What a perfect day! Calm, clear, sunny, warm without being too hot, pleasant breeze. Ideal day for Royaking, so that's what I did. Roy had some things he wanted to do on the boat, so he didn't go with me.
Carrot Island turned out to be a lot larger in real life than it looks on the chart. I didn't start out with the intention of paddling completely around it, but that's what I ended up doing. I paddled around to the far side and along the beach. It's amazing how much open beach there is in this part of the world. Families can have an entire area all to themselves. Carrot Island is an estuarine reserve, so there aren't any buildings or roads, but people are welcome to go there, as long as they don't build fires or camp overnight. There are a dozen or so wild horses on the island, grazing peacefully.
There were several shoals, but I had no problem getting over them in my Royak. Twenty or thirty people were on the shoals, apparently gathering clams or something.
I went by the place we'd walked to the other day and then came to the passage I'd discovered. My plan was to go through it to Beaufort Inlet (Taylor Creek) and return to the boat in time for lunch, but the tide was too low, so I had to keep going. Found another inlet and entered it, thinking it might go through, but it didn't. Paddled up a bunch of creeks that wound around all over the place but eventually ran out of water. Returned to open water and debated whether to return the way I came or try to round the far end of the island. Kept going and found another inlet, which I explored with similar results, but eventually I emerged at the tip of the island. The wind was blowing pretty strong against me out there, and the waves were about a foot high, but I saw channel markers and boats emerging from what I assumed was Beaufort Inlet, so I paddle over there and soon was in the sheltered water of the Inlet. By then, the tide was coming in and the wind was blowing in the right direction for returning to the boat, so I didn't have to do anything but kick back, relax, steer, and dodge speeding power boats.
Passed the world's stinkiest fishing boat. You can't begin to imagine how awful that thing stank. Much worse than a garbage dump. A manure pile is fragrant by comparison. I don't see how anyone can stand to work on it. You'd think the authorities would make them clean it up. No one would ever want to eat fish again after smelling that thing. I was downwind of it for what seemed like hours. Thought I'd never get back to fresh, clean air.
Stopped at the southwest end of Carrot Island and walked around for a few minutes. Got back to the boat around five.
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