We stopped in the town of Campbell River for provisions and a dose of civilization. Earlier in the day we had called the marina (there are 4 in town) to arrange for mooring space. The town sits on the fast moving Discovery Passage and the current and opposing winds made it tricky getting into the relatively narrow opening to the marina. Ultimately Rod brought the Quijote in perfectly to the fuel dock, which was our first priority. The fresh faced attendants there expertly grabbed the docking lines we tossed in anticipation of a big fill-up. 38 gallons later we got our assigned slip by radio and gently eased our fair ship into her moorage.
Campbell River sits almost midway up on the Northern Coast of Vancouver Island. Readily accessible by car as well as boat, the town has a regional economy. With over 100K residents, it is easily the biggest town we will stop at on the entire Inside Passage trip.
We had a long list of things to get done after fueling and ticked off the next item by refilling our fresh water tanks on the boat. After that it was time to hose down the decks and wash the salt off the windows using a hose and a long-handled scrub brush. Next, we climbed up the long ramp out of the marina and trudged off to find the Laundromat. Unfortunately, to my eye at least, the town is a bit of an eyesore. And I even like grit and industry. There was no town center and the sprawling commercial area is a series of huge shopping malls with big box retail stores and franchises. The malls were created on fill in front of the original shoreline (as seen on historical photos) and now sit on a vast asphalt plain. Charming it is not.
We found the Laundromat and bought some books in one of the few mom and pop stores we could find as our clothes tumbled clean. Next we bought some fresh food in a vast grocery store, hungrily eyeing other treats that we had no room for on the boat. Back across acres of asphalt to our marina for the highlight of the afternoon - hot showers! Now we felt truly civilized.
The final chore was actually a fun night out, treating our skipper to a meal in a "fancy restaurant." The menu at the Riptide Restaurant had a "U hook and we'll cook it" option for fisherman who brought in their catch. We amused ourselves by guessing the names and lyrics of tunes being played by a musician playing and singing to recorded tracks of familiar songs. He was a pretty good country singer who wasn't afraid to throw in some light rock and roll. An informal contest was improvised by the 3 of us to guess the weight of the giant King Salmon which was mounted as a trophy on the wall. Your intrepid reporter won with a guess of 60 lbs for a fish that in better days weighed in at 64 lbs. We made our way back to the boat with the stars becoming visible and a truly massive cruise ship gliding silently by in the nearby channel with lights blazing.
