And then it was almost over. Sniff. We woke up this morning and enjoyed our last breakfast with coffee and Bailey's, cleaned up a bit, took Louie Bert to shore, then up came the anchor and we were on our way. Before this trip, crossing the Georgia Strait seemed like a pretty major undertaking to me. But now, it seems like one of our much, much easier days. With a wind at our backs we were able to put the main sail up for a while, but the wind died down again so we motored the rest of the way in. Once we got to Sandheads weather station near YVR, and amongst the MASSIVE amount of weekend fisher-folk out with their boats, we could see salmon jumping out of the water. Then up the south arm of the Fraser River past Steveston to Captain's Cove Marina, and back into her home berth. Sniff. I'll admit I was crying a little when we did our final rum jiggers before we locked her all up - I was not ready to be done yet. But, in reality this isn't the end. It is just the beginning.
This was, no question, one of the greatest trips I've ever done. The coastline of British Columbia is spectacular. A friend asked me, "so, what was the most beautiful place you saw?" That is very hard to answer, it was all gorgeous and all a little bit different. The landscape of the gulf islands, which prior to this trip was my only real frame of reference for the BC coastline, is beautiful. But now I realize it is a beauty that is particular to the gulf islands. Cordero Channel is stunning. The Broken Island Group islands are almost surreal. Hot Springs Cove? My god, possibily my new favourite place on earth, but because of the perfect water, not just the beauty. Meares Island was mystical. Rugged Point rivals Long Beach in its white sandiness. Bull Harbour on Hope Island was where I could sense the spirit of the land itself the most, but Nootka Island was a close second. I could go on and on, and the thing is we barely scratched the surface. Our 5 week circumnavigation of Vancouver Island could have easily been 3 months, and we still would not have seen it all.
There are places now that have intrigued us enough to go back and see more - the Broughton Archipelago is a trip onto itself, perhaps next year we'll spend 5-6 weeks up there. Because we spent more time than we planned in Quatsino Sound (but still didn't see very much, Port Alice could have been another day's trip), we didn't get a chance to see much of Kyoquot Sound. And while we did get to see a fair bit of Esperanza Inlet, getting all the way up to Gold River would have been good to see also. And Barkley Sound is another area we didn't get to explore as much as we'd like, Port Alberni included.
TOTAL NAUTICAL MILES - 794
# OF DAYS TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE - 37
# DAYS THE MAINSAIL WENT UP - 4
# OF SHEER PINS BROKEN - 4
# OF FISH CAUGHT AND ATE - 5
# OF CRABS CAUGHT AND ATE - 3
# OF PRAWNS CAUGHT AND ATE - 20
# OF PEOPLE WHO SLEPT ON THE BOAT THIS TRIP - 10
# OF BEERS CONSUMED - too many to count
# OF RUM JIGGERS - at least one each per day, sometimes a few more
AVERAGE DEPTH WE ANCHORED IN - 20 feet
# OF NIGHTS WE PAID FOR DOCK SPACE - 4
AMOUNT ERIN LIKES CAP'N ADAM'S 37-DAY SALTY BEARD - so, so much
COST IN DIESEL - about One Grand
COST IN FOOD - respectable
COST IN ALCOHOL - less respectable
VALUE OF MEMORIES AND TRAINING FOR FUTURE - priceless
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