day 35 & 36 – Ruxton Island to Gabriola Island (Lo49°09.0N’L123°41.5’W)

Our 35th day on the boat was a bit of a day for rest. Now that we have a Salty Dog onboard again, we needed to resume our “to land twice a day” duty. We headed over to the cabin after breakfast, and Cap’n Adam decided to stay there and do some light cabin chores while I headed back to the boat to nap, read, and edit videos. But mostly just to be back on the boat. We haven’t spent much time on land for the last few weeks, and now the rocking of the sea seems comfortable to me, rather than nauseating.

We had intended to stay a few days at Ruxton, enjoying the cabin and getting reacquainted with Cap’n Adam’s folks. But, the wind blew up very strong during the night, and Cap’n Adam had to do his first “anchor watch” overnight. We were concerned again about whether the sudden wind might cause the anchor to drag, causing us to smash into the rocks nearby. So, Cap’n Adam kept a watch, constantly assessing whether our position had changed and whether we would need to spring into action, firing up the motors and getting the anchor raised so we could relocate somewhere safer.

Our anchor didn’t drag overnight, but the weather forecast predicted that the wind would be strong for another day and night. Our anchorage in Herring Bay was fairly unprotected from a wind of that direction, and so we decided to move on a bit and head for Silva Bay.

After motoring across Pylades Channel, we passed through Gabriola Passage and then into Silva Bay on Gabriola Island. Silva Bay was, in a nutshell, completely packed with boats. This is a very popular bay for boaters, as it is the first protected bay on the west side of the Georgia Strait (if you leave from Vancouver). Boats were rafted up together 2-3 deep on the dock, so we opted to anchor again, and hoped that the wind would not be as fierce here in Silva Bay as it was last night. If we swung too much on our anchor line, there were all sorts of boats and docks that might get in our way.

Once the anchor was down we had lunch at the pub, spent the rest day wandering around and checking out the weird sandstone formations on the beach, and updating our boat log. But we didn’t want to talk about the fact that tonight was most likely our last night to sleep on the boat this trip. While our Vancouver Island circumnavigation has been a “vacation” of sorts for us, it has also been a test for a potential future lifestyle. And I think we can both see ourselves sleeping many, many more nights onboard down the line…