s/v hello world: montague harbor

McKenzie and Matt arrived as per the plan on the 9:35 ferry into Sidney, which was good, because our backup plan was not so solid, seeing as we didn't have cell service in Canada. Their journey from Maryland was something of a Planes, Tranes and Automobiles saga - they caught a bus to the metro to 2 planes to the cab to the ferry to the dinghy to the boat. Not complicated at all. We got them settled in at the boat, filled up on fuel and ice (because my sister couldn't imagine how awful it would be to have warm gin and tonic> and headed off to Montague Harbour.

Montague was PACKED, but we knew it would be. We were brilliant enough to plan this trip on a BC holiday weekend, so we sucked it up and anchored out with tons of other boats. We had a fabulous time swimming, wandering and just generally catching up. We didn't quite know how Matt would take to boating life after hearing that he didn't know what he would DO on a sailboat for 3 days. Well, I knew this was for him when I asked if he wanted to go hiking or kayaking and he decided, instead, just to chill on the boat and enjoy himself. So it was no surprise when we all opted to stay another night in Montague rather than head somewhere else - that just seemed too hard. On day 2, we played some serious hillbilly bocce, invented the suicide swing and headed to the local pub on the Pub Bus, which was probably the highlight of the trip. Once an hour, a short bus straight out of the 70's comes tearing down to the park, unloads some inebriated folk and picks up the next load of innocent boaters and campers. Music blaring, the driver speeds his way along the backroads of Galiano Island for 10 minutes to get to the Hummingbird Pub. The sign at the front of the bus used to say "No standing" and now says "Not too many standing". What did the driver do in the 40 minutes between runs every hour? We're pretty sure his payment was free drinks at the pub.