Ahhhh.... [sigh of relief!]
...and besides, a bus that size is not in the true keeping of hippie life. One really needs a VW bus.Last week I was up taking it easy in the Gulf Islands - Maple Bay, Ganges, Sidney, and Winter Cove. Winter Cove is between Mayne, Samuel (a smallish island), and Saturna Islands [picture attached]. There is a park with really nice walking trails and a beautiful view of the Strait of Georgia. So, while other people were looking at boat "stuff" in Seattle I was anchored out (boat on left) and enjoying peace and quiet in Winter Cove. Ohhh, and the sunset! (Oops - only one picture per post) Sailboats need to watch the shallow area for anchoring because the bay is nortorious for sailboat groundings at low tides.The past several weeks were just wonderful. Nice winds, two rain spells, quiet and not-so-croweded anchorages, and generally it was very restful. In the past it was not uncommon for us to average 40 miles a day over a couple weeks but this year it was different because I didn't go far at all. In fact, I spent two days at the Capital City Yacht Club reciprocal dock (until the afternoon) and then in the afternoon moved over to the Sidney North Saanich Yacht Club to use their reciprocal (a distance of about 200 feet!). *yawn*Enjoyed some absolutely terrific sails! On one occasion there were two couples on a newer 42-footer who motor-sailed past us then turned off the motor, set their Genoa, and then we proceeded to sail past them with our older 35-footer and 110! Probably thanks to our feathering prop. Then we sailed up the channel to Maple Bay catching and almost passing another sailboat who was under sail and sometimes power. The skipper (who races his boat) commented how well our boat sails. All this in just one afternoon. How sweet it is. Just happened to hit the Farmers Market in Ganges and the Salt Spring Island Fair on the same weekend - the Admiral was on cloud 9! (this helped my approval rating - somewhat)Had to be home yesterday to attend a meeting and then it's back to the boat in a day or two.