our route from comox to vancouver
thursday morning dawned clear and calm-ish. the wind settled down somewhat in the night, with sleeps being considered "moderate" (the kids always sleep well, nothing seems to bother them). the mast, it did thwack, but not so aggressively. everything is relative, right?
we raised anchor early, the kids somehow sleeping through us untangling one anchor from the other and cranking all the chain up into the chain locker by their feet. we have to flake (guide into a neat pile) the anchor chain, or else it stacks up too tall, and when we heel over in a heavy wind it will dump onto itself. that makes it catch under its own weight so it won't come up smoothly the next time we try to drop it, and fiddling with the chain while trying to lower the anchor is a dangerous business. so i crawled up over the sleeping kids and guided the chain into the chainlocker at the tip of the v-berth, their sleeping forms none the wiser.
full sails were raised and we drifted down lasqueti's southwestern shore. the winds were enough to push us along at a comfortable pace as we tacked out into the strait. looking behind us, we saw another boat appear out of false bay; it was a dramatic junk rig that we had seen perched up on the mud flats on its bilge keel. he was headed the same direction we were and aaron wanted to take a closer look, so we tacked back towards lasqueti, still following our course to gibson's.
being a bigger boat with more sails, the junk rig soon caught us up and overtook us - which was just fine. she was equally as gorgeous to follow. being as the winds were right behind us now, we set up our wing-on-wing configuration. that's where we bring the mainsail off to one side (and lash the boom for safety) and the head sail over to the other, like a pair of wings.
wing-on-wing (stable photography is difficult in a following sea...)
the junk ahead of us deployed the wing-on-wing maneouvre as well, and looking much more impresseive while doing so. her large, fully battoned sails and gaff rig made her look like a graceful butterfly soaring over the water; she soon rounded lasqueti to head back up malaspina strait. we headed south.
well, kind of. our goal for the day was to reach gibson's, and from lasqueti that's nearly due east. but with the winds behind us - bliss! - we cruised straight there. lasqueti to gibson's, in a sraight line, is thirty five nautical miles.
*aside: one nautical mile is 1.852 kilometres. we usually just round up to two.*
of course we can add a lot more on to that for all the zigzags that come with tacking and swinging about in the wind; aaron figured it to be about 40 nautical miles. it took us eight-ish hours to make the trip - eight-ish sunny, almost-warm, good-sailing hours.
the kids did great again - surprise! the down-wind sailing is a bit smoother, but still rolly. they both said they felt fine, which was awesome, and they didn't complain. sid even joined us for a while in the cockpit and we crossed paths with a massive tug and barge.
the "large barge" and tug
the entrance to gibson's came upon us sooner than we thought. we came far enough alongside to make a direct turn and come straight in. there are shoals crossing the entrance to gibson's, and the charts say the water can pile up there with a northwest wind and a flood tide - which was exactly what we had going. our last tack, however, had us arrive there just after the change of the tides and it all worked out in our favour. we soon rounded the corner and the gibson's harbour came into sight.
unicorn on the winch - sights set on gibson's, and grandpa wayne!
aaron brought rafiki in to the dock, skillfully as ever, and we tied up to give grandpa wayne a call. wayne and josée drove from their home in langdale down to the dock to meet us (we had to move to the temporary mooring side, which was even nicer than the dock side). we locked the boat up and headed to their place for dinner.
the plan was to leave the kids with grandpa wayne and josée for the weekend so we could slip off to the city for my cousins weddings. and that is just what we did! after a very distracted set of goodbyes, we left the kids goggling at the television (yay for time with the grandparents!) and got a lift back to the boat.
we poached a night at the dock and untied early in the morning. back across the shoals, there was barely a breath of wind in the strait. we raised the sails to see what we could catch, but after ten minutes of fwapping and clanking, we dropped them again and kept on with the iron wind.
it's funny how much perspective changes on the water. from the upper deck of a ferry you can see vancouver bright and clear as you come out into the salish sea. from the modest height of our cockpit, we more or less watched the city rise up over the horizon as we headed towards it. yet soon enough it was looming large around us, freighters and all.
rafiki, a speck among giants
as we crossed english bay, aaron set me to the task of scrubbing off the poop that the otters kindly left in our cockpit in the night. i grabbed the bucket with a rope to scoop up some sea water, standing on the small wedge of deck on the outside of the cockpit. half a roll of the sea and i tipped right backwards into the lifelines. the words "holt shit!" had barely left my mouth and aarons hand shot out like a ninja to grab my wrist - it was a close call! and i wasn't even wearing my lifejacket.... goes to show you it can happen just like that. whew! thanks aaron!
my quick and clever skipper brought us over to the west side of the bay to keep out of the way of commercial traffic. we followed the buoys along spanish banks, ogling all the activity in the bay. the moored freighters had few visible crew, though a couple were huffing ugly clouds into the air. it was early morning, but there were pleasure crafts making a head start on the long weekend and small sailboats zipping around the bay, making use of an unseen breeze.
as we were nearing false creek, we heard a panpan (non-emergency distress call) on the radio. someone on the other side was taking on water and couldn't find the source. it struck fear in my heart. the man on the radio was being very articulate, but we could hear the anguish in his voice. the coast guard did their best to guide him through, but minutes later he called out again with a mayday. i honestly felt near tears listening to the man say his boat was going down. the coast guard was only ten minutes away, so we knew the people would be safe, but the very thought of having to make that call and watch your ship go down.... it was heart-wrenching.
the coast guard vessel passed us on our way into false creek, and we were soon distracted with the enrapturing complexity of the city. my grandma lives right near the mouth of false creek, so we waved to each other as we entered the city. and then our attention turned to safely navigating a very busy body of water.
hi grandma! and into false creek we go...
it's such a thrill to cruise into the heart of downtown vancouver by way of the water. there are so many boats and people and mini ferries and kayakers and dingies and channel markers and signs and art and whimsical works of architecture! it's almost overwhelming, but everyone goes pretty slow, so it feels safe enough. the burrard and granville street bridges are massive, impressive structures. it's not often you see the underside of a bridge, but the number of bolts and braces are a reassuring sight.
the cambie street bridge, however, gave us a bit of a scare. a sign in the middle said 13 METRES FROM HIGH TIDE. i read it aloud and aaron puzzled over how he hadn't thought out that the last time we came this way... hm? we quickly calculated that our mast should clear, and anyway, the tide was low, so we were sure we would make it. yet we both had our necks craned to watch the underside of the bridge as we passed beneath it; it had many a scrape and scratch from boats who neglected to notice the sign! there was even a whole row of dings on the far side, like a tally, and the 13M sign on that side had a big dent in it. we had a chuckle, then set our sights on our anchorage.
false creek appears to end underneath science world, the water rounding out like a cul-de-sac with the city on all sides. where the water ends exactly we haven't figured out, as the sea wall at the end is held up by pilings that fade into darkness beneath the city streets above. either way, what concerned us was finding room to anchor, and that we easily did. with a permit, you are allowed to stay in false creek for 14 out of 28 days at a time. we only planned to stay five or six days, so here we were, permit in hand, moored in downtown vancouver with a killer view and access to all the good things - for free!
a snack with a view
we lazed about for the rest of the morning, enjoying the sun and the kid-free time. eventually we got into tubs and buzzed back down false creek to hit up the granville island market for some lunch. it just felt unbelievable to cruise into the city, put our anchor down in what feels like the middle of town, then zip around in our own little vessel and tie up for free in one of the most happening places in the city. like have you ever tried to park, nay, drive on granville island? it's insanity there. and here we bypassed it all by bringing our own little floating home right into the thick of it all. too cool!
the city is still pretty sparkly to us island-dwellers. we ogled at the variety of foods and creations in the market building, then wandered through the gallery-like building and feasted our eyes on artwork and pottery. the city is such a delicious stew of creativity; i just love the things people come up with (this pottery that we saw in a collective gallery was my absolute fave). hurrah for diversity!
back in tubs, we nipped across the creek, tied up at the aquatic centre dock, and walked up to see my grandma and grandpa and dad - again, so cool to have boat access to the same spot we could've got to on a bus!!! our visit there was short and sweet, then we wandered off to - surprise! - indulge in more delicious city food. we waddled back down the hill to the tender and gave dad a lift back to his neck of the woods (also near rafiki), finishing an epic day under cotton candy skies.
Super and Cool. What a way to see a city!