Northwest by Sail and Rail: Part P

In which the crew explores Victoria by night... Piaw's martyr complex... Sleep or clean laundry?... Another dawn...

Prelude to Grumpiness

We had determined to go to Victoria for dinner, since Victoria in the evening was quite a sight, and not to be missed. Besides, Scarlet and Lea wanted to look at the Empress Hotel and see if they wanted to have high tea there, which was apparently quite the thing to do.

On the bus, I realized it had been two days since my last shower, too long since I'd gotten a full night's sleep, too much time spent under the blazing sun. I was sleepy and stinky and not thinking straight. It occurred to me that the smart thing to do would have been to ditch the group and catch a bus back to Sidney instead of to Victoria. Why hadn't I done the smart thing? Because I was too tired to think. Oh yeah.

Piaw writes:

We barely caught the bus, and it turned out to be a very long ride. By the time we were in the city, it was dusk. We were also a little too tired to talk, though the houses and passing scenery was interesting. I had ridden this whole area before, but didn't remember much, since your perspective is so different on a bus, and besides, that was five years ago. One thing I remembered, though was two girls getting on the bus and managing to get away with riding it for free by essentially staring down the bus driver.

Mocked by Yokels

Piaw writes:

We were all starving by the time we got off the bus. Looking around didn't yield much by way of restaurants, but there was a promising looking pub nearby, so we opted for that. It turned out to be a very good meal, though we were very tired and crabby at the end of it. "Wow, I'm pretty zapped. I've been up 14 hours." "So has the rest of us, Piaw, stop thinking only of your own martyrdom." Well, I guess I wasn't going win any sympathy from this crowd. We found out from the waitress where the bus-stop was for the bus back into Sidney, and then proceeded to walk out into the warm night. Crowds were all on the streets. There was some kind of street show going on near the inner harbor; someone was making fun of the passers-by. The Empress Hotel and the Capitol building were both lit up in all their pomp and glory, and rickshaw drivers were carrying clients and standing in the night in their T-shirts and shorts, looking cool and collected. The others went into the Empress Hotel to scout while I took photographs and took in the scene. It's been too long since I was here last.

After awhile the others came back out. They looked around too, and then we decided to head to the bus stop so as not to miss the next bus to Sidney. The return trip was quiet, almost dull, though the bus was packed and it looked like most of the people on the bus were going to Sidney.

Dinner had taken a while, and the bus to Sidney only ran about once an hour. Thus, we didn't catch the bus back to Sidney until 11:00pm. We might not have caught it at all--the bus schedule claimed that the bus started at one intersection; it really started at another. Fortunately, someone thought to ask the bus driver of another bus if we were waiting at the right spot, and he pointed across a vacant lot to the correct place.

Within a couple of stops, the bus was nearly full of alternative youth. At least, they were trying to be alternative youth. Stuck on an island, a Canadian island at that, these kids had to make do. The girl who was trying to look like a raver--her formerly bright clothes were looking pretty faded. The skateboy wanna-bes were wearing Mossimo and didn't seem to feel at all strange about it. I sat and tried not to think about how tired and stinky I was. I thought about showering. We were talking plans. We'd originally planned to spend tomorrow in Victoria. This night, I'd come to the conclusion that Victoria was a tourist trap, not really worth sticking around for. Apparently the others had reached similar conclusions, because we were all talking about taking off.

We rode in silence for a while. I wondered why there would be a poster advertising Schizophreic Advocacy on a bus. I wondered what this meant about people who rode the buses around here.

Looking to break the silence, Piaw piped up, "Wow, I've been awake for more than 16 hours now." Before I could stop it, the arithmetic part of my brain started trying to figure out how long I'd been awake. I suffered a critical morale failure. I wanted to cry. Why had I come to Victoria? I should have skipped it, taken a shower, a nap. I was a fool. No-one was saying anything. Piaw started to open his mouth again. I thought, "Shut up, man." Piaw stopped and looked at me inquisitvely. I'd said that out loud. Oh.

"I mean, if you're going to talk, okay," I stammered, "but just not about how long we've been up, okay?" Piaw looked puzzled, asked, "How long have you been up?" The arithmetic portion of my brain swung into action again, but this time I was ready for it and beat it into submission before it could come up with any depressing numbers. I explained, "I really don't want to think about how long I've been up, okay?"

Scarlet, seeing me founder, leapt to the rescue. "Piaw, you've got this martyr thing. You say what you're going through--to people going through the same thing." Scarlet took a breath, continued: "Like you talk about getting sprayed..." (Ah, she must be talking about the pump-out, I thought) "...when Lea got it worse than you did. And then you go and ask her if she had her mouth open!"

Piaw comments:

Like I said before, not brave, stupid.)

Around us, alternative youth had been eavesdropping, trying not to laugh. All this talk about spraying and open mouths was too much for them. First one skateboy couldn't contain his laughter and started to laugh, still desperately looking straight ahead. Then the faded raver started to laugh. Soon everyone was laughing. Scarlet put a hand to her forehead and shook her head. Somehow this blow-up had provided its own defusement.

Sidney at Night, Sidney at Night

Piaw writes:

When we finally got to Sidney, we were all quiet and subdued, and walking into a silent town and marina late at night gave us an eerie feeling, as though all of humanity had deserted us. Until we ran into a security guard at the marina, that is. Larry and I decided to take showers while the restrooms were deserted, and after that we went quickly to sleep.

At the shower, I realized that I'd again forgotten to bring a towel. Fortunately, by now I knew what to do. The laundry room was locked up. No wonder--it was around 1:00 in the morning. Jeez. I'd only brought one pair of jeans on this trip, and they were about ready to get up and walk away. But we were thinking of sailing out the next morning. I would just have to wake up early. A part of my brain, probably concerned with silly things like preserving my life, started to gibber at this thought, but I ignored it.

I got back to the boat, where everyone was waiting up for me. Since I'd had trouble sleeping in the aft cabin, Lea was going to trade with me, letting me sleep in the salon. So I had to get all my luggage out of the aft cabin so she had a place to sleep. I realized I could have done that before showering. I realized that I'd better make damned sure I got some sleep.

Bad Start on a Good Morning

At 6:15am, the laundry room was still locked. I would just have to wear shorts for the next few days. Maybe my knees would get bruised worse than usual. Maybe I'd accumulate scratches. Maybe I'd just woken up at 6:15am for no good reason. I stomped back into the boat, scowling at the beautiful sunrise. By now I was much, much too angry to get back to sleep. I settled back onto the seat where I'd been sleeping, and read a bit in a zine called "Working for the Man." Across from me, Scarlet slept peacefully, snoring softly. She seemed so calm (not surprising, since she was asleep). I calmed down a bit myself and fell back asleep.

Piaw writes:

The morning came sooner than I anticipated. Well, it always does, but by the time I was awake it was 7:30, and both Lea and Larry were up. Scarlet then woke up and we had our discussion on trip planning. Too many nice guys and gals on a boat makes for an indecisive vessel. We eventually pinned down our ideas, however, and decided that on our last night, we needed to be close to the mainland, off of Orcas Island so we could return the boat on time. That essentially meant that the next two nights should be in U.S. waters, which demanded that we be in Roche Harbor that night to clear customs. The intervening night would be spent at Sucia island, which had come highly recommended by other sailors. This decision meant that Scarlet and Lea had to give up the idea of having High Tea at the Empress Hotel today, and I would have to give up the idea of being at Ganges Harbor, spending another day in Canadian waters. There was also a questionable idea of being away from supplies for two nights, but with conservative use of water, gas, and electricity, we could probably make it with no discomfort.
Both the women headed for the showers, while Larry and I worked on getting the boat's water tanks filled up. Given that we were going to be in Roche Harbor tonight, this wasn't strictly necessary, but we had spent last night anchored out, which left the water bladder depleted. That we had water bladder instead of tanks meant one inconvenience: we had to bleed the bladder of air as we filled it with water, which meant that someone had to be below decks giving the bladder a little burp once in a while to ensure that air bubbles did not get trapped in the bladder and reduce the capacity of the boat's holding bladder. We then met up with the others and agreed to meet at the breakfast place, a diner in central Sidney.

Departures: Sailing: Northwest by Sail and Rail: Part P

Prelude to Grumpiness

Mocked by Yokels

Sidney at Night, Sidney at Night

Bad Start on a Good Morning