Leaving Wallace Island we were off to Thetis Island Marina.  This marina has a fuel dock, pub, and restaurant right at the marina.  We had a nice and calm 8.4 nautical mile trip to Thetis Island cruising at about 7 knots.

We tied up then went up to the restaurant for lunch.  The marina was pretty empty but we were there early, about 11:00am. The bees really want your food!  Ava totally freaks out when they come around.  You would think she is dying and the whole restaurant knows it.   We decided to stay here 2 nights with the plan of taking the ferry over to Chemainus for the rest of the day today then tomorrow take the dingy to some recommended beaches and over to another marina for their Sunday farmers market.

I’ve read about Chemainus and what a great little town it is.  To get there we walked from the marina about 10 minutes over to the ferry terminal.  It took about 25 minutes to get over to the town then we got off the ferry and looked around.  Not much here we thought.  The marina was extremely small as well.

Walking up the hill we finally found the main part of town.  Julie and I looked at eachother and said “so, whens the next ferry outa here?”. It was a Bavarian themed town gone bad.  Chemainus is known for their wall murals painted throughout the town.  They were kind of cool however you can only go in so many nic-nac and antique shops.  Not our favorite kind of town.  We all had ice cream then it was back to the ferry as quick as possible.  I’m sure there are some cool parts of town but we didn’t find it that day.

Back at the boat Skylar went swimming off the docks with 2 girls from the boat next door.  He had lots of fun and swam for at least 1 1/2 hours.  The water here is actually almost bearable to swim in but he was still freezing when he came back to the boat.

On a Saturday night this place is party marina.  There were 4 boats all together right behind us that were livin’ it up.   Squirt gun fights on the dock, loud music, drunken kayak rides, it was fun to watch and they were all very nice.  All the commotion is fun for a while but we sure do love the quiet anchorage.

The next day we took off in the dinghy for a windy (blowing 20 through the harbor) ride to Telegraph Harbor Marina.  We wanted to check out the marina and they were having a farmers market we thought would be fun to go to.  The market was fun with lots of native displays of wood carvings and paintings.  Julie got a hand made porcelain bowl with an Orca whale on it.  The kids had fun playing on their playground and we decided to stay for lunch at their restaurant.  When we come back this is the marina we would stay at.

We took off back to the boat to get ready for the beach.  It was already hot!  The forecast was for 82 degrees today and it defiantly felt like it.  We all jumped back in the dinghy for the trek to Clam Bay.  To get there we had to go through “The Cut”.   This body of water is what separates Thetis island from Kuper island.  It’s a very shallow very narrow river like stretch of water.  It was really fun going through it, something we would not attempt with the big boat.

On the other side is Clam Bay with a really nice beach.  We stayed there for a few hours searching for beach glass (our best find yet) and swimming in the water.

Our new dinghy has been awesome.  Its allowed us to travel farther and much more comfortably than our old one.  It cuts through the chop, stays really dry and power trim has been great for shallow water and beaching the boat.

We wrapped up the day with dinner at the pub.  Thankfully Ava is getting tougher about the bees.  She still hates them but the total freak out has finally stopped!  Tomorrow is an early morning start to catch the slack water at Dodd Narrows.

Trip Log – 187.85 nautical miles

We left Ganges at 9:35am with our destination being Wallace Island.  Skylar is now doing a great job of preparing the boat to dock and putting all lines and fenders away when leaving.  Its nice having another able crewmember!

We headed north up Trincomali Channel running almost 8 knots.  Wallace Island his two main anchorages, Conover Cove and Princess Cove.  Conover has a small dock (we have stayed there before) and some anchorage space.  Princess only has a dingy dock so you have to anchor.  This island used to be owned by a famous photographer who first discovered Marilyn Monroe.   The first anchorage we came to was Conover Cove.  We pulled in and looked around but the dock was full and not much more room to anchor.  We decided to keep going to Princess Cove because we have never stayed there before and thought it would be fun to try it out.  At 11:50pm and 12.18 nautical miles traveled we arrived in Princess Cove.

Both of these coves are extremely small and require you to stern tie when anchoring.  Stern tying is a technique used to keep you from swinging on anchor.  You drop your anchor then back your boat up toward land setting your anchor in the process.  Then you grab a long line, jump in your dingy with one end of the line and head for land.  At many places where stern tying is routine there will be metal eyes bolted into the rocks along the shoreline.  These eyes are used to loop your line through and take it back to your boat.  When its all said and done you have one line going from your boat to shore, through the eye then back to your boat.  This allows you to adjust how much tension you have on your anchor and makes for an easy get away when its time to leave.  With this technique a lot more boats can fit in a small anchorage without the risk of swinging into each other.

It can be tricky to complete the whole process.  Preparation is important and we still have some kinks to work out before we have it down.  Today things went pretty smooth though anchoring and stern tying in Princess Cove.

Skylar took the Kyak out for some fishing in the cove while Julie, Ava and I relaxed on the sun deck.

Trip Log 179.45 nautical miles

It was time to re-provision our food supply and Ava couldn’t stop talking about apple pie, so it was off to Ganges on Saltspring Island.  Ganges is a small town with a nice grocery store, a marine supply store and many other small shops.

We took off from Portland Island at 10:55am for about a 2 hour run and 12.7 nautical miles arriving at the Ganges Marina at 12:50pm.

We have a love hate relationship with this town.  It has so much potential with great retail shops, close to town marina and the landscape is really nice.  However, our nickname for the town is “Grungies”.  Take downtown Olympia times 10!  Half the people walking around haven’t taken a shower in months and the smell that follows them around makes you want to run and hide.  Go to the park and you will find full on boobs hanging out, used to feed their children so it’s OK.  The sailboat next to us had a 3+ year-old boy running around naked and the mom talking about how kids need to be allowed to express themselves.

The Ganges Marina is not very nice either.  At $70 for one night moorage and $3 per bag of garbage it’s a rip off.   However, they are working on improvements and have made some since the last time we were there.  With all that said the people all over town, are all very nice.

Lunch was first on the list when we arrived so we headed over to the Tree House restaurant.  We have never been there before but it was highly recommended by a guy on the dock.  The food was great but the environment was a little dirty.  The staff was awesome and very accommodating.

After browsing through some shops it was off to the bakery all the way on the other side of town for Ava’s apple pie she has been asking about for days.  We were in luck, but she had to wait until after dinner.

We filled up the cart at the grocery store (even got some free salmon carcass for crabbing!)  then had to get it all back to the boat about ½ mile away.  We all felt like pack mules but we made it in one trip.  Julie was especially a trooper because she is still in a lot of pain from her butt injury.  We had a great dinner at the boat then it was time for Ava’s apple pie.  She took about 2 bites then said, “I’m done”.

Trip Log – 167.27 nautical miles