Sidney Rendezvous

Red Sea Cucumber, feeding part

Fabled Ranger 20 Sailboat

Ferry Landing, Friday Harbor

Some sailing and some motoring get us to the Port of Sidney marina H dock by early afternoon. Clear water reveals amazing sea life under the docks. The plan is to gather under the white tent on the dock with deli treats purchased with R20 dues. Unexpectedly, there are nearly 40 people who show up. Boats are spread out all over the large marina. Some new folks are there including a couple from Florence, Oregon and a young couple on a Ranger 20! After nice long conversations and brownies, swans appear in the twilight.

The next morning, two boats sail out to Sidney Spit park. Other sailors head to the bus stop for a day trip to Victoria. Some of us relax in beautiful Sidney, roaming the second-hand boat parts store, and the numerous book stores. There is free internet and 2 for 1 coffee drinks with a coupon from the marina. Then at 5pm the Thursday night street fair begins with something for everyone--fresh produce and baked goods, handicrafts, massages, antiques, and one-of-a-kind tie dyes.

Before casting off the next morning, there is a report from one who has gone ahead across the Haro Strait that there is fog and 10-foot waves out there. Jules and Altrice brave the seas together. By the time we reach Speiden Channel, the currents have changed in our favor and the seas flatten out.

In Friday Harbor we clear Customs and head to our assigned slip just in time to meet the 5pm Anacortes ferry, Elwah. Two ladies have come to sail with us on Jules for the next four days. There are still several friends' boats here for the evening and we all go to Mark's favorite Friday Harbor pizza parlor for the meat-lovers special.

Running to Genoa Bay, Then to Maple Bay

Playing in Maple Bay

Salvaged Propeller from Vessel Sunk in Sansum Narrows in the 30's

Guys Test Discovery

Out of Ganges on a bright morning with the sun on the water, it's difficult to spot crab pots. Both of us keep watch. Even then, some we see and others we spot only when they are abeam or astern. No sailing here until we reach clear water out by Beaver Point. The wind is stiff and we tack out across Swanson Channel. Coming about, it's south until we reach Satellite Channel. There the wind is gentle from astern and we run with it all the way to quiet and lovely Genoa Bay. More R20 friends gather in the evening on the dock for conversation. Late in the afternoon all go for separate dinners on their boats at the dock or at anchor.

It's only a few miles north up Sansum Narrows to Maple Bay. Clearing the Narrows brings a freshening breeze from the north. Ruby, Discovery, and Jules play for an hour or two before heading to our evening moorage and dinner at the pub. It's hot after we land, and we seek shade and then air conditioned comfort--lemonade, sweet Canadian iced tea, and beer. Maple Bay has old salvaged marine engines painted red sitting about the grounds. There's a flurry of activity early in the morning at the marina laundry. Lots of quarters are fed into the two washers and dryers. Later, the Cheryl Lynn and Altrice dock. Most of the men spend the afternoon aboard Discovery out on the cool water testing the sailing prowess of this charter Pacific Seacraft.

No Oklahoma, But Chamber Music

Gatherers, Hastings House Sculpture Trail

Provincial Flags at Sunset, Otter Bay

The Cut, canal between Thetis Island and Kuper Island that dries at low tide

Back again to Telegraph Harbour where there are oysters on the rocks at low tide. We really wanted to see Oklahoma being presented in Chemainus. Both the matinee and evening performances were sold out. Henry was able to get a meatlovers pizza from the Marina soda fountain, though. We spent the evening there talking politics with Lou from Las Vegas, who visited us from his 53-foot motor boat.

On south to Otter Bay and its beautiful swimming pool, welcome on a hot day. Then to Ganges.

For more than twenty years, a small group of sailors has met for a "national" cruise. We all began to sail in these waters with 20-foot long Ranger sailboats. The boats are small, but very forgiving, and we believe they are unsinkable. During the last ten years most of us have found other larger boats, mostly sailboats, and we still meet every year for a cruise. Last night we dined again in Ganges with our long-time friends and we'll be with them for the next week. Tonight we meet for an Italian dinner out at Auntie Pesto's, then a performance of chamber music by the University of Toronto Conservatory faculty. I'll be replaying that music in my mind all night and all day tomorrow.

Returning South

Hospital Lake Swimming Raft

Evening at Pender Harbour

Yellow Point

There are three lakes--Garden Bay, Mixtel, and Hospital lakes--relatively undeveloped within easy walk of 5-6 miles from Pender Harbour. We took a map from the marina and walked the roads, and had an ice cream cone from John Henry's general store when we returned.

Out of Pender Harbor, the seas were calm in Malaspina Strait in the early morning. The weather forecast for the Strait of Georgia was the same as the day before--10-20 knots NW winds diminishing to 10 late morning. Manageable. And, the Canadian torpedo test area Whiskey Golf was not being used that day. We motored south, hoping to minimize our time on the Strait by traveling a straight line to Nanaimo. By the time we were in the middle of the Strait the winds had picked up and the seas were building. We began hearing maydays on the radio. One 43-foot sailboat was caught in a fishing net. Another lost its rudder. The Coast Guard asked for anyone in the area who could provide assistance. We were not in the immediate area, and as the seas and winds continued to build, we were just trying to cope ourselves. Eventually, we made it to Nanaimo, after six hours. I relived that experience through the night in my dreams.

The next morning early we escaped the Strait through Dodds Narrows to the Gulf Islands and sailed in light winds to Ladysmith, Page Point. Along the way we passed Yellow Point, a beautiful traditional Canadian resort. We're told they have afternoon tea. As we passed, a large salmon rose and rolled beside the boat. We took that as a good omen. The sturdy docks gave us a good night's rest.

Crossing the Strait of Georgia

F31 Trimeran "Cariad Back," hit 15 knots in Malaspina Strait Saturday morning

Rosie, Fisherman Marina supervisor

Jules's Sails Aloft

I'm always a little afraid when we head out into the Strait of Georgia. We watch the weather forecasts carefully, especially for indications that the wind will be against the current. Winds can build in the afternoon to uncomfortable speeds when the prevailing summer northwesterlies fetch across the open water to the south east. Friday the morning currents were toward the north and the winds were light from the southwest. We sailed thirty miles from Nanaimo to Secret Cove on the mainland.

At Secret Cove, crammed in with lots of other boats, we were fortunate to meet a retired air traffic controller and his wife on a 20-foot restored wooden sailboat with an outboard problem, a Mexican dad and his 10-year-old son on a small power boat, and a retired English professor and his wife on a 24-foot Cal sailboat. Christian, the boy on the motor boat made breakfast cheese quesadillas for his Dad on the barbecue this morning. The English professor squeezed between boats at 8am to begin the 45-mile trip back across the Strait home to Comox. The air traffic controller headed north, happy to have a fixed outboard and a few more days to sail before heading back to Howe Sound.

Only ten miles away from Secret Cove to the north is Pender Harbor and Fisherman Marina, where we've been several times. David is a Brit and an accomplished sailor. His F-31 is parked at the head of the dock and Rosie, his dog guards it.

We'll go out for dinner tonight. In the morning we hope to cross the Strait to Schooner Cove, if the winds are not too high. As usual, the evening in Pender Harbour is idyllic. Looking west we see deep blueberry Texada Island under an apricot sky across the Malaspina Strait.

Nanaimo Bars

Cross from Atop Local Church
Balanced Rocks

Port of Nanaimo

Nanaimo bars (chocolate and cream) are only one delight in the harbor of Nanaimo. Ice cream on the boardwalk, ferry rides to Protection and Newcastle Islands, bookstores aplenty, shopping in the old town are all there for a short walk. Ferries leave from here to Vancouver on the mainland. Seaplanes (Harbor Air, or "HA!") land and take off constantly. And, most boaters stop here at the Port of Nanaimo marina before or after transiting Dodd Narrows just south of here at slack tide. The Strait of Georgia is just beyond Protection Island.

We stayed two nights, seeing Frenchie again, a First Nations carver from whom we bought two hummingbirds last year. Buskers played music on the waterfront. There is also a large fishing fleet. The spotted prawn season has just closed. Every day at noon the English cannon at the harbor is fired and on Thursday we were lucky to see a piper and the Brigadoon dance school perform Scottish dances ending with the Highland Fling.

Telegraph Harbour, Thetis Island and Chemainus

Murals and summer stock plays a short ferry ride away in Chemainus

Weathervane on a restored house in Chemainus

Thetis Island Heron

Where were you on 9/11? We were here at Telegraph Harbour when a fellow sailor rapped on the side of our boat about 7am and told us how sorry he was for the trouble in New York, did we know about that yet? We will remember the concern and sympathy of the Canadian people for us on that day. We will also remember the strangeness of returning to the USA: no ferries running, no airplanes, few other boats. When we called in to Customs, we anticipated difficulty, but there was no problem, only "Welcome home." I guess US customs and immigration agencies knew us even then.

This morning before leaving Ganges, we talked again with dock neighbors who also have a Newport 30. Their lilting Scottish accents and good humor kept us there longer than we intended, but they certainly started our day with laughter all around. They finally walked up the ramp to the French patisserie. We had our sweet and savory tartes, bought yesterday afternoon, on the boat with coffee and juice. The French (French Canadian?) baker and his wife were speaking French to their customers.

It is a beautiful day, but no wind for our 25-mile trip to Thetis Island. No current to speak of either. Just lazy noisy motoring. There's no water on the dock here. Water is precious. They don't want people to wash boats with the water processed in their desalination system.