This years adventure

Every year we get to have an adventure, and today we hope to have completed this years. We anchored last night in Manson Bay, where we have not been. There's a state park here, and a warning about an estuary that extends out from an inner lagoon. so we anchored well away from both lagoon and estuary. Everything was fine until this morning, when the wind switched around to the north and blew us, ever so gently, onto the end of the estuary. Our bow had plenty of water beneath it, but unfortunately, the stern did not. So here you see what a beautiful bottom Tamarisk has! We went aground about two hours before the low, achieved a maximum angle of 45 degrees (lots of stuff moves around in the boat when you're at that angle, let me tell you!), and en gradually righted ourselves as the tide came back in. We floated back off about 1:15 pm, none the worse for wear (we hope). On we go to other places.

Dinner at the Painted Boat

It's hard to find great restaurants on the water up here, but here we are in one of them--the Painted Boat in Pender Harbor. Hard to see the two of us, but as you can see, the view is great. and so was the food! This is a favorite stop. And lucky us, two nights later we were treated to dinner at one of the other fantastic waterfront restaurants in the area, the Laughing Oyster near Lund. Now we move on to northern waters where the restaurant pickings are more slim. Well have to depend more on the floating Hutchison restaurant now.

A grand sail to Pender Harbor

Today when we poked our nose outside Gibson Harbor, we found a brisk 15-18 knot breeze to blow us up the coast. with the wind out of the southwest, we had some pretty good rolling seas, so we did a lot of bobbing like a cork. I tried to get a picture of the seas, but it's hard to capture them. Tamarisk handled it well and we had a great sail.

Gibson Marina

Last night we stayed at Gibson Marina, which is on the mainland in BC, but a couple of ferries north of Vancouver. Our first time there, and a fun little seaside community. Here's the lovely view from above the marina back east towards the mountains.

Telegraph Harbor Hydrangeas

From two days ago, here's a picture of some beautiful dark hydrangeas at Telegraph Harbor, which we accessed by dinghy while anchored in Clam Bay.

Parker Island sunset

Sunsets at Parker Island are often spectacular, and here's another one that I couldn't resist taking a picture of.

Dinner with the Berrys at Parker Island

We enjoyed a great dinner of fresh crab that I caught in Ganges Harbor--the first crab of this season. We spent two nights at Parker Island on the dock at Herb and Karen Berry's cabin. A lovely start to this years boating summer.

Bedroom in Shana's apartment

This is planning ahead for delayed furniture. We brought her air mattress and bedding with us in the car, along with two towels. Shana also packed enough clothes to get her through a couple weeks. the only challenge is cooking. we did not pack any pots or pans. she does have a little bit of silverware and one paring knife. we plan to find a cheap plate or container that she can use in the stove and the microwave, to heat things up.

Thats it on Shanas new digs for now.

Interior of Shana's apartment

Here's a shot of the living room and kitchen of Shana's one bedroom apartment. It's a bit dark because I can't edit it on my iPad, but gives you an idea of the space and the view through the trees out the sliding glass doors, which go to the balcony. empty now but soon to have furniture. Unfortunately Shana's furniture is languishing in California while the truck makes up a full load so she will be camping out here for at least another week.

Swimming pool at Shana's

when you come to visit Shana, bring your swim suit. It's a shallow pool (deepest part is 5 feet) but very nice.

Shanas screened Florida room

Floridians usually have screened porches to allow you to be outside while keeping the many, large bugs out that Florida grows. These are known as Florida rooms. Shana's is a screened balcony outside her living room. This will be a really pleasant place when the temperatures cool down some. If you look closely you can see Shana standing on the balcony.

another view from Shanas apartment.

This is another view that you see looking to the left from her screened porch.

View from Shanas apartment in Tampa

Here's roughly what you see from her third floor apartment. That's the entrance to the complex on the far side of the pond. This picture was taken from the ground floor so things look a bit different from her third floor place (you look through the tree leaves to see the pond).

Shana's new home in Tampa

Shana and I arrived on Wed July 11 and are now camping out in her apartment home for the next year. The complex is attractively shaded by lots of oak trees and has several ponds on the grounds. It has a swimming pool and fitness center as well. There's a busy street at the entrance and she's on the landing path for the Tampa airport, but neither of those is too noisy, so I think she'll enjoy her location. She's also only 10 minutes from work, and we've already located a Starbucks she can get to on the way to work. I'll post more pictures after this one. I'm working from my IPad so can do only one at a time.