7/14 Silva Bay

This morning we had the same drill with the wind starting up around 5 o'clock, causing the straps to our canvas top to hum. This and the wave action rattling the dinghy, which was down and hooked to the Weaver davits, woke me up. I decided I'd get up and raise the dinghy, which only took a few minutes. After that I went back to bed, and we both slept in until 8 o'clock. A nice, lazy morning!

We had scouted out the docks for a hose bib the day before and found none. We figured it's due to an island water conservation measure. I didn't see a hose at the fuel dock either, although I was told by a couple of different people that water was available there. The bay here has several inlets and outlets and the water is exchanged quite well with the tides, so Trav decided to run his water maker to top off his supply. I was the engine room gofer to relieve any extra strain on Trav's knee. He hadn't run it since it was "pickled" by his mechanic last fall so we had to make sure it was set up right to run. I changed one of the filters on the unit and we began the startup procedure as described in the manual. It didn't work at first, because a couple of levers were not in the proper position, and the thru-hull valve for raw water had been shut off. Once we took care of those items, it was happy and began making pure water out of salt water through a reverse osmosis process that produces about 15 gallons per hour. The unit runs on a 110 volt circuit, and since Trav was connected to shore power, no generator running was necessary. Trav offered the option to run a hose to our water tank as well, but ours holds twice as much and wasn't down enough to make it worthwhile. But, I'll hold my virtual coupon on some of that water if needed later.

While Trav and I were busy with the water maker, Barb was on shore at the Laundromat. Erin was working on her art work, but took time out to bring us a beverage, and later a plate with cheese and crackers. We had pretty tough duty on the dock.

The General Store a couple docks to the north offers Internet access - $3.00 for a half hour if you use their computer, or free if you bring your own with a wifi connection. I packed up the computer and went for a walk over to the store to check email and to post that past couple of days ramblings to our blog. Everything worked great there – too bad the signal isn't strong enough to carry over to our dock.

Later in the day, Barb, Erin and I went for a ride in our dinghy around the harbor and also out through one of the shallow passageways leading to the Strait of Georgia. It was a beautiful day with mountains standing tall and the shoreline across the strait on the "Sunshine Coast" of the mainland clearly visible. I saw a couple fish jump, and Trav and I will go investigate tomorrow morning with fishing gear. As Trav says, fishing is always great, but the catching may be another story.

After dinner we reconvened over on the Bar-T-Na to finish the domino game started a couple nights ago. We're enjoying the new game we learned from Trav and Barb. It would have been fun even if I hadn't won.