Windy
We had nice sun but a chilly wind in Gorge Harbour today. We had our lunch then went up to pay moorage at the little store. Someone was mowing the very steep lawn, and the grounds were as immaculate as ever.
Gorge Harbour is a busier place than some of our more remote stops since they run a campground and do a brisk business selling a variety of foods in the store. They even have fresh bread and vegetables, not to mention ice cream.
I wanted to get some exercise so we walked up the tree shaded entrance road and turned west on Whaletown road. I’d intended to reverse when my 15 minute timer went off, but we ran into a couple walking the other direction and Jon asked them what was up ahead. They directed us to a trailhead near the highway indicator for the fire station. There was a banner announcing the Proposed Whaletown Commons.
Apparently, you can walk all the way to Whaletown on this network of beautiful cedar carpeted trails. We followed the SE trail to the intersection with the Quarry trail and back. As usual, it was lush, green, dense vegetation. Occasionally you could see the burbling creek as it tumbled down below.
When we got back to the marina, I still needed 300 steps so I stayed up on the fireplace terrace. I discovered a friendly little tabby who was delighted to have someone petting him. He jumped into my lap and made biscuits on my leg.
Later we met the family in the s/v Fairfax and traded commiserations about the weather. They didn’t like venturing out in windy weather either. We gave them a tour of Fifth Element and they admired the warm interior spaces. Fairfax turns out to be a 28’ Pearson Triton and they related that one gives up all notions of privacy with 3 people aboard.
We all had dinner at the Floathouse restaurant which we found seems to have installed a less gourmet and less expensive menu, much to our approval. The dinner menu included a variety of burgers, including oyster and red snapper burgers, of which we enjoyed the latter. We splurged on a bottle of Martini Carbernet Sauv which was surprisingly good and even had the Black Chocolate torte for dessert.
We briefly tried lighting the fire since it was all set up with fire sticks ready to go. It was enjoyable for a while, but the wind started blowing the smoke onto us instead of up the chimney. We tried to warm up the tabby who was there again, but he was too exciting by the windy night.
It continued windy which made for great stargazing. (We haven’t had very many clear nights this trip.) You could see the Milky Way. The family on the Fairfax must have had a stargazing app because they were holding a tablet up to the sky.
On the SE trail, Whaletown Commons
yacht Anomaly and M/V Fifth Element 
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