Sleep Please!

Day 16 was difficult to get up and going when my alarm went off at 5:15am.  A little over 2 hours sleep doesn’t do much for you.  The plan was an early morning departure for crossing the Straight of Georgia.  The typical summer weather pattern in the straight is for calm early morning winds followed by increasing winds mid morning.  At 5:15am, half awake, I grabbed my phone for the latest weather forecast.  We were in luck!  It called for some wind early morning then diminishing to light by mid morning.  Not typical, but God must have known we needed more sleep!

2 more hours sleep then we dinghied over to Nancy’s Bakery for some breakfast, a place I wanted to go to but our early departure was not going to allow it. The guidebooks rave about this place, but the breakfast sandwiches and cinnamon roles we ordered were not that great.  Now we know.

8:30am we were outa there for the 6-hour fast cruise to Nanaimo.  Running at 12.5 knots (we usually go 7-8) and a 1 – 1.5 knot current in our direction, we made landfall an hour earlier than expected.  The hot weather finally broke with rain coming down all morning long.  It was actually kind of nice with the rain and we had calm seas all the way across.

Back in Nanaimo we tied up at Cameron Island Marina.  A nice guy helping boats tie up was trying to get a large 53-foot boat in a tight spot.  After they had it tied up he told the lady on the boat; and I quote “Well your aft is nice and tight”.  He may want to choose his words more wisely next time.  Exhausted from the long day we walked up to town and went through the Nanaimo History Museum.  This small museum was really well done and we all had a lot of fun.  Dinner out, then grocery shopping to stock up for some time in the Gulf Islands.  Early to bed tonight!