Morning rain in Ganges. Around 5 or 6 we had a short rain so Leslie popped up to check the hatches; one of the down sides of being in a boat is that overhead hatches need to be closed in rain or wavy conditions.

A few hours later we awoke to blue sky and a stiff wind. We had pretty much decided to stay a day in Ganges and the wind just made it a sure thing. A nice shower at the marina pried my eyes open a bit more. Breakfast was toast, butter and my Mom’s homemade jam, imported especially for me by me.

Rhubarb had pulled out during my shower so we were alone in our slip. Then it finally occurred to us we hadn’t booked our flights home yet. I guess subconsciously we were thinking we would pull a Minnow and be stranded on an island or something. After a lot of shuffling and backs and forths we settled on a seaplane out of Nanaimo and a 2 o’clock flight back from YVR. Since we’d missed advance seat sales the pricing actually turned out a bit less and there was less hassle with security, etc.

Next up we grabbed our coats against the wind and headed into town. At the first gallery we got away with just some spicy soap and a lovely small collage. The soap is smelly and hangs in blocks off a string. You just remove one from the bottom to use and allow the others to continue to smell up the place.

A few stores later and we ended up at Black Sheep Books. There was a Nick Bantock room there and a few Bantock originals on the wall. Cool. We escaped with only two books: an editing one for L and the history of beavers (in the fur trade) for C. I count myself lucky there were weight restrictions on the seaplane.

A couple more galleries followed. In the last one there were these awesome bear bronzes with attitude. They so reminded me if someone who isn’t Leslie. Bossy and over ‘bear’ ing… :-). There was also a large reddish soapstone carving of a bear about 2 feet long and a foot and a half high. As you approached it from the back side you noticed the bear’s bottom had a white chunk of stone right in the middle. It looked kinda funny … you know … like poop. Pretty soon every time you walked by you found yourself staring and giggling at the bear’s ass … and then when you walked around front you could see a sheepish look on his face. I guess he was em ‘bear’-assed!

Upon exiting the gallery we stopped at Auntie Pesto’s for mussels, chowder and panini. Not bad. Especially with the glass of pinot gris. After lunch we strolled up to a few other galleries and in the last one we saw some of the best leather bags ever. Alas, no one had money or space for these loverly creations and we sadly left them behind.

Somewhere around here I pointed out a hill in the distance and C started looking around for a milf. Now I have finally, albeit reluctantly, acknowledged I mumble a bit, but it would take an awful dirty mind to turn ‘hill’ into ‘milf’; but I guess I now know where to find an awful dirty mind if ever I should need one.

We cut across the park as we headed back to the boat. There was a small market just packing up. At a few of the shops earlier in the day we had encountered these bags made from recycled suit jackets and had been talking about how cool they were. Lo and behold, the artist was just closing up shop in the little market. We chatted to her about her work and she offered to custom make some bags if we had any sentimental old suits or coats sitting around. www.rumahkampung.com. There had been a big satchel made from a Le Chateau coat that I really liked. Maybe I will look into it.

Then it was winery time. We trucked up another long, long hill to Mistaken Identity Winery for some sampling. Overall the wines were meh, but we picked up a nice dessert wine anyway. At least no one offered us a ride home.

On the walk back along the pier to the boat C started spouting off loudly to L (who was right behind us) about all things related to Bruce and poop, going on about how offended she was by the combination or something like that–I wasn’t really listening. Unfortunately the person right behind us was in fact the lady Leslie had held the gate open for and Leslie was currently 30 feet back and out of earshot; not so the lady. Now I won’t say C was em’bear’assed, but she sure did hide behind me as we paused to let L catch up. Back on board C and I shared a big beer and L had a cider before trundling off to shower and all was good.

A bit of a break and then we broke out the Ports and Passes and planned tomorrow’s itinerary. We want to be back in Nanaimo tomorrow so we can fill up the tanks and be ready to get in early Friday morning. Since we have to transit Dodd Narrows at, or around, 1:30 (although with the power boat we can fudge that an hour either way pretty easily) we just count back from there. It looks like about 2.8 hrs at 10 knots so if we are gone by 11–which is checkout time– we should be golden.

Dinner is French toast and tomato salad. Again I find the electrical in this boat is hinky. I had put out the splitters so L could heat some hot water (which is on line 2) without changing over the power cord again (the range is on line 1), but now it seems we can’t run the range and the stove top at the same time. Very weird system…

The wind is still pretty gusty so we will have some good rock-a-roo to lull us to sleep tonight. The Recess, a Beneteau 32 also from Nanaimo Yacht Charters, is in tonight as well. She is the boat that had dingy problems in Montague Bay the night we were there and ended up having the girl row back while the young man manfully fussed over the dead outboard. A nautical variation of the shucks-we-ran-out-of-gas ploy?

This morning we spotted a gaggle of geese. Later in the AM they had morphed into a kettle of kayakers. And while we were downtown the transmuted into a pack of skateboarders. We kept an eye out but the shapeshifter horde seemed to have retired for the day. Then, just before 9, out the aft window we spotted 2 swans and a passel of cygnets. Obviously our horde was back.

We broke out the heels of bread and leftover French toast and treated them to treats.

After we ran out of munchies, Papa rounded up the horde and sailed off in search of better pickings. We retired back to our rosé to ponder ugly ducklings and chat about people, family, advertising and stuff.

We finished the night with the dregs of See Ya Later’s Jimmy my Pal, a Syrah and a bag of Orville Redenbacher’s Dill Pickle popcorn.