Crank it up to 20

Friday August 11^th – Julie and I woke up, abandoned the kids on the boat, and set out for another hike around the island.  While hiking I devised a plan that would take us in the dinghy over to Silva Bay.  I’ve read about it and always wanted to go there but we’ve never gone.  Silva Bay is just off the Strait of Georgia and to get there from our location required transiting Gabrolia Passage.  The current in this Passage can run over 8 knots so you have to be careful even in a small fast boat.  I calculated our arrival time resulting in 4 knots of current.

We grabbed the kids, lifejackets, fishing poles and a VHF radio then cranked the dinghy up to 20 for our passage to Silva. I kept the rapids a bit of a secret from Julie knowing she would be stressed leading up to the passage.  As we approached I let her in on the secret.  No time to get nervous, we cruised through avoiding the biggest whirlpools, skipping across the water. We got thrown around a little but nothing too scary.

Once on the other side we explored the maze of islands and passages ending up at Silva Bay dinghy dock.  The place was a little run down and the restaurant looked like it was on the verge of closure.  We decided to risk it and I’m glad we did, the food was actually really good!

While we waited to pay, the kids went exploring.  They came back saying they found the motherload of blackberries.  With a couple of to-go containers in hand, we picked a massive amount blackberries.  They were growing all around an old abandoned, fenced tennis court that made for the perfect picking location.

On our way back home, we made a detour out to the Strait of Georgia for some fishing.  Skylar got what we thought was a huge one on but when it came to the surface it was the “D word” (while fishing you never say “Dogfish”, you can say the “D word” or “dog like fish” “shark like fish” or anything like that but never, never Dogfish).  We got the nasty creature off the line and kept fishing for a while with only a couple more shark like fish to add to the catch.

Back through the narrows we went, now running 5 knots in the opposite direction we blazed through in a squirrely fashion.  We pulled anchor and made our way to Ladysmith.  The marina there lost our reservation so we waited outside the docks for a while while they rearranged some boats to fit us in.

We hiked up the hill to the town and got some groceries at the store. The kids wanted blackberry pie but we didn’t have a pie pan.  We decided to get some premade crust and make simple little pocket pies.  On the way back down we stopped at a cool new Mexican restaurant for dinner.  Super fun time and incredible food! Defiantly have to come back here.

For desert, we made the blackberry pie pockets.  We thought it would be much simpler than making a pie but boy were we wrong.  What a pain, trying to keep them all together but they were delicious!