In an attempt to catch a late flood tide up San Juan Channel, I got a very late start on the 27th. Struggled greatly against a strong flood around Flat Point on the West side of Lopez Island before getting a good push from the wind and tide for several hours up San Juan Channel. I'm not certain if it might have been wiser to backtrack up Upright Channel to the Northern side of Shaw Island, then paddle West through Harney Channel to San Juan; perhaps the tidal currents would have been easier to deal with?
Made a short stop at Yellow Island, a Nature Conservancy preserve, which is maintained in something like its pre-contact state, when indigenous folks would burn these islands to improve their access to food. Apparently most of the San Juan were once regularly burned, but Yellow Island is the only one remaining in this state.
By late afternoon, I had made it to the Eastern end of Spieden Channel, where I took a short break, before struggling against still-strong currents across the channel, from Davidson Head to Sentinel Island; my crossing was essentially a long ferry glide. Not sure if I would have had better luck elsewhere (again!), perhaps up New Channel, on the North side of Spieden Island, though currents also appear to be strong there. Probably a better approach would have been to eat dinner on the beach, waiting for the tide to weaken before doing the crossing to Spieden.
From the West end of Spieden, it was a short and relatively easy hop over to Reid Harbor, but I was beat from fighting currents and from the very hot weather. I staked out a campsite at the back of the harbor in a kayaker campsite in Stuart Island State Park after paddling past dozens of yachts between the East and West ends of the harbor. The 27th was the first night of the trip when I couldn't get a cell signal, and I instead used my inReach for the first time to send a message home and let Emily know I was okay. A successful day, but I was tired!
The following day, I got an earlier start, and rode the ebb out of Reid Harbor and around to the West side of Stuart Island, before heading out for the crossing of Haro Strait and the US/Canada border. This is another crossing best done at slack, but I was impatient or lazy or both, and crossed mid-ebb. I struggled to hold my ground against the current, which pushed me several miles south of my target at Gooch Island to Mandarte Island, which wound up being my first landfall in Canada (don't tell Canadian Customs, but I had to pee!)
I was a little unclear about the protocol for clearing customs by kayak--the Canadian customs web site was a little ambiguous about processes--so I called on my cell phone from Mandarte. The very polite customs agent told me to paddle to my port of entry--Sidney Harbor--and call from there, either on my own phone or on the phone provided in the harbor. I was then able to work my way up the coast of Mandarte, riding eddies against the current, then to ferry across to Sidney Spit, where I caught a strong eddy which carried me most of the way to Sidney Channel. By this time, the current was weakening, and I had little trouble paddling across to the Saanich Peninsula and Sidney Harbor.
Once in the harbor, I made my phone call, and they cleared me by phone, giving me an ID number, as well as a number for my bear protection, a side-by-side 12 gauge. My call reached the same agent I had reached from Mandarte. She said, "I recognize your voice, are you in a kayak?" and I replied, "What, are you the only customs agent for the whole country?!" Apparently, she is one of three in--as she noted--the country with the longest coastline in the world.
After customs, anxious not to tie up the customs float, I quickly paddled out of the harbor and, now enjoying a favorable tide, rode the current North, to Canoe Cove, where I was able to reach sometime hiking buddy and my first paddling partner of the trip, Dr. Carl Salk. Carl's Uncle Jon and Aunt Teva live in Sidney and Carl and Jon graciously picked me up in Jon's Lexus at the marina. Talk about culture shock! Less than two hours later, I was showered, in (more or less) clean clothes, and enjoying a lovely dinner at a restaurant overlooking Sidney Harbor, of customs clearance fame.
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