June 17: Day 14: MacDonald Island

Author: Bethanny Brooks

Waterfall Echoes and Digital Hurdles

We awoke this morning to a beautifully peaceful, quiet start. My main goals for the day were simple: get off the boat for a good walk and finally catch up on my blog.

Around 7:30 AM, I made Greg’s Americano and my morning latte. (Soy lattes have become my morning ritual since I realized I could foam up the soy milk in the stovetop Bodum frother I've had onboard since 2021 and really not taken advantage of—a little more work, but worth the effort!) Sitting in the cabin, we could clearly hear the sound of water cascading down the mountain side. Our plan was to take the dinghy over to get a closer look later in the day. It sounds immensely more powerful than it did when we visited three years ago. If you visit this area in May or earlier in the spring, you’ll find the rock faces lined with dozens of waterfalls, all roaring with snowmelt.

Later…

Well, plans changed. I didn’t actually leave the boat at all today. Instead, I spent hours pinned to the screen working on the blog, trying to overcome the endless frustrations of formatting photos, wrestling with AI assistance, recovering disappearing text, and dealing with the general gremlins that pop up when working with technology on the water.

Because of the screen time, I haven’t gotten a lick of exercise today—unless you count climbing up and down the companionway stairs to make tea, change clothes, or use the head! And despite all that effort, the live blog still isn't fully updated. However, I think I finally have the system configured so it will be much easier to keep the momentum going. Tomorrow will be the true test! For those keeping score, I have now fully completed and published four out of our fourteen days.

While I was deep in my digital battles, Greg decided to take the dinghy out for a solo exploration, leaving Artemus behind to rest. He spent a couple of hours poking around MacDonald Island, which sits just across from our mooring. There are absolutely no trails on it, and Greg described it as a rugged little pinnacle that drops off abruptly into the deep water all around its edges. He even managed to scout out a hidden stern-tie ring near our mooring buoy and took a few photos while he was out exploring.

I am crossing my fingers that I can successfully escape the boat tomorrow to do some exploring of my own. I definitely don't want to miss out on all the spectacular, wild beauty surrounding us here!

[Photo: MacDonald Island taken from across the water]

[Photo: Looking from behind Lil' Ollie in our dinghy, Big Mack, towards the shore where the dinghy dock is (which you can't see because it's on the other side of Lil' Ollie).]

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