We had planned a long leg today - from Silva Bay to Gowiland Harbour, over 90 miles. Often this stretch is a slog, directly up the teeth of the summer Northwesterlies that blow down Georgia Straight, right on your nose. The Canada Marine Weather forecast said it was going to blow 20-25 knots down the Straight but gradually lesson to 5-15 knots as the day went on. (We have to hand to the Canadian weather forecasters - they have been incredibly accurate so far on this trip!)

We left Silva Bay, avoiding Shipyard Rock (named because it has long kept the local shipyard in business) as we left the harbour. (The photo of our departure appears above.)

As we headed out into the Straights of Georgia, it was clear that the weather forecasters had earned their salaries. It was 20-25 knots right on our nose. We had really large and exciting hobby-horse swells as we left land, caused by the rebound effect of the waves, bouncing off land and peaking up the opposing swells coming from Northwest. Some swells were six feet or so, with short intervals (about 3-4 seconds). Katie and I were at the upper helm station and felt like cowboys riding a bucking bronco. Great fun! The wind kept at us at about 20 knots but we could feel it gradually lessening as we watched the apparent wind speed indicator drop from 20, to 19, then 18, then 17.

About this time a large, strange-looking ship appeared on our stern, out in the main channel. At a distance, and in the early morning light, it looked too large to be a ferry, more like a troop carrier from the 40's. As we both converged on the Nanaimo harbour entrance, it was clear it was a very large BC ferry, about the largest we have seen. Fortunately, it went its way and we went ours without any issues.

As we headed north, ever hopeful the winds would keep dropping, Katie was at the helm most of the day. I went below to check on how the batteries were charging. Goodness! The inverter's red error light was blinking. (An inverter is one of those magical instruments that converts DC from the engine to AC for some parts of the power supply, while it also charges the DC batteries -- the engine starting battery, the house batteries, and even the generator battery. It is a miracle gizmo.) Unfortunately, our inverter panel is one of those deep, dark secrets that is hard to fathom. And, our manual is a perfect example of how NOT to write an instructional manual. We dare anyone to read a page and tell us what it says. Moreover, we have been told not to mess with the settings for fear of making a catastrophe of things.

Well, of course, being the type to always follow directions, I messed with the settings and made a catastrophe of things. I even turned off all of Katie's instruments up on the top deck for a short period, while we were underway. Try as I could, I could not get the darn error light to go out. Finally, I screwed things up so badly, the inverter ended up off and it was not charging our batteries at all. Time for a lifeline call -- I called Debbie back in Connecticut. Her suggestion was to take a look at the manual and see if there was something, even a paragraph, related to the issue and try and make some sense of it. You know, what? Her idea worked!! I went to page 1: On and Off Settings. It showed how an underscore character indicated if the inverter was ¬On, Off, etc. Given the display, and the angle, you had to look incredibly close to see the underscore and determine which setting was set. Guess what? It showed Off! I quickly read the second paragraph and discovered how to move the underscore and then moved it to On. Bingo!!!! It was inverting and the error light was now off! Miracle of miracles! It is amazing what reading will tell you about!!! (Said as a professor of reading education, who seldom reads directions for gizmos, preferring instead to just mess about.)

I reported my success to Katie and we high-fived our way to more adventures that I will, no doubt, soon cause! I also reported in to Connecticut and told my lifeline that, no, we had not won a million dollars but, even better, we would soon have charged batteries at the end of the day!

About this time the wind was continuing to ease. It was exceptional, nearly flat. We went by Tribune Bay on Hornby Island. We had planned to stop there if the waves were taking a toll on us but, given the conditions, we decided to head for Gowiland Harbour at the northern end of Georgia Straights. Tribune Bay looked like a great place to anchor for the night. We should come back there.

Yesterday, on the way to Silva Bay, we listened to Katie's "Thinking Mix" with Cold Play and others. It was great music to and we pumped up the volume at the upper helm station to enjoy her music. Today, we got to listen to my somewhat eclectic tastes. I popped my iPhone into our ipod player on the ship's speaker system, shifted it to "Shuffle" so it would sample, randomly, from my random collection. Here were the first few selections, in order: 1) A hop-hop song about men and women that repeated, among other "interesting" refrains "Put you back into it!" 2) Simon and Garfunkle's "Bridge over Troubled Waters," 3) an opera selection by a soprano who sure seemed to hit high C once every few seconds, 4) Martin Luther King delivering his "I have a Dream" speech from the Lincoln Memorial, 5) a Christmas song my Manheim Steamroller, 6) Johnny Cash, ...well, you get the idea. It did keep us thinking! ;-) (Like what the heck will the next genre be????)

We approached Discovery Passage (Where George Vancouver and his men first discovered tide flowing south, indicating that the land mass to their left (now called Vancouver Island) was indeed an island. The wind/wave combination off of Cape Mudge was not bad so we plowed right through, found Gowiland Harbour, and set a great anchor among Mouse, Fawn, Doe, and Crow Islands. We had just passed 50 degrees north!! I fixed another incredible meal - this time of brats, cous cous, and salad served with a chilled white wine from the Okanagan Valley. We were so tired that we crashed before 8 am. It had been 94 miles and 12 hours of cruising.