With David on board, the three of us head north with the goal of catching salmon near Campbell River. We departed July 7 in very nice conditions.
We cleared customs at Poet's Cove. Normally, it is just a phone call and you are cleared. However, it appears we were a part of training new agents who boarded the boat. They found 41 bottles of wine, not the 3 dozen we declared. I think the senior agents were showing off a little because we got a bit of a lecture. In the end, they cleared us. On shore, they were having a painting class which is a favorite of Melissa's. We stay the night so she could paint.
The next day (July 8) we head off to Ganges anchorage. The big built-in generator was running fine but stopped producing electricity. Dave did a bit of troubleshooting and determines at least one of the windings has failed. It is probably out of commission for the season. We cannot stay long on anchor without power so we went into a marina the next day. We rented electric bikes and rode to the Wild Cider House for lunch and drinks.
July 11, we went to Montague Harbor. Dave and David took the Hummingbird Pub bus to the pub. It was the driver's first "solo" drive. While not as funny as Tommy, he did a pretty good job entertaining us on the way. The next morning, the anchor came up with the shackle and swivel bent around the wrong way. We nearly lost the anchor (again) and could not get the bound up mess through the pulpit. We ended up strapping the anchor the best we could and headed north with it hanging.
July 12, we headed for Fairwinds Marina, north of Nanaimo. The plan is to buy a portable generator and fix the anchor shackle issue. Reserving the generator was a hassle because one needed a Canadian credit card. Luckily, friends of ours live near Victoria and reserved the generator for us (thanks Leta!). Our favorite marine store in Nanaimo had all what we needed to fix the shackle/swivel issue. So we hired a cab to take us on our mission to gather all the goodies.
With our anchor back online, we headed for Sandy Island just south of Comox on the 13th. We had to move when a sailboat anchored WAY to close to us. There was no way we would survive a swing without hitting each other. This is a nice anchorage because the chain comes up clean due to the nice clean, sandy bottom.
July 14th, we head for Browns Bay Marina where we will arrange for salmon fishing.