Thetis Island, Canadian Gulf Islands

Days on cruise:  5

Distance traveled:  32.1 miles

Travel time:  2 hours, 43 minutes

We left Brentwood Bay in leisurely fashion Friday morning, stopped at brand new Mills Cove Marina for fuel, and continued up the west side of Saltspring Island through the strong eddies and turbulence of this narrow, deep stretch to Thetis Island, a place we’ve stayed 3 times previously.

After docking and hooking up to 30amp electricity on the shore power pedestal, our Galvanic Isolator Monitor showed a “failure”message. We asked the dockmaster if a competent “electrical guy” was available on this tiny island, and then Bob went to work to see if he could solve the problem himself, having been told there is someone, but it might be hard to contact him now that it’s the weekend.

Cathryn (who is writing the first draft of this blog post, and knows Bob won’t likely add many details when he does a final read and edit) describes that he unscrewed some face plates on several “thingys”, disconnected some wires, reconnected and tightened them, did some more, and . . . voila! Problem solved. All this after moving from one spot on the dock to another, thinking there must be a fault in the power pedestal, as we’ve had no problem any previous night on this trip.

Ah, boats! Electrical problems are among the scariest boaters can encounter, as we’ve met one person whose boat burned to the waterline in less than 15 minutes, and another whose electrical connection burned, but “put itself out” without the boat owner finding it, til later. Loose electrical connections can last for years in a house, but on a boat that bangs around on the water, they only get looser and cause problems, mostly over-heating, and causing fires if left unattended.

Thetis Island Marina is very pretty, and mostly filled with sailboats. There’s another, “fancier” marina a short distance north in Telegraph Harbor where most of the motor vessels seem to go. We like this one better. We’re still trying to sort through all the “stuff” that separates sailors from motor boaters and don’t always understand it.

The morning was a mix of clouds and fog, but the sun came out in the afternoon, and it got nice and warm.

We went for a walk up the hill from the marina and enjoyed a leisurely nap, book reading and chatting with nearby boaters. Does this sound like déjà vu?