This morning was the start of the 'real' adventure (as if the preceding days hadn't taught us enough). We were now moving beyond the towns of Vancouver Island and into the lands where there were few settlements and even fewer facilities. We had decided to use the main straight through the inner passage; that which is normally followed by the big cruise liners but this year thankfully there were none. Our first big challenge was Seymour narrows.

Seymour narrows has a truly epic reputation. Being responsible for the sinking of 20 large vessels and damage or sinking over 100 smaller boats. Even George Vancouver, the first British captain to sail in these waters (a man who knew a thing or two about bad seas) had his own unique words for the passage:

"One of the vilest stretches of water in the world" Captain George Vancouver; 1792

So it was with a lump in the throat and ice in our stomachs we left Campbell River (although not without bumping into the boat behind us and waking the grumpy captain at 7am!) and headed north again. We left early to catch the ebb tide but knew we wouldn't be able to make slack water with this tide so we pulled in behind Maude Island to wait for slack at 3:45pm. After three unsuccessful attempts to anchor on the rocky bottom a kindly captain attached to a small jetty advised us we should moor there.

This gave us access to stroll around Maude Island, see the remains of the structures built for the blasting of Ripple rock and look down on the narrows. It was NOT a relaxing sight; being able to see the speeding water and whirlpools we would have to navigate!

The day dragged on as we both struggled to relax knowing what was to come. At 3:15 we could wait no longer and so headed out and rounded the island heading into the channel. Hitting the worst spots at exactly slack though we thanked our lucky stars there was no drama although we realised how lucky we were as this passage is usually chock full with massive cruise liners at slack water. As it was we were the only boat there and so could take the best route through

Once through the narrows we continued north into a strengthen head wind. With wind over tide it made for a choppy ride but nothing could dampen our spirits after making it through. Just to finish off the day we were treated to a run of dozens of dolphins who passed us heading south at speed.

Later the afternoon we pulled into Kanish bay and found a wonderful sheltered anchorage. The sun came out and we thoroughly enjoyed the evening glorying in having put another trial behind us. As we settled down for the night the wind got up. Little did we know the fun the next day would bring!