Sunday, May 15th

May 15, 2016

Latitude 49°10’00.64” N
Longitude 123°56’04.96” W

Nanaimo

I woke up this morning bright and early and not sore from kayaking, yeah.

Yesterday I had looked up Catholic Churches in the Nanaimo area and found one within a few miles of the waterfront.  I decided to go to the 10:30am Mass.  The walk to St. Peter’s was mostly uphill.  When I got there I realized the name was Mount St. Peter’s Catholic Church.  LOL Going back to the sailboat was going to be a breeze.  The church building itself was very beautiful with stained glass.  The priest was originally from Poland and had a thick accent.  At the beginning of the homily I had a hard time understanding him but as time wore on I didn’t even notice his accent.  The service was pleasant and the parishioners warm-hearted.  I always enjoy going to Catholic services in other countries.  The mass itself and prayers are the same with a slight variation, no matter what language they are in. 

On my way back to the boat, I stopped at a specialty food shop I had spied on the previous day.  I wandered the aisles and decided to bring some cheese back to the boat.  They had an appealing selection of gourmet cheeses to choose from.  I selected a medium flavored Bleu Cheese and a Brie.  These will work with some of our meals or snacks.

Mary and I went to the dockside Penny’s Palapa for lunch.  Vaughn was again trying to get a troublesome screw off from the windlass so he can install the new one.  This screw is turning out to be the bane of the boat.

Today’s fun agenda was to explore Newcastle Island.  This is the other island across the bay.  We kayaked over in the late afternoon.  There were stronger winds and waves than the previous day so kayaking was more difficult.  I also think my muscles were tired from the exertion on Saturday.  What another charming island this was.  The entire island is one huge forested park.  We hiked around the entire tranquil island and then kayaked back. 

All in all, another wonderful day.  Tomorrow hopefully, the engine will be repaired.  If everything goes well we will leave on Tuesday morning.