She did it!  Of course.  She had to get out of the kayak three times and scramble around the kelp-covered rocks dragging her vessel because of impassable currents, but she did it. 

Sal left at about 6:00 am (I am guessing since all I remember is a kiss goodbye) and loading her kayak into her little Whaler, set off for the rendezvous point with Renate and Roger, the other two maniacs.  Then, with the morning fog barely lifting, they headed North up White Rock passage and rounded the end of Maurelle into Calm Channel heading West with the tide behind them. 

Another left turn into Hole-in-the-Wall, the narrow passage separating Maurelle from Senora and they were heading South, just as the tide began to change.  This was not good.  Good planning determined that rounding the Southern entrance in the ‘hole’ would be best attempted at slack water and they were at least ten minutes late. 

Time and tide wait for no man or woman.  They headed into the treacherous Okosollos with the 8 knot current against them and the wind starting to kick up from the East.  The water roared around the point creating a disparity in levels.  It was a foot higher on one side of the rocks and the current was like a river.  R&R have done this before and just leaned into it but Sal did not have the right approach angle nor quite the right read on the whirlpools, rips and chop that she faced and so, with Roger’s coaching, she chose discretion over valour.  Three times.  And thus the three mini-waterfalls caused by the reversing tide at Hole-in-the-Wall were averted by a quasi portage. 

“I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.  In fact, without Roger’s coaching, I wouldn’t have.  It was pretty exhilarating but at times it was a bit scary as well.  I am in no hurry to do that one again!”   

They then pounded Southeast into the chop until Claudia’s Maurelle cabin where they were greeted, warmed and fed.  A quick visit to her neighbour, Doug, making a 28 foot boat from the raw materials around him and then back into the water for the final two hour stretch through Beasley Pass. 

She got home late in the afternoon and was pretty tired.  I finally breathed fully, relaxing for the first time.  Sally hit the kip early.  She was asleep before her head hit the pillow. 

I am not so sure I can take much more of this.