Awoke this morning in the beautiful and secluded Clam Bay. After mugs of hot tea we ventured on deck to watch some sea otters catching fish whilst Mike cooked breakfast bacon on the barbecue. First destination after breakfast was Norway island to collect the prawn trap - sadly containing no prawns, just several large crabs who had successfully destroyed the cat of bait (cat food) which we had placed in the trap with just a few holes punctured in its lid.

it was a cool, calm, cloudy day, so we sat on deck with mugs of hot tea and motored south to Salt Spring Island. By the time we approached Wlker Hook, the sun was shining and there were ripples appearing. We sailed past the hook and anchored of the fine white sandy beach to the south. BKMC paddled ashore in the tender whilst the skipper stayed on board to watch the anchor and read his book.

On the beach we met two fishermen who had just landed a large ling cod - an ugly fish, but we were envious and the boys quizzed them on the best techniques /places for successful fishing. After that we climbed up onto the grassy wooded headland to admire the views of our yacht at anchor in the bay and eat our cookie picnic, seated on a fallen tree trunk / see-saw...

Enthused, we set off to drop our prawn trap and proceed to Ganges on Salt Spring for lunch and to do some shopping for more provisions. We moored alongside at the Ganges Kanaka public wharf and motored into the dinghy dock.

Ganges was a lovely town with nice art galleries, restaurants, a hardware store called Mouats, selling fishing tackle and a Thrifty Foods supermarket. we enjoyed wandering around in the sunshine and had a great lunch at Auntie Pesto's, overlooking the harbour.

We left Ganges in high spirits - there was a steady breeze of 7.8 knots so we hoisted the sails and sailed away at 6.1 knts to retreive our prawn trap...

We returned to the exact spot where we had dropped our prawn trap. Despite searching and searching we could not find it. With binoculars and boat hook we investigated every single white floating object in the area but eventually had to give up and abandon it...

Dejected and lacking wind we motored onto Montague Harbour on Galiano Island, and making plans to sail somewhere tomorrow where we could buy another prawn trap...

It was a beautiful evening however and we continued to fish from the back of the boat and moored at 7pm to watch a spectacular sunset with gin and tonics and nibbles in the cockpit.

We had a treat lined up for this evening. Some of Chris's friends had recommended a pub on Galiano called the Hummingbird. Although it was a few mile from the harbour, there was a bus service to the pub every hour.

After sunset we quickly washed and changed and motored ashore to walk uphill to the bus stop - a piece of wood saying 'bus stop' propped against a sign. 8 pm came and went - Chris rang the pub who assured us that the bus was on its way.

It arrived in a clattering cloud of dust - an old yellow school bus driven by an eccentric looking man with shoulder length grey har and wearing a large black hat - Tommy Transit.

We climbed onto the bus and were surprised to each be handed a tambourine or set of maraccas as we passed the driver on our way to our seats. As we sat down the doors closed, the bus roared away, the lights went out and, suddenly, really loud music started playing - Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire and Yellow Submarine by the Beatles. Everyone on board was singing along and it was impossible not to join in. Then we noticed that the driver had a set of percussion instruments including cymbals and cowbells suspended above his head and he was playing these as he scorched along the bumpy windy road to the pub. It was impossible not to laugh and it was such an amazing way to end our day / start our evening!

We arrived at the pub in time for dinner and ordered pizzas / fries and beer. The driver 'Tommy Transit' came over to tell us about himself. a former Vancouver bus driver turned motivational speaker - he was passionate aboutthe importance of 'acknowledgement' in improving people's lives and making them happy, and his enthusiasm was infectious!

The journey back to the marina was equally riotous with much squealing of brakes, raucous singing and noisy percussion.

Back at the marina the magic was made even better by the sight of phosphorescence in the water all around us as we motored back to Stargazer in our tender.

A very memorable evening indeed!