There is very little “connectivity” in this anchorage. An occasional text message and some spotty weather information is about it. The spotty weather information suggests we need to move tomorrow and the next day. Where ever we stop the day after tomorrow is were we will be for a couple of days. Dock or anchor is yet to be determined.
This morning we watched a parade of boats motor in to drop an anchor. We went exploring in the dink and just happened to run across a collection of dinks from the boats that had just arrived heading out together. They invited us along to go shoot some rapids. In a dink? I don't much care for the dink in calm water. There is zero chance I will willingly ride one into some rapids. We let them go and went off on our own. Even then we ran across a couple of spots where the water flowing around the rocks was pretty much a match for the dink's motor and steering. We got a little too far down one little channel where the water was moving faster than I thought. In a couple of spots it took near full power against the current to make any progress getting back to the bay the boat was in. There was also one little slot though some rocks we had to pass through that wasn't quite “a rapid” but was still moving fast and going noticeably down hill. We blasted through with rock walls within reach off both sides. I'm not exactly sure how we got through there with the prop intact. We stopped by First Light to change into hiking shoes, grab our walking sticks and some water, and headed out again to beach the dink and go for a walk on one of the islands. We ended up clambering over some good-sized rocks trying to get to the top. It was a gallant effort but the way up proved too steep. I was following Deb back along the way we had come. She crossed over a collection of sizable rocks about 10 feet ahead of me. I took a couple of steps and had to stop. About six feet of snake was sliding across my path. It was black but had the head and markings of a rattler. There was no buzzing sound so I'm not sure just what it was, probably just a big black snake. I was careful not to bother it. It did't bother with me. But Deb must have just about stepped on the thing, which is probably why it was moving. But I did get to see a snake, so that was cool even if we didn't make it to the top.
On the way back to First Light we stopped to chat with some folks on a boat whose name suggested another retired airplane driver was at the helm. Turned out he was career Air Force pilot, A10 and F16 driver. We chatted for a bit. They had been out in their dink, hit a rock, shattered the plastic prop on their electric motor, and rowed back to the boat. They will be rowing until they can get a new prop shipped to them somewhere down the road. There are two things that can really make things difficult this far out on the edge, things one really can not afford to do. The first is damage any fundamental support equipment (like the dink). The second is to get injured. We might have strayed a bit too close to one or both of those today. A pretty place can still bite. And we are a long way from parts and medical support.
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