Nice three days in Nanaimo, although more rain and wind. We thought we’d move from the Boat Basin to either a buoy at Newcastle Island (Sasutshun Provincial Park) or the Nanaimo Yacht Club but it was so breezy we aborted that plan and stayed put.

Steve did some research and found that the best Nanaimo Bars are to be had at Red’s Bakery. They did not disappoint!

Some Nanaimo sights:

Disappointingly, lots of homeless individuals and open drug use apparent around the city, including safe injections sights. Coincidentally, there was a piece in the news this morning about the reversal of decriminalization of drug use in public spaces in B.C. Still figuring it out, I guess.

We thought we would head to Ladysmith, Oyster Bay Marina, but the online reservation system was so arduous we said “screw it” and decided to move along to Maple Bay. Lots of information about insurance, plus payment in advance.

Another coincidence: a friend of ours that we will be cruising to the Broughtons with emailed about new Canadian requirements for $3 million liability insurance. What?! And then, when I looked into reciprocal moorage at the Maple Bay Yacht Club, that new requirement was stated in ALL CAPS at least twice, and it said “at all yacht clubs and marinas.” I contacted the Waggoner editors and hopefully they will be putting information out about this change in an upcoming newsletter.

We’ve run into this before, although for $2 million, and it was not enforced. And it certainly hasn’t come up for us this year. What the heck is going on? We’ve been talking to our insurance company and I will write more about this later.

Just went back through Dodd Narrows. More squirrely but no other boats and no issues other than several sea lions fishing right in the middle of the rip. We were glad to not hear a big “thunk” as we went through.