Wind & Magic Bus | Montague Harbour

7.22 - 7.23

Friday morning ToG left Port Sidney for Galiano Island and Montague Harbour. This is a very popular anchorage and another new destination for us.

Boating through the Gulf Islands is very interesting and it seems that each time we recalculate auto guidance, Garmin reroutes us through alternate, convoluted paths between small islands and rocky shoals. Makes for very picturesque cruising. There are also a lot of ferries, so some of the narrower and lesser traveled passages are much better.

Water was a little bumpy through Swanson Channel. Nick and a guy we talked with in Tod Inlet both said they think Windy (the app we use for tracking weather and wind) is correct about 50% of the time. This was one of those times. The wind – that we weren’t expecting - picked up and by the time we reached Montague, it was gusting 15 to 20mph. We anchored with no problem but waited to leave the boat until we were confident the anchor was holding.

We took the dinghy to the public wharf to explore a little. The wharf is adjacent to the marina, which has a small store (excellent book selection!) and a restaurant. (I had a so-so ice cream cone from the store.) We took a short walk through the campground and up the road to check out the “bus stop.” More about that in a minute. It was windy so we went back to the boat to wait it out. 

Just before 5pm we went back to shore to meet Tommy Transit and his old yellow school bus – bound for the Hummingbird Pub up the island a few miles. Tommy drums while he drives. Pictured above.

We’ve read and heard about this unique experience for years. What a trip! Literally and figuratively. Tommy plays music, hands out instruments, gives advice based on the book he wrote, and talks up his friend the local carver (who happened to be on the bus with us). He makes about three trips back and forth between the marina, the campground, and the pub each evening.

Hummingbird Pub:

The pub itself is a funky, fun place in the middle of nowhere. The food was fairly good – I was disappointed that they don’t offer their pan pizzas during “bus times” because the pizza oven is too small to deal with the crowd.

Tommy is a character. He also drives a little too fast on the curvy island road – in my humble opinion. He also frequently takes both hands off the wheel.

By the time we returned to the boat the wind had subsided and we had a peaceful night. Except at one point I thought I heard a little bump. When I got up to make coffee I looked out and saw the harbour filled with logs! A lot of logs, some of them quite a bit bigger than those pictured here:

We paddled around the end of the park to see shell midden beaches and about twenty more boats anchored on the south side. 

Great to see more and more sea stars. We commented about this to a staffer at the marina and she said it is great, but now sea cucumbers have the same wasting disease that the sea stars had. Bummer.