Deb and I planned to meet Sara over at Ganges for the long weekend.  We pretty much motored the whole way there as we were late getting away from the dock, the wind was light and the days were getting shorter.

We pulled into Ganges Marina around 19:30, tied up and went up to the Oystercatcher pub for dinner.  It was a good evening chatting with some of the locals and a few tourists.  Then we went back to Treylya for a few drinks and hit the sack.  Woke up early and went up to the Tree House Cafe for brunch.  The marina was pretty open but several boats from a small group pulled up late in the afternoon.  Sara came over and met us and we hung out at Moby’s Pub for the remainder of the afternoon and retired back on Treylya for evening drinks.  We could hear the group of boaters outside talking, drinking and laughing as the night wound down.

We had a late rise the next morning and I hung out at the boat and puttered around while the girls went to the market to do some shopping.  So nice to see Deb and Sara getting to spend quality time together.

On Monday we woke to a nice southerly wind so we had breakfast, said goodbye to Sara (she was taking the ferry back to Vancouver), filled up with fuel and motored out of Ganges Harbour.  The wind was on our nose so we motored for an hour thru the swells, out into Swanson Channel.  We were able to turn south at this point and since there was a nice wind we figured we raise the sails.  I loosened the main halyard, attached it to the main sail and pulled on it to raise the sail.  It became stuck and no matter how hard I pulled it wouldn’t raise any higher.  I jumped up on the deck and could see that the main halyard was wrapped around the mast and the cable was caught on the mast light about 25 feet up.  Groan.  This happened because the swell caused the boat to rock and when I loosened the lines they got fouled.  Grrrr.  I pulled the main sail back down and set out to free the line.  This same thing happened once before and I was able to get it undone by flicking the halyard line but this time the seas were rolling, the wind was blowing and I didn’t feel like risking my life for a short sail.  I’d take care of it when the boat was back in the peace and calm of my slip.

Therefore we motored the rest of the way back to the slip the whole time I was fuming because I was missing a good day sailing.  We pulled in to the slip, started to clean up and within 2 minutes I had the line free and working again.  Too bad I missed a good day sailing but it was a quick fix and I’ll be ready to go next time…

Day 1: Sidney to Ganges
Date: Sept 02, 2016
15:50 – 19:34 (03:44)
Distance: 15.1 nm
Sail Time: 00:00
Motor Time: 03:44

Day 2: Ganges to Sidney
Date: Sept 05, 2016
09:47 – 13:31 (03:44)
Distance: 15:3 nm
Sail Time: 00:00
Motor Time: 03:44

Total Distance: 30.4 nm
Total Sail Time: 00:00
Total Motor Time: 07:28