18 Sep 23

Once again, we slept in until 08:00, and awoke to another bright, clear day. The anchor was aweigh by 09:00, we said our goodbyes to Jim and Peggy on “Carisma” and took off for Powell River. Before we got to the Copeland Islands, we encountered a pod of orcas, a few of which came very close to us as we sailed along; very cool. The wind was behind us, from the NW all day, so we sailed and motor-sailed all the way to Westview Marina at Powell River. Unfortunately, they did not have a space for us when we arrived, so rather than argue or look for a rafting situation, we just carried on down the coast to Pender Harbour, which is nicer anyway. I called on the phone to make sure they had room and Robin assured us there was room and would hold a spot for us. We were tied up at the dock at 16:26. We crossed back south of the 50th parallel today; sigh. That turned out to be a long sailing day, but the winds/seas were good and we have only a short run tomorrow. As soon as we arrived, I immediately set to work on the generator and spent two hours removing hoses and flushing out bits of the impeller from all over the place. Terri made a quick run up to the grocery store in the meantime. Just as I got the generator back together, Jan, a local resident, walked past and stopped for a chat; turns out, he had worked on the Molikpaq back in the day and we had a great time swapping yarns about the marine side of the oil bigness, big ships, fast sailing yachts, etc., etc. Jan finally moved back to his house (he is a Kiwi who now lives here in Pender Harbour) and I got my dinner about 20:15 - Terri had already eaten hers. I will start the generator in the morning. Then, after the Astros blew a lead to lose to Baltimore, we went up for very nice showers. We were in bed before 22:00.

49-37.410’N, 124-01.533’W; Log = 50.7, Sum (2023) = 2933.1; Eng hrs = 5.6, Sum = 3575.2