OK. I know this is a bit late. So let’s roll the wayback machine back a couple weeks and pretend this post is timely. We just returned from two weeks in the Gulf Islands. We had such a great time that I didn’t keep the blog updated while we were on our voyage.

I’ve known Bruce for over 45 years now. We met in elementary school. Despite this, he foolishly agreed to come along with us for a week in the Gulf Islands. I had envisioned a week of indentured servitude where we (he) would get a bit of work done around the boat. Kim, on the other hand, thought we should let him participate in the relaxation and fun. Sadly, she won. That was probably good for Bruce, but the projects are still undone.

We left Seattle Saturday afternoon and headed for Port Townsend. We anchored in shallow water between Port Townsend and the mill just after sunset. The next morning, we stopped for a bit of fuel and headed north for Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island. The trip across the Strait of Juan de Fuca was calm and and easy.

Motoring along the north side of Spieden Island.

We dropped the anchor in the little cove on the north side of Prevost Harbor. We caught this nice chair with the anchor on the first try. Once we removed our trophy, the anchor set nicely.

A beautiful Prevost Harbor morning.

After breakfast, we headed for the Gulf Islands. The first stop was at Bedwell to check in with Canadian Customs. After a short phone call we received our clearance number and headed for Ganges.

At Ganges, we stopped at the public dock long enough to grab a few last minute items from the grocery store. Then we were on our way again.

We spent the first night on a mooring buoy in Montague Harbor. The 7:00 pub bus swept us off to the Hummingbird Pub for dinner.

After Montague, we moved north to Wallace Island. There were just a couple boats there. With a bit of wind and rain, we opted to anchor close to the mouth of Princess Cove rather than stern tying. Despite the tranquil setting, we have been surprised before when the wind came up in the middle of the night. Several times, we released the stern line and anchored with more room between us and the other boats. Rain forced us to watch movies the rest of the day. The sun was out the next day and great weather returned.

Hanging out at Princess Cove on Wallace Island.

Bruce and Kim (and me) are off for a dinghy ride.

We walked over to Conover Cove. Bruce enjoyed the view while he recovered from the strenuous exercise and prepared himself up for the return trip.

I had a five day fishing license for Canada so we dropped two crab traps to see what we could catch. We caught a few crab, but none were keepers.

Sunset at Princess Cove on Wallace Island.

Next stop was Telegraph Harbour Marina on Thetis Island.

We did make Bruce do some of the work.

We stopped by the Farmer’s Market and went to buy some coffee at the coffee roaster up the road. Unfortunately, they were busy shipping and didn’t have any coffee to sell to us that day.

I took a short spin on one of our new folding bicycles. They are Dahon Speed D7’s. Now we just need to figure out where to store the bikes on the boat. I have an idea, but I’ll reserve that for a future post.

Bruce at the helm on the way out of Telegraph Harbour. He looks very serious.

The weather had turned so nice, we hopped down to James Bay for the day. We broke out the kayaks and peddled around for a while. I broke out the new quadcopter and shot some nice video. It’s very cool. I’ll have a post on that shortly.

That evening, we headed for Ganges. Bruce had a Kenmore Air flight back to Seattle the next day. We stayed at the Salt Spring Marina. They gave us a great slip out at the front of the marina with a fantastic view.

The next day, Bruce was on his way back to Seattle. He was the only passenger on the flight. Nice.

Rusty and Bruce.

Bruce is on his way.

That pretty much gets us caught up on the first week of our trip. The weather was mostly wonderful and we (and I hope Bruce) had a great time. Somewhere in there, we lost the port tachometer. Both helm stations had the same problem so it must be the sender.

Up next …

the rest of the trip.