Sailing Wondertime

We are anchored off Sidney Spit tonight and just watched an orangy glowy sunset together in the cockpit. After a week in the town of Sidney, it feels marvelous to be at anchor again. We got quite a number of jobs checked off during our visit however and were even fortunate to be able to borrow a friend-of-a-friend’s slip for the week while they were hauled out at the boatyard.

After searching for a shop able to make new tangs for our masts the past few months without success we found the exact stainless tangs we needed at a local rigging shop here (Yachttech – excellent!). It was really nice to be still at the dock for hauling Michael and his tools up and down the masts about 12 (more!) times to get the shiny new tangs installed. (Our old tangs had obvious pitting and corrosion and were in desperate need of replacement). Wondertime’s rig is finally offshore ready which is a good feeling.

In Sidney we also had our first adventures at getting around town without a car. This being British Columbia the girls were over the moon at getting to ride on our first double-decker buses (top level, front seats naturally). We were fortunate that there was a route that ran right near the marina we were staying at (North Saanich) all the way to downtown Sidney. We took away several valuable lessons during our trips around town via dinghy, foot and public transportation:

1. Make sure you have broken your fresh $20 bill before you get to the bus stop that is miles away from any open shops.
2. When you are traveling with two young children, bus drivers are really nice about letting you use your transfer that is hours expired.
3. Bring your raincoat, especially when you are in Canada. Even in July.
4. It really is worth it to buy a local map when preparing to walk through the industrial part of town with two short-legged people in tow searching for a small rigging shop hidden amongst auto repair shops and lumber yards.
5. Before you haul your two tired and hungry children 1/2 mile to the bus stop, then wait 15 minutes in the rain for the bus, then ride 10 minutes to your stop, then hike another mile up the hill to the pub you are dying to eat (and drink beer) at…call to make sure minors are allowed in first.

Even with eating ice-cream almost daily in town we were more than ready to head back out to the islands after a week of the hectic “getting stuff done while we have the opportunity.” This morning we hopped across the bay to Sidney Spit marine park to wait out some strong winds that are forecast in the Strait of Juan de Fuca the next couple of days. After that we hope to catch a few quiet early morning windows and finally reach Barkley Sound by early next week.

Until then, we are enjoying playing on the (finally) sunny beach and clear cool water here at the spit. We sure enjoyed the wifi, hot showers, laundromats, garbage bins, West Marines and fish & chips shops. But digging our toes in the warm soft sand of the islands together is all we truly need.

When we really started planning this summer’s journey a few months ago we had developed a firm goal of sailing around Vancouver Island. In the past, when Michael and I sailed as a couple, our destinations were our main priority. We set out to reach a certain place and got used to sailing our boats with each other as we went along.

This time around, we’d only been underway a handful of days when we quickly realized that our hierarchy of priorities for the next six weeks or so, our shakedown period, was no longer topped by our destination but a very different set of priorities:

1. Getting used to sailing for long periods and managing the boat while taking care of our two young children
2. Testing Wondertime’s systems, getting the boat organized and ready for offshore sailing
3. Getting used to living together 24/7 in our small space with limited resources (i.e. water, power, internet and cell phones)
4. Visiting with friends and family along the way
5. Finally, visiting some really cool northwest places before we point our bow south

Early on, we wondered if our plan to go around Vancouver Island was too ambitious. Would we just feel rushed? Would the girls get tired of being on the go day after day? (Would I?) Would we get tired of motoring mile after mile? Would we not get the chance to really have enough time as we wanted exploring our favorite places? It’s approximately 800 miles around the island and in order to reach Barkley Sound and be ready to head south by Labor Day (when we are picking up our extra crew) there would be little time for dilly dallying.

We tossed our options around, trying to figure out how to mesh our personal cruising style (spending more time in fewer places), our limitations (being able to travel only a few hours each day at this point with our restless little ones) with our dream of circumnavigating Vancouver Island. Even at Sucia Island we still were on the fence. Could we do it? We set up a general route with how many days we’d like to spend at each stop. We thought about what we really wanted to see but haven’t yet (the west coast of the island). One option was simply to head out the Strait of Juan de Fuca directly for Barkley Sound and spend a month exploring that enormous area as well as Tofino and Hot Springs Cove just north of there.

We spent three full days kicking around Sucia Island. The girls absolutely loved it there. Woods to run through, sandy beaches to dig our toes in, amazing sandstone sculptures to marvel at and climb on: the perfect island playground. Yesterday, we motored through glassy seas across the border to Canada and checked in at Sidney, B.C. Here we are enjoying Wondertime’s first foreign port, visiting with dear friends we met on our way to Mexico nine years ago and installing the shiny new mast tangs we finally found at a rigging shop here.

We’ll stay until our boat jobs are done, some fresh food is aboard, and the wind stops howling in from the west end of the straits. Then we’ll head west to Barkley Sound for six weeks of Northwest cruising paradise.