Right now we are halfway down Vancouver Island in Comox. What a journey it has been.

We spent a night in Prince Rupert, one of our favorite little seaside towns in BC. The PRRYC staff were very friendly and helpful, offering all sorts of advice and tips on where to go next. The supermarket was well stocked, and we went to the local pub for burgers and beer. Mainly because the galley sink is blocked and has been since we were in Thorne Bay. Being on passage all day, every day, meant we could not spend too much time working on it. We had pulled the galley apart, removed drawers, shelves and hoses. We poured Draino down, plenty of hot water, tried to vacuum and blow down the hose. All to no avail. We eventually found the overboard which is clumsily T-junctioned onto a deck drain with a brass T fitting. And what happens to galley waste when it gets cold? It hardens and becomes solid. We even tried to run the heat gun to warm up the brass fitting, to no avail. After four days of trying all sorts of things, we vacuumed all the water out, boiled the kettle about 3 times and just poured all the hot water into the drain hose. At the same time, we took a hose to the deck drain and plunged it down the drain. When we came back to check some time later, it was unblocked. Phew. That was a testing time.

In Price Rupert there is a little odd shaped boat on display near the marina. It is called Kazu Maru and does not look like any boats from around here. Turns out, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in Japan, a guy called Kazu left home one day to go fishing and never returned home. His little boat was found in Canadian waters a year and a half later. The people of Prince Rupert restored the boat and now have it on display. There is a brewery in Prince Rupert that brews a beer called Kazu Maru. I was very touched by this story.

Our friends on Isla Mera were also in the marina with us, and in the early morning we bade them farewell and continued South. We did not see them again as they were in a bit of a hurry to get to Victoria. We dawdled our way down. We encountered fog, rainbows, sunrises, whales and a lot of logs on the way. We stayed two nights at anchor Port McNeill and then moved over over to The Broughtons. There were many beautiful places and anchorages in this area, and best of all very few boats. On the way from Port McNeill to Waddington Bay, we were lucky to see a pod of seven Orcas crossing directly inn front of the boat. One even stopped to have a closer look at us. On one of the mornings, we were testing all systems before departure and found the hydraulics were not working from the main engine. This took over eight hours to resolve and was eventually tracked to a faulty relay switch which we were able to bypass. Why even have these things if they are easily bypassed?

In a few of the places we stopped at, there were signs posted by the First Nations asking people to please be respectful of the land and resources, or merely stating that the land belongs to them. I found that interesting.

Next stop, Campbell River. Another lovely seaside town on Vancouver Island. We stayed two nights and were lucky enough to see our friend Deb, her daughter Arielle, her partner Brad and another of Franks dive buddies, Chris who has a indoor climbing wall gym in Campbell River called On The Rocks so if anybody arrives here and feels like expelling some energy, give him a visit. And as a bonus, Brad does camera and AV installations so now we are in Comox having all the cameras replaced and the AV equipment seen to. There is a lot of redundant stuff that has accumulated over the last 20 years and let’s face it, technology has come a long way in that time. Comox is another really lovely little seaside town. I keep saying each town is lovely but they really are lovely. It Sid clean, tidy and very well kept. I love it.