Pender Harbour - Group Excursion
Even though How was still recovering from achilles surgery... what better way to spend the last of the summer than with a trip across the Strait of Georgia to Pender Harbour? Especially when the Jazz Festival is in full swing? (pun intended).
Six vessels from Nanaimo Yacht club met at the Fishermans Resort outstation in Hospital Bay on Friday the 19th - Silhouette, Propinquity (Mary & Rick), Dance Lightly (Barb & Harv), Dolphin (Rita & Dan), Wiley Coyote (Robin & Dave) and Alaunia (Leanne & Chris along with daughter Sarah). Friday night we all went ashore to the Garden Bay Pub where we enjoyed dinner and some bluesy jazz music. A beautiful moonlit walk back to Fishermans Resort was in order for most while H, because of his walking cast, hitched a fun dinghy ride home with Rick & Mary.
Saturday opened with a trip ashore to Madeira Park where the gang walked around the town, listened to a few musical groups at different venues and generally just basked in the sunshine and unseasonally warm weather!
Cool how those bright Cuban red pants match the spinnaker...
Happy hour on the docks was planned, with entertainment provided by our own jammin musicians; "Great Balls of Fire" Rick & "Howlin" Howard (along with special guest kazoo player "Shanty Man" Dan)... and of course a rousing rendition of "Waltzing Matilda" from our visiting Aussies on Alaunia.
So much fun was had that we went wa-ay past dinner time and most had to do with happy hour snacks until breakfast!
Sunday was departure day, with our Australian buddies on Alaunia heading northward
then made a short days passage south to Smuggler's Cove.
Nestled in the cozy inner basin we had a delightful happy hour ashore where the dogs could play and we all could take in the view.
We even managed to make it back to the boats in reasonable time for dinner aboard our floating homes
Overnight the wind blew from the SE upwards of 25 kts outside the anchorage, the forecast called for winds in Georgia Strait to decrease to 10 - 15 kts after noon. After the skippers meeting it was decided that we would depart after 10 am when winds would hopefully be abating... with reefed sails in overcast skies we made a slow passage upwind through Welcome? Passage and then turned SW to cross the strait. Silhouette encountered winds between 21 & 24 knots across most of the strait until just outside Departure Bay where winds were still in the neighbourhood of 17 kts; but all made it safe and sound with a fast passage back to Nanaimo just in time to get an hour or so of sunshine before the fall rains set in.
What a great way to end the summer!
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