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Bank Holiday Rain

We were warned that the weather on Vancouver Island would be much like England, it is, today is Bank Holiday Sunday and it rained on and off all morning.
Our stay on a ship was great fun, the lady who runs it is Moroccan so we had a Moroccan breakfast which was delicious. All the guests had breakfast together so on our table was a couple from Seattle who had come over the border on a motorbike for the weekend, another couple from Alaska on a longer holiday and a Swiss and German couple who were also touring around. An interesting mix but all quite outgoing which made the conversation flow. The ship B&B apparently featured in a motorcycling magazine so they get lots of motorcyclists who carry even less luggage than us.

Whilst we were chatting over breakfast hardier souls than us were out in small boats trying to win the prize for the biggest salmon caught over the weekend (picture of small boats in the rain above) and at 9am this young man and his mum were weighing in a 27lb salmon which is the largest caught so far, I think the lad caught the smaller of the two and his mum the bigger one.

Dinner last night was in the centre of town, most people were tucking into salmon whilst listening to local bands who were murdering some of our favourite music. The strange thing is that the licensing laws do not seem to allow drinking outside so it was very different to outside events in Europe, Canada has a different culture which makes our visit interesting, if it was the same as home there would be little point in coming.

Today we set off east in search of sunshine and by lunchtime had found it, we are now camping close to a beach which is covered in washed up timber. It would be great to have a fire on the beach but because of the dry summer fires are understandably banned at the moment.

Close by is an airfield with a display of old Canadian Air Force planes including the helicopter shown below which can land on the water to make rescues without having to use a hoist although it did seem to have a hoist as well, presumably if the sea is too rough.
Tomorrow we hope to be camping in the woods, bear spray at the ready.