Checking in tonight from Port Sydney, Canada.
 
Yesterday we had a great day at Maple Bay Marina. The staff there made us feel so welcome. Right off the bat, Jesse at the fuel dock helped us out and told us how he'd been waiting for us to arrive. Then, after moving from the fuel dock to the slip, Carol, the Manager of the marina came down to the boat to meet us. As we walked up the dock and up to the restaurant area, they had even made a sign proclaiming "Welcome Montgomery Owners' Sailboat Group"!  Wow, how cool is that. Wagoner's Cruising Guide proclaims that Maple Bay Marina has probably the cleanest and best maintained facilities for cruiser's in the Gulf Islands. What we found confirms that. Add to that the friendliness of the staff and this place is a "must stop" to add to your itinerary if you ever come up here. Bald eagles soar over this place all the time. We saw three!

Picturesque Maple Bay Marina

At the back of the marina are floating houses...now that's living!!
 

Dauntless and Sea Cutter tied up with the floating houses in the background 

We ate dinner as a group at the Marina Restaurant and tried to get to bed "early" as we were planning an 8:00am departure in order to catch the ebbing current to help drive us to Port Sydney.
 
Last night Jo and I got to see the luminescence in the water. Late at night, after dark, if you disturb the water in any way , it lights up in a brilliant green glow from all the little microscopic life in the water emitting  light when stimulated. It was really cool to see.
 
This morning, what we have been pretty much avoiding, finally caught up with us. We  awoke to the sound of rain on the cabin top. Steady rain. I checked our weather radar that is part of our Garmin unit and it was obvious that there was not waiting it out. It was raining, it was going to continue raining for some time, and it was going to start raining harder soon. Out came the foulies. Everyone bundled up and we slipped out dock lines at 8 for Port Sydney. Currents and tides are a huge concern up here and we wanted to take full advantage of the ebbing tide , especially since we had some narrows to get though.The narrows are where the currents get the strongest and we sure wanted to be going the same direction and not fighting  the currents through them.

Larry goes over the harbor layout of Port Sydney with crews that had not been there before just before departing

Tom and Della motor through pouring rain...notice their dog "Booji" peaking out of the green garbage bag/rain coat.

John and Julie on the M23 Dreamtime motoring along  in the rain with low clouds hanging in the hills

Bosun, who rode most of the way in the cabin, checking to make sure that things are being handled correctly in the cockpit.
 

We took John's Passage on the way to Port Sydney. It is a pretty narrow passage. Navigating through it was a little interesting. The currents had us pushing through there at speeds approaching 8 knots and getting pushed all over the place. The currents not only were causing our heading to veer one way and then the other, but they even caused the boat to rock quite a bit as the keel moved from one direction of current to another. It took a  lot of rudder and power to keep the boat positioned in the center channel of the narrow passage.
 
Oddly enough, not long after arriving at Sydney, the rain stopped and changed to scattered showers. We spent the day cruising around town checking the place out.

Port of Sydney Offices

Seaside walk and park at the top of the marina docks, looking towards Sydney Spit.
 

John and Julie's M23

Beautiful flower pots at the top of every piling. Dauntless in her slip

Another GREAT marina with super friendly folks. The town is a bustling little nautical town. A few of us spent an hour in a boat parts consignment store that you could probably find parts for any possible project on which you  might be working. Everyone took time to get all there gear dried out after the long wet motoring passage.  Another group dinner tonight at a local greek restaurant that is a favorite of Gary's, and now it's time to wind down the day and get ready to head back to U.S. waters tomorrow. In the morning we plan to head to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island, weather permitting. It's blowing pretty hard tonight. We'll have to see how the Haro Straight looks in the morning.
 
So that's it for now.
 
We'll check in from Roche (hopefully tomorrow)
 
Sean, Jo, and Bosun
Montgomery Group
M23 "Dauntless"