It was dark so I headed towards a light that I figured was right of the shipping channel. When the sky lightened and a few cruse ships went by, it turned out I was safely away from the channel.
I had to cross three side channels to get to Ketchikan. The wind got stronger and stronger during the day and I went slower and slower. But as long as I made any progress, even below 2 knots, I kept going. I found 'ranges' to the side of my path. For example: Channels with mountain ranges behind them. If I was making progress, the mountain ranges would seem to be moving forward against the nearby features. This kept my spirits up. One silver lining is there is no danger of me getting to the finish line before Kate DesLauriers. I checked my speed from time to time and calculated when I might finish. The results kept getting later and later, 6:00 PM, 7:00, 8:00. I only stopped once during the whole day on a beach before the last crossing. It turned out to be part of some camping facility with lots of firewood, tarps set up, smokers and BBQ's. There was a couple there doing some chores and they were friendly and told me where to get the best cellphone reception to send Kate a text. They knew about the Race to Alaska and said they would see me at the finish.
I crossed the last channel and started eddy hopping past the town of Saxman, just SE of Ketchikan. A group of people came down to the beach, shouted and blew noisemakers! I thought nobody would notice the kayak coming in two weeks after the winning sailboat! Cars honked at me from the road and a guy on a bicycle stopped to yell encouragement. This lifted my spirits considerably and my speed went from 2 knots up to 3. When I was a mile from the finish line, a motorboat came out and pulled up behind me. It had 6 or 8 people on it, including Jake Beatty from the Race to Alaska and Kate!
Finally I crossed the line and completed the race. To get there on this day I had been paddling for 17 hours without a break! There was only a dozen or so people on the dock. Several guys from other Race Teams, several reporters. I don't know who everyone else was, the people from the beach and the bicyclist in Saxman didn't seem to be there. Jake handed me a 6-pack of Angry Orchard hard cider, apparently someone had coached him about my tastes in alcoholic beverages. I heard that there was still one more team to come in behind me, so the first thing I said was "I'm not last!", followed a bit later by "NEVER AGAIN!"