Letter6 July 30, 2000

 We stayed in Nanimo 4 days. We walked and shopped, and walked. Eldon
 and Barb and Judy and Alfons and us went to the Dinghy Dock Pub for
 dinner. The food wasn't that good, but the company was great! We had a
 nice time. Eldon got out his kite and flew it from the stern of his
 boat. Al had one too, but the wind had almost died before he got his
 up. It was quite a sight to se him standing on top of the dinghy
 davits, leaning on the mizzen boom pulling on the kite string, trying
 to get it up! Judy was helping hold the string, and from a distance, it
 looked like she was holding him in mid air. The next morning, Eldon and
 Barb headed back for civilization, and jobs.

 We went shopping. We found a CostCo here, so I took the bus to it and
 looked for Trinda a birthday present. No luck. They are stocked a
 little differently here. She just got a card. We watched the fireworks.
 The Bathtub Days are a big event here. There were well over 200 boats
 anchored out in Newcastle bay watching too. Most of them went back to
 their marinas just after the fireworks were over. The next morning, Al
 and Judy left top go to Ganges to visit an old friend. We stayed for
 the dinghy races Sunday morning. 

 I wanted to be close to the starting line when the race started because
 I had heard that that is where all the action is. Ha! We sat on the
 beach just across from our boat and in the far distance, we could see
 the hydroplane bathtubs circling our boat. We gave up the best seat in
 the house to sit on the beach with all the other people who could not
 get a boat ride out to see them! I was disgusted! We stopped back by
 the fresh fish boat and Trinda got 6 live crabs. We had a nice crab
 dinner and 4 left for two more!

 The next morning we left for the direction of Sidney. We weren't sure
 where we were going, but needed to go through Dodd Narrows at 10:36 for
 slack water. I killed the crabs, because we couldn't keep them alive
 while we motored along. Trinda cooked and cleaned them as we went. It
 took almost 2 hours to crack and clean the 4 crabs. She finished right
 at 12:00, and we still hadn't chosen a destination. We just turned the
 motor off and ate fresh crab! Just as we finished, Judy came on the
 radio and said that her computer screen had broken. I helped with some
 ideas for backing up her disk and we decided to go to Ganges to help
 some more in person. 

 In Ganges, we anchored at the head of the bay next to Al. Sure enough
 Judy's computer was broken. She made arrangements to take the
 high-speed ferry back to Seattle in order to send her computer in for
 repairs. We worked on the shower some and shopped some more. We stayed
 with Al till Thursday morning when we both left for Sidney. Judy was
 getting back about 7:00pm. We anchored in Sidney Spit and Al went to
 the marina to collect Judy. 

 The next day we worked on the shower, took Muffy to the beach, and
 rested.

  In the morning Trinda and I caught the little people ferry that runs
  from the Sidney Spit Marine Park to down town Sidney. We shopped and
  walked. We saw Judy scurrying back to her boat. The marina has an
  11:00 checkout time and it was already 12:00. They were planning to
  come out and anchor by us. She offered us a ride back to our boat.  We
  said we needed more time to shop so she went on. When we finished and
  got back to the little ferry dock, Judy and Al were just coming out of
  the marina. We flagged them down to ask for a ride, as the line for
  the ferry seemed a little long. Al finally saw me waving my hat and
  yelling. He turned his boat back to swing by the ferry dock, and then
  we realized that ALL the gates on the loading ramps were locked! We
  couldn't get down to them. We waved them off and waited for the ferry.
  As they were loading, I realized that we should have tried harder to
  climb the gate! The ferry guy said he could only take 30, and was up
  to 34 before the group in front of us. He looked up and said he could
  take two more, was there a couple here. He looked right at Trinda, so
  we held up our hands and ran ahead to be the last ones on. We got to
  our dinghy just as Al got his anchor down beside us. 

  The next afternoon, I looked out the hatch as a boat came by real
  close and began to anchor just behind and between Al and us. It was
  Jake and Sharon on "The Jake"! They are the dock captains from
  Shilshole F-Dock where we had just spent 3 years. Out came the
  margaritas and later we had a potluck at Al's. We had a good visit and
  caught up on the F-Dock gossip. They left the next morning. I took out
  the dinghy and the camera and got some good pictures of their boat
  with the sails up. We worked on the boat and ran the engines to charge
  the batteries. It is amazing how fast the batteries go down when the
  power tools come out. The sander and drill use a lot of electricity!

  The next morning I began to get a craving for prawns. We pulled up the
  anchor and headed for Mill Bay again. I took about 6 hours to motor
  around the peninsula that make Victoria and Sidney, set out the traps
  and find an anchorage near the village of Mill Bay. In the morning I
  pulled the traps. 120 this time! Things are better. 

  We had an appointment to have the boat hauled out of the water to
  check all the underwater things before the big trip down the coast. We
  headed back to Sidney. We found Al and Judy's boat anchored in front
  of the main city pier. Judy was there but Al was in town. They had
  discovered a problem with their GPS. It no longer could find its
  position! Judy asked if I could come over and have a look at it. We
  anchored just ahead of them, a little closer to the public beach.
  After I rowed the dinghy to town and got a few groceries, I rowed back
  to take a look. After an hour or so we discovered that a wire had
  pulled out of the connector. Al had hired a "professional" to install
  just a few of his instruments and this was one. He had done a really
  poor job and it had come apart too easy. I had an extra connector that
  I offered to Al. He re-did it himself, correctly!

  We motored back up to the bay in front of the boatyard that we were to
  haul out in and anchored for the night. Al's appointment was for 5:30
  PM and ours was for 7:00 AM the next morning. I followed Al to the
  boatyard in the dinghy, so I could see just where it was, as there are
  4 marinas in that bay. After they lifted Al's boat out of the water,
  they suggested that I move our boat in and tie next to the boatlift. I
  was to be the first boat the next morning. 

  The lift was different than any I had ever seen. It was a platform
  that they lower into the water. It had a hydraulic lift trailer on it.
  They position the boat over the trailer then raise pads to support the
  boat while the trailer is under the water. Then they lift the platform
  up out of the water with the boat sitting on it. Just before they
  started lifting Al's boat, they had him sign an insurance wavier.  He
  then asked what the capacity of the trailer was. They said 15 tons.
  Our boats are 16 1/2 tons! They said it would be all right! We hoped
  so, then it was up and the trailer didn't even squeak! We were out the
  next morning too with no problems.

  We cleaned the bottom of the boat, checked all the valves and hoses in
  the bottom, and generally inspected the underside. Everything is OK!
  We painted the varnish on the remaining wood on the topsides, so now
  we match Al's boat even more. We worked on the shower some more. It's
  close to finished now. 

  We motored back out into the little bay, anchored and took the laundry
  to a different marina. While we were there we meet a lady who invited
  us to a goodbye party her club was throwing for all the club members
  leaving this year for Mexico. We thought it would be good to meet some
  of the others we would be sailing with, so off to Bedwell Harbor for
  the weekend party. Al and Judy also got invited by one of their
  friends.

  There were 45 boats anchored in Bedwell, counting us! It was really
  fun. We even decided to join the club, The Bluewater Cruising
  Association of Vancouver Canada. The festivities included a breakfast,
  dinghy race, dinghy tug-o-war and a potluck dinner. Trinda and I came
  in 4th in the race and our team won 2 out of 3 tries at tug-o-war! 

  The dinghy race was a little different. No motors, just oars, one
  apiece. One sat facing forward, the other backward. We stood on the
  beach and they said GO. We ran to our dinghy, jumped in and rowed
  around a float about 20 feet out from the shore. Back to the beach
  where Trinda jumped out ran up to the starting line, grabbed a paper
  sack and back to the dinghy. She put the sack over my head and then
  guided me as I rowed around the float again. It was real madness as
  all 20 dinghies tried to row back around blindfolded!
  I couldn't believe it when we came in 4th! 

  We went back to our boats for a rest before the potluck. I took the
  dinghy out and took pictures of a few of the boats there. I printer
  out pictures of 3 of them and gave them to the boat owners. One was
  the guy in charge of the weekend schedule. He had been talking all day
  about accepting bribes for the race and other events, so as I gave him
  the picture of his boat, I said it was a bribe! I had no idea what it
  was I was bribing him for, but it seemed the right thing to say. That
  evening at the potluck, with 80 some odd people standing around
  waiting for the eating to start, he got their attention, explained
  about the really neat picture he got of his boat. Then he said that
  dinner should start and the line would form behind ME! It turned out
  to be a really good bribe after all!

  After all the festivities were over we headed for Anacortes, WA to get
  some new life jackets and wait for Donnie to arrive so we could "head
  south"!

  Larry, Trinda and Muffy