Clarence Strait looked reasonably calm as I emerged from my hammock, licorice root fern tea in hand. Our crossing from Prince of Wales Island the day before had been easy, flat seas and warm sunshine. We had called it an early day when we found the campsite called Shachx’aan (“Women Drying Fish” in Tlingit). The beach and forest felt too comfortable to leave and the weather seemed stable enough to let the extra miles be the next day’s responsibility. Yet as we packed our kayaks in the morning to continue south the water began to ripple and the fog started rolling in.