A misty morning welcomed us as we slipped off the beach and rounded the cape. Cape Sutil is the northern most point on Vancouver Island, yet not anywhere near as famous as Cape Scott, its big brother to the west. We stopped at the tip of the cape to look for petroglyphs that a guidebook had mentioned. We found a couple very worn faces at high tide line on a large rock overlooking the beach.
We spotted a couple whales working the shore at Nissen Bight, probably grays. There are also two to four sea lions following us. They appear occasionally of to the side of our boats, but every once in a while one splashes ten feet off of our sterns. I am a bit unnerved as this continues to happen all day - the sea lions follow us for 10 more miles, all the way to Cape Scott. Don't they have something better to do?
With no wind and low swell, we decide to round the Cape, even though we are at max ebb. There are some tide rips further off the cape, but we tuck in close and spend some time rock gardening. The swell is big enough to make this quite sporting, and the tide is high enough that we can explore back into the slot channels below the Cape.
We eventually work our way down to Guise Bay, the first large bay on the west side of Cape Scott. It is Experiment Bight on the north side by a 1000 yard long canoe drag, an area of low sand surrounded by a beautiful meadow. In particularly rough conditions, one can portage one's kayak around the cape across this section. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, some Danish settlers tried to live here,
but the lack of a protected cove and lack of a promised road to the site eventually drove them away.
A path with boards laid down as if it were a wagon trail leads up the lighthouse through a forest. We can see the three islands that compose the Scott Island group, five miles out. We imagine kayaking out to these islands, but that is a serious undertaking for some other day. Tomorrow we will head south and east for the first time, back towards home.
Day 16: Guise Bay to Cormorant Point
The weather today was good but windy and sporting, and very frustrating for me. With his skeg, hull length and
natural ability, Scott always stayed way ahead of us, while I floundered in the quartering wind. I finally gave in
and used a rudder stroke every fourth stroke to keep me from broaching. I'd really like to have a skeg right now. When the weather is fair, winds tend to build from the northwest, which will propel us down the coast. Tomorrow's forecast calls for a southeast gale, though, and the swell height off of Brooks the next couple days is 8 to 11 feet -- big weather ahead.Day 17: Cormorant Point to Lawn Point
Wanting to cross Quatsino Sound, we got up at 4am to beat the gale. There was absolutely no wind crossing the sound until the last half mile, then winds kicked up to 20 knots abruptly. We are cold and wet as we stop for a snack at Restless Bight. I managed to rip the gasket on my drysuit (the party hasn't begun until someone rips a gasket). Roy gave me the idea 
of putting my Paclite top over my drysuit, then putting my balaclava hoodie on top of that to seal everything up, so no need to pull out the duct tape just yet. This setup also kept me plenty warm on a fairly miserable day.
We battled 20 knot winds to Lawn Point, and conservatively decided not to push on when we would be fighting the winds directly. We stopped at 1pm.
Today was not my day for several reasons. I was not be able to find my bear bags this morning for five minutes until Roy came over and pointed them out to me. I had put my food in spectra Ursacks and tied them to a log, but then I couldn't remember which log and was just not seeing straight.
Not to mention, my boat floated away. By fortuitous circumstances, disaster was averted, however. Scott had put his food in his boat and turned it upside down, saying that if something tried to get at it, we would be able to hear it. Then, Roy started hearing a banging in the night, as if 
some critter were trying to get at Scott's boat. He looked out, but Scott's boat was fine. Then later, he heard the banging again, and a screech. Again he looked, but Scott's boat was fine. The other boat was fine, too. But wait, weren't we supposed to have three boats? The other one was floating in the bay, 50 yards away. Roy called out the alarm, and I said that whosever boat it was would have to get it, until I realized it was my own. We should have been more careful tonight, as it was the highest tide of the month and the logs on which we place our boats where themselves floating and bumping against each other (which was causing the banging sounds Roy had heard).
This evening I listen to the rain coming down. I set up my siltarp as a vestibule for my tent, and am quite comfortable. I can hear the wind blowing over the trees, but our camp is tucked in the lee of the wind. Welcome to the west coast.
Day 18: Lawn Point to NE Brooks
High tide last night rocked a few more logs near the tents. Roy had marked the afternoon high, then using a cup of water as a level, eyeballed where a two foot higher tide might go, and we were supposedly safe. We got up at 4 am again.
We rounded Lawn Point and entered Brooks
Bay, one of the most beautiful bays on the west coast. The Brooks Penninsula looked like the Misty Mountains, and later, the mist descended onto the bay to reduce visibility to a half mile or less.
We saw a tarp set up on First Beach (aka Beach of the Lotus Eaters), but we didn't stop, and headed out to Fourth Beach, the furthest reasonable spot on the penninsula. Our camp is right by a river that looks like good surfing practice at the entrance. Sandpipers are running up and down the sandy beach with the waves, eating bugs and flotsam. They all turn as one and race back up the 
beach as a new wave comes in. I bathed (ahh) in the river and did my laundry (ahh), erroneously thinking that we would have dry weather at some point to dry them out. In a fit of twisted logic, I ended up wearing my clothes in order to dry them. The weather report says tomorrow's winds are going to be 20 to 30 and swell 8 to 10 feet, so we will wait until Friday to go around the Brooks. Rest day! Actually, I've gotten accustomed to long days, and the last couple days have seemd like days off, almost.
Day 19: Rest
It rains all day. My tent leaks in spots at the seams with the silnylon floor, so I use my 
pack towel to keep it dry. I venture outside once or twice and take naps. Scott reads his book. I'm worried that Roy has gone missing until he finally makes a brief appearance out of his tent in the early afternoon. I'm pretty comfortable considering it has been raining all day and all week. I'm ready for sunshine, though.
Scott and I make a brief foray down the beach. We had to cross the river which was up to our knees. Bibs work nice for this sort of stuff. Back to the tents for another nap. We call Andrew on the satellite phone and let him know that we are going to be going around the Brooks tomorrow. We agree to meet him at Rugged Point on Sunday at 5pm, three days from now, so he has a little time to get himself in position.
Day 20: NE Brooks to Nasparti Inlet
Today is the big day. Swell height is still big, but forecasted winds are down. The surf is still big coming onto our beach, so we aim to launch out of the river. Roy, the last one in, has trouble with the hydraulics pushing him onto the rocks, and his boat gets battered a bit. Luckily, he knows a good fiberglass repair guy back home. After a few aborted attempts off the beach, he moves his boat into knee deep water, jumps in, and paddles out through the waves without his sprayskirt on.
The wind out at Cape Cook was mild, maybe 7 
to 10 knots. We paddled out to Solander Island where the puffins flew and the sea lions bellowed. The channel to the north of Solander was constantly breaking with white water and the sea lions were looking at us warily, so we opted not to go around the island, instead just staying on the inside. Mist came in and dropped the visibility to a half mile, which was about the distance offshore we were as we contoured around the penninsula. The swell was a little too big to venture in closer. We made no stops. We went very wide around Clerke Point where there were a lot of breakers into kelp beds.
Day 21: Nasparti Inlet to Spring Island
Today is a sightseeing day, as we keep ourselves entertained while allowing Andrew a little extra time to get into position. After a little rain this morning, the weather clears and it turns into a beautiful day. Our stormy days are finally over, and as it turns out, we will only get a sprinkling of rain once during the next two weeks of beautiful weather.
We head for the Acous Penninsula where we see the burial island with the skull and canoe again. Scott points out a location where there are lots of shrubs and small trees above a beach and suggests that as a likely village site due to the atypical nature of the flora. It suggests that the old trees were cleared at one point and different species grew back. Checking it out, we found the long house we were looking for (go Scott!) as well as two fallen totem poles.
We met a solo kayaker who was headed out towards the Brooks. Roy scoffs at the 
kayaker without immersion clothing and with paddle float on back deck, suggesting the guy would not know how to use it in the wind/waves. We are such elitists. Anyways, it's lucky that people don't flip over very much***.
We visited Battle Bay next, where there is a nice beach
and a river coming out. A beautiful grassy meadow surrounded the river for a distance inland. Perhaps the river gets flooded with brackish water at high tides so no trees grew there.
Next on our tour guide is a quick trip through the Bunsbys. We continue on to Thomas Island for a nostalgic visit to our crash landing there during last year's storm, but we don't land this time as it is too marginal. Then, on to the Mission Group.
Realizing that on Sundays the stores could be closed in Kyuquot, we decide to pop into Kyuquot this evening, arriving at 5:30. We find that Charlie's is closed for the season (perhaps permanently), but the general store is open for another half hour. We have a junk food feast, make a few phone calls to loved ones, and watch the native kids play tag and dive off the dock.
Heading back to the Mission Group, we discover that Aktis island 
is an Indian Reserve with houses on it, and that Kamils island has a nice looking beach, but the meadow above it ends up being a graveyard. We head to Spring Island. There are some fishing camps on the islets around Spring, and a couple camps in the large cove, but we find a spot to call our own. We are not used to sharing spots with other people.
***: Upon arriving home, however, we discover that this kayaker had been reported missing the following week, and that he and his kayak were never found.
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