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Folks who follow (or have followed) our will remember us
meeting Tom and Connie Shorter while we were shopping for our boat. We
were visiting Angler's Anchorage Marina when we saw a woman about to
loose her finger while working on the anchor gear on their boat Ocean Romancer. We introduced
ourselves and we were given the advice, "If you are at all sane, don't
buy a boat!"
Well you know what happened.
We had always wanted to cruise with Tom and Connie. This time we were
able to arrange a rendezvous at Pirate's Cove. They had never been in
there before. This is a picture of Ocean
Romancer. She is a beautiful
girl, new and roomy. Connie handles her now because Tom has advanced
Alzheimer Disease.
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This is a picture of Bateau
du
Vent and Ocean Romancer
in Pirates Cove.
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We think this is a good picture of Tom and Connie. Connie
doesn't think so. Tom's Alzheimer's is so bad that he rarely knew where
he was. A good thing was he always seemed to be happy. |
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Another picture of Ocean
Romancer
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The next day we headed to Conover Cove on Wallace Island.
"Surprise, surprise" you are probably are saying. It seems we always
are going there.
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Tom and Connie on Ocean
Romancer at the dock. We were thinking of going for a walk
but......
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Someone came into the cove towing a dock. We thought we had
better stick around to keep an eye on our boats.
It turns out that Maple Bay yacht club had arranged to be park hosts
and they needed to add dock space. It was quite a performance to see
them attach this extension.
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Good thing we stuck around too because we had to move our
boats several times and one of the workers whacked Ocean Romancer with a crow bar and
gave her an injury. I bet if we hadn't have been there Tom and Connie
would have had to pay for the repair. The workers took responsibility
and the yacht club would pay for the repair.
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We had a pleasant evening with assorted appies for dinner. We
had wine. Tom and Connie liked their martinis.
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Tom and Connie left us the next day so we went on the hike
that we had missed the day before. As you can see, it was t-shirt and
shorts weather, a real treat for us. We didn't even have to deal with
the muddy trails this trip.
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Next day we headed to Montague Harbour on Galleano Island.
Pete likes this picture of me with my new "soul patch," the little bit
of hair under my lip.
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Some Turns playing well with the Sea Gulls on the beach.
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A little yellow bird with a pretty song. I think it's a
yellow warbler.
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And of course a blue heron. They really don't like to be
bothered and don't trust people getting too close.
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Springtime! Blossoms everywhere. This is an Oregon Grape.
From Montague we headed for a night in James Bay on Prevost Island.
Although it is open to the Northwest, there was not a ripple on the
water that night. Absolutely lovely.
From there we headed to the yacht club for supplies in Sidney. Then to
Burgoyne Bay on Saltspring Island.
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We did some wonderful hiking at Burgoyne Bay. We both could
also feel the difference in our endurance as we have been going to the
gym a lot since November.
There always seems to be beautiful sun sets in Burgoyne Bay.
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This boat came into the bay then turned around and left.
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Another great sun set.
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The next day we had Bateau
du Vent hauled out a Maple Bay. It had been 3 years since her
last haul out so she needed it badly. Here she's being power washed.
You can see the mussels and gunk that is coming off. YUK!
We stayed aboard her that night to save on hotel costs. It wasn't too
uncomfortable except having to crawl down a ladder in the middle of the
night to pee.
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Nice new paint and a polished prop.
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Ready to go back into the water.
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I wonder what we were taking a picture of here?
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Back to Burgoyne Bay and
another awful sunset.
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We're going hiking up the
mountain again. This is a magnolia tree at the bottom of the trail.
There is evidence that quite a garden was here at one time. All sorts
of flowers are scattered here and there.
By 'till the fall.
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