Wednesday,
June 18, 2025
Things we have done wrong so far this trip. 1) When going through customs on Monday, we had turned down the VHF radio so John could have a conversation with the customs officer. Well, we forgot to turn it back up, which I only realized about 2/3 way across the Georgia Straits, 4 hours later. It wasn’t really an issue since there was no opposing traffic or anything, but we always have our radio on. 2) We failed to charge the handheld VHF which is what I take in the tender so John and I can communicate when we are trying to anchor or dock and are in separate boats. We got to Smuggler’s Cove and decided it was a great idea to use our cell phones. Not. We rely on Starlink to make calls in areas where there is no service. As soon as I got away from the boat of course my Starlink connection was lost. We tried to connect a dozen times only to have a few words before the calls dropped. So now we were reduced to hand gestures, both of us frustrated. Eventually I pulled alongside the big boat and just said “let’s get out of here and go to Pender” – which we did – it was windy and it just wasn’t working. 3) Lastly, I forgot to mention that last night when making my pizza, I had preheated the oven to 450 degrees. A couple things live in the oven when it is not in service because we have so little storage space in the galley. One is the toaster, and another is the pizza pan. I removed both of these things before turning on the oven! However, what I hadn’t noticed is a dishtowel that we sometimes shove in the oven to quiet the oven racks when underway as they have a tendency to rattle, and nothing drives the captain MORE insane than having annoying rattles when we are underway. When I went to put the pizza in, smoke billowed out of the oven, which then made me look deeper inside for the cause only to find a very brown dish towel. Sheesh. I sure hope this is the end of dumb boater mistakes. Whenever you hear of another boater making a mistake, it’s always a tendency to feel like you’d never do something that stupid. The truth is….remain humble and never judge. Even if someone puts their boat on the rocks. You just never know when your mind will miss a detail, and it’s you in that situation. Never judge. Ok yes we did judge the boaters that took 3 tries to anchor and reverse plow their way out of a good holding, but that isn’t something 99% of boaters would do. OH wait, I forgot #4 – I sent out the wrong link to this blog to 50 of our friends and relatives only to hear back from many of my mistake! SORRY!!
This morning I decided to get the liquor store run out of the way first thing. When I was there yesterday scoping things out the lady in the liquor store told me I couldn’t use their shopping cart to haul my purchases back to my boat because (she said) “I have no way of knowing that you’ll bring it back” yet she offered no solution to this dilemma. I was thinking maybe I could leave her my license to hold? But I figured I would solve the problem tomorrow (meaning today). So instead I decided to push a dock cart up to the liquor store, which are noisy and heavy but then I wouldn’t have to leave my license. As I made my way back to the boat with my load, I had to stop mid dock to nicely ask this family to move their pile of stuff out of the way so I could pass. This darling little girl in her cute little xtratuf boots proceeded to move the pile onto their dock finger. In the process she accidentally dropped a rubber glove in the water. While bending down to retrieve it the most beautiful spotted harbor seal appeared out of nowhere thinking this item it heard splash was actually some food! We all met eyes as it realized it was not indeed food and he turned around and went back to the deep, it was a pretty close encounter for the little girl. Meanwhile back at the boat John waited, and waited (and waited2) for the diesel furnace mechanic to show up or at least call. That turned out to be an all day wait. He called them a couple times to find out when they might show up and they kept being vague and non-committal. Needless to say the captain was a bit surly over this situation. I had a much better day as I found myself a massage appointment and had the most wonderful massage and a very long walk to get there and back, so it was a good day. BUT, on the way home I passed Dairy Queen, and then could not get ice cream out of my mind. Stopping at Canadian Superstore (a giant grocery and home goods store) I loaded up on various options, as they say never shop when you’re hungry. John just rolled his eyes when I showed up with two different kinds of ice cream bars and another tub of ice cream, especially when freezer space is somewhat limited. Teriyaki rice bowls with fresh herbs for dinner and more Joe Pickett, Season 2. It’s kind of been a weird series at times but we will finish it. If anyone watched the Goliath series with Billy Bob Thornton and recall the season about water rights and lots of opium use with hallucinations, Joe Pickett Season 2, Episode 2 reminded me of that.
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