For one month, with 18 paddling days and 12 rain and storm days, Kil’iii traveled 315 miles from Port Hardy to Tofino.  The coast of Vancouver Island, like almost anywhere along Northwestern coasts, is wet and soggy, and similar to Alaska's coast. "A skin-on-frame boat is very different from from paddling a modern kayak. It's more forgiving in rough seas, dampening the impact of waves. But it always will have water leaking. You have to periodically pump water out, about every three hours."

Kil'iii traveled without a tarp shelter. For food, he carried with him only rice, butter, and gorp with the expectation of supplementing his diet with fish. Fishing was more than successful. He would catch herring for bait, and let out a line from his kayak. He ate fish nearly every meal, and to keep from dangerous weight loss, he supplemented the fish with fat.

"Clearly one of the best things I’ve ever done," he said. "It was mentally challenging more than physically challenging." The first day was disheartening. The kayak couldn't carry his gear, so he switched to another skin boat built by a friend of his. It was a prototype better suited to the open ocean, but it wasn't lined and started filling up with water as he made his first crossing.

"I was wearing a sea sock.  You sit inside it so the rest of the kayak has buoyancy…otherwise you and all your stuff goes right to the bottom.  But the boat was leaking not in the sea sock, but in the rest of the boat."