-42; Miles-33, Total-1424 – Chuck

After paddling until 4am, I slept well to about 8am then off and on till noon. I was working on the journal when Bill asked if moving our departure up to 4pm would be OK. We decided he would leave soon and try to do some sailing since we had a hint of a quartering tailwind. He left at 3:30 sailing out of our little mud landing with a great smile on his face. After carrying the sailing rig for 1400 miles this was only the second time the wind was in a semi-favorable direction. It wonderful to see his canoe propelled by wind power; I ran down the shore to get a picture.

About an hour later I was underway. The water was smooth and it seemed that the light wind we had earlier had eased to almost nothing. Our plan was to meet at Kaltag, 15 miles downstream. It was a warm sunny day; current and paddle soon had me within sight of a tiny white dot far away. Bill's sail is bright white and easy to spot for many miles. He arrived in Kaltag about a half-hour before me and was chatting with Thomas Neglaska and his daughter, Mariah, when I paddled to the gravel landing. Thomas gave us a ride on his 4-wheeler to the laundromat. It was almost 8pm, but he said it was open till 9pm and that it had a phone. We said good-bye and they drove off. The laundromat was closed. We walked to the village store; I used their phone to send messages, then filled my water bottles.

When I arrived back at the landing, Bill was talking with Frederick. Bill immediately started on his way. Frederick told me that he was kidding with Bill and Bill must have taken it seriously. He asked me to relay his apology.

It was a very pleasant paddle as the sun got lower and the temperature dropped a few degrees. All seemed so still as we were gliding on a glass-smooth surface. Soon we were looking for a campsite. The islands at the downstream end of Big Eight Mile Island were all mud and had no shade. The morning sun and its heat prevent Bill from sleeping. Bill spotted what might be a better place across the river. As we made for it, the current carried Bill into a sandbar. We both found suitable islands and, on the radio, decided that each of us would camp where we were currently located. We would contact each other at 1pm tomorrow afternoon to discuss that day's plan.