We spent Thursday 8th July recuperating from the last couple of days. Such a change; from dread and terror to lounging around a resort, reading books and soaking up the sun.

The next morning we were up early but then realised the rapids just outside the resort were in full flow - the wrong way of course. With tidal rapids a problem for the first 2 NM we had to wait out until things finally started easing. By 9 the tide was starting to turn and so we headed out through Blind channel and Green Point rapids. We then for once had no complications as we cruised down Chancellor channel. As we tacked up to head into Wellbore channel we met a tug with an incredibly long log boom behind it.

After a brief chat with him working out where we could safely go we headed up towards the ominous sounding Whirlpool rapids. We knew we were early to make it through the rapids and pulled into a very pleasant small bay behind Carterer point. There we calculated when slack would be and waited.

Another boat pulled in as well and after the allotted time we hauled in the anchor and headed up what we thought was slack water. We were a bit surprised though when the other boat hailed us and asked why we were going so early. We carried on anyway, sure or our math until we got into the main stream and realised something had gone drastically wrong. ( We had read a minus sign for a dash) The current was in full flood! We pushed our little motor as fast as we dare and crept through only just making headway of barely half a knot. Our confidence was beginning to wane though as this was taking a long time and we had never pushed the engine like this before. Should we fall off the current and fight our way back to where we had anchored or keep going? With fingers crossed we kept on pushing into the current and then, after about 15 minutes, we cleared the main stream and were able at last to cut into calmer water. Our engine had survived!

Coming out of the main channel we headed into Forward harbour. One advantage of being idiots and fighting the current was that we were the first into this beautiful bay and for several hours we had the bay to ourselves in glorious weather.

This place was so beautiful we decided that we should stay another day and enjoyed hiking around the trails and just lazing in the sun on the boat. We had finally worked out what cruising was about!