Familiar Anchorages

 We left Bowen Island in light rain but we did get some wind and by 07:00 we were on the Georgia Strait and sailing  at 5-6 knots.  We held onto the wind until about 10:30 when it dropped out, then motored the last hour and half to Newcastle Island where we managed to snag the last 40' mooring available.  We bought a mooring device called a "Happy Hooker" a few years ago to make picking up moorings easier.  It's paid for itself many times over.  No trying to lift mooring chains, or mooring buoys to get a line through them.  We used it at Newcastle and had a brief conversation with a couple on a nearby trimaran:

Tri: That looked easy...

Us: yep, bought this a few years ago, it's called a Happy Hooker

Tri: What???

Us: A "Happy Hooker", every boat should have a "Happy Hooker"

The conversation went downhill from there.....

The next day we picked up the new RACOR from Harbour Chandler and some floating line for a new dinghy painter.  I am NOT going through another rope wrapped around the prop!  Got the new RACOR installed, bled the system, and fired up the motor.  Checked that it continued to work over the next few days, and happy to say, problem solved!

View from Newcastle Island - Nanaimo

From Nanaimo we headed sailed south to Dodds Narrows, motored through the narrows then on to Montague Harbour, one of our go-to anchorages.  Stayed there for a few nights, did some nice energetic walks, lunch at the Crane and Robin (great view and food), and generally chilled out.  

Squirrel!   

Galiano Wildlife

We are on a bit of a timeline as we're meeting friends from Ontario on Aug 18th. but we still had a few places we wanted to go so we headed over Ganges Harbour and tied up in the marina for a night to deal with laundry and a bit of provisioning.  Got our chores done, had a drink on the boardwalk and generally wandered around with no real plans.

Mermaid in Ganges - Salt Spring Island

Had a lazy morning and left Ganges Marina just before 10:00.  Sails up just outside the no-wake zone in the harbour and we sailed through to the end of Satellite Channel, outpacing a few boats on the way.  We particularly like overtaking new sailboats using our 40 year old design and technology.  We headed to Genoa Bay for the night.  Dropped the hook behind reef and settled in for the night, didn't even bother launching the dinghy.  

Happy Cathy

Genoa Bay Sunset

We were headed to Mill Bay the next day to met up with friends for lunch.  Sails up outside the anchorage and we had a great sail with long tacks to around Arbutus Ridge before the wind died.  Motored the last 1/2 hour and tied up in the Mill Bay Marina to met old friends for lunch.  We first met Don and Monica when we moved to Maple Bay Marina back in 2002.  They have a place now in Mill Bay and spend winters in their RV travelling south to warmer climes...