A (semi) typical day

You might be wondering what goes on with us on a day to day basis. Yesterday was a slightly out of the ordinary day as it was a day on the town, so it’s a semi-typical day. None of our days have felt at all like a vacation. It’s been lots of work and activity, but very engaging.

Yesterday we woke up at 6, and were underway at 7. This enabled us to reach Dodd Narrows at slack tide. At Dodd currents can create a flow of 8 or 9 knots so this is why boats wait until slack. Dodd Narrows was very pretty and yes, narrow! It curved around so you couldn’t see the other side until you were through.

We reached Nanaimo a little before 11 am and set anchor in Mark Bay. We had a quick lunch and then set up our dinghy and motored across the harbor to the courtesy dock at the marina.

The courtesy dock has a three hour limit, so we quickly decided we needed to find wifi, the post office, and a marine chandlery. I was hoping to find a library because I figured we could get wifi, and we could ask the librarians all sorts of questions. We had a tourist map of the town, but a library was not marked. It was a bit of an adventure being on foot in a strange town looking for things. Serendipity led us to the library very quickly so we spent a little time there. I asked the librarian a few questions – I noticed he was keeping statistics so I wanted to keep him a little busy.

After our library stop we finished up our other errands and then took our dinghy back to the boat, dodging a few sea planes in the harbor.

Back on the boat I made pizza again while Matt worked on a boat project. After lunch we motored our dinghy over to the Newcastle Island Marine Park to explore on foot. This island has a bit of history – Native American summertime settlement, sandstone quarry, herring salteries. It is now a park with lots of trails and wildlife.

We met a kayaker camped on the island who is planning on paddling all the way up to Juneau this summer. He started in Olympia eight days ago. (He’s making better time than we are!) We chatted with him a bit. He has a Pygmy wooden kayak – years ago I had considered building one of these but never did. I got quite excited thinking about his trip and it made me realize how much easy comfort we have with our sailboat. It also made me realize that I absolutely miss camping out! It was fun talking with him and we hope to run into him again.

We continued exploring the island and walked all around it, which turned out to be a bit of a hike. We got back to the boat a little after 8. We had a small snack and I read for a little bit (I am in the middle of Watership Down, but also just started Hoot by Carl Hiaasen which I downloaded on my Nook (which I love, thanks Shoreline co-workers!)). Matt worked on a few things and then we fell hard asleep. Our anchor alarm went off at around 10 pm, but it was just due to a wind shift. (The anchor alarm alerts us if the boat swings farther than whatever pre-defined radius we give it. It can let you know if your anchor is dragging, but in this case it was just fine.)

So that was our day. The days feel very long, and are varied. We wake up with a general plan, but also just go with the flow. Some things go as we expect, but there are often difficulties and problems to be solved. We are enjoying it all very much.

Today we are back in town doing a few more errands and taking advantage of the library again.

The photo is of a river otter on a mooring buoy at Sucia Island. I had no idea that they ate seaweed but we watched him eat several pieces.

We are planning on crossing the Strait of Georgia, hopefully tomorrow, so stay tuned, and thanks for all your comments!