Finding Our Stride at Sea - Day Two on the Johnstone Strait

We started our second day with the gift of sunshine and a warm breakfast prepared by our wonderful guides.  What a treat it is to take a total break from shopping for groceries, prepare ingredients or cook any of your meals each day.  We had plenty of time in the morning, evening, at lunch and on the water to visit with our kayaking companions, stroll along the shores and watch for wildlife. 

We packed up camp after breakfast and moved to another island for the next two days.  This involved a repeat of jamming all of our supplies (clothing, shoes, sleeping bags, mats, kitchen etc.) into each kayak without leaving anything behind.  All of our camps were seaside beach camps with tents, cots and primitive bathroom and kitchen areas so those items stayed at each camp but everything else was moved. 

At our orientation meeting they provided each of us with a ROW mug to use for the duration of the trip.  We each took turns using a Sharpie to write our names on our mugs so they would not get mixed up. It became a joke as inevitably someone would misplace their mug or just the lid at every stop we made.  Others would come behind and collect the missing items and then eventually reunite them with their owner.  The mugs and lids were important because we used them for any and all drinks aside from our water bottles.  So if you wanted wine at dinner or hot chocolate you better have your mug handy.
   
Our time during the day was split between paddling, a beach front lunch and floating rest brakes.  It was easy to settle into our daily routine.  At the end of the trip one of our fellow adventure travelers (Mark) calculated and estimated that we paddled approximately 50 miles in 6 days.  He did an amazing job of keeping track of our starting and stopping points.  Although he did note that his estimates did not take into account tides or currents.  There were times when we were really paddling and it felt like we were not moving an inch.

The sunshine allowed us to hand our wet items outside the tent to dry and we were even able to build a small camp fire on the beach.  A picture perfect day at sea and evening relaxing at camp.