Still feels like Summer

Mon Oct 3rd

Sunset over Van Island - still warm enough to eat outside

Message from the editor: Technical glitches in the last blog update email, lost the formatting and didn’t save the changes after the typos were corrected. Guardian readers may not have noticed.

The forecast rain reported in the last blog never arrived, water restrictions remain in place and the Sunshine Coast Regional District has convened their Emergency Committee. Although it’s cooler at either end of the day, temperatures have been in the mid twenties which is 6c - 10c above average for this time of year. The rain forecast set to swamp the Public Holiday next weekend (Monday Oct 10th is Thanksgiving in Canada) is also looking less likely, maybe a few showers. The coast has gone 80 days without any significant rainfall. Some are speculating it may lose its status as a temperate rain forest.

Canadian Thanksgiving is a celebration of the harvest (much like the US’s in Nov and UK’s Harvest Festival). We’re off to Tofino for the weekend, the surfing capital of BC, with Nick, Lizzie and Seb. Will it rain or not, it is a public holiday after all!

We’ve been to Tofino once before and it’s a beautiful stretch of coastline. The last visit was on Fred’s sixtieth when Nick and Lizzie made a surprise visit, pitching up while we were exploring the botanical garden. On that occasion we booked a seaplane flight up into the snow capped mountains and along the shoreline. They used the flight to pick up a passenger from a First Nations village up the coast (Tofino Air runs the local air taxi service), so we got a bonus 30mins FOC. The scenery was stunning.

I did my bit

Last Friday Sept 30th, was Canada's National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, a federal holiday and honours the children who never returned home and survivors of the residential schools, as well as their families and communities.

It is the same day as Orange Shirt Day. Orange Shirt Day is 'an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day intended to raise awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”.'

A good friend of ours joined the walk and commemorations in Sechelt which had a large turn out. As part of the events a new cross-walk was opened painted in orange and decorated with indigenous art. More pics below.

Closer to home the Sunday yacht racing has been of mixed fortunes. Last weekend (Sept 25th) we started first and finished second to last in light winds. This last weekend (Sun Oct 2) we finished second of nine which is also our position in the Fall series. We were out in the Salish Sea with a good wind throughout the race and in a 1m swell. Absolutely brilliant fun. And we beat our nemesis! The backstory is a month or two back another boat lodged a formal protest on our handicap rating which was reduced by the race committee to the same as the protesting boat. We were required to get a formal measurement of the boat and sails to obtain a certified handicap.

Beating back to the finish line in a 1m swell

A few weeks back all yachts were out getting ready for an 11.15 start, the time for which had been aired several times on the race radio, we were jockeying for position on the start line when said boat came on the radio, citing the rules around the formal start time of 1130, that ‘he had raised this before’, had been dealing with an issue on the boat and ‘the start time should be 1130’. The start time was put back. A few minutes later he was back on the radio, saying he was now in position and the race could start. This was at about 1118 and the rest of the fleet had lost their chosen start position. There was no ‘sorry guys, missed the announcements, had a problem with the boat would you mind ….’ The race was started at 1130. One of my former shoot buddies had a good phrase for this type of individual.

Crew sitting high side to balance boat

The weekend of Sept 25th we crossed the finish line two boat lengths ahead of our ‘protestor’ and reported our time. As we were settling in to our beers in the bar, protesting boat's owner owner joined us and said he was protesting our finish as ‘he was ahead of us’. After politely rebuffing his suggestion and after he threw in a question about when our handicap rating would be done ‘’which was required ASAP’, he left. He withdrew his protest during the week. I don’t know how he achieved it, but we feel sorry for him, even though my shooting mate had the right description! He was several boats behind us this last Sunday.

Last Friday (Sept 30th) I had my check-ride on one of the Gibsons Yacht Club boats with one of the skippers. Although my departure from the marina berth was a bit of a Horlicks after successfully doing it half a dozen times before with my instructor, I passed. Capt Cronk now has access to the three club yachts. I sit my Radio Operators License on Tuesday 4th. Now all we need to do is get Fred more comfortable on boats.

Fred has joined a local knitting circle called ‘Knitting under the Influence’.

The dangers of drinking and knitting!

They meet every Tuesday evening at the Persephone Brewery. The beer is great, they do good food and we enjoy our visits there. Fred was disappointed with her first project, a pair of socks!

The Saturday prior we’d enjoyed an afternoon on a friend's 25’ Beneteau up on the Sechelt inlet. A power boat rather than sail, Fred even had lunch on the boat without ill effect. Little and often and we will make a seafarer of her yet.

We have canoed and paddle-boarded there before, but have only been able to explore small areas of the inlet. The power boat gave us much greater range and an opportunity to see more of the inlet.

After lunch in a small cove, we headed up the Salmon Inlet arm. There were few other boats about. We did come across a large family of seals on a small island on the far side of the inlet.

Heading back to Gibsons after our excursion and a few hundred meters up the road a young bear was foraging and climbing up the trees. No more than 10-12 ft away from the car he ignored us, though I was a tad nervous when our passenger opened her rear door to get a better view! Her first bear sighting since moving to the Coast from the USA had the potential to be a whole lot more!

Boat owner and Fred (I was driving)!

During the summer the brown grass stumps on our drive have shot up and now stand at head height with fronds of Pampas seed heads reaching even taller. We are rather hoping they don’t have the same meaning as they are alleged to have in the UK. I guess we will know if strangers start knocking on the door!

We continue to follow the UK political pantomime in a mixture of bemusement and horror. There was an apposite and "damming" quote on Sky News today from an unamed tory MP who believes the PM will not be around long. "Boris damaged our integrity. Truss is damaging our competency". I'm wondering if the PM and her Chancellor studied at the Erdogan school of economics.

The US and Canadian press is not being at all generous in its analysis and coverage. Viewed from afar, it is sadly damaging UK PLC's standing in the world.

Local family of Black Tailed Deer heading off to chew next door's garden.