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27 July: Day-47, Total-51; Miles-0, Total-1682 – Chuck

It is 5:30am, the wind has backed off a bit, maybe a good sign.

Now 7:00am, a shower just blew through, the wind is still blowing and gusting hard at times but nothing like yesterday. The water is rough as a cob; waves are 2-3 feet with white caps everywhere. It makes me glad to get back in the tent, yet again.

At about 7:45, Bill delivered a large, hot bowl of "something" and hurried back to his tent, about 500 feet away. It had just started raining again. In the bowl seems to be a delicious mixture of mashed potatoes, carrots, onions and bacon bits. Maybe a couple of other ingredients are also in there. It was a welcome breakfast treat...and room service is a nice touch too.

Noon: It is raining hard, not much wind but waves are still rolling.

3pm: Maybe it is starting to clear. It was only misting as I checked the canoes. The waves seem to be subsiding, but still too rough to paddle. Also, it looks as if it is raining all around us. We decided to wait another hour to see if the clearing trend continues.

4pm: It is raining and blowing like crazy. The waves have increased and we are happy to be off the water and in dry tents.

6pm: The wind has changed from SSW to NW and is about 10kts but has gusts twice that. The waves are still rolling large and it is overcast and threatening all around. We wait.

Bill just delivered a large bowl containing a great mixture of beans, black eyed peas, rice and other things??

8:30pm: The water continues to get calmer but rainstorms loom upwind of us. The wind is now out of the North. We have decided that as much as we both would like to get moving the prudent plan is to wait until morning.

9:30pm: A rainstorm with gusty winds is passing over us, Glad to be in a tent.

Midnight: Just finished the wonderful book, Shadows On The Koyukuk by Sidney Huntington. It is a great story of his adventurous life (1915-present) growing up as an Athabaskan Indian in the remote Alaskan Frontier. We met Sidney while we were in Galena a couple weeks ago. Bill got his book while there and finished it yesterday, today was my turn. Now maybe we can leave.

I just checked outside. It is beautiful; clear, zero wind and calm water. The midnight sun is reflecting soft colors off the scattered clouds and the stillness is wonderful. I'm tempted to roust Bill and suggest that we leave now, however, it will be nearly dark in an hour. Best to get an early start in the morning.

1am: I was awakened by high winds and the sound of waves rolling on the shore. It doesn't look promising, we'll see in the morning.