It's been raining off and on all afternoon. I'd been thinking that it would be nice to take the dinghy to shore and hike a while on the West Coast Trail today, but setting up the dinghy and making our way to shore in the rain doesn't sound very appealing. It's been a quiet afternoon of reading instead. Having a dry place to retreat to out of the rain feels especially comfy with folks in tents on shore. They're either waiting to begin the trail tomorrow morning or have completed it and are waiting for the shuttle back to Port Renfrew.
It stopped raining for a bit, so I went up on deck with my binoculars to have a look around. The clouds were hanging low over the hillsides and the air was saturated with moisture. The hikers were out of their tents, walking around on the sandy beach, some digging in their packs, some tending to food bags hanging in the trees around them. It must have been a relief for them to finally be able to get out and walk around.
Those of us who have done much backpacking know what it's like to be driven into the tent for long periods by rain: the difficulty of keeping wet sand out of the tent, the pervasive condensation on the inside of the rainfly, the difficulty of keeping anything dry, and the angst of a full bladder - dreading having to do something about it. Then the following morning, there is the horrid job of rolling everything up wet. But, if the next day is dry all is well, because setting up the tents early will give them a chance to dry out. If not... well, maybe the next day will be.
One thing the campers have that we don't is a stationary platform to hang out on. There's a low swell entering the bay from whatever wind is blowing out in the strait and the boat is turned sideways to it by whatever breeze there is here, so we'll be doing a lot of rolling around tonight. I wonder if they're looking at us, as thankful that they're not here as we are that we're not there.
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