Dear Family and Friends,

Crossing into Canada! In our last post we were on Orcas Island. Just before we left there on the morning of May 2^nd, Katie misjudged a leap from the swim step to the dock and fell in. Roxie was on the dock and pulled her out by her collar. Katie was as mad as could be, but dried off quickly with her new short haircut. We then headed for Canada and checked into Canadian customs at Bedwell Harbor (Poet’s Cove Resort). We had called in with our Nexus card before we got there, but this time we were boarded by a Customs official. He told us that he was checking to be certain that we had the stuff that we had claimed to have on board. All went well as we had been truthful!

Friday Harbor dock

Friday Harbor

Crofton--B .C. mill town

This day’s journey took us to Ladysmith, B.C., on Vancouver Island, a cute town full of history. The next day, May 4^th, we departed for Nanaimo, B.C. Our weather was calm and sunny—a perfect combination. On our way, we arrived at Dodd Narrows in perfect timing to do a slack tide crossing. Any other type of crossing would involve whirlpools and opposing currents that can do great harm to your boat at the worst or very anxious moments at the best. We arrived in Nanaimo at noon in time to do some of the ordinary maintenance jobs of life—grocery shopping, showers, vacuuming, e-mail, etc. Keep in mind that we are now always on foot to do our errands. Later, we also walked about 20 minutes to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner.

On May 5^th, we left Nanaimo early (7 am) to enjoy mostly calm water to our next destination—Comox, B.C., a trip of some 7 ½ hours. We are at one of the four marinas in town presently along with mostly fishing boats also headed for Alaska or to do local crabbing and shrimping.

We are surprised and pleased at how few pleasure boaters there are on the water this time of year. It makes for fewer wakes and less trouble finding moorage. Once the kids get out of school and the weather warms up, there will be a lot more boaters out here!

Signing out,

Susan, Rod,