17 Jun 22

We awoke to a glorious, cloudless morning. It stayed gorgeous and warm all day long; best weather day of the trip so far. After a late breakfast, we walked up to talk to the guys on “Take Five” (30’ Nonsuch, out of Gibsons), who are rounding Vancouver Island counter-clockwise. They left Gibsons in late May. As we were chatting, I saw the name of the captain on a bag on deck, David Sverre, and realized I knew him; professionally - he offered me a job as Construction Engineer at the Gulf Island Fabricators yard in Corpus Christi, back in 2000, and personally - they used to live on Tosca, about a block away from us in Wilchester West. John knew his wife, Christi, from high school. Man, it’s a small world up here. Terri, Laurie and I walked into town and caught the Tofino Water Taxi over to Meares Island to due the boardwalk through the old-growth cedar forest - very nice. After we got back, Laurie headed over to Wickaninish Inn to walk on the beach in Michael’s footsteps and Terri and I went to Sobo for lunch; excellent salmon chowder and cornbread. Then, we went grocery shopping at the Coop. On the way back, Terri stopped in Mermaid’s Tail Bookstore and I got a beer at the Shed. After we got back to the boat, Dave and Christi, John and Laurie joined us for cocktails in the cockpit, followed by take-out dinner from Red Can, very nice (and economical). We had a most pleasant evening swapping yarns about our various overseas projects, but, naturally, no one remembered to take a group photo.  

18 Jun 22

Dave and Christi on “Take Five” were gone by the time we got up, after 08:00. The weather has returned to normal: cold and rainy. We loafed around waiting for low water slack at 10:45 and finally got going just before 11:00. Even though we were within 30 feet of the fuel dock, we still bounced over the rock that they warned us was 50 feet from the dock. A local fisherman motored past a said we should not leave at low water and they should have warned us about the rock - duh! We motored carefully through the narrow channels, dodging numerous crab-pot buoys to God’s Pocket, off Lemmens Inlet on Meares Island. There was one other sail boat in the anchorage as we came in, but he left as we were looking for a spot. We anchored in 10 m of water and Massilia shortly tied up alongside. After lunch, we hung out in the cockpit, reading and looking at yesterday’s videos and photos of the old-growth forest. About 16:00, I decided to fly my drone around the bay for a while, making videos and photos of the boats; good fun, but I had not charged up the batteries fully, so was only able to fly for about 30 minutes altogether. We cooked dinner aboard for a change; pork chops and courgettes cooked on the grill. After dinner, I played guitar and we had a bit of a sing-along.

49-12.778’N, 125-53.379’W; Log = 5.6, Sum = 225.9; Eng. hrs. = 2.0, Sum = 2921.5