We stayed our 63rd night on the boat at the Ganges Marina. After 2 nights at Ganges Marina, we decided that it is not on our list of places that we would like to return.

The food at Mobys Pub just down the street was good and the market was fun. The donuts from Embe’s donuts in town were good.

The marina overall was a bit ghetto. Here are my pro’s and con’s about the Ganges Marina.

Pro’s:

• Locked gates to keep the riff-raff out.
• Very clean bathrooms. Perhaps the cleanest restrooms that we have seen anywhere that we have boated to.
• The marina has appeared to have been cleaned up a bit over the last couple of years due to new owners.
• The staff are really friendly. The harbor master is great, when we were arriving after the closed he even called us to give us the gate keys before our arrival.

Con’s:

• The need for locked gates to keep the riff-raff out. Several times we had people try to tailgate us into the marina gates when returning from town and they said “they belonged there but just didn’t know the code.”
• Being right next to the seaplane dock you get a fair amount of fuel/exhaust smell and noise when the seaplanes are coming and going.
• The actually charge you by the bag to dump trash.
• The 30amp electrical hookup’s are a bit outdated, and the standard cords tend to pop out of the connection over time.
• No water to fill your boat. They did have an option to get a 25 gallons of water if you pulled up to the fuel dock for a fill.

If you decide to go, bet sure to read all the rules and check on them ahead of time.

While motoring back, we almost got run down by about a 60ft boat on autopilot. We were on autopilot and so were they. As we approached it was clear that we were on course to collide with them. Usually when that happens both boats adjust slightly and all is good. We slowed down to about 3 knots, then to full stop when it became clear that nobody was in control of the other boat. There was a lady at the pilothouse help and she looked frantic, waving here arms around like she knew that they were in the wrong, but not knowing how to do anything to change the course. After coming to a full stop they motored by at 10+ knots not too far off our bow. After they passed what looks like here husband comes running up to the fly bridge. He jumps on the radio to apologize to us about how they were momentarily distracted. Perhaps that means he was in the head and left his wife in control without any instructions on how to stop, turn or change course. After that incident I took a moment to be sure that everyone on our boat knows how to turn off autopilot and how to stop and turn the boat.

Since this was our first trip to Canada since Covid started and since we purchased the 4788, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. Next time we come to Canada, Ganges will not be on our list of destinations.

On our trip home we used the US Customs and Border Patrol application on the phone and it was so easy to get home. We filled in out the information, the application said to wait, and about 5 minutes later we saw a Welcome to the United States message with no need to stop at customs. Much faster to get back into the US than it was to go into Canada.

Despite all those comments, we did have an awesome time, and look forward to returning to Canada, and to explore other destinations.