7/6 Ganges to Nanaimo

Despite our late night and frequent anchor checks through the evening, we were up around 6:30 or 7:00. We had planned on leaving around 9 o'clock this morning, but got cranked up a little earlier than that in order to spend some time retrieving our anchor. We had around 180' of chain out, and it was all coated with mud. The wind had died down completely by morning, and we were at rest above the far end of the chain facing in the opposite direction, with the anchor about 100 feet behind our stern. It didn't require much maneuvering as we retrieved the anchor, as we drifted backwards at about the same speed as Erin reeled it in on the windlass. She did lots of hosing off mud on the chain as it came up, and I had to restack the pile of chain in the chain locker several times to keep it from jamming the windlass. It was about 20 minutes before we were ready to go. Trav and Barb had a similar situation with their anchor, and we cruised out of the harbor a few minutes ahead of them.

Our destination for today was the town of Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. Getting there requires a transit of Dodd Narrows, where the current can run up to 9 knots. We had a nice, easy cruise along the shore of Saltspring Island, then headed down Trincomali Channel past Wallace Island. Ahead we could see a sailboat race going on, with about 20 boats circling across our passageway. There was an official's boat anchored near the shore of Jackscrew Island, right where we intended to pass by. We came to dead slow, and waited for opportunities to clear the course as the sailboats made their turns. They didn't leave any room, and I had to wait a couple of minutes. Trav had an even longer wait, with one boat coming about and passing about 6 feet in front of his bow. We got some good photos of that.

We continued on towards the Ruxton group of islands, where Trav reminisced about some much earlier visits in a much smaller boat. On Ruxton Island was Herring Bay, with a beautiful white sand beach. We slowed for some photo opportunities before continuing on towards Dodd Narrows. We had planned on arriving about a half hour after slack current to avoid some traffic, and also to get a push of 2 or 3 knots through the pass. As it was, we arrived almost at slack and went through against a half knot current along with several other boats. Continuing on beyond the pass, we had another 30 or 40 minutes before rounding the point into the Nanaimo Harbor. That last turn is exposed to the Georgia Strait, and in the past we've often taken a beating there, but today was calm and we came on into town salt free.

I radioed ahead a few minutes out from the harbor and got slip assignments. We are on the same dock, moored to opposite sides so we have the dock as a patio between our two boats. We were all settled in by 2 o'clock in the afternoon after a pleasant cruise.

Barb joined Erin and me for a walk along the waterfront shops as well as a trip to the Thrifty Mart a few blocks up the street in the opposite direction. We came back with a couple bags of odds and ends, as well as our moorage payment slips.

After dining on some leftovers, we headed across the dock to the Bar-T-Na for some socializing. Barb is an accomplished poet as well as an artist, and we heard a few of her poems written in the last couple of days, including ones about the windstorm and the Potentate. Hopefully we'll get a few of those to publish in the blog. Later in the evening Trav broke out a new game of dominos, and after unwrapping the tiles Erin and I got down to the business of learning to play. The set was of a double-twelve variety, and we played a game called "Chicken Feet". That kept us busy until nearly 11 o'clock, when we finally retired back to the Potentate to catch up on some rest we missed the night before. It was a very pleasant evening indeed.