Tuesday morning started off cold, but turned into another beautiful day as we motored our way southwest across the Strait of Georgia for Nanaimo. The leisurely sail we'd been looking forward to will just have to wait as, per usual, there wasn't a breath of wind to push us along.
When we arrived in Mark's Bay, the anchorage just off Newcastle Island, we were surprised to see Salubrious still there and dropped our hook next to them. With a long list of chores to do and only a short stay planned, I piled the dirty clothes into the dinghy and made my way to the city marina to do laundry. Along the way, I ran into Bill and Sylvia while they were having a late lunch and invited them over for drinks that evening – squeezing in one last farewell before they left early the next morning to make their way back home.
Unfortunately, ten days of fine weather are coming to an end. There's another weather system moving down from Alaska predicted to hit the area later today with rain and winds from the southeast reaching 35 knots. Although the holding is good here, it's exposed and we need to seek out better protection making it time to move farther south. Although convenient for taking care of business and provisioning, anchoring near a city is always a difficult adjustment. Life is much busier with the steady flow of traffic from the streets, float planes coming and going and sirens! So, as much as I enjoy the hiking trails on Newcastle Island, saying good-bye to Nanaimo is rarely bittersweet.
We upped anchor early this morning and, after fuelling up, made our way through Dodd Narrows at slack tide. We'd originally planned to go to Clam Bay, a well-protected anchorage tucked in between the east sides of Thetis and Kuper Islands, but changed our minds along the way and pulled into Telegraph Harbour Marina where we tied up, plugged in, and waited.
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