Commodore's Cruise Day 7 - Telegraph Harbour

Today is the day of the Chemainus Theater play, “Footloose”. Before we left for the ferry I took a quick walk up the street to the honor system store. I had heard about this from several people who had been to Telegraph. There is a box by the door to drop your money into. Someone asked if they get cheated out of payment and the said that if anything, they make extra money. Since no one is there to make change (and with the Canadian exchange rate people often over pay so theft really isn’t a problem.

On my way back to the marina I got a few nice pictures of it.

At 10:30 we walked to the ferry that took us across to the town of Chermainus on Vancouver Island. Chermainus is a very cute town with murals on many of its walls. We had lunch at a café that served enormous portions. The food was great and Bob and Larry were intrigued with a wall safe that was in the room we ate in. It looks like it must have been a bank at one time.

Our next stop was the play and we enjoyed it so much. The venue was beautiful. There were only 274 seats and 8 rows. They were very steep rows so nor matter how tall the person in front of you was, you could still easily see. We were in the 4^th row and in the center. The facility had a lovely dining room upstairs so many patrons come for a dinner prior to the play. They even had an art auction going on until sometime in August. Since I wasn’t allowed to  take pictures, I got these from the internet. The play was so good and the actors were fantastic. The casting was excellent and we had a lot of fun. We have realty enjoyed doing some things like this while we are cruising. It has been fun to see what some of the island life is like for the residents.

As we returned to Thetis Island I noticed a sign that said what we thought was a Bible camp was actually a Capernwray Bible Centre. It is "a branch of the international and interdenominational work of Torchbearers International. It is one of 25 such centres for Bible training, retreats and evangelism, which are scattered throughout 20 different countries of the world." (taken from the Capernwray website).

When we returned to Telegraph we found many who stayed behind busy with a game of shuffleboard. Dinner was a relaxed appetizer spread on the dock with Al and Sue and a few others who joined us.

Commodore's Cruise Day 6 - Telegraph Harbour

Today we planned to leave Ladysmith for Telegraph Harbor about noon so we decided to walk into town with Virginia and Mike to check it out and to find out just how good the cinnamon rolls were at the highly recommended bakery.  It was a nice walk and the town had a fun theme to it. It is an old logging community and the trains played a huge role in moving the logs and lumber. Around town old pieces of equipment were freshly painted and added a bit of "art" to the town.  And, yes, the cinnamon rolls were great! This last picture is of the old abandoned train station. I'm not sure when it was last used but it was pretty cool.

We departed for Telegraph Harbor, a favorite of many cruisers. We have never been here before but heard so many positive things about it. Even the entrance gave us a warm welcome.

After we tied up and got settled we took our dinghies over to a pub that had very good food. Service was very slow but we had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. This evening was our Mexican themed dinner in the shelter that the club rented for the evening. It was very nice and matching tablecloths were even provided by the marina.

After dinner, we ran the dinghies around the island to a place where we could watch the sunset. We wondered where Al and Sue disappeared to and soon we saw Marnie and Chris towing the Smith’s in.  Wouldn’t you know it – our commodore ran out of gas! Al took the extensive ribbing he received very well and we had a lot of laughs.

The sunset was spectacular. This is one of the advantages of cruising with others. They have many suggestions of things to do and places to see that we never would have known to do if we were on our own.

Commodore's Cruise Day 5 - Ladysmith

Today we headed on to Ladysmith Maritime Society as a stopover to Telegraph Harbor. There was another yacht club already at Telegraph so Ladysmith was a good place to spend the night. I gave Sue my camera so she could get some good pictures of Synnova as we were underway.

Ladysmith is a small little marina that has a lot of character. The town is about 1/2 mile away (uphill!) but you can catch a cab for $6 and then the grocery store will return you to the marina for free by their shuttle.

Tonight was a great night to order pizza so Al and Sue called ahead and warned the local pizza place that they would be getting a lot of orders for 6:30. The pizza was fantastic and they delivered right to the dock. After dinner, Al gave a short recap of what the plan is for tomorrow as we head to Telegraph.

Commodore's Cruise Day 4 - Sidney

Today we stayed in Sidney and enjoyed not having to go anywhere. We did some reading, walked into town and did a little shopping. We got some groceries so we should be set until we get to Vancouver where we can get provisions for the last part of our trip.

This evening dinner was a "bring your own meat" potluck. We gathered in a large tent that we reserved and had a wonderful dinner of steaks and all the good food people brought, I made Robyn's eclair squares dessert which is always a hit. And it was tonight! It was an easy dessert to make on the boat so I think it will become one of my standard recipes for cruising.  It was fun visiting with everyone and we made final plans for tomorrow where we will be taking a short trip to Ladysmith.

Commodore's Cruise Day 3 - Sidney

We left Sucia about 10:00 and arrived in Sidney about 1:30. It was a very uneventful trip which was very nice after the fog we had yesterday. I love coming to Sidney. The marina is very nice - last year I said it was beautiful. They had hanging baskets of flowers up and down every dock but this year those were missing. I was told in the marina office that management changed hands this year and ordering the baskets fell through the cracks. I was sorry to hear that and hope that they are back next year. Still, I love it hear. There are many shops along the first few blocks of town and we all enjoyed walking through town for shopping and provisioning. Of course, there were also two Starbucks here in town.

This evening we had dinner "on our own" so we decided to barbecue on our boat. We invited Al and Sue, Larry and Cheryl, and Mike and Virginia to join us. After dinner, Ron and Denise came over to visit and then our group grew! We ended up with 14 people on our boat visiting until about 9:30pm. We had so much fun telling stories and laughing together. It was also fun to see so many people on the boat and have it still be comfortable.

Commodore's Cruise Day 2 - Sucia Island

We headed back to Roche Harbor this morning about 8:30 to pick up my cell phone at the hotel lost and found. We encountered a lot of fog when we got to Thatcher Pass that lasted more than an hour. Visibility was about 200 yards which is not fun at all. Fortunately, we have radar and can see on the AIS (Automated Identification System) where the ships and ferries are. We do not transmit, however, so no one else can see us. We did fine and were very glad to have the fog lift.

We arrived at Roche and they allowed us to tie up temporarily while I ran up to the hotel to pick up my phone. I am so glad to have it back! I even took a purse with me to put the phone in because I didn't trust it in my back pocket (or in my hand for that matter!).

We then headed over to Sucia Island which was another two hours from Roche. We still arrived shortly after everyone else and were able to tie up to a mooring buoy thanks to Chris & Marnie White who held one for us!. They then went on over and rafted to Denise and Ron where they will get to sleep in "the Hampton Inn". This is an ongoing joke about the Coleman's 54' Hampton because of all the guests they have stay onboard with them.

We took our dinghy up to the pay station on the island to pay for our moorage and were able to get a nice picture of the boats in the bay and the beautiful view out past them.

We had a quiet afternoon and did some reading then we all gathered on the shore for a salad potluck. The Everett Yacht Club happened to be here, too, so we invited them to join us. 

Commodore's Cruise Day 1 - Anacortes

Our annual Commodore's Cruise began today in Anacortes. We have been out cruising already with since the 13th. We met up with Holly and Jerry in Anacortes on the 14th, then spent four days at Blakely and Roche Harbor before returning them to their car in Anacortes and so we could meet up with the yacht club. Holly and I ran the dinghy out to wear Bob and Jerry had taken the boat so we could hoist the dinghy back on top.

About two hours after we departed Roche Harbor I discovered I did not have my cell phone! I called the resort and they said they would look for it and let us know if they found it. We looked at Bob's phone to see if we could tell where it might be. Our phones are set up to "share" our locations with each other. At first it looked like the phone was by the kayak rentals so I told the resort I thought that might be where it was. A little later Bob's phone showed it was on the back side of the store, and then later it was in the rose garden by the hotel.  It was kind of funny to see it moving around the resort. I tried calling my number again and this time someone answered! It was the hotel lost and found and someone had just turned it in! I was SO relieved! It looks like we will be headed back Roche Harbor in the morning on our way to Sucia.

We said goodbye to Holly and Jerry in Anacortes and then joined up with the Edmonds Yacht Club members.

After everyone arrived we gathered at the tent on the deck for an appetizer potluck. There are a few EYC members who will still be joining us and others who will leave us part way through the cruise. On the way in, Pete and Diane Almgren took Dot and Abby White with them on their boat so there would be three crab licenses. They brought us a pile of crab to cook for the  evening and then shared the remainder with the members to take to their boats. It was a fun evening of catching up with friends and getting to know new members.