Lewall Inlet

Today felt like we were cruising the enchanted islands. Many islands, narrow passageways, all a different kind of scenery than we’ve been seeing. Started out by following Little Joe through Rait Narrows. Soon afterwards, as usual, I moved ahead since I tend to run a little faster. A quick blurb on that. Bill and Mike are running at 5 kts. Bill and I tend to run about the same RPM’s, and for this trip, and normal for my boat, 1500-1600 works most efficiently for me in slow cruise. Bill has been running 1500, however, at 1500 I get about a mile or mile and a half faster. Mike tends to set whatever his engine runs for 5 kts. I had different anchorage expectations than Mike and Bill as well. We’re all responsible for our own comfort levels, and I tend to like calm anchorages. Bill and Mike were looking at some possible anchorages that would be affected by ocean swell coming into them. Bill and Mike were also doing a little different route as they were weaving through some of the islands, whereas I tend to take a more direct route. Just different interests, but we all try to end up at the same place at the end of the day. Because I chose a different anchorage, and was running ahead, I expected Bill and Mike would end up in a different anchorage tonight, and we’d meet up again tomorrow. They ended up here, several hours after I anchored. My route today involved a number of channels, including running some out in the ocean, or sounds just off the ocean. The first open ocean run was somewhat protected by the Goose Group of islands, and I only experienced some very gentle 3’-5’ swells. Winds appeared to be less than 5 kts. However, the second open spot, was open to the ocean, and along with the same swells, the winds had picked up to around 15kts out of the SW and I was seeing some rough chop with the swells. I ended up putting C-Traveler up on plane to get thru that spot a little faster. The waterways I cruised via were Joassa Channel with Rait Narrows, Tide Rip Passasge, Spider Channel through the Stopper Group (and that offered some of the most challenging navigation I’ve done, through some very narrow and winding passages), Brydon Channel (which had some more narrow channels), Kittyhawk Group, Kildidt Sound, Nalau Passage, Edward Channel, and finally a turn into Lewall Inlet, where we are anchored. The inlet is basically a L shape that dead ends at the north end. Once I was anchored, I set my kayak up and peddled around the inlet. Forecast for rain, but it held off until around 5:30p. It has stopped for now, but more in the forecast. While we like the sunshine, it’s nice to get the fresh water rinse to clean off all the salt!Read more