Today was just a short trip to Chemainus, but the route took us through Dodd Narrows which needed to be timed at slack tide.  Because of this we didn’t leave the dock until 11:15am.  The delayed departure gave us time to take a morning walk through Nanaimo and grab a cup of coffee at the local café.  Other crews opted to stay in and cook up a big breakfast.

Bob, Madeline and Tim all took the dinghy over to Newcastle Island Provincial Park for a morning hike.  They had great things to say about the beautiful shoreline trail with views across the straight to the Canadian Coastal Range.  It sounds like the rest of us have a reason to come back to Nanaimo!

The waters today were flat calm and before we knew it, we were through the narrows and at Chemainus.  Once all settled into the small marina in Chemainus our crews went out to check out the town.  Chemainus has a history as a First Nations winter village and later as a logging town, but it has reinvented itself as an artistic community.  Forty outdoor murals depicting the town’s history cover the buildings of the town.  And, the town is well known for it’s live, professional theatre.

Traci and Kurt as well as some of the Deception crew went to the theatre to see a performance of Glorious!  While it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, we were impressed at the talent of the local performers.  The crew of Nauti Otter 2 joined Owen and Brian from Deception at the local pub to watch the hockey game (to Owen’s dismay Toronto won).  Most of the other boats chose to eat in tonight and use up some of their provisions.  Eldean came back over to Deception for a rematch of Yuker.  The night was cold and clear and the stars were bright, and we were all happy to have a warm place to spend the evening.