It’s great when you wake up and it’s raining and you know you can go back to sleep again! In fact I didn’t get out of the tent until after midday, except for a quick dash to the loo in between showers! We’ve been given a few interesting books about the history and culture of the Aleutian Islands and I read some of “Aleuts: Survivors of the Bering Land Bridge”. This afternoon I took binoculars and cameras for an explore and managed to creep up really close to an otter who was feeding in the kelp. He’d dive down beneath the water with a flick of his tail and pop back up again a few seconds later clutching an urchin in his little paw. Floating on his back he’d use his tummy as a table and crunch at his spiky meal. I know we shouldn’t project our emotions onto animals but I couldn’t help feeling he looked happy! I discovered a white tundra swan with a black wedge for a nose floating about on a small pond looking quite lonely ( there I go again! ). And I watched 3 sea lions pros tate on
the beach, every whisker visible through the binoculars. Their rodent-like faces look so small and out of place besides their gigantic bodies rising mountainlike behind them, they remind me of a body builder who has taken too many steroids.

The forecast was for strong NE winds today but it didn’t seem that strong this afternoon and part of me felt we should have paddled. On the positive side, we’ve recharged our batteries and enjoyed just being in a wild corner of the world. I love our days off on a small island somewhere.