We are traveling with 4 other boats from the yacht club into Canada and most of us are headed to Desolation Sound. Some of the group gathered in the San Juans and then crossed over a day before us as we had one thing left to fix on the boat. We were glad we stayed behind because the final fix for the pulley was successful and the weather was much nicer the day we crossed the strait.

After checking into Canada, we landed at Van Isle Marina for fuel and then around the corner to drop anchor in Roberts Bay. It was a great spot and only a quick ride in the fishing boat over to Sidney Harbor to meet up with our travel mates.

Sidney is a beautiful little town and one of our favorite memories is the Thursday night farmers market. Prior to Covid, they would close 4 blocks of the main road and you could walk for hours looking at everything and eating your way through. Unfortunately, they now have a much smaller version in a large parking lot at the end of town. This so reminded me of my working days as Melissa and I would set up our 911 booth at outdoor markets all over King County to spread the gospel of 911. This time, I was a visitor, not a vendor, and not in costume, and it was very nice. We found several things we just couldn’t live without, but the food wasn’t very inviting. So we headed back into town and had a wonderful Thai meal before going back to the dock and then on to our boat.

Next destination: Brentwood Marina and Tod Inlet where three of the boats stayed in the marina, and two of us anchored in Tod Inlet. When a boat stern ties to shore, it makes more room for boats in a small harbor. So we anchored and stern tied at the front of the inlet.

There was a bit of breeze but the anchor and stern lines were strong and we watched them closely through a large tide swing to make sure we were good. We made adjustments when we needed and didn’t have any issues - sort of (see Stern Tie blog).

We have a very fond memory of Tod Inlet from several years back. Our dear friends, Al and Jody, invited us to join them and 2 other boats for the weekend. We had our little 24 foot boat and their boats were 40ish feet, two with aft cabins. This was right in the middle of our boat shopping days and we just fell in love with their boat styles. We had made our decision and it wasn’t too long after that trip we found the boat we wanted and made the big purchase.

The following morning was a planned trip over to Buchart Gardens with Tony and Lisa. All looked good, the tide was going out, but wasn’t to go out as far as the day before, so we took the dingy and headed over to the dingy dock at the back entrance of the gardens. We were ready for a fun day.

Canada - Here We Come - Again!

Buchart Gardens

Another Boat Project!