Currently in Haida Gwaii, this is a diary of my times spent and the people that I meet. To most it will be a surf update, to others a spiritual assessment, and definitely fun to all.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

The wind totally blows

Well, another amazing weekend at Mount Moresby Adventure Camp. The crew heading down there every other weekend have really gel-ed into a nice fine tuned unit of outdoor perfection guided by our faithful leader Johnny! This weekends adventure was certainly no less than we expected with a canoe down the lake for a night in the bush. I wasn't quite sure why we left a perfectly good fire and a fridge full of sausages, but there was apparently a higher purpose.
John has been introducing us to the area, bush skills (starting a fire in the rain with no matches!) and it's beauty and this weekend was sure to make our lives a lot more fulfilled. Lets start off...
Friday night we show up, play some crib and go to bed... Sounds exciting eh? Personally, I could do this every friday night, but more stimulus wouldn't be bad.
Saturday AM - Of course Jo is up at 6 and breakfast at 8, lots of conversation and we're full-on schoolin'. Have you ever understood those little blobs of high pressure and low pressure? Me neither. Well, apparently they have pressure gradients. The tendancy is for areas of high pressure to move and replace the low pressure areas. This causes wind. Huh!!! Far out!! Ok, so you owe me a beer for this lesson. Anyways, after we had this incredibly productive lesson on the Alaskan Low and the reason we get pile driven by southwester wind we were off into the water.
An hour in, I catch a fish (of course)... and lose it... (of course)... I blame Johnny because just as he says 'don't lose it' what do I do... yes, of course, I lose it. no worries, we've got a loaf of bread rising in Jo's belly ( of course wrapped in plastic) and beans soaking in a water bottle. We're ok.
So we finally get to the end of the lake. Not a bad paddle a short 2 or 3 hour trip. We get set up and have a brief lesson in 'tarpology' (setting up a tarp). Very valuable, especially when it's 4 degrees and raining with 50knot winds expected that night. So, afterwards I go for another paddle and fish to see if I can find the monster I lost. Well, I caught it, kinda... When I arrive home, John's dog has swallowed my hook! I think his jinx of my fish caught up with us. So, here we are, at least 5 hours from a hospital, and nearly a half day from a vet (if they're in town). So, off he goes in a canoe, middle of the night... We all felt bad for this situation...
But it get's better... The dog, half way home, spits up the hook and johnny heads it back to camp! Yay! We're back together again. It's the middle of the night, and then when it's time to all start hugging each other in glee, the wind starts. And I'm not talking about a time to bring the kids out to fly a kite, it is (as predicted) well over 40 knot (close to 100km/hr) winds. The tarps, well put I must say, are ready to set sail. As we all migrate back to our tents and pray for these huge trees to not fall on us, we spend what I would deem as the least restfull sleep of my life. Man, do I ever love this place.
So, the morning brought about trees everywhere but on us which was a good thing. We made it back home with a crazy head wind and finally got in the cars to drive home... oops, forgot about that spruce across the road on the way out... ok, no big deal, we're used to that.
All in all, a crazy weekend again with the wind. There is really nothing like being kept awake by storm force winds whipping over your tent. Great thing is that this storm is going to flip up some crazy surf by wednesday. It's all coming up.
Stay cool kids and thanks for tuning in!

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