Canada or Bust

Ahoy!  from Nanaimo, BC.


     We left Roche Harbor on Tuesday he 29th at 10:35 am, crossed into Canadian waters at 11:25, and raised our courtesy Canadian flag at precisely noon.

Approaching Port Sidney Marina, approx. 1:00 pm

Clearing in

Waiting to be cleared in.  Bucket and I are instructed to remain aboard.

     We were assigned guest moorage on Dock D space 40.  We were in a double space with a huge motor yacht.  At this point, with our novice level of experience, every docking, anchoring, mooring ball encounter is new and for me challenging.  I would guess Scott gets a pretty good rush out of the daily challenges too, he just keeps his cool so much better than I.

     We see our slip and this gigantic motor boat with which we are going to be crowding in with and I take a deep breath and try to conceal the fact that my heart is pounding out of my chest.  The wind was against us, meaning it wanted to blow us right into the yacht.  I looked to Scott for assurance....he provided it, and slid in like he had done it a million times. Success! Still the rush of adrenaline made me sweat and I was quick to admit my fear.  Little did I know that there was yet another and more challenging docking marina maneuver to come.

     We had showers, wandered through town, and got groceries and had dinner back on the boat.

     We left Sidney at 10:05 am.  I have found 10:00 in the morning is the perfect time for getting underway.  We wake between 6:00 and 7:00, have breakfast, get cleaned up, dress, prep for getting underway, start the motor and viola!  We have lunch while underway and arrive at our next destination just in time for a nap.  We explore our environment a bit after nap and decide if we want to spend the entire next day at this spot or if we want to move on.  If the latter is the case then we use a couple of hours looking at possible destinations, the weather, tides and currents, and times of departure.