07/22 - 08/05 - The Gulf Island Cruise

[Rock-C]

While at Montague Harbour, a few of us were lucky enough to run into Bob & Marilynn Hale of Waggoners Cruising guide. The fallowing is taken from there web site.
Terry

" Invasion of the C-Dories. Beautiful Montague Harbour is one of the best destinations in the Gulf Islands, with a popular marina (Montague Harbour Marina: store, caf鬠gift shops, kayak rentals, fuel), a fascinating provincial park, a whole bunch of park mooring buoys, and ample room for anchoring. We anchored there the second to last night out. The weather was perfect. It was warm, there were no clouds, and only a light breeze to wash through the boat from the open forward hatch to the back door.

As we relaxed in the late afternoon, we saw a succession of C-Dories motor in and plop their anchors down. By the time they finished there must have been a dozen of them, mostly 22-footers, with canvas biminis over the cockpits and kayaks or little inflatable dinghies mounted on the cabin tops.

It turned out the C-Dories were on a loosely-planned group cruise, and they were having fun. Some had trailered from several states away. They were in Montague Harbour to catch the famous Pub Bus up to the Hummingbird for pub food and mugs of cheer, and around 6:00 p.m. the procession of dinghies began. Now, there isn?t much room for a dinghy on a 22-foot boat, so some of their inflatables looked a little like gray, blue or white colored donuts with 2-horse Honda outboards on the back. It was quite a sight to watch these tiny dinghies loaded deep on their marks with four adults, as they putt-putted across the bay to the public dock.

Back in 1979, our 37-footer was a pretty big boat. Several times on this trip, however, we were the smallest boat at the dock. Fifty feet is nothing anymore. So it was refreshing to see that two adults still can have as much happiness as two people can absorb, camping out with style on their 22-foot C-Dory. The boats were well-equipped, too. They had full electronics including radar, cockpit biminis (as noted above), barbecues, tenders, the whole works. Many even had windlasses for their 10-pound anchors.

The group, club, whatever you want to call it, is very informal. There are no dues and no officers. It?s held together by the glue of their enthusiasm for their boats. Their Web site is www.c-brats.com. "

[Alyssa Jean]

Once again it can be said, "C-Dory can't buy the kind of advertising they get through the C-Brats enthusiasm and site".