We woke before first light and made our preparations in the still, cool air this morning.  We were off the docks by 7am and as we headed out of the harbor the sunrise lit the sky ahead of us with pink.  For the first part of the day we cruised through the Gulf Islands.  We passed sandstone cliffs full of cormorant nests and traveled on glassy calm waters through the morning.

As we traveled through the narrow Gabriola Pass, we saw harbor seals and Great blue herons along the shore.  Suddenly, Pacific white-sided dolphins appeared next to our boats in the channel.  As we traveled through the pass they began bow riding in the wake of some of our boats!  Watching these graceful creatures jumping in and out of the water and keeping pace with us effortlessly was incredible!

Today was our crossing across the Straight of Georgia.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather.  We had glassy calm seas all the way across the straight.  The sun came out as well and we had partly sunny skies with us for the crossing.  Once across, we began to see the many beautiful homes that line the sunshine coast.  It was fun to cruise by the homes and soon we were pulling into Pender Harbour.

Most of the fleet decided to anchor out by themselves for the night.  Pender Harbour has two small towns accessible from the anchorage, Madeira Park and Garden Bay.  Some of the crews chose to go out to dinner in Madeira Park.  Others explored the town and had dinner on board.  This area is great for exploring by dinghy and kayak.  We all watched as a beautiful sunset lit up the bay.