Ahoy! Writing from our boat this evening. This is the first blog post actually published online while I sit in the cabin, on our cozy couch. This is going to be a brief blog entry, just enough to show you that we are enjoying ourselves, and received some much needed socializing among cruisers this week at two different marinas, as well as a WHOLE DAY, yes... that's right, an entire day on one place, North Pender Island (which was also very much needed). We have been pushing is fairly hard, especially the day out of Campbell River, mostly because Seattle is so close. We also are still dealing with the aftermath of a cold front that moved into the BC area on Thursday and Friday. The wind is still up, and today is rained. Oh boy, did it rained. It rained like it has been wanting to rain all summer. At least the plants are happy.
Another reason why this will be a shorter blog post, is because I'm composing it currently, and my computer only has about 15 minutes left of battery life. With the sun setting and the solar panels loosing their juice, I have no choice but to use up the precious little minutes left on the computer.
Sunday, September, 22nd:
Today, was a marvelous day.
True to the Sabbath, we rested today in North Pender Island. The rest was not planned, but was almost given to us because of the marina caretakers generosity. The caretaker of Otter Bay Marina said he would give us a 2-for-1 deal, if we so desired, and since we had kind of mistakenly pulled into a quite fancy marina and were going to be paying the one-night fee no matter what, why not take two? We decided, with our day off, that we would spend as much time as possible walking, and that we did! We walked for a total of 4 hours today, almost non-stop, through the rain, wind, puddles and then finally sunshine as the weather subsided in the afternoon. North Pender Island is a lovely quiet pastoral place: very few homes, a scattering of farms, a bakery and sushi bar (the sushi bar seems like a unique addition). We walked long roads with few cars and lots of green lush foliage on the sides of the roads, as well as creating forest canopies above. Every mile or so there would be a farm and a little stand with a cooler on the side of the road with fresh eggs. We lucked out and found a perfect dozen, which we paid for in Canadian coins in a little locked coin box below the egg cooler. We continued to walk by bee-keepers, vegetable gardens, pottery studios, blackberry bushes, apple trees and little "help-yourself" fruit stands. We were a little reluctant about walking in the pouring down rain earlier today, but we were so glad we stuck it out for the nice weather! We also waved at the same police man as he drove by us four times during out 4-hour walking adventure.
Finished the day chatting up with some folks that docked right next to us in their beautiful big sailing yacht. Once thing I have found about sailors: no matter if you're on a big new boat, or an older trusty steed, you're still sailing, and you're still in the same wind. Everyone seems to enjoy chatting with each other and find things in common. I enjoy that a lot.
While in the little seaside community of Lund, we met lots of couples sailing around the Straight of Georgia on a weekend cruise from Victoria or nearby. We met a couple with a 1965 Cal 34, who came aboard our boat and chatting in the cockpit. We also seemed to attract several other folks who were interested in our blog and our Alaskan journey. That, accompanied by a perfect Italian cappuccino at Nancy's Bakery in the morning, made Lund a very nice stop as well.
Made a little photo collage of iphone photos I took around Pender Island today (no big camera because of the downpour at the beginning of our walk), and some photos of the beautiful sunrise in Lund on Friday morning, full rainbow, pink sky and all!
Happy to meet follow your trip :-)
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