8/28 Ganges

We’re having outstanding weather this trip, and today was no exception. We had a beautiful view of the harbor this morning. Our spot here on the breakwater dock is ideal with unobstructed views all around as well as close access to everything in town. Of course, if the weather was blowing up a storm we’d be singing a different tune here on the outside of the breakwater.

Every Saturday through the summer the town of Ganges holds a “Saturday Market” where all sorts of arts and crafts, as well as produce, preserves and other goodies are displayed for sale. We were just getting out of the boat to stroll into town to browse through the market when Diane Vanderbeek and a couple of her friends came to the boat. Diane is Rear Commodore of the Classic Yacht Association and owner of the M/V Olympus, a 92 foot classic from the 1920’s with lots of history. The Olympus was leading a group of CYA members on a “Gunkholing through the Gulf Islands” expedition and their itinerary included stopping at Ganges for the Saturday Market. We had joined the CYA last year and attended a couple of their rendezvous’ so we were invited to their happy hour and dinner event over at Saltspring Marina this evening. Their cruise itinerary continues on tomorrow through the next weekend, culminating in the Classic Wooden Boat festival at Victoria. We’re also invited to join the flotilla for any or all of this outing, and since their next destination is Glenthorne Passage, where we were planning on going when we leave here anyway, we’ll tag along and enjoy a crab feed at one of the member’s cabin on the island.

Once we had all that squared away, we got back to our original plan of checking out the Saturday Market. It seems like everyone on the island comes to this, as it was really crowded. The perfect weather may have had something to do with the attendance as well. There was a wide selection of various items to consider, and when we saw some glass items we thought about buying we decided we should take a trip down the block to the cash machine to stock up on a bit of Canadian currency. Well, we weren’t alone on that idea. There were two cash machines about a half block apart, and each one had a lineup of 8 to 10 people waiting to line their pockets. Not the best timing on our part, but we bit the bullet, waited in line and got some spending money.

We had our sights set on an oil dispensing bottle – the one we use at home for olive oil has a leaky cap – and a salt and pepper shaker set to match. We made that purchase and continued our wanderings. Of course there were plenty of rings, earrings and other jewelry for Erin to look at, but she restrained herself very well. In the food section we picked up some salmon candy, a loaf of almond/apricot bread and a fancy red onion. I’m sure they will be transformed into gourmet treats in the coming days.

Erin wanted to bring something to the CYA dinner this evening, so she made a pasta salad using a recipe from one of her friends at work. It’s called pot sticker salad, although it uses ravioli, not pot stickers. It’s mixed in a sauce made of sesame oil, soy sauce and some other stuff. We called it Potentate Potsticker Salad. It’s very good, and I was hoping there would be some leftovers to bring back after the dinner.

Saltspring Marina is on the other side of the bay, and although it would have been a short ride had we launched our dinghy, we decided the walk around the harbor would do us good. We enjoyed meeting some people, and had a tour of the classic yacht Westward. It’s almost as big as the Olympus at 86 feet and probably of the same vintage. It still has its original Atlas Imperial diesel engine, which runs at up to 300 rpm turning a 50” propeller with 48” of pitch. Lots and lots of torque in that setup. Teresa and Hugh, the owners, have circled the Pacific Ocean in it, cruising the southern hemisphere as well as making a lengthy stop in Japan. The boat was in charter service in SE Alaska until 2004, and in fact we encountered it at Ford’s Terror on our Alaska trip in 2003. We also spent some time talking to Curt and Marsha, who will be hosting tomorrow’s crab feed at their cabin in Glenthorne Passage. As fate would have it, we had also met Curt three years ago while we were anchored in Glenthorne Passage. We were on a dinghy ride, and he was ashore working on the cabin, which we now know they had recently purchased at that time. We were admiring their boat, the Gwendolyn – and still admire it! Tomorrow we’ll get to go ashore, feast on some crab, see their place and take a walk on the island.

The hors ‘d oeuvres, dinner and dessert were all excellent, by the way, and although a serious dent was made in our salad we did bring home a small serving for the near future.

We just had an electrical “flash” while I was typing away here. Our inverter, which supplies 110 volts to the boat from the 12 volt house batteries, decided to shut down, leaving us in the dark. I think what happened is the icemaker kicked in, temporarily drawing quite a few amps, and the battery voltage momentarily dropped below 12v. This caused the inverter to shut off, which of course brought the voltage back to 12.5v and it turned back on, which started the icemaker, which… You get the idea. I had left a 12v light bulb on in the engine room all day from when I was checking on things, and those 12 volt bulbs actually draw more current than the fluorescent 110 volt bulbs running through the inverter. Anyway, our batteries were a little lower than usual. Fortunately, there is one power post here on the breakwater dock, and we had enough shore power cords to reach it. We’ll get things charged up overnight and be good to go.