We've heard from Sceptre Marine that May 21st is a Canadian holiday (Victoria Day), so the haul-out won't be until the 23rd. That means the Sceptre fun race is definitely out of the question.

I just noticed that the Vancouver weather is totally different from what we're experiencing here in Ganges. The sticker on our home page says it's mostly cloudy there. There isn't a cloud in the sky here.

We really like it here. This morning we noticed that a prime anchoring spot in the harbor had become vacant, so we moved into it. The ferry doesn't come in here, so we don't have that to contend with, but we seem to be in the middle of the seaplane runway. Last night they were taxiing on either side of us. Now that it's Friday evening, the traffic has picked up, and we have new neighbors, including another Sceptre. We're planning to stay through the weekend. Then we'll get fuel and propane on Monday, top off our water tanks, and head somewhere else. We don't know where yet, and we like it that way.

We took the dinghy into town this afternoon. It was fun exploring. The grocery store is right next to the park that has the dinghy dock. How convenient. There's a hardware store, coffee place, book stores, several restaurants and pubs. We had coffee at Salt Spring Coffee, bought a used paperback at Volume II book store, had a beer at The Local pub, got a live crab off the boat from the guy featured on the front of the local throw-away paper, and finally went grocery shopping. Instead of the pork roast John had planned for dinner, we had fresh Dungeness crab and chopped salad with a bottle of local (Saturna Island) pinot gris. It really doesn't get much better than this.

But wait! Tomorrow is the local farmers' market. When we found out, we crossed the produce off of today's shopping list (except for tomatoes, which they won't have locally this early). We'll go back to shore in the morning to see what's available. If need be, we can always stop at the market on our way back.

We love this place. But apparently, so do a whole lot of other people. Real estate prices here are pretty high. Of course, they're quoted in Canadian dollars, but still... On a beautiful day like today, you can't help but be tempted. There are some nice looking condos right on the water here.

The photo is of the guy we bought the crab from and a woman who identified herself as a sea nymph (because she refused to be called a seaman).