There is not much to talk about today. The weather took a slight turn for the worse with thick clouds and some afternoon and evening rain in the forecast. We left Thetis Island and motored three hours down to the Otter Bay Marina on North Pender Island.
I am always amazed at the number of floatplanes in the area. Most are de Havilland Beavers. None are younger than 50 or so now. True workhorses. This plane landed at the Thetis Island Marina this morning.
We spent some time the last two nights laying up on the flybridge. Just watching the stars. We saw several shooting stars and a number of satellites passing overhead. Living in the city, it is wonderful to actually see the milky way. We used to be able to see this often when were children, but not too much anymore.
We left Ganges behind us and headed for Wallace Island this morning. Glorious weather continues. Sun and warm is forecast through the weekend.
As the boats arrive, they move slowly toward the field of mooring buoys. Invariably, there is someone on the bow, boat hook in hand, giving directions to the person at the helm. As they approach their selected buoy, the boat slows and the person on the bow reaches way down, grabs the buoy ring with the boat hook, tries to pull the ring all the way up to the deck, but can’t. Then they lean way over and go through the gyrations of running the line and securing the buoy. This often requires the efforts of more than one person and occasionally more than one attempt. While ultimately successful this seems to us like the hardest method possible. The buoy will be secured to the bow cleats, but are there rules that say you have to catch the buoy at the bow?
We spent the entire day in Ganges. Groceries, laundry, dingying (is that a word?) about, and lounging around.
Sunrise from the flybridge. The fantastic weather is forecast to continue through the weekend.
Today passed with little incident and complete relaxation. We left Montague early and headed for the Salt Spring Marina in Ganges. With the windlass choosing not to perform the task for which it was conscripted, we need a marina and a bit of time to try and solve the problem. I always prefer to anchor, but not with the prospect of pulling all that chain and anchor up by hand staring me in the face.
We spent the first night at Montague anchored on the north side of the park. I have never seen so many boats inside the harbor. I guess it was a combination of the holiday weekend and the great weather. We moved to a mooring buoy in the park for the second night.
We’ve been toying with the idea of getting kayaks for the boat. Something to toddle around in that is a bit more peaceful than the inflatable and outboard. We rented a couple of kayaks at the Montague marina and paddled around the bay for a couple of hours. It was fun. I was surprised a how tippy the kayaks were. Must be my high center of gravity. Continue reading