Ganges Harbor - Day 7

We set off from Mill Bay at around 11 a.m., after one of the best breakfast sandwiches I've ever had at Rusticana. My sausage sandwich was piled high with veggies - spinach, sprouts, tomato and cucumbers. The produce provisions that last best on the boat are root vegetables, as the moisture tends to make anything with significant water content either soggy or moldy, so it was especially refreshing.

We finally arrived at Ganges Harbor on Saltspring Island at around 4. Almost 20 nautical miles of distance combined with poor current and variable winds slowed us down, though we did enjoy the journey, sailing near to a campground, watching the sweltering campers.

After docking at a rickety dock at the Ganges Marina and then moving the boat to a deeper, slightly less rickety location (the tide was set to be fairly low the next day and no one wanted Rock Lobster grounded), we set off for the Farmer's Market. It always surprises me how far behind the growing season is once you journey north - strawberries had been long gone in Seattle, but just ripening in the Gulf Islands. The Saturday Market is the largest in the Gulf Islands, but the Tuesday one that we went to is much smaller and more intimate. Someday I'll check out the Saturday one, rather than just reading about it. Made a quick gelato stop after the market before heading back to the marina to wander the docks and eat plums.

After a tricky time deciding on a restaurant (Yelp coverage is much spottier in the small towns of B.C.) and then a long wait once we finally made our choice, we had our most memorable meal of the trip at Tree House Cafe, a building from the 1920s built around a tree. Tuesday is open mic night and there was an eclectic assortment of musicians, including a Woodstock-era hippie named Palu Rainbow, who will sing about whatever topics you give him - like watermelon and rainbows "I am uniquely qualified to sing about these topics as my name has rainbow in it....First chakra - red, second chakra - orange" all the way down to "Seventh chakra - violet. One favorite was a woman playing keyboard and singing in French with a cornet accompaniment. I also had to love the cover artist singing "Closing Time" and dedicating Cat Stevens' "Wild World" to the folks at the yoga retreat, who had been celibate and were about to re-enter our wild world.

We ate in the inside portion, which was still very open. I had the lemon oregano barbecued chicken souvlaki, which came with basmati rice, potatoes, rainbow carrots zucchini, peppers, naan and tzatziki, while Trent had the lam burger, with a chutney that was to die for and a flavorful spinach salad (whose sprouts had migrated to my plate apparently unassisted). We each had a couple of B.C. beers, before splitting a polar bear hot chocolate (mint schnapps and Kahlua) for dessert.

We went back to the boat full and happy.