Apologies for the lack of Blogs....an oversight on our part, we did not know we had to have reasonable internet access to create a blog. Accordingly, we are playing catch up after being offline for the last three days. Rest assured, this was not about taking the weekend off!
The journey to our next destination was beautifully calm, and, to the disappointment of those awaiting another disaster report, mechanically uneventful, yet again. We are now in the edge of the Broughton Archipelago. The topography reminds us of Georgian Bay, but nicer!
Before exploring deeper into the archipelago, we will overnight at North Island Marina in Port McNeill which is on Vancouver Island. More on NIM below
NIM
Our arrival in Port McNeill was warmly welcomed by Bruce Jackman, the founder, proprietor and chief marketing officer of North Island Marina. Compared to most other marinas we visited, NIM, is much more sophisticated. The docks are excellent, the water supply is excellent but the real pleasure was the speed of the wifi which made the uploading of photos and videos for this blog much less of a pain in the ass. For those who have not done something like this before, it is a painfully slow process so you had bloody well appreciate it!
The town of Port McNeill is also much larger than any other of our stops. It has a population of about 2300 and is equipped with hotels and restaurants, grocery, building supply, sporting goods stores and a smattering of other retailers. It is a happening town that is dependent on the forestry industry, Western Forest Products in particular, and the marinas, both Bruce’s and the one owned by the Government…which is mostly free and obviously is difficult to compete with. Bruce, however, is the only place to get marine fuel in Port McNeill which is a pretty good little monopoly. It is also a great place to meet some "bitches"
There is a substantial commercial fishing fleet based in Port McNeill. Mostly these fishers catch crab when they can, then move to prawns which are only open for about four weeks. There is also halibut season then the salmon season. Bruce tells us these seasons are tightly regulated in terms of length by the Federal Government which tries to manage the stocks of each species. Like most things, some believe the fisheries are under regulated and some believe they are over regulated. No one thinks they are well regulated.
Upon arriving on Friday, Bruce and Nancy Jackman made appies and ordered Friday Night Pizza and we all settled into the evenings main event. It was truly a battle of epic proportions….who could talk more, Bruce or Eric. The verbal bout began with the duo exchanging short jabs but quickly evolved into elevated volumes before the admonishing of all for not listening. By the end of the evening, when the political discussions got to be heated, everyone was knocked out, but a draw was declared. There is a chance for a rematch in a few days and negotiations are underway to have this on Pay Per View but we will be long gone.
The Covid crisis continues everywhere and we want to assure our readers that we continue to take this matter seriously. Our bubble of six on the two boats was briefly expanded to include Bruce and Nancy Jackman after careful assurance of their health. It should also be noted, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, a land mass many times the size of Price Edward Island, has not had a single Covid case since May 7th.
"Richard" Holder has been BLOCKED!!
Regular followers of this Blog may have noticed a few interesting comments made by people that were not immediately known to us. Things like invitations for husband swappings, job offers and engine repair advice requests.
Any concerns that your emails have been hacked by Richard ("Dick") Holder can be put to rest. Through highly advanced technological security, we have identified the creepy culprit and their account has been blocked. Further, we have identified the true identity of Dick-the-peckerhead.. He clearly is one of those people with nothing better to do than creep random blogs.