Friday, July 27th. After our usual morning routine, we pulled up the anchor and headed for Ganges, a town on Saltspring Island, in the Gulf Islands, in British Columbia, Canada. Whew, that’s quite an address!
As we left Montague, the circle raft-up (described in a previous post) broke up... much like formation skydivers, each floating off in a different direction. The were heading north, we were going west; we threaded our way through the stream of boats, out of the harbor, and into open water.
Ganges is less than 10 miles from Montague, so it wasn’t a long trip. Nearing the marina, we could see that there was a lot of traffic. We called the marina to get our slip assignment and ask about getting fuel... “You can get in the que for fuel,” we were told. We sat in the small area off the fuel dock, manuevering in the breeze for about a half hour... burning fuel while we waited for our turn to buy fuel. No, they didn’t have a place to tie off while we waited; we found out that this is their busiest weekend of the year. Well, it was easy information to come by, because the gruff guy at the marina said it... like he was pissed about it. As a former business owner, I’d be delighted to have all this business (and all of them are spending money). Oh, well.
We left over $300 with the lady at the cash register and got directions to our slip. As we left, the crabby guy said, “You’ll have to share hydro.” Translation: you get to pay the full price, but you won’t get 30 amp power like we told you you would. Oh, well.
We made our way around the marina and pulled into our slip. Several other C-Dory owners were there to take lines, since Mr. Crabbypants was out helping big boat owners get into their slips. Nice to see smiling faces.
With Wild Blue securely tied and plugged in, we walked up the steep ramp and into town. Ganges is a pretty little place, definitely a tourist town; mostly restaurants and gift shops. And a very nice grocery store. Crowded, because it’s the busiest weekend of the season.
We tried one restaurant, but got ignored while we sat at the table. We moved on to another and were invited to join Jan and Stacey, another very nice C-Dory couple (C-Change). We had a great conversation and good food.
Back at the boat, I tried to sign on to the wireless internet that the marina offers... it was painfully slow. Oh, well.
We watched seaplanes land and take off right over the marina... airplane noise doesn’t bother us a bit.
When I was finally able to sign on to the internet, I saw that we had a message from Warren and Lori (Lori Ann). As we walked towards the marina their boat is in, we ran into them walking towards ours. We visited for a while, then walked back to town with them. They were in need of supper, we just needed some ice cream, so we went our separate ways.
Back at the marina, we took showers. The sign said, “4 minutes for one Looney.” That’s a Canadian dollar. I popped in the coin and was treated to a minute or so of freezing cold water. When I could stand to get in, I got lathered up and the water shut off. Apparently, these are Canadian minutes and are shorter than American minutes! I dug my soapy hand into my pocket and pulled out another Looney. Yep, cold water again, and then a rinse. I stood in there and used the whole 2 minutes or so of actual time. Oh, well.
Warren and Lori stopped by the boat on their way back, and we visited until almost dark. And then for some reason, the internet connection decided to work faster. I posted a few photos on the C-Brats site and called it a night. Here we have this whole 15 amps of power, and we don’t even need our electric heater.
Best wishes,
Jim B.
