Ferries, Whales, & Pizza, Does it Get Any Better!

Sunrise from Comox; 0710 (7:10 am).   Yawn.   I need to go make coffee...

The tidal flats just south of the marina.

Garbage and recyclables are done, and they key returned to the office.   Time to get going!
The fishing trawlers are waking up too.
The ferry between Vancouver Island (Buckley Bay) and Denman Island.  But this ferry is different.   It is like a San Francisco cable car.   It runs on a cable stretched across the channel.   

What???   Yup, when the ferry is active there are signals alerting you that to cross the channel at that time may result in keel/prop/stabilizer damage at best. 

I think a ferry powered by a cable run across an active channel is a fundamentally stupid idea.   But no one ever asks me.

Yup, yet more whales!

In this shot, you can really see the "hump" on the tiny dorsal fin.   That is where the name comes from...

And the tail, meaning the whale is diving deep.   Bye!

Coming into Nanaimo.   This is a peek of downtown looking up the shallow/impassable channel between Newcastle & Protection Islands.

And we got the last available slip.   We are in the public marina, located right downtown.   Perfecto!

Dinner at La Stella, one of our favorite pizza joints in Nanaimo.  The staff are fun and professional, the food is excellent, and they have a pretty decent winelist.

I know, odd criterial on the winelist, but hey...
Our pizza chef, Terrell, is tossing our pizza.  He almost nailed the ceiling!
And the results.   A nice pepperoni pizza.  Nice, simple, clean, and just right.

I paired that with the 2023 Dell' Ornellaia Le Volte, a lovely Toscana or mainly Sangiovese.  Very young, but it was still a nice drinking wine.  Give it another 5 years and it should be excellent.
They don't make sunsets any more spectacular than in the Pacific Northwest.  Wow.

Downtown from our slip at the marina.

The weather forecast is for 25-30 knot winds starting about 2300 (11:00pm) tonight and lasting through tomorrow.  I don't know if we will stay here or venture out.   We will see what the morning brings.


Good Night, My Friends.






Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 16, 2026 at 6:39 AM

    Fun post! I’m intrigued by the little rocky island with the red roofed structures. What an interesting (if inconvenient) place to live or work.

    There are a couple of ferries that traverse the Willamette River via cable. Being the dedicated landlubber I am, I never thought about it being a problem for boats. Yikes!

    And I’ll bet that 2003 vintage was a typo. I suspect it was a 2023, since you said it was young. Were there many USA wines on the list? -CM

    ReplyDelete
  2. PeterSeptember 16, 2026 at 7:28 AM

    Yup, that was a typo. I’ll fix that. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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