Our Sailing Adventure

The last day of our sailing course and we were heading into Nanaimo Harbour. Next thing we know a seaplane is barrelling down right toward us. What a crazy ride. And what an amazing week. We ended the evening off anchoring in Mark Bay, taking our dinghy to The Dinghy Dock Pub on Protection Island.....and living the dream :)

One of the most beautiful spots we anchored in during our sailing course. We learned how to Stern tie our boat and it was the most peaceful sleep ever. What a gorgeous site to wake up to in the morning.

I could not believe it. At first we just saw the blow....and then they breached the water. It was amazing.

It was a big deal, so we took lots of videos :)

These are actually porpoises (smaller and darker than dolphins), but they were following our boat. Soooo amazing. All on our first day of our sailing course. It is a bit difficult to see them but so cool when you do :) If it were warmer out we would have jumped in to swim with them.

I think Matt was actually looking for an excuse to go up the mast ever since we bought the boat. Now he has it. The wind direction indicator at the top of the mast was seized and he had to go up to replace it. Not once, but twice did he have to go up there. And yes.......he LOVED every minute of it. The project ended up successful and we now have a brand new wind direction indicator for when we go sailing. It rotates smoothly and works well.

On the very last day of our sailing course Matt and Max decides that the wind indicator on top of the mast needs to be replaced. And of course, what better way to replace is than tying a harness on and going up there yourself. If it were up to me it would stay broken :)

We paid for an instructor and we are on our first day of our sailing course. I am scared to death and Matt is soooo excited. Up to this point we have not done any sailing in our own boat yet. We wanted to make sure we knew the ins-and-outs of our own boat and the basics of how to sail. Quite honestly, I just wanted to be able to feel comfortable enough to walk around on the deck and to know basic terminology. I got soooo much more out of this course though. Maxime Tremblay from Beyond Sailing in Campbell River was such an amazing instructor. He catered to course to each of our comfort levels, was so patient, and taught us everything we needed to know and so much more. What an amazing experience.

Okay, so our sailing course is done, the instructor just left and we are at the Nanaimo Harbour Marina. We don't really like staying at marinas and our goal is to be able to live on the hook (on our anchor) throughout the year as much as possible. Decision made, we are going to hop across the harbour and anchor in Mark Bay. The weather is calm and beautiful, no strong currents and it is literally a 10 min boat ride. Based on all these decisions I decide that I am not even going to put my foulies on (bad weather sailing gear comprised of 3 layers - shorts and t-shirt, sweat pants and hoodie, rain jacket and pants with thick socks and boots). I am just going in my short little sun dress and PFD (personal flotation device - it inflates by itself when you hit the water). Matt is wearing his sweats and PFD. Here we go. Our first time. It is is super exciting and a little scary but it is only a 10 min ride, in nice weather.....what could possibly go wrong????? We stick our nose out of the marina, all good. Halfway through the harbour the winds starts picking up. Oh my word, the boat starts rocking. At first just a little swaying and then some serious back and forth swaying. I am steering while Matt is getting the bow line (a rope tied to the front of your boat to tie it onto the dock or to a mooring buoy) to get it through a mooring buoy because we noticed that there are no appropriate anchoring spots. Suddenly the wind is just howling, I am holding on to the steering wheel with all my might trying to keep going in the direction where I want to go, but the current and wind is so strong that it keeps drifting the boat. Next thing I know my dress starts blowing up over my head exposing my tooshie for all the other boats to see, but I can't do anything about it right now because I'm steering the boat. So,I am trying to control my dress while keeping my tooshie out of the sight of curious onlookers and steer the boat suddenly, the damn throttle lever breaks off in my hand. WTF???? How does a throttle lever break off? In what bizarro world does this even happen? My dress is still blowing over my head, my butt is getting cold, I'm standing there with a broken throttle lever in my hand and now I can't slow the boat. Matt is still up at the bow of the boat lying on flat on his belly on the deck waiting for me to get us close to a mooring buoy so that he can get the bow line through the mooring ball. Next thing I hear are a bunch of vulgarities coming from the front of the boat. He would have done any sailor proud. Matt is lying on the deck reaching between the guardrails, his PFD inflated all around him. LOL. As he is trying to get out from between the guard rails, he looks like the Michelin Man and his face is almost completely drowning in the puffed up, yellow inflatable sections of the PFD. Needless to say.....we had to stop the whole process for a few minutes, get ourselves sorted out.......put my dress down, deflate Matt, get a vice grip to use as a throttle lever and then we were able to finally get the boat on a mooring ball. Who knew all this could happen on a short, insignificant boat ride in nice weather

Our first week in our new sailboat and we had to find a pumpout for our septic system......immediately. We managed to find one in Mosquito Creek. Even though it was scary as heck taking our boat out for the first time (with no experience whatsoever), we had a wonderful time cruising Vancouver Harbour. Canada Place, the seabus crossing our path, large cargo ships and other boaters. It was heavenly.