We took off from the Port of Nanaimo on Monday, September 22 and traveled across to Newcastle Island Marine Park, a journey of about half a mile. We needed to reset the anchor after our first try because we weren’t happy with our position and while we were hauling up the anchor to try again our windlass stopped working. That means extra hard work pulling up the anchor and chain for Ralph. Luckily we were happy with our second try. There was plenty of anchorage room at the island and the views of Nanaimo and the park were pretty. We had a peaceful night at anchor.

The next day was the first full day of autumn, and as we listened to the weather report there was some heavy weather predicted to come in. The rain started early and we decided to pull up the anchor and tie up to the marine park dock given the wind predictions (gale warnings), and the situation with our windlass which would make it difficult to reset the anchor if we needed to in the heavy winds. We were able to take a short walk at the island before the rain got too heavy. We had a fine night. It’s a really pretty place and we hope to come back again.

On Wednesday we headed across the Strait of Georgia to Vancouver. There were remnants of the storm still present, and it wasn’t an easy trip, but it was uneventful. We arrived in Vancouver at around 4:30 pm, about a 7-hour trip from the Nanaimo area.

When we went to the Sceptre rendezvous earlier in September we were invited to visit some of the other owners in Vancouver. They graciously arranged for moorage for us at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. The first two nights we stayed at the Jericho Beach location and we had dinner with our friends Anne and Henri at the club on Wednesday. It was very nice, especially after a long and uncomfortable day on the water. On Thursday, intrepid Anne took us on a wonderful 10+ mile bike ride around Vancouver. The city is magnificent; miles of walking and bike trails, Stanley Park (think of a smaller version on Central Park), and a beautiful waterfront.   On Friday, our friend Phill accompanied us to move Toga to the Coal Harbour location of RVYC, which is in downtown Vancouver. There was a pretty steady rain, and I felt like we were getting a real northwest experience! This is such a great spot, right across from the Park. Phill and his wife Nancy made us a special homemade lunch aboard their boat, Forever Young, and brought us a cake to celebrate our 22^nd wedding anniversary! We are getting spoiled, I tell you.

Saturday, after a great brunch with our Sceptre friends, Phill took us to look at a couple of boat yards and we got to see more of the greater Vancouver area. We have been doing a lot of research and we are getting closer to finding a safe place to put the boat to bed for the winter out of the water where we can do work on it when we like, etc. We were sort of planning on keeping it in Tacoma, but the yard we were thinking of does not have any openings.

Sunday was a beautiful day and we went for a sail on Anne and Henri’s boat, Ariel X. It was a real treat, and we had a great time. Today it’s raining. I think it’s sinking in that the summer is over.

Harbor seal doing the backstroke in the marina

Vancouver

Downtown Vancouver’s bike path

RVYC pretty staircase and emblem

22nd anniversary cake!

The squirrels are almost black here

Toga at the dock

Granville Island Market selections

Cruise ship parked at Nanaimo

Protection Island (as seen from Newcastle Island) – Dinghy Dock pub. You can only get there by boat.

Rainbow at Newcastle Island

Evening lights at Nanaimo

Totem pole at Newcastle Island Park

Crossing the Strait of Georgia – barge hauling sawdust

Approaching Vancouver

Underway in the rain

View from the back porch – that is the seawall bike path at Stanley Park

Canada Geese

Evening lights of downtown Vancouver

Lion’s gate bridge

We left Brentwood Bay around 2 pm on Monday, Sept 8th after my new friend Leoni graciously took me grocery shopping in town.  We had another spectacular day as far as weather.  We decided to head to Genoa Bay, upcoast from our location and also on Vancouver Island.

There was quite a bit of wind and we had a very brisk sail (over 8 knots at times) to Genoa.  We approached the bay carefully as there was an obstacle listed on the charts, but we had no problem.  There were only a couple of other boats there and we set the anchor easily in the beautiful bay.

After a relaxing afternoon and restful night we took a dinghy ride around the bay and into the marina to see what it was like.  They have a nice restaurant there as well as a cute store and a friendly atmosphere.  We ended up getting block ice at the store for our ice box there before leaving the next day.  We headed out on Wednesday morning to Portland Island, which is a small marine park.  When we got to the island and found the anchorage, it was so small that we didn’t feel comfortable anchoring there.  Since we were meeting our friends from San Pedro, Sue and Dick/Changing Tide at Ganges Harbour, Salt Spring Island, we decided to head there early.  We arrived in the harbor at about 4 pm and set the anchor.

This is a wonderful place! There are several marinas here, but we are comfortable in the anchorage area.  There is a great market in town right by the dinghy dock – so convenient!  There are many farms on Salt Spring Island as well as a lot of artists and earthy folks. we went to the open air market on Saturday and I got some wonderful local apples. mmmmm.

We spent one afternoon kayaking around in the bay next to here, Madrona Bay.  We were watching a sailboat coming through a narrow passage where we knew there were rocks, but we thought that they must be aware of the danger.  The next moment, BAM! – they were wedged onto the rocks that were just below the surface of the water.  I couldn’t believe it. A power boat was nearby and offered help – the man from the sailboat rowed over in his dinghy with a line and after both boats had secured the line, the power boat dragged the sailboat off of the rocks!  What a scene.

We met up with Sue and Dick on Friday and had lunch with them in town and then happy hour aboard Changing Tide, a beautiful boat.  This is their third year cruising this area and it’s great to get tips and insights from them.  We all had dinner together aboard Toga Saturday night and it was great fun to catch up.

Sue and Dick took off yesterday and Ralph and I caught the shuttle bus to the Island Fall Fair, where we had such fun.  It was a real agricultural fair that included sheep dog demonstrations, tractor pulls, all kinds of animals on display as well as contests for local flowers, quilt makers, baked goods.  We sampled the pie, hard to choose from over 40 varieties on sale.  We had a wild blueberry pie and it was great.

We plan to head out this morning to a nearby island.  We are having hot weather and things are lovely.  We’re all smiles!

Fair crowd

Prize winning pumpkin

Sheep dog demonstration

Zucchini car races!

Livestock on show

Sheep shearing demonstration

Prize winning quilt

Prize willing Dahlias

Fun at the country fair

Changing Tide departing Ganges

Beautiful island scenery

Island scenery, snow capped Mt. Baker in the background

Natural hair drying

Ralph said to tell you this is one of the uglier sunsets in the islands

Not a bad house location!

Lovely Genoa Bay

Leaving Brentwood Bay

Kayaking in Madrona Bay

Canadian beer time

Entering Genoa Bay

Sailing full speed ahead

We left Friday Harbor on Wednesday, Sept 3 and headed to Stuart Island, Reid Harbor. The wind was light and we motored with the current, arriving in about 3.5 hours.  The harbor was a fairly deep inlet and after we set the anchor I realized that the scene was pretty close to what I had envisioned when we talked about coming to these islands.  It was tranquil and beautiful.  There is reported to be a great hike on the island, but we planned to leave the next morning so we just relaxed.  It was wonderful and the stars were amazing.

We left mid morning on Thursday and had a great sail, again going with the current, so we made good progress.  When we crossed the border we raised a small Canadian flag, known as a courtesy flag.  This is a custom among boaters as well as a maritime rule.  As we grew nearer to Port Sidney, we decided instead to go to Tsehum (“see-um”) Harbour, which, like Sidney, is a Canadian port of entry.  We pulled into Van Isle marina at about 2 pm – the weather was fantastic! Nice and sunny and very warm.

We had called ahead to the marina and were instructed to tie up at the customs dock, which was at the end of the fuel dock.  As we pulled in, a young lady in a blue uniform was there to help us tie the lines.  I assumed she was a Customs agent, but she was a marina employee just being helpful.  On the dock there was a payphone with an 888 number for customs.  I called in, answered a few simple questions, and that was it!  The process was much simpler than we expected.

We decided to stay the night at Van Isle Marina and it was a first rate place.  The marina was full of very expensive yachts, and walking the docks was impressive.  We sent some time cleaning up the boat as we have been away from a marina for about 10 days.

Friday morning we left Tsehum Harbour and headed to Brentwood Bay.  We came here to attend a rendezvous for Sceptre sailboats.  The event was held at the home of one of the owners, and Brentwood Bay is a really great place.  At the end of the bay is Butchart Gardens, one of the world’s top botanical gardens.

The party started Friday evening with a happy hour gathering.  Right away Ralph and I felt at home and comfortable with our new friends.  Saturday morning I went to the Butchart Gardens with one of my new friends and Ralph attended a gam session (gam – A social visit or friendly interchange, especially between seafarers).  The gardens were fantastic and Ralph enjoyed his time swapping stories. Saturday afternoon we played a couple of games – one was a dinghy race where one person had to hold an egg in a spoon while the other navigated a course and we were timed.  The other was a sort of scavenger hunt where we went around the bay on a dinghy with our team and found clues.  Both games were really fun and Ralph and I actually won the egg race!  Also, not to brag too much, but my team won the scavenger hunt too!  Beginners luck, I think. 🙂

Last night we had a lovely dinner and visit and this morning we are meeting up for breakfast before we all go our separate ways.  Ralph and I are so glad that we attended this function – we found a bunch of kindred spirits here,a wealth of information about our boat, and some exciting invitations to visit our new friends – most of whom are Canadians.  So far our impression of Canada could not be more positive.

Here is a little video footage we took the other day: http://youtu.be/aUe22h6q2r4

Stuart Island, Reid Harbor

Canadian courtesy flag hoisted!

Stuart Island, Reid Harbor

Tsehum Harbour, Sidney, BC – lots of mega yachts

Sceptre’s rafted together in Brentwood Bay

Sailing@

Thousands of Dahlia’s at the Butchart gardens

I love these flowers, need to find out what they are

Butchart gardens

Roses in their second bloom at Butchart Gardens

Japanese Garden at Butchart

This is the Butchart gardens dinghy dock – we motored over here and entered the gardens this way