25 July - Now we are completely separated from land, we needed to get some final tweaks done for the boat in Vancouver and so we had to set off for a 'flying' visit there.  Leaving around 10am on a very grey overcast day we had the Genoa up as soon as we had cleared  Gordon Point and were pushed (by both wind and tide for the next 6 hours up to Montague Harbour.  With  a fresh 15 - 23 knot wind we kept a steady pace and, other than playing dodgems with a cargo ship and the ferries had a pleasant, uneventful trip.  By the time we arrived in Montague the sun had broken through the clouds and we had a very pleasant evening watching the sun set.

26 July - With slack water at Porlier pass not until 11:30 we could afford to have a lazy start today.  We had a sausage sandwich for breakfast and then pulled up the anchor about 09:30.  We started making steady progress up to the pass and then realised we needed to go a bit faster to hit slack so gunned the engine arriving at the pass exactly on time. 

Once through, we put up the all sail and had a go with the windvane.  We set it all up but it seemed like all it wanted to do was send us round in circles.  After re-reading the instructions we realised that we had the vane on back to front!  A quick adjustment later and we were heading at full speed in the right direction, steered only by the windvane.  the next 2 hours was a wild ride on a close reach at over 7 knots up the straights of Georgia in 13 - 16 knots of wind.  As we neared Vancouver the wind settled to around 12 knots slowing us to around 6 knots and we played with the sails a bit to try and get more balance for the windvance.  We then started heading into the city!

The bit moment this trip was going under lions bridge to get into the main port of Vancouver.  We motored through at a rip snorting pace as we had forgotten to check the current  - luckily we were going through with the current but with about 4 knots pushing us along we shot under the bridge and were spat out into the main basin

it was then a fairly easy, if busy 30 minutes to dock at Burrard Yacht Club in North Vancouver alongside alot of very serious power boats.  Once docked and checked in we went for a walk int the rain to the shipyards and had a well earned drink before heading back to the boat for diner and a movie.

27 June - We spent the day at Burrard Yacht club today - an amazing location so close to the centre of north Vancouver and a stones throw from the seabus to Downtown Vancouver if we wanted.  We started the overcast  morning with a visit from Will Curry, the owner of Hydrovane, who was kind enough to come down and check over our hydrovane install.  He pointed out how to adjust the various components and, after a few minor tweaks, gave our installation a clean bill of health.  He was also a great source of information on how to set the sails for using the Hydrovane and confirmed that our challenges with it the day before had been down to having too much sail up front.  Keeping a couple of wraps on the genoa may prove to be a very common sail plan for us. Later in the morning the team from DSS protection arrived to drop off our life raft which we then installed on the back deck.  Both of us were feeling pretty phazed today, and so we decided to take some time out from the boat and explore north vancouve.  We wondered around the shipyards and visited the North Vancouver Museum; although only small it was a mighty amount of interesting information and well worth the visit.  After this we wondered back to the boat for a nap and tea and sweet empenadas that we had picked up in the shipyards market. Dinner was bangers and chips whilst watching a good movie and then an early night

28 June - Motored across Strait of Georgia and once through Porlier Pass (dodging many other boats and barges) went down to Maple bay (coasting along for a while on jus tthe Genoa).  Met up with Dave, Trina, Brent and Barb for diner and drinks

Canada is not defenseless!

29 June - Motored (and a bit of sailiing) down to Cadboro bay in record time  - pushed by current all the way. Did washing and changed oil  prior to meeting with Richard and Mary from Texas at RVYC who also own a Beneteau 40CC.

30 June - Motored round to inner harbour - got an amazing slip right on the end of the centrla finger so we will have a great view of the fireworks.

Leaving RVYC for the last (?) time

The best slip in the inner harbour

01 July - great day for our open boat.  Had people round from 1pm until the fireworks at 11pm.  Wonderful to have so many people to see us off. Also had the most amazing view of the fireworks 

Preparations for the open boat underway!

No excuses now - time to go!