Getting off the dock and leg one

This first phase of our travels was supposed to be an April to July trip up the west coast of BC to Alaska, then over to Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), back across to the top of Vancouver Island and down the west side, around the bottom and into Victoria.  However.....things change and so did our plans.

Mel did retire April 1st so that part didn't change.  Yahoo!  But the boat was really, really not ready and he needed two weeks to at least get all the unfinished projects stowed onboard!  Then we couldn't wait any longer and decided to at least get off the dock. 

We sailed into the San Juan Islands and met up with Clive and Susan (an old fighter pilot friend and his wonderful wife) on Planet and had a great time!  Spending two days at Friday Harbour and two at anchor in Garrison Bay. 

We left the Catons and moved on to Port Townsend where we've spent a lot of time.  It's always an intriguing and fun time.  The boatyard is such a busy place and there's always lots to see.

We returned to Canada at Sidney where we spent a wonderful evening with Hugh and Heather Bacon (another old military pilot and his wonderful bride) who recently completed a circumnavigation onboard Argonauta II.  It's always great to learn from them and to laugh and drink champagne with Heather!

From Sidney we headed north to Comox overnighting at Schooner's Cove on the way.  In Comox, the fun was to visit with all our great friends and the project was to install all the floorboard latches with the ease of using Chris Tuck's (another old fighter pilot) wonderful workshop and tools.  These latches are to hold the floorboards in place should the unmentionable "knock down" occur (we don't say those words out loud).  Things will be enough of a mess without the danger of loose floorboards flying around.  The other project (my side) was to sew new winch covers.  We had a great time with all our friends and completed both projects and a few more as well over the 10 days.

We left Comox and headed up to April Point where we moored overnight and joined Dawn and Jim Ritzel (another military pilot, not old as he's a leap year baby and his wonderful wife) and their party of 14 who were booked in for the Islander's Special.  We were able to join them for drinks, dinner and a sing song party that evening.  Great fun!

They all left the next day and so did we but not to go very far.  We motored across to Discovery Cove Marina .  We did lots of running around picking up bits and pieces and parts preparing to work on a few projects.

The next day we motored over to nearby Gowlland Harbour where we anchored and did boat work for the next four days dinghying over to the April Point pub to watch the CANUCKS!  One such trip was on the 24th and we met up briefly with Ron and Jane Fentiman (another old....you know the drill....and yes she is really wonderful too!) who were also up for the Islander's Special with a whole gang.  Great fun!  And the Canucks won the series and were now heading to the Stanley Cup!!  (ya...well....)

We spent one more night in the Campbell River area, this time moored at the Fisherman's Wharf.  That afternoon we did some shopping and met up with Susan (the wonderful wife of) and Chris Tuck (previously mentioned) and had them to dinner onboard.  Lots of laughs and fun.

Okay so all fighter pilots are old (now) and their wives are all wonderful!