After fueling up at the Maple Bay marina gas dock, I motored out into a fresh Southerly breeze. I was determined to have a look at Burgoyne Bay. A few years  back when we visited Saltspring as a family, we drove to the top of Mount Maxwell and saw what looked like a great beach in a large bay. I made a mental note to visit Burgoyne Bay at some point in the future. That day was today. It turns out, the bay is very deep so you have to get quite close to the beach to anchor. On this day the South wind was creating whitecaps so I didn't bother dropping the anchor. I just shut off the motor for a while and had lunch.

Just around the corner from Burgoyne Bay, between Vancouver Island and Saltspring Island, lies Sansum Narrows. The tide runs over 3 Knots here and today the strong flood tide conspired with the South wind to create some magnificent tidal rips in the narrows. I had decided to motor through against the flood tide through the narrows before raising the sails. I'm glad I did because right in the middle of the frey, where the water runs white there were a handful of small power boats FISHING! Gong show.

Clearing the narrows and the long line of power boats coming and going, I raised main and jib and had a lovely sail past Cowichan Bay, around the Southwest end of Saltspring Island. When the wind finally died, 3 hours later I dropped sail and motored to the Spit.

I arrived at the Spit at extreme high tide. It seemed most of the spit was underwater. I remember when I first starting visiting Sidney Spit, as a youngster, none of the spit was completely covered by water at high tide. Age, like erosion takes a toll on us all.

I anchored at the far North end of the Spit, in some deep water close to shore. After securing T2, I went to shore for a short walk-about. I walked to the end of the spit and took a photo from the top of the navigation light. Returning to the boat, I enjoyed a delicious rib steak for dinner.

I bought a T-shirt here at the Maple Bay Marina.

I sat at that table, right there.

Maple Bay Marina offers a clean, well maintained facility.

The doggy doo-doo area even offers a fire hydrant!

Leaving Burgoyne Bay on Saltspring. Very exposed and very deep. I drifted about while preparing lunch and resuming my journey to Sidney Spit.

The view of Burgoyne Bay from the summit of Mount Maxwell, Saltspring Island.

After bucking the flood tide through Sansum Narrows, I raised the sails and shut off the engine for three hours!

A look of horror when, out of nowhere, appeared.....

...a tanker bore down on T2!

I arrived at the Spit during an extremely high tide. A lot of the spit was under water. This is a picture taken from the navigation lite at the end of the Spit.

Bar-B-Qued rib steak, potatoes and Caesar salad for dinner.

Sunset at Sidney Spit.

High tide at sunset.