7/11 Nanaimo

After two days of wind, it was relatively calm this morning, and several boats headed out.  The sailboat behind us was one of them, and they were headed south, their planned trip to Desolation Sound thwarted by the two day delay.  Seems like a pretty tight schedule for a sailboat in the first place.

 

We, on the other hand, decided to stick around for another day.  We're not chomping at the bit to head out across the straits and we have plenty of time for our Gulf Islands touring.

 

I went into town to pick up some fishing rules and literature at the Fisheries office, and saw that they were setting up a Farmer's Market in the plaza in front of the Bastion and cannons.  A little later, Trav, Barb, Erin and I went on an excursion to check out their wares.  It was similar to the market in Ganges, with some vegetables, jewelry, glassware and pottery and so forth.  There was even a booth where a person had tied some really nice looking fishing flies.  It's not something we'll need for our future salt water hunting and gathering missions, however.

 

We did suffer one mechanical breakdown today.  Erin did another load of laundry in our washing machine – the one that Ray and I fixed before the trip – and it seems to have forgotten how to pump water out and spin.  At the end of the cycle, the tub was full of water halfway up the glass.  We couldn't convince it to pump it out or spin, and we ended up opening the door and letting it poor into a bucket.  We wrung the clothes by hand and hung them up to try on the back deck.  Our repair lasted for just 5 loads.

 

This evening's entertainment was another game of dominoes aboard the Bar-T-Na.  We'll continue that game in the next day or two.  Tomorrow we plan on heading out, back through Dodd Narrows and on to the Flat Top Islands.