Saturday, July 30, 2011

Day 17 - Shoreside Excursion to Port Alberni

Saturday,  July 30, 2011.
I ran the generator in the morning to get a good chill on the refer and a charge on the batteries since we’ll be away from the boat all day.  We took showers and did some other preparations to visit Port Alberni by car.  We parked the Zipper over on “C” dock in Nanaimo Harbor.  This is the place where “officially” you are supposed to park your dinghy when temporarily visiting.  I paid for moorage for the day - $13.30.  We then found the car where the new forthcoming crew for the rest of trip had left it and proceeded to Port Alberni.  I can say it was very odd for me to be traveling by car while the MV Independence is still in Nanaimo Harbor.  I didn’t like the rush and stress of driving, everybody was hurrying not like the boat where you are just easily motoring along.  The drive was quite nice although it was so very odd to be traveling so fast.  The down-side is that there is no autopilot, you have to stay in the lanes, and you have to sit and can't wander about. The only up-side is that there's no waves.  I don't think the dogs like being stuck in the car either.

The trip to Port Alberni was not about boating but about hockey.  My son is a counselor at a hockey camp and I thought I would take this opportunity to see what a hockey training camp was all about. We spent the day watching ice hockey and going out for supper in Port Alberni. It was all very interesting. By the way, if you are ever in Port Alberni, the Clam Bucket restaurant serves great clams and fish and chips. Only fish we ate on the trip – another oddity.  Unfortunately the whole time I kept on thinking about the Zipper (it was parked in with a bunch of commercial fisherman and commercial boats), but it in the end it was fine.  An interesting day.

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