We left Brentwood Bay around 2 pm on Monday, Sept 8th after my new friend Leoni graciously took me grocery shopping in town.  We had another spectacular day as far as weather.  We decided to head to Genoa Bay, upcoast from our location and also on Vancouver Island.

There was quite a bit of wind and we had a very brisk sail (over 8 knots at times) to Genoa.  We approached the bay carefully as there was an obstacle listed on the charts, but we had no problem.  There were only a couple of other boats there and we set the anchor easily in the beautiful bay.

After a relaxing afternoon and restful night we took a dinghy ride around the bay and into the marina to see what it was like.  They have a nice restaurant there as well as a cute store and a friendly atmosphere.  We ended up getting block ice at the store for our ice box there before leaving the next day.  We headed out on Wednesday morning to Portland Island, which is a small marine park.  When we got to the island and found the anchorage, it was so small that we didn’t feel comfortable anchoring there.  Since we were meeting our friends from San Pedro, Sue and Dick/Changing Tide at Ganges Harbour, Salt Spring Island, we decided to head there early.  We arrived in the harbor at about 4 pm and set the anchor.

This is a wonderful place! There are several marinas here, but we are comfortable in the anchorage area.  There is a great market in town right by the dinghy dock – so convenient!  There are many farms on Salt Spring Island as well as a lot of artists and earthy folks. we went to the open air market on Saturday and I got some wonderful local apples. mmmmm.

We spent one afternoon kayaking around in the bay next to here, Madrona Bay.  We were watching a sailboat coming through a narrow passage where we knew there were rocks, but we thought that they must be aware of the danger.  The next moment, BAM! – they were wedged onto the rocks that were just below the surface of the water.  I couldn’t believe it. A power boat was nearby and offered help – the man from the sailboat rowed over in his dinghy with a line and after both boats had secured the line, the power boat dragged the sailboat off of the rocks!  What a scene.

We met up with Sue and Dick on Friday and had lunch with them in town and then happy hour aboard Changing Tide, a beautiful boat.  This is their third year cruising this area and it’s great to get tips and insights from them.  We all had dinner together aboard Toga Saturday night and it was great fun to catch up.

Sue and Dick took off yesterday and Ralph and I caught the shuttle bus to the Island Fall Fair, where we had such fun.  It was a real agricultural fair that included sheep dog demonstrations, tractor pulls, all kinds of animals on display as well as contests for local flowers, quilt makers, baked goods.  We sampled the pie, hard to choose from over 40 varieties on sale.  We had a wild blueberry pie and it was great.

We plan to head out this morning to a nearby island.  We are having hot weather and things are lovely.  We’re all smiles!