Cruising Maya: We made it to Canada!

Hello from Canada!
Sorry to have kept you all waiting for the newest blog entry! We are here to fill you in on what we have had going on since we arrived in Canada.

To make the jump into Canada we made a small 9 mile sail from Reid Harbor on Stuart Island to Bedwell Harbor on Pender Island. We cleared customs no problem- although we intitially tied up to the wrong dock and I walked through the marina to get to customs... which is apparently a big no no! Whoops! The customs agent took pity on me and gave me a small verbal warning for next time. Apparently what I did could result in a $1000 fine and being put on a "suspicous person" list in the Canadian system. That would be make for uncomfortable border crossings down the line.
Once we made it to the correct dock the check in process was quite easy. I walked to a phone bank at the end of the dock and picked up a handset. The line was a direct dial to a remote customs officer who asked me the regular passport info, a few questions about what we were bringing into the country, how long we were planning on staying, and then that was it. After the call the dockside agents gave us our pink Canadian tourist boat tag and that was it. Really easy- no cost, no fuss. Thanks Canada!

Crossing Haro Straight into Canada on a very calm day.

Raising the Canadian Flag- This flag is flown as a courtesy to country you are traveling in. The flag of the country the boat is registered in is flown aft.

Pretty much as soon as we arrived in Canada we made our way to Ganges on Salt Spring Island, which was a couple of hours by boat from Bedwell Harbor. We parked the boat for 5 or 6 days while Jenny attended Jessica (Jenny's cousin) and Rahul's wedding in Kansas City. Unfortunately, I could not make the wedding due to watching over the boat and Disco. However, I did make use of my time there by getting a bunch of odd jobs done on the boat during my time in Ganges.

I knocked out a bunch of little jobs: polishing some stainless steel, fixing the squeak here, another minor tweak there. Nothing too exciting, however I did manage to bust out the sewing machine and that was fun! It had been far too long since I've sewn anything and it felt great to turn the boat into an upholstery shop for a few days (bachelor pad/workshop meant the boat was a mess!). No major sewing projects, but I did make a bag for our windlass parts that can live up front now. The windlass levers were stored in a deep compartment in the back, while the windlass is in the front- usually ending up with a trip up and down the boat when anchoring. The other sewing project was some new winch covers, as the ones on the boat were looking RAGGED. It was nice to get some down time in to get of these jobs knocked out (and make that to do list a little smaller).

Boat life is growing on Disco

Parking for airplanes in Ganges- We are getting very used to seeing seaplanes around

Small bag attached to the mast that holds our tools for the windlass- no more trips up and down the boat when anchoring!

New winch cover on the right, old on the left

After a whirlwind weekend of traveling and celebrating at the wedding weekend in Kansas City, Jenny returned back to the boat. While we have loved our time in Canada so far, but I was happy to leave Ganges when Jenny came back. Ganges is the tourist hub of the Gulf Islands. It's pegged as a hippie dippie island town, but what I found was a super busy, kinda garbage-y (if that's a word) town. I ran most days I was there, but couldn't find a sidewalk or street was remotely friendly to pedestrians. Plus everyone drove like crazy people there! Where was everyone going in a such a hurry on a small island?! So much for island vibes....
I don't like complain here, but I had to give my honest opinion about Ganges- I don't want to sugar coat our experience. Anywho, anchors aweigh and moving on!

Once Jenny got back we quickly started sailing north again! From Ganges, we made a short trip to Montague Harbor on Galiano Island. While they are only a few miles apart, the islands were different worlds. The harbor is surrounded by a large park and a small waterfront restaurant. Montague Harbor is exactly what you think of when you hear "island vibe". Totally laid back, quiet, and clean. We only spent one night there, but managed to get a nice hike in at the park and then a beer at the bar. Met some nice people while we were there who offered us great fishing advice.
While brief, we really enjoyed our time in Montague Harbor.

Montague Harbor- lots of boats but plenty of space to park!

Evening hike in the park surrounding Montague Harbor

Cheers from Montague Harbor

From Montague we continued on to Herring Bay. This was a neat island that looked like it was in the Bahamas. White beaches and sandstone. We arrived in the morning and stayed until the following afternoon so we had time to SUP, crab, and explore this little island. Here's some pics and videos from that spot.

Herring Bay is awesome!

Lots of cool rock formations

SUPing around Herring Bay

So many shells

Selfie on Disappearing Island. It disappears when the tide comes in

We chose Herring bay because its proximity to our trip's first "gate".
The "gates" I'm referring to are challenging areas or spots that we need to traverse to continue north.

Our first gate was coming up: Dodd Narrows.

Dodd Narrows is a short passage narrow passage separating two large bodies of water. When the tide is full swing current can get up to 9 knots! For reference our boat goes about 5 knots at max speed! Boats have to time the tide right in order to safely traverse the narrows.
Thankfully, these times are well documented and published. We passed through the narrows with a group of 7 other sailboats just as slack tide was setting in. Gate unlocked!

Dodd Narrow is the gate between the Gulf Islands and Nanaimo/Straight of Georgia.

Nanaimo is a larger sized town on Vancouver Island and is a ferry ride away from Vancouver. While in Nanaimo we spent two nights moored in Mark Bay.

Mark Bay is formed by New Castle Island and Protection Island- New Castle Island is this INCREDIBLE park that is only accessed via boat. The park offered camping, kayaking, biking, tons of trails, etc. We frickin' loved it! Disco did too. The park was big enough so that you easily take your off leash and play fetch. We also got a fantastic trail run in around the outside of the island- at 6 miles around it was the perfect length for a run!
Another great thing about Mark Bay is that the Dinghy Dock Pub is located there, which is a world famous floating pub only accessible by boat! We grabbed seats at the bar and started chatting up our bar neighbor... turns out he was the owner! Had a good time talking with him while playing music trivia until way too late! We lost miserably at trivia, but had a great time!

It wasn't all play in Nanaimo though. We had a few chores to take care of.... most importantly we had to empty our composting toilet. It had been about two weeks and it was time. Nice thing about composting toilets is that its contents can be thrown away in the regular trash- the waste is essentially fertilizer/compost so it's all good. I'll admit it was a bit strange walking through town with a bag of toilet waste, but no one was the wiser! We even were able to find a free place to dump the waste (major score!).

Additionally, in Nanaimo we picked up some more fishing gear as we are going to try to start our luck (I think we are going to need it) at fishing. I'll try to update y'all with what our fishing setup in the next post.

And with our boxes checked in Nanaimo we are ready to take on our next Gate.... the 18 mile crossing over the Straight of Georgia. Stay tuned for more info and thanks so much for reading.