Well, it fits.

Things have been progressing nicely. Both myself and the Rockstar have ferry tickets. She has a SPOT so I don't need to figure out that whole thing. There have been many emails back and forth between myself and her. I have also sent a large volume of emails to various resources in Ketchikan. My dilemma - as there always seems to be one - is this. I will arrive in Ketchikan with all my gear two days before the Rockstar. So I need a place to stay, and a place to stage my kayak. My initial hope was that there would be a campground in Ketchikan that I could go to, but alas there is no camping inside the city of Ketchikan. There is a motel directly across the street from the ferry that would be perfect except that it costs $200 a night.

I finally found that there is a hostel about a half a mile from the ferry, and I got permission to lock up my boat at the harbor masters office.

Today I spent the afternoon packing the kayak with the actual gear that will be going. The important thing is that not only does it need to fit in the kayak, but I also need to get it all - by myself - from the car, to the ferry. Then from the ferry to the harbor masters office. And then after dropping off the kayak to the hostel. And of course back. So it needs to fit into two bags. A large mesh duffel, and a seal line 115 liter boundary bag. Today I learned that it pretty much fits, both in the boat, and the bags.

I also learned that I love the tapered dry bag. It makes it very easy to pack the boat. I am tempted to buy another one for the bow but at this point I am not sure what would go inside it.

I still need to tweak a few things in terms of the gear layout. I am also not happy with my deck bag, and may try and figure out a way to go without it. It sits very high on the deck of my kayak.

I leave a month from tomorrow....