Photo: On the boardwalk at Hartley Bay.

We leave early the next morning, motoring out Ursula Channel and McKay Reach on another sunny quiet day. About seven miles from Hartley Bay, when we have the Bay in sight, I call the town on the radio. Could they confirm they have wifi? A woman's voice answers and says their system is down and the person in charge is out of town.

We're just about to turn Osprey and head back into McKay Reach when a man's voice comes over the radio. He's on a fishboat at the marina, he tells us, has internet on his boat, and we are welcome to use it.

We tie up at the dock across from the fishboat where we download the 15 mb file in 11 seconds with the fisherman's Telus/Verizon internet antenna. I want one!

I spend several hours working on the manuscript, then we go for a walk. We follow one of the town's many boardwalks across a bridge, then alongside a river bank. Cedars, spruce and hemlock shade the boardwalk and lush ferns, devil's club bushes and skunk cabbages cover the adjacent forest floor. Two young man standing on a small hillock call to us and we walk up to talk to them. This is the town's swimming hole, they tell us, gesturing at a wide spot in the river below. They swing out on ropes hanging from trees and jump into the water for my camera.