We have been home for a little over 3 weeks now. I realized that I hadn’t posted a sort of final update for the year and we can’t have that!
After our last post we traveled around the San Juan islands for a a bit and then we returned to Canadian waters. We spent a few days at Montague Harbour and enjoyed that, as always. It is such a favorite of ours. We crossed Georgia Strait on a day that started out very foggy. Only a few miles outside of the entrance to Montague there is a pass between the islands that requires care and planning to traverse because of high currents. I have so relieved when the fog cleared right as we were entering the pass and saw 2 giant BC ferries! Of course, we had our radar on, but it feels a lot better to be able to see.
Our crossing was really nice – we got to have a speedy and comfortable sail for most of it and we saw a pod of Orcas fishing for king (spring) salmon. There were probably 100+ sport fishermen at the mouth of the Fraser river as well. We traveled up the river and stopped at a new place, a public dock in the city of Richmond. We had a nice stay there for two nights and then headed up the river to be hauled out.
Public Dock in Richmond
View from our spot in the boatyard – that is the City of Burnaby in the distance. The field in the foreground is cranberries
Our neighbor in the boat yard, a former canal boat shipped over from France. It is almost 100 years old!
We spent about 2 1/2 weeks in the boat yard, doing our usual things. Probably half the days were rainy, but we always found things to work on. We got a visit from my Mom, Lee and my Gram, Lou on their way to depart on a cruise from Vancouver. We were able to play tour guide for a couple of days and it was so fun!
The leaves started to turn even before we got into the boat yard, but I always enjoy the lushness of nature in BC:
We departed from BC on October 1st in the pouring rain, got soaked to the skin! We decided to take a bit of a different route and go through Bend, Oregon. Not only to go to Deschutes Brew pub, but that was one reason! We had a great meal there and very nice beers. We also decided to tour Crater Lake national park, only to be skunked again (I am referring to our trip in the springtime to Yellowstone that was foiled by snow). Driving into the park it seemed like a perfectly nice day but when we started to climb we hit a very wet wall of fog. We almost could not see the lake, so we will have to go back again another time.
Selfie with Crater Lake in the background somewhere
One of the two islands in the lake
Nice foliage and river down the hill
We are acclimating and enjoying life back at home. It has been so hot since we got back, it makes us feel like we are chasing summer.
Things were well taken care of at our house, our plants are thriving!
We hope to see many of you this winter – thanks for traveling along with us.
triciajohnsblog 
Many thanks for the blogging this summer! Question, you have good reason to leave the boat up here and on the hard for the off-season, but we have an internal debate on pulling ours out. Seems like same cost as leaving it in water at harbor, but so much less wear/tear when it’s up and out. For now, she’s in water getting many little things growing on her. A pain to keep cleaned. ah well. Happy off-season!! Your plants took over the house! xxoo Leslie and Joe
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Hello Leslie and Joe! At first we left it on the hard because we couldn’t find a suitable place to keep it in the Vancouver area. Now we prefer it – keeps the bottom clean and dry etc. Take care you two!
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