I ventured ashore for my usual island explorations in the early morning. There were good adventures to be had, including a pair of young raccoons who were eager to pose for pics, an old Willies jeep frantically rusting away in the weeds, and a cabinful of hand-carved plaques commemorating the presence of passing cruiser. You’ll see pictures, including one of the plaque I carved for Mabrouka in the Princess Bay sub-album of the Local Cruising - 2013 gallery.



After yesterday’s extended and strenuous learning experience at stern tying, I was tempted to take advantage of Princess Bay for another day to glean full benefits out of the effort, but I decided I’d done all the exploration I wanted to and it didn’t look like good varnishing weather, so I dropped the stern line, hoisted anchor and set off for Sibell Bay in mid-morning. It was a lovely two-hour motor weaving amongst the woods-covered Gulf Islands to Ladysmith Harbour.

Arriving in the northern bay, I dropped anchor to the sounds of carryings-on in a nearby sailboat. The hubbub was an enjoyable change from the peace and quiet of Princess Bay. A variety of music wafted my way, but eventually a series of Willie Nelson tunes took over. Soon one of them noticed that I was paying them some attention and waved at me, beckoning me over.



Dana and Scott had given me a signed copy of Willie Nelson’s book, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. Having finished it, I decided it might be time to pass it on to a real Willie Nelson fan, so I ducked below and grabbed it before motoring over to join the party.

One of the three couples aboard had gotten married just two days before, and this seemed to be a continuation of the wedding party. The other other couples were from the other two sailboats moored on the bay, so they were all my kind of people. My age, too, so we had plenty in common and shared some fun stories of sailing screw ups and educational anecdotes. It was a nice evening.