We spent the past six days anchored in Garden Bay enjoying Pender Harbour and its nearby offerings. It seems the more time we spend here, the less we want to leave. The villages are quiet, yet active, and the people are friendly, often going out of their way to make you feel at home.
Like us, Bill and Sylvia are taken with Pender Harbour and decided to stay through the weekend, so we had dinner together at the pub Thursday night where they paid David an exceptional complement. They thanked him for his help navigating the entrance to the harbour and said they wouldn't have followed anyone else in. I suppose for people who aren't boaters, on the surface, that may not sound like such a big deal but, trust me, it is.
The weather was beautiful most of the week so, on Saturday, we took the community bus to Egmont and walked the 2.5 mile trail through a forest of moss-covered cedars to Roland Point to see Skookumchuk Narrows, one of the fastest saltwater rapids in North America which runs sixteen knots during a maximum flood tide. It just so happened that the bus schedule worked perfectly with an extra-large maximum flood and we were able to sit on the rocks for hours watching the maelstrom take place merely a few feet away. It was an amazing and powerful sight – well worth the trip.
It had been a long day, so we had dinner at the pub where, funnily enough, it was karaoke night. There were only eleven people there, including the staff, and it was absolutely AWFUL. Come to find out, David has a propensity for karaoke and went up to sing four or five songs. Now, this is where I usually write something about how surprised I am to have discovered yet another one of his numerous talents after so many years together. But not this time. It was AWFUL. Full stop. Sorry, honey.
Sunday morning we said our good-byes to Salubrious and David ran into Gary, the bus driver from Sechelt. He's a canny guy and, like so many other Canadians that we've met along the way, shares a similar world-view. They exchanged contact information and Gary gave him a signed copy of his CD, Gary Gilbert and the Unsung Heroes: January Man. It's really good and a nice change from the formula music that seems to make it to the airwaves nowadays. We plan to keep in touch over the off-season and hope to take him and his family out for a day when we come back next year for the blues festival in June.
In the afternoon, we went back over to the Garden Bay Pub. Every Sunday, they have live music and we wanted to hear the Larrie Cook Blues Band. Come to find out, Larrie's a sailor himself and has made two circumnavigations and sailed with Bernard Moitessier, a renowned French yachtsman and author. The band was actually really good and a lot of fun to listen to...just another example of the many reasons we've come to love it here.
As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and our time in Pender Harbour is over. It's getting late in the year and it's time to cross the Strait of Georgia and start making our way south.
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