Did the usual Christmas Eve present-opening at the inlaws at midnight. Then woke up on Christmas day with a cold. Felt lousy but was still functional so still made it to Nanaimo. Went shopping at Mark's Work Wearhouse with the folks on Boxing Day and then went over to N's place for a visit - thanks for the appies! Came back to the mainland on the 27th with C&E. We got to Duke Point early. It was pissing rain and windy so we stayed in the car but when we found out we had been left behind along with 9 other cars and missed the 1:05pm sailing we hunkered down in the cafeteria and waited for the 3:15 boat. The boat going home was rocky but since it was the bigger Queen of Coquitlam it wasn't too bad - I only felt the quease once or twice when I walked around (the Queen of Esquimalt was really bobbing on the trip over). A woman beside us in the caf kept asking a ferry worker if we were hitting whales when there was loud banging. She didn't believe the worker that it was just the boat hitting the waves even when the worker went and confirmed with the Chief Steward.