When you convert 166 days into months…it’s 5.5 months that we were gone! So welcome home……as expected….it was cold when we got back to Alberta. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was 25C or 5C IT. WAS. COLD. to us snowbirds! The Alberta spring temps are more like semi-winter temps….the wind is always cold and we always need layers. Gone are the days of shorts and shirts.
We came home a week early for two reasons: our best friends were going to Portugal for 3 weeks and we needed to see them before they left AND one of our close family friends sons (like a son to Todd) was turning 30! We jigged our return home plans to comeback 10 days early so we could see all the people in a timely manner. Anita and Todd hosted a spontaneous outdoor BBQ party 8 hours after we cross the border. It was a super splendid time of friendship, food and bevvies. The next evening was a 30th birthday party for Max; Todd has known Max since he was 2 years old! An interesting professional Burlesque night at his house! And of course Mothers day Sunday was a busy day; nothing like coming home and hitting the ground running!
We finally had Ruby back on her RV perch at the family land Monday afternoon (May 5th). I’m pretty sure it took us at least two days too empty all things Mexico out of Ruby….the sand, extra parts, beach equipment, leather goods, tequila etc and then loaded her back up with Canadian seasonal items like extra blankets, fire wood and long johns…..just in time to head out for the May Long camping weekend. Todd has been camping with his buddies for 40 years (minus the year we went to Australia 2014). This group morphs and changes every year; sometimes more and sometimes less people. But regardless of how many we have in the group, Todd always heads out 3 days early to ensure we get “the spot”. As per usual, we had the place to ourselves for the first night and our first visitors arrived early on Wednesday morning….(Todd’s son) Devon and his girlfriend Keo! We were so happy to see them, since it had been about 8 months! Typical May long weekend in Alberta where you get almost all 4 seasons in 3 days….lucky no snow this year, but A LOT of rain. Here’s some evidence of some of the fun that was had: May-long-2025.html
Our random yachting tour.
Six days later, we had Ruby back on her RV pad, while we packed the car up and headed west to Vancouver Island. It was time to get back on our boat for yet another Grand Adventure! We always do a stopover in Kamloops on the way, its too much of a drive and a long ferry if we do it all in one day. We arrived and loaded onto the boat on May 25, but didn’t depart Maple Bay until the next morning. We wanted to checkout what Vesuvius had to offer, but we didn’t stay long….basically a restaurant with famous fish and chips….we just ate breakfast and weren’t ready for lunch. So we sailed around the Saltspring tip and headed to Wallace Island where we anchored at Princess Cove. This island was such a gem! There used to be a family vacation camp resort on this island back in the 1950’s. There were still some old buildings on the island, but now it’s a BC park and kayakers camp on the island in a few designated campsites. Also a fairly long hiking trail from one end of the island to the other, with great scenery at all points!
The temperature on the Wednesday was going to be a scorcher, so we thought it might be a good idea to head back to Montague Harbor (one of our favourite places) for a couple days to hang out on the seashell beach and soak up some sun! This did not disappoint and we love the little 1.5km trail around the west island. After our 2 days here, we had to stock up on a few groceries so we booked a marina spot at Chemainus for the night and walked into town a couple times; although this town is so close to Maple Bay, we had never even driven through it before. It was a cute and very walkable place.
The next major sail was up through Dodd’s Narrows towards Nanaimo. This is a very narrow narrows and you have to be cognizant of the tide and your boat capabilities. Our boat maxes out around 6-7 knots and so we had to ensure we were at the head of Dodds narrows at slack tide or when the tide wasn’t really more than 1.5-2 knots either way. Todd heard it can get very busy in this section, as it is the main boat way to Nanaimo and north from the gulf islands. It was a 2 ½ hour trip from Chemainus to Dodd’s and we had enough time to stop and float and make breakfast before we headed through. We hit the tide perfectly and it wasn’t too busy since it was a Thursday and we ended up at the dock on Newcastle Island. Although we hadn’t planned to stay more than 1 night, we ended up here for 3 nights due to the northerly wind. Newcastle is a great place to hang for 3 days since its full of hiking trails, its great proximity to the Dinghy Dock Pub and a fairly quick dinghy trip across to Nanaimo to pickup supplies. Leaving Newcastle was a bit of a physics challenge…the morning of day 4, we were hoping to leave but the wind picked up once again. Todd put on his thinking cap to determine the best way to get the boat off the dock, while the wind was pushing the boat into the dock. His spidy sense was tingling and then in a very short 2-minute span of space / time continuum, the wind died down and he was able to push the bow of the boat off the dock manually, then jumped aboard and gunned the engine, engaged the bow thruster and we were off the dock! Heading back to Dodds Narrows was a challenge….along with the wind comes way bigger waves and turns out it wasn’t my favourite day on the boat! Kinda like Australia back in the day (the last picture of this post: https://thosegirlstravel.blogspot.com/2014/04/getting-our-sea-legs-on-eh.html)
Navigating back through the narrows was pretty seamless and somewhat protected from the wind as we headed to Thetis Island; where we anchored for the night. Here we met a guy from Australia who bought his boat last year but was sailing his boat for the first time, back to Australia! Todd also helped another sail boat get back on its buoy after his rope snapped. There was not a lot to do on Thetis Island so we picked up and headed over to Long Harbour on the SE side of Saltspring; a gorgeous bay, with no wind! We anchored here, then dinghy’d to shore and walked to Ganges for a few supplies. It was a long walk (1.25 hours), and when we pit stopped for a drink at the Cassette Café and Bar, the server told us to catch the bus back to Long Harbour. We checked the bus schedule and missed the last bus by 2 minutes! So we walked back to Long Harbour….it was an early night to bed!
Our second last day was a sail from Long Harbour to Bergoyne Bay – even though both of these locations are on Salt Spring….it was an almost 4 hour sail to get there. We have been to Bergoyne before….the biggest challenge is finding a shallow enough anchoring place in this bay. We eventually found one and then dinghy’d to shore for a hike (which we knew there were lots of!) This hike had so many gorgeous wildflowers and the smell of nature was mind blowing. We met a couple on the trail from the island that spend their winters in an RV in Guaybitos, Mexico….so we had a lot to chat about! Here’s how much fun we had sailing:Grand-adventure-3.html
By 9 am the next day, we pulled anchor and made the short 45 minute trip back in to Maple Bay. It was a perfectly gorgeous blue sky, warm temperature, no wind kind of spring day. Made the boat cleaning and emptying all the better. A delicious dinner at the Genoa Bay Café (GF coconut shrimp and fish and chips) and by 9:30 the next morning, we left Maple Bay and headed to Ladysmith for breakfast. The 12:45 ferry back to Tsawwassen was actually on time and had us arriving at our friends place in Ladner by 3:30.
Ladner: Us and Steve and Denise’s arms only!
Spent a fantastic evening with them before our early departure back home….only to find out that highway was closed, we had a 3 hour detour, followed by another 45 min detour…..12 hours later we arrived back home to Ruby.