It is a fine rainy morning as I sit at the front desk of Renaissance Books in Chemainus, BC.
On the evening of the 3rd in Deep Cove (after my previous post) we received word of a gas station 15 minutes down the road from the marina. We imagined something townly and hoped there might be a pub nearby (with burgers!), so we made the trek down the dark suburban street past sinister houses, only to find a closed gas station and a closed grocery store and a whole lot of nothing else. When we got back to the boat we made a kind of disgusting curry chicken broth soup thing in an attempt to supplement our recent diet of granola bars and instant noodles. We knocked it back and hunkered down for our first night on the boat. Adam snored a bit but it was okay.
The next morning we woke up to hungry bellies and extremely low tide, weighing the risk of hitting bottom while exiting the marina against the promise of a pub (with burgers!) in Cowichan Bay. Ryan scouted the area in our sketchy $75 dinghy and decided we should be fine, so we cast off from Deep Cove with our bearings on Cow Bay. As soon as we had the fenders out and the docking lines tied we headed for the pub just up from the dock, and feasted upon an enormous ceasar salad, our much anticipated burgers, and a beer apiece - on mostly empty stomachs no less. We staggered down the road to get some slightly more nutritious rations for the boat, a bilge pump for the dinghy, and some gas. That night we made our way up the channel between Saltspring and Vancouver Island and moored for the night in Crofton. Pub food for dinner again (but not burgers), and a nice walk along the waterfront.
Thursday morning (the 5th) we got up at 8:30, marvelled at how useful coffee can be, and set off for Chemainus. We were in Chemainus harbor at about 1 o'clock. We went to the thrift store where I bought some socks and a pair of jeans and Ryan got an extremely classy three piece wool suit for 6 dollars. We also bought some speakers and a handheld VHF for the boat. Peter picked us up and took us to the bookstore/house with our gear, and there we ran into Dave and Meg, with whom we had a show that night. That night they and we outnumbered the audience at the Duncan Garage Showroom. Oddly I've never played to an audience bigger than 10 there but I always seem to play my best in that room. Maybe because the stakes are lower and it's more relaxed.
Anyways, we got back to the house in Chemainus that night and all sat around the table with beer and scotch, and later Adam and Ryan and I verbally abused eachother over a game of scrabble whose stakes were that the loser would have to go get the thermarest from the car. We played with double points for dirty words, but I think the best we came up with was "twat". I tried to argue that "oral" was dirty but the boys wouldn't agree. We only had so much consciousness left in us at this point, the time being about 1:30 in the morning and us having been up since 8:30, so the game ended with nobody really caring and me just sleeping with a couch cushion, a blanket, and no thermarest on the floor.
Anyway, we're having fun! This ain't the worst trip I've ever been on. Hooray for BC, its beautiful coast, its small towns, and playing tunes.
Til next time,
Taylor
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