Friday morning I woke up early due to the sunshine streaming in through the wheelhouse windows. And since no one else was up yet, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to take my one allotted shower.
We were limited to one shower per person, until we were sure we had enough water for the trip. I held out until Friday. Baby wipes for the body and baby powder and a hat for the hair can do wonders on a camping trip. I thought that I had the water temperature adjusted perfectly . . . until I got in. At which point the water decided to come out boiling hot. Note to self, the boat does not have a temperature control on it that most home water heaters do. I almost broke down the shower door trying to get out of the thing . . . and likely managed to wake anyone on the boat who was still asleep. Despite the mild burn I managed to give the front half of me, the feeling of having clean hair was worth it.
Breakfast was made on the beach using up whatever breakfast items we had remaining. Today we also had a special treat . . . evaporated milk as creamer in our coffee. Apparently this was a throw back to living at camp. There was also a can of condensed sweetened milk that was a big treat for my dad and aunties. They used to get a spoonful as a treat. I put some in my coffee and oatmeal and it tasted delicious.
Since it was sunny and mostly warm, we decided to hang at the Big Sand Beach for the morning. Calvin, Jeff and my dad all decided they should go swimming in the ocean one last time. After a lot of talking about it and then standing around waiting for the sun to come out from behind a cloud, they finally made it into the water. My dad tried to say it was warmer than when they jumped off the boat at Boswell, but I saw the goose bumps that had goose bumps and wasn’t convinced.
Eventually we all started heading back to the KJ to head to Port Hardy. This time I was smart and took some medicine before crossing the sound. I was still a bit worried about being sick though so after we ran out of whales to watch, I went and sat outside with mom and Rae-Leigh, the known sickies. I was actually feeling pretty good so to entertain them and take their mind off the eternal rolling of the boat, Greg and I sang/rapped “I’m On A Boat,” for them. They said they didn’t mind the F-bombs in the song, since it was still cleaner than what was going through their heads.
Just as I was starting to think about how I was starving (a clear sign that you’re not going to be sick, apparently), we got another amazing show from the marine life. Porpoises started playing in the wake! My dad came upstairs to make sure we’d seen them and here is how the conversation went:
Heidi: Dad, there are orcas swimming with the boat!
Dad: Heidi Marie, an orca would be as big as the boat. Why on earth would you think that is an orca? Obviously it’s a type of dolphin or porpoise.
Heidi: Because the black and white coloring and designs are the same. Maybe it’s a baby orca. Besides, all the dolphins I’ve ever seen are gray.
Dad: There are lots of kinds and colors of dolphins. Where did you see these gray dolphins?
Heidi: Seaworld. Duh.
Despite my father thinking I’m terribly inept at determining what kind of marine life is swimming along side the boat, the porpoises were pretty amazing. It was fun to watch them zoom in and out of the wake. After maybe 10 minutes, they got bored and left. Now if only we had seen real orca’s, we would have seen it all.
We made one last stop on the way back to Port Hardy. There was another midden where an old Indian (aka First Nations in Canada) village had been. Back in the day, they traded in beads, so this midden was known to have lots of Indian beads that could be found if you dug in the right place. So about half of us took the skiff to shore to look for ancient (okay, like 200 year old) beads. My aunt found one in about thirty seconds so I was pretty optimistic. Eventually I got over optimistic and got desperate. I hate the feeling of dirt on my hands and under my fingernails. At first I started digging and sifting dirt with a stick. Before I knew it I had dirt up to my elbows trying to find a damn bead. Alas, all I managed to find were some stinging nettles. I found myself oddly disappointed that I did not find a bead. Luckily, I am my father’s favorite daughter and he gave me his bead. Now I need to figure out how to make some cool piece of jewelry with it.
From the Indian bead midden, we still had a bit of a trek back to Port Hardy. The sun was out and the water was smooth so it was a nice and mellow ride in. About an hour out, it was funny to watch people starting to watch for their cell phones to have a signal. We’d been completely unplugged for five days and didn’t think about it once, until we were almost back to civilization.
We arrived back in Port Hardy and while the men unloaded the crap, I mean gear, the women cleaned up the boat. At about 10, we finally were able to head to our sleeping arrangements for the night. I opted to spend the last night where all the cousins were sleeping since I get to see them all so rarely. Plus that house had three showers. A non-boat shower after a week was amazing. And I was finally able to determine that I did in fact have tan lines on my feet, despite all the rain and clouds. For a while there, I wasn’t sure if it was actually a tan or just dirt.
The funniest part about getting off a boat after some time is that you still feel like you’re rocking. We were all holding on to counters and furniture trying to navigate the house. It took about three days for the rocking to go away. We tried to stay up and chat but we were exhausted and had to get up early in the morning to race for a ferry. It turned out to be pretty easy to fall asleep when you feel like you’re being rocked in a baby cradle.
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