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Chapter 14—Epilogue
Home sweet home. 7AM sunrise over the Cascade Mountain range. [80-200mm, F11, 1/80sec, Fuji Velvia] It is 4AM. We are once again in the middle of Queen Charlotte Sound. I climb the companionway stairs and go up into the cockpit. It is very dark, hard to see anything. The radar is set at 24 mile range and the screen is blank, clear of dangers. I slowly scan the horizon for anything that might threaten us. Suddenly, out of the dark, I see a huge freighter heading straight for us. I cannot hear her, I can just see the white of her bow wave. I scream for the rest of the crew to get out of their bunks before we are all sent to a watery grave.
I abruptly wake up and find myself in the middle of a dream. Instead of climbing the companionway stairs, I have climbed the stairs going to the second floor of our house. I am standing on our stairway landing, maintaining a diligent lookout of our window. Queen Charlotte Sound is nothing but a dark Seattle city-street. There is no freighter; only cars parked on the street. My screams to the crew are really murmurs to Amy. Barkley, our Golden Retriever. [Unknown Lens, Unknown Exposure, Kodak RG 200]
After returning from the Charlottes, I have these dreams and nightmares for about a week. Sometimes I sleepwalk to “the cockpit” or the “nav station”, other times I never get out of bed. I am normally not a big dreamer, nor do I ever recall ever having sleepwalked. That being said, never in my life have I had such a vivid dream-life as the the week after we returned from the Charlottes. I guess that crossing Queen Charlotte Sound “got to me” more than I would probably care to admit.
The dreams eventually die in their intensity and finally go away. About four weeks after coming home from the Charlottes, I come home to our house in Seattle after an unpleasant day at work. I find a FedEx package leaning up against our front door. Not expecting any deliveries, I am curious to see what might be inside. I open up the package and to my complete surprise, I find my wallet I had lost overboard in Roche Harbor. A business card is enclosed that says on the back:
“I took the $25 inside, bought myself a beer, and paid for the shipping to send this back to you. Thought you might like it back.”
I turn over the business card and there is a logo of a divers flag and the name Chris Teren. The next day, I go to the bank, get a crisp $50 bill and mail it back to Chris and tell him to have “a few more beers on me”. My faith in humanity is restored.






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Adventures in the Charlottes was written by Tim Whelan.
All pictures and text ©Tim Whelan 1998-1999.
For useage, please see my copyright notice.