I left Bowen Island on the 6:00 ferry to Horseshoe Bay after a hairy afternoon of negotiating impassable roads, and dreading the onslaught of a southeasterly gale with huge amounts of snow and freezing rain.
This afternoon I got stuck on Hummingbird Lane - me, the guy who started the road conditions blog - and had to be towed out by my friend (now GOOD friend) Damien and his nephew James. The irony of a couple of Aussies getting this born and bred Ontario boy unstuck from a road he should never have been on in his "all-season (except for winter)" tires, is not lost on me. Thanks lads.
Following that adventure, I packed my things and headed out to catch the 6:00 ferry to Horseshoe Bay, choosing NOT to use the water taxi, on Damien's advice. He had come over earlier, as a southeasterly gale was picking up and he reported that the boat spent more time in the air than on the water, and his back was a little stiff. With a week long business trip ahead of me and a two week vactaion following that, I opted for the Cap.
When Caitlin dropped me at the ferry dock I scurried for the citizen-built shelter from last October's barnraising and was relived to wait for the ferry in there. The wind was gusting storm force by then and the "snain," as Richard Smith is calling it, was being driven into the skin on my face at 47 knots. Wrinch, Rhodes, et. al., thank you for that barn on the Government Dock. It was perfect in there.
The crossing was as bad as I had ever experienced it, the Cap was bouncing around and the snain was being driven into the windows. On the other side, a 1.5 hour trip through Vancouver in a cab got me safely to my mother-in-law's home where a dinner of salmon sausage and buckwheat noodles with braised broccoli and red wine was waiting.
I'm away from the island until January 24. Clean it up while I'm gone will you all?
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