We're back...and alive!

Well, after 9 days of vacation, we are back! Few cuts, few bruises and no black eyes! And I really don't know where to start! While I was away, I kept a "trip journal" like I do on other trips. A "paper blog", of sorts. As I was writing I thought "It's going to take me a month to catch up on my blog!".

I guess a good place to start is near-the-beginning.

After 7 hours of travel (2 ferry rides, 3 stretches of driving and 2 waits in ferry lineups) we arrived at Lund. The tide was at the lowest point of the year (BELOW the boat launch), so we waited a bit to launch the boat.

While we were waiting, we launched Kernel, and Colin took her for her maiden voyage ... around the boat launch! I also got to row her around. She's a fun little boat. And she floats perfectly!

We launched when the tide was still below the concrete launch, but it worked fine. We hooked up Kernel with a rope so we could tow her behind the motorboat. There wasn't enough room in the big boat for all our stuff, so the food had to go in Kernel. This is when the "adventure" begins.

Not 60 seconds out of the launching area, a big boat zooms past us, creating some huge swells. We went up over the first one, then the nose of the boat followed the swell of water down, sending the next wave partially over the windshield. Only Colin and I got wet though. The Vikes and our luggage stayed fairly dry. Poor Kernel was bobbing up and down over that one.

We headed toward Savary feeling a tad stressed. The rope we had Kernel on was too short, so she was riding in our wake, and listing to one side, looking like she'd topple over at any second. Colin had to keep slowing down in order to giver Kernel an easier ride. We thought of stopping and lengthening the rope, but I noticed a huge boat in the distance behind us, with a massive wake. If that thing caught up to us we'd have been soaking for sure, so we motored on.

There was a big barge crosing our path a kilometer ahead of us that we were going to drive behind. No use rushing Kernel.

Then Colin saw it.

About 100 meters behind the barge, there was the biggest log boom I've ever seen. Hmm. A big barge....then a nice space....then a boom. SHOOT! The barge was towing the massive boom! A quick change of plans, and Colin realized he had to race the barge to get in front of it, while going slow enough to keep Kernel upright, and fast enough to make sure that yacht in the distance wouldn't catch up to us!!

What a ride. I kept reminding (aka nagging) Colin about the dangers ahead, Steve was telling him whenever Kernel was moving around, and Rhonda was mentally taking inventory about what food was in Kernel so she'd know which things she'd grab if she needed to jump out of the boat and rescue the food from the water.

We JUST made it in front of the tugboat (or shall I call it a tug-cruiseship...it was huge!) and made it to the Savary wharf safely. Phew.

With all of this stress going on, no one took any photos to compliment this story. I regret it now, although the sights of the ride are permanently burned on my retina.