Vancouver

After much concern and anxiety about crossing the Strait of Georgia, we let go of the mooring ball in Nanaimo at about 5:00 AM and headed out across the strait to Vancouver.  The strait has a reputation of being quite gnarly, especially when strong winds and currents are opposed.  The forecast was for light winds early, followed by strong winds up to about 20 knots in the afternoon in exactly the opposite direction of the current.  Our early morning departure was in the hope of getting across before things really kicked up.

As it turned out, the maximum wind we encountered was about 12 knots and seas were relatively light with only a small chop and swell.  Unfortunately, the wind was mostly on our nose, so we had to motor most of the way with the exception of about an hour or so.

There were many ferries and other commercial traffic out and about that made you feel quite small.  As we become more comfortable with our radar, we have found that these bad boys are easy to spot.  I was able to set an alarm on the radar which would set off if anything came with in the set range.  The only negative was that the radar was picking up low flying float planes as they passed and setting off the alarm.  An annoyance, but kind of cool to be able to see it on the screen and then look up and see it pass over head.

As we pulled into English Bay off of the city, it was an interesting observation to note the perspective of seeing the bay from the sea as opposed to land, which has been the usual viewpoint.  There was a bit of current passing under the Lions Gate Bridge, but Talos IV handled it with no issues.  We rounded Stanley Park and pulled into the Coal Harbour Marina at about noon.  The 35 mile passage took about 6 and a half hours.

We were both tired, but managed to walk over to Delany's Coffee on Denman for our latte fix.  The weather was excellent and the walk did us some good.  As 5 PM approached we went in search of a bar to watch the first game of the Stanley Cup hockey series.  The Vancouver Canucks were playing the Boston Bruins in game one of the series.  The Canadians don't take their hockey lightly and as we waited until the last minute to find a place to watch the game, we were unable to get into any of the places we stopped at.  We finally gave up and went back to the boat and had beers and dinner before retiring to a restful nights sleep.  Vancouver ended up taking the game at the end of the third period with only about 18 seconds remaining with a score of 1 - 0.

The next days planned run around the park was put on hold as it was absolutely pouring down rain.  Instead, we put on our rain jackets and pants and set out for an urban hike to run errands and see the city.  We made a stop at Granville Island to stock up on fresh greens and other perishables and then walked up to a Whole Foods to buy cat food.   We decided to get a 4 months supply.  As you can see from the photo when we returned to the boat, Tia immediately identified the food and made every effort to lay claim to the goods.

Tonight, dinner on the boat and some relaxation.  Tomorrow, a run around the park, refill the water tanks, a good cleaning of the boat, inside and out and then off to Snug Cove on Bowen Island, a 12 mile run from Vancouver.

Crossing the Strait of Georgia.

Passing under the Lions Gate Bridge

A different perspective of English Bay.

Granville Island

Tia laying claim to ALL of the cat food.