We left Vancouver in the rain on Friday, Oct 17 in our rented Hundai Santa Fe, which we practically filled with stuff. We had spent the day getting wet and cold while tying on tarps to cover the boat, the idea being to protect it from the flocks of ducks and geese in the nearby Fraser River as well as to protect against water intrusion. It was difficult to leave Toga there in the boat yard, looking lonely – especially for Ralph.

Goodbye gathering with our Vancouver friends, Anne and Henri

Have a good rest, Toga!

We headed south and had no trouble crossing the border, except that my tomatoes and half of a lime got confiscated. Strange rules we have regarding produce. We picked the worst time to travel through Seattle and hit all of the traffic on our way to Matt and Hilda’s house outside of Tacoma. We were greeted with a wonderful home cooked meal and lots of libations. We spent two nights there visiting our family and we got to celebrate brother West’s birthday. We took a trip to the Defiance Point zoo – what a wonderful little place! We had nice weather and only a little rain.

Brother West’s birthday

Penguins!

On Sunday we took off early, drove all day and stayed in Redding, CA. Not much to report there. Monday we headed for Santa Cruz where we stayed with my Aunt Annette and Cousins Danna, Keith, Madi and Kohl. We even got to crash another birthday party (Madi’s 20th)! It was a very nice time, even though it was short.

My pal and cousin Danna

Beautiful Santa Cruz beaches

On Tuesday we drove to San Luis Obispo and got to see our son, Jacob, who attends Cal Poly. It was wonderful to see him and we did the typical parent visit of grocery/essentials shopping and out to lunch. Ralph and I love Jacob’s dog, Charlie, and we convinced him to come with us and visit for a while. So, with Charlie in tow, we headed home.

Our friend Charlie

Welcome back to LA!

We are slowly acclimating to the comforts of being at home. It has been wonderful to see all of our loved ones! We have a long list of things to do to get ready for the sailing season next year and plenty of house projects to keep us busy as well. I am going to try to get a little consulting work this winter, so we’ll see how that goes. Thanks to all of you for following along on the first part of our adventure! It’s been great to stay connected this way. Hope to see all of you soon.

Our stay at Royal Vancouver Yacht Club was very comfortable and we enjoyed visiting with our friends and getting to know the city. On Tuesday, September 30 we left RVYC and headed to False Creek to anchor. It was a windy day and there was a significant amount of chop in English Bay, but it was a short trip. False Creek is a busy and interesting area with aqua buses and taxis as well as lots of pleasure craft zipping around all day. It is the only area we have been where a permit is required for anchoring, although it is free of charge. Apparently there was a problem with derelict boats littering the creek, and this is the way to handle it. Getting the permit was easy and we settled in to our anchorage nicely.

On Wednesday we took the dinghy and explored the area of the Olympic Village from the 2010 games. The developments have turned into housing and there is still a lot of development in progress in the area, which was formerly quite industrial. Vancouver has gotten into the craft-brewing race, so we had to visit a few places, of course. We visited Craft, which has over 100 beers on tap – very fun. Thursday we took the dinghy to Granville Island (which isn’t really an island). We went through this area with Anne on the bike tour also – the market is wonderful. While there we visited the Granville Island Brewery and tried out a few of their offerings. I liked their Amber Ale and, surprisingly, their Maple Cream ale.

We completed our research on boat yards and decided to keep the boat at Shelter Island Marina and Boatyard, which is located on the Fraser River in Richmond, BC. The mouth of the Fraser is south of Vancouver off of the Strait of Georgia, and we left False Creek at 8 am on Friday morning, timing our departure to correspond with the flood tide in the river. We made arrangements to have our friend, Henri, accompany us on the trip because he is very familiar with the river. It turned out to be a really nice day and the trip was really pleasant. We arrived early, but the boatyard made room for us in their schedule and Toga was hauled out of the water. There was a knot on my stomach watching the process; I was really nervous. It was obvious that the boatyard crew could do this in their sleep and it went very smoothly. Toga is now “on the hard” in the boatyard, which is a huge place with a lot of work happening.

We are spending each day cleaning, sorting, packing and winterizing. We need to make every effort to keep the inside of the boat dry and to avoid any damage for potential freezing while we are away. We are planning to drive back with a rental car, since we have quite a bit of stuff to take home and we aren’t sure when we are going to be done here. It was a great, GREAT, summer and we can’t wait to do it again next year! Video of the haul out is posted at http://youtu.be/1I8mDFBLqV0.  Please excuse the bad videography and the smudge on the camera lens.

Area surrounding anchorage in False Creek

Area surrounding anchorage in False Creek

Area surrounding anchorage in False Creek

Area surrounding anchorage in False Creek

False Creek sunset

Lights at False Creek

Great Canadian snack!

Dead Frog Brewery fearless IPA – Ralph’s #1 beer so far. Very good.

Craft – many beers on tap

Granville Island Brewery sampling

Approaching Shelter Island, Geese give a salute

First stage of haul out

Toga on the road

Power washing

Adding supports

Toga in her new home

Ralph and Henri toasting a successful haul out