This entry starts on a sad note and ends on a good one. On February 9, my dad passed away peacefully. His last illness wasn’t too lengthy, but it was, never-the-less, a stressful time. We had a memorial service for him on February 28. Neil was so supportive and caring, and stood by watching as I muddled through first the stress of Dad’s illness, and then the stress of preparing for the memorial. For the memorial, I sifted through hundreds of photos Dad had taken throughout his life, and selected a few that best represented him and his current family. I scanned negatives, slides and developed images into my computer, and selected a lovely piece of lullaby music by Tor Aulin, which was a fitting piece both in length and in tone to augment a slide presentation of Dad’s life with. Neil then helped me combine them into a movie to show at the service. While he was working on putting the images into iMovie, and I was busy writing my speech, Neil decided that it would be really good for both of us to “get away from it all” and unwind and relax when everything was done. He looked online for a boat to rent for a weekend, but, unfortunately, time and costs prohibited this, so he found a place on Granville Island that rents speed boats by the hour instead. So, on March 1, we packed up mittens, scarves, and extra sweaters and made our way down to the market for some snacks for the trip, and then got a couple of yummy, belly warming, pre-trip chais (made by our wonderful friend and wedding photographer, Geoff) at the Granville Island Tea Company. Then we headed over to Bonnie Lee Charters for our 3 hour Howe Sound Puddle Jumping adventure.
It was a gloriously wonderful day, solidifying our desire to one day own our own boat. Upon entering the Sound, a rainbow greeted us over Passage Island. We passed a series of rocky islets that is supposed to have a seal colony on it, but instead, we saw one, big, fat, lazy seal slumbering. There were flocks of cormorants and other birds, we saw a huge salmon jump out of the water, and a few boats sail or putter by, but it was otherwise very solitary. Punctuating sunny and blue heavens, we could see rain squalls off in the distance, a contrast that made for dramatic skies. We even brought our text book from the Power and Sail Squadron course we took over the winter, to remind us of the seafarer’s rules. We looked up a few things, like over-taking vessels, which vessels give way in what situations, and what side a cardinal buoy indicates is the safe side of passage. Knowing what side of a cardinal buoy was the safest passage was all fine and well, except we didn’t know what direction we were heading in because we didn’t have a compass! So we guessed based on our local knowledge of the area.
We live in paradise, over here on the West Coast of Canada, where snowy mountains and sailable waters is our playground. When we rounded the west side of Anvil Island, we cut our engines in a quiet cove where a waterfall snaked its way to the sea, and the ocean was a deep emerald green. We floated there for a little while, listening to the sounds of the waterfall and the splashing of water on the hull of the boat. From there, we motored back to Vancouver, watching the sun set behind us in our wake, relaxed and refreshed. We’ll do it again, and tip our sailor’s caps in honour of my dad, who also loved sailing these waters.
Dreaming of more puddles to boat,
Ingrid
Leaving Vancouver behind in our wake…
Happy Neil at the helm of our little rented boat…
Sea plane coming in for landing over Stanley Park into Coal Harbour, with the North Shore Mountains in the distance…
A west cardinal buoy; now, which way is west?…
Too cool, man!
Rainbow over Passage Island at the entrance to Howe Sound…
Ingrid steering at the helm, about to pick up speed!
Snow peaked mountains and navigable waters: Our playground!
Dramatic skies over the Sunshine Coast…
The sun bursts forth over Port Mellon on the Sunshine Coast…
Waterfall snaking its way to the sea on Anvil Island…
Sunset over mountains as the day comes to a close…
The end of a perfect day!
Droplets of water from our wake as we leave the setting sun behind us…
Water droplets from the wake, frozen in time…
The Peruvian Express, registered in Gibraltar and a long way from home.
