After-Party Day 6 – Princess Louisa Inlet (MacDonald Island)

Today was a very rainy and cold day and one that invited us all to hole up in our boats for a day of reading and enjoying or heaters. We did venture out right before the rain started to go see After Eight again but before we got back we were soaked. We even saw a boat go buy where its occupants were carrying umbrellas! Rather unusual but a great idea. We should have done that!

In the afternoon it did clear up some so Larry, Cheryl, Al, Sue and us went over to the mainland next to where we were moored and explored a trail. We suspect it goes all the way to the falls but we went just a short way before turning back. It was a beautiful walk, though, and the parks department had hung pink ribbons along the trail to prevent hikers from getting lost.

We also made a few trips with our dinghies to see After Eight up close. That is a lifestyle none of us can imagine or would even want. The “guests” were up on the top deck sitting in the hot tub with their matching black bathing suits (obviously courtesy of the owner) and their drinks. Another man was using a treadmill! It was so strange to see him up there when he could be out on one of the many beautiful trails. 

I took a couple of pictures showing the dangers lurking under the surface for boaters who are not paying attention to their charts. The first one shows a huge rock during low tide (behind Afterlight). The second shows the white post that is still visible during high tide warning boaters of the rock. One can never be too careful in these areas because there are many places where the water becomes unexpectedly shallow due to hidden rock formations.

Well, I’ve been learning how to run the dinghy so Sue, Cheryl and I decided we needed to have a “girl race”. We took our dinghies out with the plan to go around MacDonald Island where we are moored. Once we got out in the channel, Sue took off at high speed with Cheryl right behind. I decided this was my chance to really see what I had learned so I followed them.  We went right past the island and straight toward the Malibu Rapids!  As we got closer, I thought the others would be turning around so I made a U-turn but when I looked back they were still going the other way!  I turned back around and caught up with them when they slowed right before the rapids. We discussed it and were all in agreement that there was no way we were going to go through the rapids BUT we would tell the husbands that we did!  The water was moving pretty good and we had some strong current and whirlpools to take our dinghies through but it was fun and great practice for us all.

This evening we heard that After Eight was leaving Princess Louisa so Bob and I took our dinghy out to the beginning of the rapids and found a nice quiet alcove where we stayed until the yacht passed us to exit the rapids. It is a pretty amazing sight to see how big that boat is.

We ended our evening with ice cream on Larry and Cheryl’s boat. We had hoped to make it a game night but then realized we needed to get our dinghies and kayaks back on the boats so we would be ready in the morning to leave early to catch slack tide when we went out through the rapids.