She floats!

After four years of sitting in our yard in Revelstoke, Free Spirit finally got to go on an adventure.

It started with a very slow road trip to the coast - 80km/hr was the top speed we could go before the boat started to sway in a rather scary way. 55km/hr was our speed going over the Coquihalla.

The cool crane that takes boats off of trailers...

... and puts them in the water.

And then, we were sailing! Here is my attempt at making a not-so-accurate map of our route.

The photo above is not actually of me sailing on our first day. Our first day was a wee bit rockier and windier. It involved almost running into some rocks when our power cut out (the fuel line on the motor was not actually attached to the fuel - oops). It also involved some big enough swell that James and I thought we should take a 1/2 of a gravol tablet each. This didn't seem to help much and we both felt queasy while crossing the Straight of Georgia. It wasn't until the next day that I discovered that James had actually given us 1/2 an allergy pill each.

We stopped at a little Island right before Gabriola Passage to wait for the current through the passage to calm down as the tides turned. It turned out to be a beautiful little gem of an island covered in cool Garry Oak ecosystem.

Garry oak sapling

James wandering through arbutus forests.

Stonecrop covered the shoreline.

Blue camas

More beautiful arbutus

The next day was all head-winds and I was totally impressed by how quickly you can move upwind. We sailed from Pirate's Cove on Decourcy Island to Montague Harbour on the southern end of Galiano Island. We were treated to a real coastal deluge that night and we discovered that Free Spirit stays warm and dry in a rain storm.

Sailing wing on wing. Actually there was only enough wind to keep the sails up, but we weren't actually moving at this point. We did eventually get some wind and made our way to Sidney Spit National Park. Mid-week in May is a great time to sail around the Gulf Islands, as we had the park pretty much to ourselves.

Looking down the spit.

forest fish

Gulls and Mt. Baker

The view out our back door.

And then we were off to Victoria.

Drinking lattes on the waterfront

Free Spirit's current home. Many thanks to Ian and Margaret who's front 'yard' we are anchored in!

And then Kathryn and Mark got married... definitely the funniest ceremony I've ever attended.

The marathon team. The bride and groom were also part of this team of rabbits. Luckily Mark stopped limping just in time for his big day.

Wedding bee

UVic is covered in cute bunnies. So cute. And so tame, I even managed to pick one up. This pleased me very much.

After the ceremony we piled a few folks onto Free Spirt, by way of our (not-s0) trusty dinghy.

Aaron looking dapper

Nice gumboots!