Expedition Canada

To Underdog Wed Aug 6th A fleet of Martin 242s Or whatever the nautical equivalent is?  Perhaps big fish small pond, small fish big pond may have been more analogous.   This last weekend, a long one as it was British Columbia Day on Monday, I was in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island with the some of the Fast Lane race team taking part in the Cow Bay Regatta. It was also the Martin 242 North American Championship, in which we were competing.  Meanwhile Fred was playing in the 49th Sunshine Coast Open Tennis Tournament, which had competitors from Vancouver and further afield. What an interesting weekend.  In Gibsons, Team Fast Lane (TFL) as we are known, are leading the tables for both the Wednesday evening series of races as well as the Sunshine Coast Yacht Club Sunday races.   In Cow Bay, we had our asses handed to us on a plate, coming 20th out of 21 boats! It was a humbling and educative experience.  We thought we were pretty good, not excellent ...

Orca Alley Tue Sept 19th Local Orca passing through - they came back in the other direction the following morning After the departure of the mountain bike crowd, we had a week with Ros before she and the expensive mountain bike she won at Whistler's 2022 Crankworx, returned to NZ.  Crankworx Whistler is one of the World's leading mountain biking competitions and she was one of the volunteers working the event in 2022.   Did you know some mountain bikes now come with electronic gear change and seat height controls!  Quite why anybody would want to spend north of $15k (Ca) on a mountain bike that is going to be thrown down a hill is beyond me. The Wednesday before Ros went back out to NZ, we managed to get out for an afternoon's sail on one of the club boats with one of my sailing mates and his wife. We had a gentle potter up West Howe Sound towards Langdale in a light breeze.   It is a beautiful setting for a sail with the mountains on the Sunshine Coast, Ke...

It's Wet Mon Jan 16th Roberts Creek Towards the end of last year as the drought continued into Winter, if we had doubts about the area retaining the status of a Temperate Rainforest, we should not have worried.  It has been wet.  Not enough to cause the level of flooding that the UK and California has suffered, but wet.  The creeks are in full flood. In the mountains the snow has been abundant, unlike much of Europe - though that appears to be improving, but interspaced with warm and occasional wetter weather.  As a result the snowpack is Avalanche Warnings in SW BC unstable and the avalanche risk is at 3 of 5.  A "considerable" risk rating.  Off piste and backcountry skiing is not advised. The blue blobs at the top of the map are the Whistler area. Not that it affects us, we have cashed in our season passes as Fred's hip replacement is due in Feb.  I hope to get up for the occasional boys-day-out before the op and and when we get back f...

Thanksgiving in Tofino Tue Oct 11th Heading to Horseshoe Bay for the second ferry to Nanaimo You may have seen the videos of dogs on skateboards. Jack, being a fan of the water, decided to try surfing, albeit in the shallow surf.  Undeterred when knocked off into the water, he was straight back on. We spent the long Thanksgiving weekend in Tofino, the surfing capital of BC.  Two ferries and 200km made it a day’s travel to get there, and back.  Canada is big.   The route from Gibsons via the two ferries to Nanaimo, then across by road to Tofino There is no direct ferry from the Coast to Van Island. Van Island and the Coast are supplied and serviced from mainland BC, which acts as a hub, mainly because there is no commercial freight demand between the Coast and Van Island.   Personal travel is not sufficient to economically sustain a direct service, according to a BC Ferries crew member I spoke to.   So the 'hub and spoke' arrangement is an hour’s wait ...