Finally, the wind has come.  It wasn’t much and not always from the right direction but it provided a much needed break from rowing for Colin.  Early this morning Colin headed east towards the Sunshine Coast.  There he hugged the coastline and sped north.  Sped is a relative term here, but compared to rowing the 4-5 knots he averaged in the morning and early afternoon was fast and easy.  He is the only one of the small boats that took this route and it’s allowed him to significantly widen the gap.

Colin is at the northern tip of Texada Island and tomorrow he will likely go through Seymour Narrows, the narrow channel north of Campbell River.  Currents rip through here at 15 knots, whirlpools form and it is one of the most turbulent stretches of water in the world.  The passage has to be made with the tide, and his window tomorrow is between 2 pm and 8 pm.

The leading boat is still Mad Dog Racing, who just passed the second and final waypoint in Bella Bella, and is over half the way to Ketchikan.  However, sadly, one of our favourite competitors, the SUP, has pulled out.  For the first two days he and Colin were neck and neck, and the SUP was leading the small boats. There’s a lot of incredible people in this race performing incredible feats.