A 600 mile summer-30 days to and from Desolation Sound

I think I've waited a long time to write about the trip this summer because it has been overwhelming to consider. I'm still not up to the task. In bare facts I took Aeolus from Friday Harbor up to Desolation Sound in one week. Through the Gulf Islands and then up along the Van Isle shore and then across at Comox bar. Part of my family flew in on Kenmore Air to join me at Refuge Cove and we had a great week poking up into the Discovery Islands and swimming at Newton Lake. One week later our younger son flew in and we had a week in Desolation Sound at our favorite haunts.

View from Rendezvous Island lodge docks. Center of the Universe. 

I can't give a location by location review of where we went, but let me say that throughout the northern parts of this trip we can verify that the Humpback whales have come back in force. We've cruised the Desolation Sound area almost every year for nearly 20 years, and never seen so many Humpbacks as we are now. We saw them nearly every day in all areas of the passageways.

My younger son stayed with me for most of  our journey back south, and it was symbolically significant. When we left Refuge Cove after dropping off the fliers, we began our trip south to cover the entire length of the Salish Sea. For we were not stopping in Friday Harbor, but moving Aeolus to her new home in Olympia. That, my friends, felt significant.

Our crossing of the Straits of Georgia was rather epic as the winds were SE 20-25 and we had a rip roaring sail under reefs all the way to the Comox Bar. You head down as far to Texada as you have the patience to do, and then have a close reach across. Waves were 2-4 feet and we were once again the only boat in sight on that major crossing. Aeolus is a sturdy vessel, a sturdy vessel indeed.

600 miles and never a mechanical failure of any kind. Prrrrr goes the engine.

An incredible adventure, filled with too many stories to tell. Swimming, jumping off high rocks, whales, deep time.

Deep time in wilderness. It is going home.