A beautiful day on Grenville Channel.
When I woke up this morning at 5am, the wind was blowing out of the north sending waves breaking onto the beach near my campsite. After eating and getting packed up, I was launching at 7:30am and paddling straight into the wind. I immediately crossed Grenville Channel from my campsite on the east side to the shoreline on the west side. The winds normally would strengthen as the day progressed and I did not want to have to cross over later when the winds almost certainly would be stronger.
The shoreline was passing by very slowly and I could tell by the streaming kelp leaves that not only was I paddling against the wind, but that the current was also against me. Although I was not going very fast, at least I was putting in a few miles and not just wasting a day sitting on the shore. My goal for this trip was to put in at least 20 miles a day, which would allow me to finish in about 45 days, so any day I did not paddle, was one day longer on the water.
My campsite across from Northness Point.
My planned destination for this day was a campsite 20 miles away in Stuart Anchorage at Bonwick Point. By 11am, the wind had become increasingly hard to paddle into so I started looking for an alternate spot to make camp. At 12:30pm and 15 miles from last night’s camp, I reached a spot along the west shoreline across from Northness Point, where a small stream entered and there was a grassy area suitable for camping. Although this area looked like the perfect place for bears to feed, I could find no sign of recent feeding activity. I did not have much of a choice anyway as campsites were scarce, and the wind had slowed me down to almost a standstill.
A cruise ship heads north up Grenville Channel.
The shore area for this campsite is composed of cobblestones covered with barnacles and seaweed so launching and landing here is troublesome. This site should only be considered as an emergency backup if a higher campsite cannot be found, as it may not be adequate for the highest tides of the month. Overnight the high tide was 19 feet and water came to within a few feet of my tent. If a large ship or ferry had passed at the peak of high tide, I probably would have been hit by its wake. The marshy creek entrance and grassy shoreline proved to be a perfect habitat for large numbers of gnats and mosquitoes, which helped to lower this sites ranking on my campsite suitability scale.A self-portrait.
