Octopus Islands to Port Neville

45 miles 5¼ hours
We had to be up at the ungodly hour of 5:00 AM in order to pass the Okisollo rapids at slack tide.  It is another beautiful sunny day and all is calm until we enter Johnstone Straight.  This was not unexpected.  The straight is a large body of water and when the prevailing winds are from the North-West and the current is traveling West to East it makes for rough water. About an hour out of our destination, the Coast Guard came on the radio to announce that there was a gale warning in effect in Johnstone Straight.   Oh well, here we are…  I think it was only about 2’ chop.  When we pulled into Port Neville there was no one on the dock.  Good for us, we get our choice of about 4 locations.  Because of the winds up to 30 mph we thought the dock would be more secure than anchoring out.  I stepped off the boat and tried to attach the stern line to keep the boat from continuing forward and hitting some pilings.  Fred had to jump off the boat and help me.  Right here the current and the winds were heading one direction…forward.  All ended well. Merlin & I traveled most of the way on the sofa asleep.  Fred got his nap after we arrived.  While Fred was sleeping, I made us some chocolate chip cookies.  About 2:00 PM we all went for a walk up by the old store (closed) and a house/post office.  No one is in but we know it is OK to walk on the property and go down onto the beach.  There is a sign up saying to watch out for the bears and the cougar.  Initially we didn’t have Merlin on a leash because we appeared to be alone and we expected Merlin to come when called.  What we were surprised by was a deer.  It not only seemed somewhat domesticated, it wanted to play with Merlin.  This was cute until the deer seemed started by Merlin and it was obvious that the deer could hurt Merlin.  I carried him all the way back to the boat but the darn thing kept following us.  I found a big stick and gave it to Fred in case the deer needed some persuading.  No, no one was injured but we sure had a fright.  By dinner time the dock was full and there were four sailboats at anchor in the bay.  One of the boats on dock was a 25 foot Ranger Tug.  It isn’t nautical, but they are so cute.  Fred & I looked at one in Alameda for fun.  They come fully equipped with everything from electronics to bow thruster (and they are towable).