Swans and warships are incongruous companions in an anchorage, but that’s what we have here in Ganges right now. Apparently the late season in cruising brings out all the oddballs, ourselves warmly included.
Contrary to type, the young naval trainees from the three or four Orca class training boats that come in and tie up at the Ganges Marina each evening are polite, self-contained, and professional (notwithstanding an incident we overheard on the VHF a couple days ago, where apparently an error by two trainee navigators caused an “incident” that raised the ire of a fellow cruising boat and resulted in a series of unexpected apologies made over the air). The swans, on the other hand, are inveterate beggars, their predictable daily rounds made among all the anchored boats looking for handouts belying their otherwise apparently serene and noble air.
Although Ganges is a popular stop for Gulf Island cruisers, I still get a weird and unwelcoming vibe here. Maybe it’s the weather, which has been markedly miserable for most of our stay; maybe it is just sad associations from past visits. Or maybe it’s the fact that two different boats, inside of twenty-four hours, have managed, in this mostly empty harbour, to anchor well within bumping distance of our boat. I don’t know exactly what it is about the place, but I don’t think I will be sad to leave.
Almost any long cruise can become a litany of places not seen and plans that have had to change, so I won’t belabor ours except to say we’re already past the point where we had planned to move along. There is a lot to see here in the Gulf Islands, but one misty, fog-shrouded island starts to look very like another before long, and many of the places we had thought to spend some time start to look less appealing, in the rain, than do spots like Ganges, with a nice warm little coffee shop or two, some art galleries, and a well-stocked grocery store. So here we sit, waiting out the rain, with swans coming around trying to bum cigarettes off us all the time. Or were those the trainee sailors? I’m already confused.
And the marina dock there is horrible! At least it was last time we went. Low, rickity and way over priced. Anchoring is the best choice. Or maybe not, in your case.
That’s good to know… I was seriously considering going into the marina after the second bumping incident. With my luck, of course, someone at the dock would just have managed to overlap me instead.
Why don’t you try the nice new public dock? Has all facilities (electric and water hookups) plus showers behind the harbormasters office. Price is right but as I recall stays are limited to a few days…