9/7 Cowichan Bay to Blind Bay, 32 nautical miles

This morning the weather was every bit as dreary as yesterday, with gray skies and rain, and with clouds low enough to obscure the view across the bay. But, we’d been here long enough and were ready to move on. We’ve developed a small fuel leak in the past few days, and I’ve mopped up some fuel from the bilge a couple times. This morning, in an attempt to find the source, I crawled around in the engine room with the engines running, one at a time, trying to find a drip somewhere. I found no fuel leak, but I did find that the hose clamps securing the port exhaust hose to the mixer elbow were loose, dripping some raw water and probably exhaust into the engine room. Those got tightened up, so it was a worthwhile exploration.

After a short excursion ashore to dump garbage and buy some more absorbent oil pads to replace those I’d used, we pulled away from the dock – about 10:15 or so. It was drizzling and dreary with visibility of a mile or so – we turned on the radar, hopefully just to give it some exercise. One difference between today’s weather and yesterday’s was the wind – there wasn’t much at all and the seas were calm. We like that.

We crossed Satellite Channel on a diagonal line headed for Colburne Pass. This is a group of islands that form Swartz Bay, a major ferry terminal for BC ferries heading to and from Sidney to other ports in the Gulf Islands as well as across the straits to Vancouver. As we approached we saw three ferries, two smaller ones and one of the jumbos, heading out of the pass and figured maybe we’d be spared encountering one as we passed the ferry dock. That wasn’t the case, as yet another jumbo ferry came in towards us as we were passing through. It creates a good sized blip on our radar screen.

We continued on through John Passage, between Goudge and Coal Islands. This is a smaller passageway with a couple of well marked rocks in the middle. It’s more scenic and has less traffic too. If we were headed to Sidney, it’d be a straight shot south from this pass. But, we were on our way back to the states, so we rounded a small group of islands and headed towards Sidney Spit, which we could barely see in the distance. As we neared the spit, a nice provincial park, by the way, the clouds parted, the rain stopped and we could see all the way to America. Well, okay, it was only about 5 miles across Haro Strait, but it was by far the farthest ahead we’d been able to see all day.

Haro Strait was just as calm as the rest of our ride, with the only bumps being the wakes of the occasional boat passing the opposite direction. We cruised on into Roche Harbor and headed for the Customs dock, which usually involves jockeying for position in a floating queue for some time. As we approached, two boats were leaving and we pulled right up to the dock, along with a sailboat that was ahead of us.

I gathered up our documents and headed into the Customs shack, where there were three agents helping other boaters. “Are you arriving from Canada?”, one of them asked. “Yes I am”. “Well, you can take a seat there or wait outside until we call you”, she said, implying there would be no standing while waiting inside, although it was permitted outside. I was called soon enough, and handed over our passports, boat document, cat rabies certificate and Canadian clearance number from our entry into Canada two weeks ago. I also ‘fessed up to not having our Customs decal this year, whereupon I was given a form to fill out with my credit card number while she keyed in our other info. Vessels over 30 feet long have to pay an annual fee for the privilege of returning to the U.S. through Customs.
“Do you have any alcohol, tobacco or firearms?”
I declared 2 liters of whiskey we’d bought in Canada, but before I could finish she interrupted, telling me that she needed to know all the alcohol on the boat – that any alcohol we took with us from the U.S. into Canada lost its U.S. citizenship and would have to be declared.
“Well, we have a couple bottles of wine and a few beers that have been riding back and forth on the boat for 5 years or so…” She rolled her eyes at the 5 years – “and we have half a bottle of rum in the galley that we use for cooking…”
“It’s not Cuban, is it?”
“Oh no, the recipe called for the cheapest rum available”.
“Okay,” she said, “and you purchased two one liter bottles of whiskey?”
“No, actually I purchased three 750 milliliter bottles, but we drank some from one bottle to bring the total down to 2 liters.”
“Well, aren’t those the same as one liter bottles?”
“No, the 750 milliliter bottle is three fourths of a liter, so two of those equal one and a half liters. We drank the third bottle down to 500 milliliters for the total of 2 liters to be within…”
“Okay, I guess I’m going to have to study up on how those add up. Do you have any vegetables?”

She gave me back all the documents except for Erin’s passport, which she would use to compare faces as we headed out to the boat. I think she wanted to get on board, but she was short and we didn’t have our ladder out. She peered through the side door, spotting the plant next to Erin’s chair.
“That looks like a real plant…”
“Yep, we got that at Home Depot…”
“You can’t transport plants or dirt across the border, but I’ll let it go this time.”
“Where’s the galley”, she asked and I pointed it out. She could see the bananas and onions I had declared on the table, and I’d already told Erin to gather up our potatoes. I think volunteering the avocado convinced her we were just honest folk on our way home. So, in the interest of Homeland Security, we surrendered the potatoes, some bell peppers, one tangerine and an overripe avocado. Our bananas and onions were deemed not a threat, and we were given a clearance number and sent on our way. In hindsight, we should have been thinking and boiled our remaining potatoes last night like we usually do – then they would have been keepers.

We decided to continue on to Blind Bay, an anchorage on Shaw Island that we enjoyed on our way north. We had a pleasant cruise through Spieden Channel, with a favorable current pushing us along at up to 11 knots, although that didn’t last long. We continued retracing our route north, passing through Pole Pass on the way to Blind Bay.

We had no potatoes, so for dinner we had rice with some orange chicken that’s been riding around in the freezer the entire trip. We’d better eat the rest of that crab tomorrow.

9/6 Cowichan Bay

It began raining off and on around 11 o’clock last night. This morning it looked pretty dreary with clouds down to about 50 feet off the deck – or water. The weather forecast called for more of the same today, with partly sunny with scattered showers forecast for tomorrow. That all added up to a good reason to stay put for today.

When I went up to the harbormaster’s office to pay another day of moorage, I asked about Internet service, since I could find no unsecured connections. They had a secured wifi setup for the Fisherman’s Wharf, and he said if I could receive it, then I could have the code for a mere $3.36. That seemed fair enough to me. I found the signal, but it was too weak for a good connection. Bringing the computer up to the bridge seemed to solve that problem, so I went back to the office and paid for the code. When I tried to connect a little later, the signal strength was no longer good enough, but lo and behold, an unsecured site popped up and has been working all afternoon. I’ll save the code for next year – I don’t think they change it very often.

There’s an ice creamery on the main drag here called The Udder Guy’s. Erin is a big fan of licorice ice cream, and they have a flavor called ‘Not Black Licorice’ which she first sampled when we were here last year. It's a light tan in color.  This year she treated herself to a double scoop cone, and also an additional packed pint to put in our freezer. I’m not a licorice fan – I went for the wild blackberry cone.

Despite the rain, the local dragon boat crew was out in the harbor most of the afternoon practicing. There must be a race coming up. The dragon boats have a crew of about 20 paddlers sitting 2 abreast. At the stern is a tiller man, and up front is what would be the coxswain in a racing shell – only she faces the paddlers and beats out the cadence on a huge drum. They made several passes past our dock, where they’d swing around 180 degrees and head back through the anchored and buoyed boats. As evening approached, they had on their red and green navigation lights and stern light. There’ll be a video clip in the movie version of this tome.

Across the dock from us are two small tugboats – the Falbro and the Georgina. They have rough sawn lumber rear decks, and I surmised they were used for logging operations and the decks were chewed up from corked boots. A bit later in the day some people came and fired them both up – they were getting ready to go out on a job. I chatted a bit with one of them and confirmed that they did indeed tow logs to the local mill. Then he asked me “you like crab?” Of course I did, and he proceeded to pull up a line tied to the dock. At the other end was a milk crate type basket half full of Dungeness crabs and he pulled out three for us. “You want ‘em dead or alive” he said. “Alive’s fine”, I responded, “we’ll take care of them this evening.” So we had a crab dinner this evening, with enough left over for dinner tomorrow.

Tomorrow we’ll head back to the San Juan Islands, probably clearing customs at Roche Harbor. I didn’t buy our customs sticker ahead of time this year, so I’ll have to pony up for that at the customs dock. At Friday Harbor I’d have to hike up to their office on the hill above the harbor, so Roche Harbor will definitely be easier for this one – other than the usual jockeying for position at their dock.

9/5 Telegraph Harbour to Cowichan Bay, 17.4 nautical miles

Erin heard a thump at oh-dark-thirty this morning and woke me up, thinking we’d run aground or hit something while at anchor. I got up and checked our depth – we were still at 9 feet, although the tide had a few more hours to go out. All looked well and we assumed it was Tribble jumping down from the bridge making the thump. She sometimes likes to play and prowl at night.

When we got up for real in the daylight hours of morning, the tide was out and we were still afloat, although I could clearly see the bottom and the clam shells thereon. I turned on the depth sounder, but we were apparently too close to the bottom and/or the close proximity plus the bottom being muddy prevented it from getting a reading. I could tell we were completely afloat, though, because we were swinging gently with the breeze and current. For good measure, I reeled in about 15 feet of chain as we could still swing a bit more perpendicular and therefore closer to shore. The entrance to the boat canal over to Clam Bay was completely dry. Anchored behind us, closer to Thetis Island Marina, was a yellow sailboat named Big Bird. They were slightly askew, tiling about 10 or 15 degrees as their keel was on the bottom. We had passed over that area on the way in, and it was a foot or two shallower than our location. The sailboat has a keel that draws at least two or three more feet than we do as well. They had no damage, although they had a wait of two or three hours before they could leave.

We didn’t plan on leaving until early afternoon, as the tidal currents through Samsun Narrows in the morning would nearly double our travel time. Erin made us egg sandwiches with turkey bacon for breakfast, and I did a couple of maintenance chores in the engine room. The starboard engine was down a quart on oil – although it has always used more oil than the port engine it seems to be using it a bit faster. In some sort of diesel sleight-of-hand, the port engine seems to be blowing out the smoke from the extra oil the starboard engine is using. Actually, I suspect the smoke is from unburned fuel. I also added a gallon of coolant to the port engine, which could be an indication of a bad head gasket, which in turn could cause low compression which in turn could result in some fuel smoking out the exhaust. The coolant could also be low from the overheating, or from a leak somewhere in the heat exchange unit. Lots of possibilities and not much I can do about it at the moment other than keep all the fluids up to snuff.

About an hour or so before we left, a mid-sized Bayliner came in and anchored in front of us, lowered their dinghy and headed ashore. When we were ready to leave they had swung around to where they were about 20 feet in front of us, most likely over our anchor. Erin usually takes a boat hook up on the bow while doing anchor duty anyway, so I told her to be prepared to just push them out of the way if we have to. As it was, we didn’t quite have to do that – the wind swung them around a bit, and we were beside them as our anchor broke the surface.

We left Telegraph Harbour around 12:45 and headed towards Sansum Narrows and Cowichan Bay at a leisurely 7.5 knots. As we approached Maple Bay, a harbor on the north side of the narrows, we could see a number of sailboats in the distance, many with their spinnakers up. We suspected that an organized race was going on, and that was indeed the case. The course was marked with large yellow inflatable buoys, and the boats sailing under spinnakers were headed towards the buoy closest to us, which was situated just a couple hundred feet from the Saltspring Island shore. The shoreline is steep here, and we passed by on the shore side of the buoy as a couple of sailboats came from the other direction, rounding the buoy and coming about for their next leg. We got a good close-up look at the crew of a dozen or so people as they hustled to set and trim their sails while coming about. We just motored on into the wind.

Cowichan Bay is a fun little town which we visited for the first time just last year. At first it didn’t look like there would be room at the marina, the Cowichan Bay Fisherman’s Wharf, but when we radioed them, they told us to come around in the other direction and we’d see an empty dock. After getting hooked up and settled a bit, we strolled through town, visiting a few shops before they closed, and then taking a quick tour of the maritime museum. Next on our agenda was to have fish & chips at the Rock Cod Café. We dined here last year with Ray and Mary and the fare was excellent. We had a calamari appetizer, followed by our main course. Each plate had two huge slabs of cod, and one order probably would have been more than enough. We did return to the boat with three pieces of fish left over, so dinner for tomorrow is definitely taken care of.

This evening we walked the docks to check out the other boats. The majority of the boats here are local working boats, but there were a few other pleasure boats as well.

9/4 Nanaimo to Telegraph Harbour - 18.4 miles

The wind was still blowing this morning with gusts up to 20 mph, but if we were to leave we’d wait until early afternoon anyway to catch Dodd Narrows at close to slack. The morning slack was at 7 o’clock or so and we weren’t interested in that, even if it had been calm. We decided to just wait and see what the conditions were around 12:30/1:00 o’clock.

Erin fixed a great breakfast that started out as a frittata, but ended up being scrambled eggs with fried potatoes and a couple strips of the turkey bacon. We listened to the dock and lines creak and groan with the wind as we ate breakfast.

We made one more walk around the harbor into town, or more accurately, to the deli along the waterfront where Erin got an iced latte. After that we busied ourselves with some reading, alternating with a little harbor activity watching.

Around 12:30 we decided we’d get going – the wind gusts hadn’t exceeded 14 mph for an hour or so, and we were pretty sure once we turned the corner out of Nanaimo and got squared away in Northumberland Channel we’d be out of the lumpy stuff with the wind at our back. We readied our lines for departure, stowed the power cable and got away from the dock, in a similar fashion as when we left the customs dock, sidling away into the wind.

We were right about the lumpy area, but it wasn’t too bad. Tribble has now become accustomed to the engines starting, and usually joins us on the bridge right away for the ride. We’ve discovered, though, that if the seas get a little rough, she goes down to the main salon and sits on a small square of green carpet until it calms down again. Once we were past Gallows Point we had the wind and seas from the Georgia Strait at our beam so quartered the waves for a little better ride until we were out far enough to come about and head for Jack Point. Once the weather was at our stern the ride got better, and the further we went towards Dodd Narrows the smoother it got. Tribble came back up on deck, only to scurry back down momentarily when a power boat zoomed by throwing some wake.

We entered Dodd Narrows behind three sailboats, who all slowed down to 5 knots in the channel. It was too narrow to pass for awhile and we slowed down as best we could, to 5.5 knots, our idle speed. I wasn’t going to put it in neutral as I needed the thrust past the rudders for steerage, so we loomed pretty close behind the trailing boat, pulling out to pass as the channel got wider.

We were back in the Gulf Islands with beautiful weather, calm seas and… smoke. Our port engine was putting out more exhaust smoke than usual again, made painfully noticeable by cruising at 8 knots with a 9 knot tailwind. I increased our speed, not necessarily to outrun it, but to warm the engine up more in hopes that it would improve combustion wherever it wasn’t happening properly. The port engine has also had intermittent overheating problems over the years, so I was watching the temperature gauge closely, or so I thought. It was registering just below 200 degrees but it didn’t seem right. A couple taps on the temp gauge changed the reading to 220 and we backed right down to 7 knots, where it gradually cooled down to about 180 again. We have run several degrees off course many times to quarter the waves for a better ride, but this is the first time we did that maneuver to let the smoke go off to the side. Not sure what’s going on, whether it’s a bad injector, or low compression in a cylinder or what – but it’s another notch in the ‘need to repower’ belt.

We decided that rather than cruise all the way down to Cowichan Bay we’d stop at Telegraph Harbour for the night – about half the distance. Because of the late start for the narrows, we wouldn’t have arrived at Cowichan until after 5, and with it being Saturday on a popular weekend we weren’t so sure we’d find moorage. Telegraph Harbour is busy as well, or at least the marina at the head of the bay is. They’re always holding rendezvous’ or yacht club events and this weekend is no exception. We decided we’d anchor if that nice spot in front of the canal entrance was open, and it was – so here we are. The bay is pretty shallow, but this area is maybe a foot or two deeper than some others, and I calculated we’d have about 6 feet under us at low tide tomorrow morning.

The other marina halfway into the bay, Thetis Island Marina, doesn’t seem to be nearly as busy and we speculated that they didn’t have as good a business model. They do have a wifi connection, though – and although a password is needed, they give out a freebie trial, so I’m hoping I can connect to post this and check emails. I won’t even attempt to upload any photos at this time though.

Tomorrow we’ll continue on to Cowichan Bay – or go over to Genoa Bay to anchor if we don’t find moorage at Cowichan.

9/3 Nanaimo

We thought we’d lost one of our crew this morning. Our cat Tribble went missing while we were sipping our morning tea and chai. She has a few favorite places around the boat where she can hide or take her naps, and she usually takes a nap in the morning after prowling around the boat half the night. She was there sitting on the top step of the ladder when I got up and started a pot of tea. When Erin got up she wasn’t there, but we assumed she was napping out of sight. After about an hour we looked where we thought she was, and of course she wasn’t – nor was she in any of her other spots. We searched the boat from stem to stern, and no cat.

We had opened the side doors and, although we hadn’t seen her go out, we thought perhaps she’d gotten out on the dock and was wandering around. Although curious, she’s a very timid cat and easily spooked, not only by strangers, but by any object that isn’t in its proper place. We weren’t sure what she’d do if she were to get onto the dock – run or hide. We hadn’t heard any splashes, but of course our worst fear would be that she decided to take a walk on the water.

Our search up and down the dock was fruitless, and we returned to the boat fearing the worst – that she may have gone overboard. We had already searched through the cupboards but Erin, remembering a story that our friend Craig told about their cat getting into some remote places, began pulling out the drawers under our bed. That revealed no cat, but as she was leaving the stateroom she thought she caught a glimpse of something gray. Turns out Tribble was back behind the drawers, and once Erin opened them was trying to get out by climbing over the back panel of the drawer. We’re not sure quite how she ended up there. She may have crawled into the roll-out storage tray in the galley that I had opened to retrieve Erin’s tea. I didn’t think there was access through all the bulkheads to the stern of the boat, but perhaps there are.

Looking over at Protection Island from Newcastle

Our initial plan was to leave Nanaimo today and head south towards Cowichan Bay, but last night Caleb, a friend of ours who was up north boating, sent an email asking if we were still in Nanaimo, as he would be heading south and crossing the Georgia Straits ahead of an approaching blow, arriving sometime today. We decided to hang out in Nanaimo another day to visit before heading south.

We got another email and a voicemail around 11:30 this morning from Caleb – he was at the dock at Newcastle Island, across the harbor from us. Although we’ve been to Nanaimo many times, we hadn’t done any exploring at Newcastle Island, so we decided to head over there in the dinghy to visit. We tied the dinghy in front of the bow of Caleb’s boat, the Wooka, and found that Caleb’s friends Gavin and Karen were also there in their boat. We had met them a few years earlier, when Caleb and Laura and Gavin and Karen rafted their boats on either side of us in Princess Bay and we had dinner. Gavin and Karen left later that evening, but Caleb and Laura stayed for the night. Early in the morning a strong wind blew in and for the first time we drug anchor. We managed to extricate ourselves from that predicament, and even rescue another boat – but that’s another story.

Looking out towards Georgia Straits

We were glad to see Gavin and Karen again, as well as Caleb. Laura had already returned to Seattle earlier. Newcastle Island is a Provincial Park and it, along with Protection Island, forms a barrier between the Georgia Straits and Nanaimo Harbor. There is a dock for both moorage and for a passenger ferry that regularly travels across the harbor between a couple different docks in Nanaimo and the island. On shore near the dock is a dance pavilion that was built in the 1930’s. It was lined with old photographs and displays of some of the island’s history. It once was a sandstone quarry and provided material for the construction of the U.S. Mint in San Francisco. There are also several old coalmine shafts on the island, many going deep below sea level and under the town of Nanaimo.

Caleb and his dog Sheila out on the rocks

We decided to walk one of the trails along the beach over to the other side of the island to check out the views. And, everywhere you look there is an incredible view. The day and weather was perfect – the predicted windstorm had yet to arrive and we had blue sky and sunshine. We made a mental note to ourselves to come here and moor our boat the next time we’re headed north. With a short walk, you can be on the other side of the island and see for yourself what’s happening out in the straits. Today they were flat calm – the calm before the storm – ideal for crossing in either direction.

coal mine entrance, welded shut

Along the way we came upon one of the old mineshaft entrances. From a distance it looked like an old metal tank standing upright. Closer up, we could see a steel door in the side. The door had been welded shut with lengths of rebar. Coal was discovered here over 150 years ago, and in fact Newcastle Island was named for the English coal-mining town of Newcastle.

After two or three hours of both trail walking and beach sitting, we headed back towards the dock. The nearby dance pavilion also houses a café, and we all got ice cream cones there and spent some time enjoying them before going our separate ways.

Enjoying some ice cream cones

The predicted windstorm that sent Caleb, Gavin and Karen scurrying across the straits before its arrival has now arrived as I type this. We’re still safely tied to the dock behind the breakwater with both Newcastle and Protection Islands between us and the straits, but we are recording wind gusts of up to 25 mph at the moment. It’s supposed to subside by morning, but if it doesn’t we’ll probably stay another day.

Nothing exotic for dinner tonight – it was a purge the refrigerator of leftovers type of evening.

9/2 Nanaimo

We had some great apple strudel for breakfast – it was one of the items in our $50 grocery bag from yesterday’s trip to the store. One of the other snacks we picked up yesterday was some garlic sausage. In the early days up here, the garlic sausage was in open bins in big coils. There was a knife on a string, and you could cut off whatever size you wanted and bag it. Now it’s all tidily wrapped in plastic in sizes someone else cut. I suppose it’s for the better as I’m sure fewer flies have walked on it.

Erin with "Black Frank", a former Nanaimo mayor
and local celebrity

We had a relaxing day today, doing some reading and walking about a bit. We both watched the daily ceremonial cannon firing at noon. A bag piper plays for about an hour, then they go through the ritual of loading the cannon with a wad of powder and a wad of paper in place of the cannon ball. There are two cannons, both kept in immaculate shape. They alternate which one they fire, as I’ve seen them do both. They were initially installed to protect the harbor but have never been fired in anger.

folks fishing for pinks

Later in the afternoon we went for a longer walk, about 3 miles total along the waterfront promenade past the tide pool, following the path as far as the marinas on the other side of town where one would enter the passageway to Departure Bay. A river runs into the bay here, and there were several people fishing for pink salmon. Most were standing out in the water – some with hip waders, others just in shorts. We noticed some older and wiser folks standing on the shore casting their lures. We didn’t see a lot of action as we passed by, but on the way back we watched two people reel in their dinners for the night.

A local has dinner for tonight

Our dinner tonight consisted of barbecued hamburgers and baked beans.

Along the promenade north of town
If you knew where it was you could see our boat in the distance

Sunset over the harbor

9/1 Telegraph Harbour to Nanaimo 18.3 nautical miles

Waiting one day made all the difference in the weather. We awoke to sunshine and lots of dew on deck. We had a few morning chores to do, checking oil, taking out the garbage and so forth. I took a few photos of the boat canal this morning when the tide was lower, but it wasn’t nearly as low as it was when we were last year and I could walk across it.

Approaching Dodd Narrows as seen by computer

We got away from the dock a few minutes after nine in the morning for our run up to Nanaimo. We followed a trawler out of the harbor, and since he was going about 3 knots in the narrow channel, we stayed behind by shifting into neutral half the time. Our speed at idle is just a tad over 5 knots. We idled around him at the first opportunity, and as we rounded the light marking the rocks off Foster Point we set our speed at a leisurely 7.5 knots. We also had about a 7.5 knot tailwind, so the flags were at dead calm. North of Thetis Island, as we entered the more open section of Stuart Channel we picked up quite a headwind and some chop to go along with it, but only our lower windows took any salt spray.

Another boat enters southbound as we exit Dodd Narrows

As we approached Dodd Narrows, we encountered at least 25 or 30 boats of various varieties heading south through the Narrows while the current was near slack. There weren’t any boats behind us heading north – I guess we were the oddballs for this slack. Our navigation software shows the tide and current of nearby stations in an information bar below the chart, and I had it set to Dodd Narrows. In the hour before our arrival we saw the current change from 2 knots in our favor to just over 1 knot against us as we passed through. Our software is now 8 years old, but thanks to the sun, earth and moon behaving themselves during that time, the predictions are still right on.

Our front row seat to the harbor activities

As we entered the Nanaimo harbor I radioed the port authority for a slip assignment. I asked for the Cameron Island docks, which are out at the breakwater. We are at the very end of the dock where we can watch all the harbor activity and enjoy the fresh breezes. Right now as nightfall approaches there is only one other boat near us, a sailboat that came in a couple hours ago. The boat basin in the old harbor has plenty of space as well, although there are quite a few more boats in there than out here. The only downside to this location is it’s about a half mile walk around the boat basin to get into town – but we can use the exercise.

After getting settled we walked around to the waterfront shops for a little window shopping and sight seeing. Nothing struck our fancy enough to buy, so we continued our walk past the seaplane terminal and out to the public fishing dock, where we found folks having mixed results. Some had a few crabs in their buckets, while others were empty handed. I think that dock gets pretty well crabbed out by the locals.

We backtracked our route and headed up to the Thrifty Mart to pick up a few odds and ends. We’re still pretty well stocked, so didn’t need much. We filled one paper grocery sack and it ended up costing us $50.38. Wow!

The condominium complex just north of the seaplane port is finally finished. It has been under construction for quite a few years – at times it looked like work had stopped on it. Of course we only came to see it once a year, or every other year, but progress was slow. The waterfront around the port has changed quite a bit since I first saw it over 30 years ago. The Cameron Island complex and this breakwater dock where we’re moored didn’t exist, and neither did any of the shops along the walkway north of the marina. In fact, all that was there was a dirt trail through some blackberry vines. They’ve done a nice job through the years of developing the area.

I went for another walk through town while Erin worked on an art project. She says she spotted me heading this way with her binoculars so knew it would be okay to start dinner, which was pork chops and potatoes with gravy and some corn. Yum!

Right now we’re connected to the Internet courtesy of an unsecured wireless router somewhere in town. It may be good enough to post some text but not so sure about photos. If they’re not here they’ll appear later.  We'll stay here in Nanaimo for a couple days before heading south.