This has to be one of the prettiest ferries in the world? This summer's cruise is supposed to take us to Desolation Sound and the Broughton's. We are getting kind of a slow start. We began at Roche, then went to Madrona Bay, next to Ganges, on Salt Spring Island. We had some really strong winds there, gusting to 23 knots. When we anchor, we try to be 300-400 feet from the surrounding boats. This of course means the boats that arrive late have room to squeeze in between our boat and the original neighbors. This is the radar overlaid on the chart. Those blobs are boats, and we spent the entire night with them around 175-200 feet away from us, all boats careening around their anchors. Originally the wind was from the South. About dinner time some guy tried to drop his hook literally 50 feet from our swim step. I advised him that the wind was supposed to clock around to the North and that wasn't a good idea. Although we had set our anchor with both engines in reverse, having the wind shift 180 caused some dragging. By morning we were only 30 feet from that shoal behind our boat (the light blue). I had put the fenders out, and was up and down all night watching these other boats. I don't know if I'll get used to having boats so close in stormy conditions. I wanted out of there in the morning. Ideally we would have headed across the Strait of Georgia to begin our Northward trek. But there were high winds/small craft warnings for days to come. The WX reports were for both North and South winds on 12 hour shifts. Most of the harbors provide shelter from one but not the other. We decided on Long Harbor, which meant we could still tender over to Ganges for re-supply etc. Above photo is one of our mornings. If you go to Long Harbor, anchor on the west side. The east side is rocky and we couldn't get the anchor to set. With a lot of time on our hands, we did various boat projects and some other fun ways to pass the time. One of my projects this summer is artisan sourdough breadmaking. Here is my first attempt. Looks great, tasted wonderful, didn't quite get enough rise. Some friends said it was probably the humidity, I needed to let it rise more. Another gorgeous sunset in Long Harbor. One of my projects is a new hoisting method for launching and retrieving our kayaks. Still a work in progress, subject of a later blog post I'm sure. It was GREAT to be out pedaling again. Never tire of floatplanes/seaplanes going by the boat. Well except in Montague where it is non-stop. Roasted veggies, chicken/chorizo dinner. Yesterday we were going to cross the Strait of Georgia but ran into a glitch. As we were contemplating going through Gabriola Pass we had nice company in the form of this Nordlund. I like the lines on this boat! We decided to overnight at North Cove on Thetis Island, which is beautiful. Had time to do a bbq rib dinner. Five spice dry rub, and an Asian sauce, one of my specialties. A stunning sunset for hopefully our last night in the Gulf Islands for a while. Yesterday afternoon this pretty Nordhavn arrived and dropped hook in the middle of the bay. I was up at first light and captured her in fairly stunning light.
All right, it's off to the Sunshine Coast right now!
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