Wednesday September 27, 2017

Well? Today's the day. We left Roche around 10:00am and looked forward to the predicted "Winds Light" sunny cruise back to Bham. Weather Junkie had winds 5kts-8kts in Bham bay. And, technically that was true! It was the 20kt winds between Roche and Bham Bay that was the problem! Jeez Louise!! Weather is just weird.

San Juan channel was lumpy, Rosario was lumpy, and of course Bellingham Channel was really lumpy. The wind had a definite "West" slant. And, Bellingham Bay was fine. We pulled into our borrowed slip from NWE (our slip was rented out until Sept 30th) and we had Bob, Karen, and Emmo there to take lines which was so great. Scott was also on the finger next door and Byron came by shortly afterwards and we all had a big chitty chat and catchup right there. So lovely to be back among our peeps.

Bob and Karen brought over our car. We unloaded breakfast food (tea and oatmeal), clean underwear, and Bella's food and headed home to see what awaits. Linnea was off visiting her Dad in Seattle so we had the house to ourselves.

We're Home.

Tuesday September 26, 2017

We left around 10:00 after watching a little bit of fog and low cloud move in and out of the harbor. It was quite lovely inside. We watched the NWE boat, Inception, do docking practice using the linear mooring. And watched the teeny yellow sailboat on the dock in front of us do their morning preparations and then go for a morning kayak. Although the weather report said it wouldn't be sunny until the afternoon, they were apparently wrong in the right direction for a change. It was an incredibly beautiful morning out on the water and we cruised slowly over to Roche. Inception called us to report some humpback whales near us, but they had apparently dove and we never did see them.

We pulled into whatever slip we wanted at Roche and chose the high docks. We put our walking shoes on and headed over to the Marina office to register. We met the "moorage girl" at the door and forgot that in "high season", they'll come to you to take your money! Then off to the Lime Kiln for a slightly early lunch. They've changed their menu now and have mostly burgers for lunch which is a bit of a disappointment. But they still have the BLAT's

We continued walking around the property and enjoying the warm weather. We headed up to the marine store where Greg found another of the old style (shower) bilge pumps to add to our spares. Unfortunately, the Sportswear store has a big sale on of 50% off everything in the store. So you have to check that out right? Greg did not find anything, but surprisingly I did. How can I say no to "orange shoes" at 50% off?

Back to the boat to try and download some stuff, catch up on the Blog, and things like that. Then we sat on the flybridge and enjoyed the view and the goings on in the harbor. It seemed like a good time to go for another walk to the other side of the property. So we walked up the "road" and took a look at all the new "cottages" (OK, houses) that have been built and are currently being built. There were at least 4 that we still in construction and being finished off. And it seems like it's been awhile since we walked up there as there were quite a few more finished ones than we remembered. Then we went over to the park and pool area. Turns out the pool is still open too! I checked the temperature and the attendant told me it was 80 or 81 degrees! It was lovely! We are so used to being here in the "off" season, we forgot all about it. It would have been a lovely day to take a dip but ….. next summer I guess. I took lots of pictures of the marina.



Back to the boat and then it was time for dinner. We had 6:30 reservations at McMillins. As we walked down the dock, there was an announcement that it would be "10 minutes to colors". Oh shit. We had thought they wouldn't do that either this late in the season, but we were wrong. The cannon shot made me jump 10 feet so we can only imagine what it did to poor Miss B on the boat. Oh well.

Dinner was stupendous. Even had Key Lime Pie for dessert. A great evening.

Monday September 25, 2017

Yes, it did rain last night. Quite hard. It continued to rain and then sprinkle all morning. So this morning called for fresh baked scones. Thanks to our borrowed cell phone amplifier, we had a pretty good Telus signal in here and so we did a bunch of computer stuff and had way too many scones. At one point, "Carol" from Akeeva can to the dock in the dinghy. We went to say Hello to her as we had met them at Taku Harbor in Alaska as part of the Slowboat convoy. It was good to talk to her and find out how the rest of their trip went, and what they thought of Alaska overall as well.

By 1:00 it was dry with just a bit of overcast clouds and some blue sky peeking through here and there. So we took off for our big walk to Turn Point. This walk is a bit of an "event". When we got back to the boat, my Apple Watch said we had walked 6 miles. Bella had walked much less than that.



Right as we closed up the door on Spellbound to take off, a dingy showed up at the dock. It was Tim from NWE with some of his charterers. They were also on their way to Turn Point. They ended up going to Prevost first and went a different way, so we didn't actually see them until we were leaving Turn Point. We walked the "long" way via the park and then onto the county road. There are a lot of steps in the park.





It was flat and calm off the point and not much going on out there. We didn't see any wildlife at all, and only 1 freighter out in the distance just as we were leaving. It was around 5:30 by the time we got back and we decided that we deserved some beer and cheese on the picnic bench before having dinner. It was not sunny but was pretty mild and generally pleasant out.

Eventually we had some dinner and watched a movie - La La Land. Meh.

Sunday September 24, 2017

We still needed to decide where to go today. Spent some time looking at the boats and trying to decide where we wanted to go given the conditions *tomorrow*. After a lot of hemming and hawing, we decided to just cross over the border and go to Reid. We went by the grocery store first though to pick up a couple of things, including some more ice.

We left the dock and it turns out we left just before 11:00 and at the exact time that the "Work Boat Rendezvous" did their sail past. And so we sat idling at the end of our own dock for about 20 mins for all the boats to leave the public dock and head out. When we realized that most of them were turning around and coming back and doing the circle a 2nd time, we just nosed our way into the parade and left.

The forecast for today was Winds Light. Which would of course explain the 15kt winds and the heavy chop! All the way down Ganges Harbor and into Captains Passage. How weird! We checked the wind at Saturna, and it was blowing 2 kts. Was? But, by the time we got close to Boundary Pass, it was down to next to nothing wind wise and Boundary Pass was like glass. Easy crossing and no trouble with the Nexus call. Easy Peasy.

We had lunch along the way (pasta salad finally!) and pulled into Reid around 2:00. There was no one on the dock and so we took it. There was going to be a pretty low tide that night, but we still had a couple of feet underneath us. We went for a short walk to Prevost and up the path a short while, but then came back to enjoy a bit of sunshine. When we got back to the dock, we saw "Tom", a friend from Bellingham who used to work at NWE. He was there with friends on his sailboat. They were away for the weekend and needed to get back to Blaine tonight.

I had brought the supplies to make chili when we left Bellingham, but had still not made it. So today was the day. I made a large batch of chili to have for dinner and to freeze for later. We had chili dinner and fresh baked bread.

Saturday September 23, 2017

Got going relatively early so that we could be at the Farmers Market in good time, and to try and catch up with OceanFlyer as well. No dogs allowed in the Farmers Market. (Stupid). So Greg ended up just hanging around the periphery. I went through quite quickly but would have loved to linger more. The problem was that we were going to be crossing back into the USA shortly and it's just easier to not have any fruits or veggies on the boat when that happens. So there was no point in loading up as unless it was "approved", we'd have to eat it right away or throw it away. So I bought Garden Art and preserves instead.

We had some coffee and "brunch" at TJ's coffee and ended up meeting another Grand Banks owner from San Juan Island. We walked around a bit and found the "Work Boat Rendezvous" camped out on the public dock there above. It was filled with re-built Tugs and Fishing Boats. There was a lot of gleaming wood on that dock! And it explained the number of "old time" boats we had seen cruising around. Then back to the boat where we did some chores in the bright sunlight. I made a pasta salad as well as an Apple Crumble to use up the apples before crossing the border.

While we were at TJ's having coffee, we saw a poster for a "ghost / night" walk through Ganges giving the local history of the island and area. It was pretty inexpensive so we signed up for it. We had an early dinner next to the marina at Taco Loco and had the most hugest burrito's I've seen since California. And I ate the whole thing. Then we had some time to kill before meeting the organizers at 7:00 at Peace Park. It ended up being a local couple, and they were slightly dressed up in historical costume. There were 7 of us total on the walk. It ended up being not quite as good as we hoped, but it was still fine. And we got some exercise at the same time and learned a thing or two about island history. One un-obvious thing I learned was that the first settlers (after the First Nations people) were African Americans. They were escaping persecution in the south and moved up north - to Saltspring Island evidently.

Back to the boat to rescue Miss B. Still too full so no Apple Crumble.

Friday September 22, 2017

We left just after 10:00 to arrive at the dock around noon. It was a nice day and an easy cruise. We arrived and checked in and took Miss B to find some lunch. We ended up at the "Tree House" after not being allow to have her on the outside deck at the Oystercatcher. (And unfortunately, had to "out" another little dog who was already there!). Continued to cruise around the area and went over to Barb's Bun's for a little dessert.

Came back to the boat and did some stuff that I can't remember right now! Greg did a load of laundry so we had some clean jeans that weren't able to walk on their own. We walked over to OceanFlyer to say hello to Bill and Cindy Douglas. Ended up waking Bill up from his nap and Cindy wasn't there. But we talked with him and "Jack" for awhile. Just as we were about to leave, Cindy and Cindy came back to the boat so we chatted some more. It was after 7:00 by the time we made it back to the boat to feed the dog! Dinner on board.