Saturday August 12, 2017

The main task today is to move the boats over to North Island Marina. But Steve has to clear out a space for us first. He had boats moored at the fuel dock overnight (Venture) and even ended up moving Bruce's boat to a tiny spot on the outside. We knew we weren't going anywhere until after checkout at 11:00, so we prepared to head up to Mugz. Danny stopped by to say "see you later" and Susan and Lowla too, and she mentioned there was a farmer's market at the top of the dock! Yay!

There were fresh veggies and jam's etc, but the most popular booth with a lineup was the baker! We all got scones, nanaimo bar's, cinnamon twists, and we bought a berry pie … mmmmm. I also bought some Garlic Jam which I have to figure out how to use, but just sounded enticing. And I also bought some fresh picked very ripe raspberries. They'll probably be the only ones I'll get this summer. They came on a plate and we all just ate them right away - they were wonderful and felt a bit like summer after all. Up to Mugz to sit and have coffee and eat our treats. It wasn't warm, but it was clear and blue skies which was nice.

We called Steve around 11:30 and he said to listen to 66A and it would be just a couple of minutes. And it was. He squeezed us on C dock between two larger vessels. He put EG on the end of D dock with her bow sticking out about 10'. But it was good to be back and nicely tucked away. It looks like he had many boats there for extended stays, including La Perouse who was in front of us.

We needed to fuel and one of the benefits of North Island Marina is that they can fuel boats while they are in their moorage spots. One of the boats behind us was already fueling and so we thought we would just wait and fuel when they were done. But then someone else needed to go ahead of us, so we waited for them to finish. Then someone else fueled. So we did the squeaky wheel thing (well, *I* did) and then we were able to fuel. But it was close to late afternoon by the time that happened. Greg did the math and it worked out to around $3.40 USD per gallon, which of course is not great by our standards, but not that terrible either. Because tomorrow is Sunday, B&S and I headed up to the liquor store to grab supplies since they weren't going to be open tomorrow. We then headed back to the boats to drop it off, and then picked up Greg and headed back to the "Shoprite", the fishing supply store. We picked up a fish cutting board that we had seen before and decided was too expensive, but now realize that it was the right answer. Byron picked up some "Carlyle Cat Food", the preferred bait for prawns according to some, and a "diving thingy" for salmon fishing. Lot's of things to look at there.

Byron and Sue had found out about a new restaurant just outside of town that Steve recommended and said was the only one around town that was good! So we made a reservation for 5:15 as it was the only time available! And we reserved a taxi for 5:00 to take us there. So we were up at the top of the ramp before 5:00, and waited (in the rain I might add) for a while. Taxi was late and didn't get there until 5:15. We called ahead to the restaurant to say we were still coming and not to give our table away. When he dropped us off, he said he'd be back in 1.5 hours. I thought this might not be long enough.

It's about a 10-15min ride up the coast and on First Nations land, and part of this large campground resort. Lot's of trailers around. The restaurant is right on a nice beach overlooking Broughton Straight. It's quite fancy and a little expensive, but they are certainly going for high end and seem to have pulled it off. We all had beet salad which had the most wonderful dressing, and then the 3 of us had Chicken and Fig pasta with Gorganzola sauce! YUM! Greg had Linguini Vongole. All very good. And everyone else had a nice dessert of Tiramisu (Greg) and Chocolate Mousse (B&S).

It turns out that the restaurant doesn't have a liquor license yet, but you can bring your own wine. We didn't know this (or forgot), so it was a "dry" meal for us too. We suspect that since it's on First Nations land, it will never have a liquor license, but we don't know this for sure. But without "libation" so slow us down, and the restaurant being extremely quick bringing our order, we were finished the main meal by about 6:10!! But we dragged out dessert and tea until just before 7:00 in time for the taxi (which was exactly on time). Back to the boats. Can't remember what we did after that.