Where to start ………………

………. a lot has happened in the space of 36 hours. 

Thursday night I was tied to the dock at Sidney North Saanich Yacht club waiting for Marilyn to arrive.  About 8:00 she phoned to say that her flight had been delayed.  I had a bad feeling about that right from the start.  There was a huge storm system moving up from the Oregon coast into western Canada.  By the time she phoned it was hitting from the Crows Nest Pass through Calgary and starting to affect Regina.  Westjet kept delaying the flight but eventually it was – inevitably – cancelled.  I hate it when they do that – lying bastards all of them.  Why can’t they just say up front “the weather is the shits – it’s really bad for us because it will fuck up our schedule for tomorrow – but we’re going to cancel the flight right now and you all should go home or to a hotel.”  Instead they drag it out for hours while all the poor passengers repeatedly phone their family and friends, eat overpriced airport crap food, get sore and tired from sitting in airport “lounges” and finally go home or to a hotel anyway.

By the time the flight got cancelled and Marilyn got her money back it was close to midnight and we were both worn out from the stress of hoping that she would get safely out of Regina and worrying about her getting out of Regina and then hung up in Calgary.  That exact thing happened to another friend of ours who ended up spending an unplanned 24 hours in Calgary thanks to the same storm.  We were worn out and incredibly disappointed because we had both been looking forward to the visit.

I decided that there was no point slinking back to Cow Bay so I checked the weather and yesterday I headed out across Georgia Strait to Vancouver.  I knew that our old friend Bruce from Plumper Cove & McNabb Creek was anchored in False Creek so I figured I’d visit him and Vancouver at the same time.  When I first called Bruce he was planning to move back up to McNabb but shortly after that he phoned back to say that his temporary employment at McNabb had fallen through and he would be staying in False Creek.  So that’s where I found him late yesterday afternoon. 

Solo anchoring was a big worry as I was coming into the anchorage but it went remarkably well.  The fact that there was no current and no wind likely had a lot to do with how easy it was.  The big Sarca hopped once and then hooked up solid, leaving me a little closer to a couple of neighbours than I had planned.  Typically it hops and drags maybe 50 or 100 feet before finally planting itself so I had allowed for that distance but yesterday I wouldn’t have needed to.  However as I was debating whether to pull up and try again, I realized that one of those neighbours was already moving.  I hollered over that I would move but it turned out he was pissed off at another boat that insists on running its noisy gas generator 24/7.  I convinced myself that the 2nd boat that I thought was too close wasn’t and stayed where I was which turned out to be a good thing because about 2 hours later its owners returned, fired it up and left the anchorage completely. 

I’ve never been this far into False Creek.  I’m anchored right in front of the Science Centre, Rogers Centre and BC Place.  Its a very pretty spot at the end of a long pleasant winding trip starting as you go under the Burrard and Granville St. bridges.  Then its past Granville Market and all the high priced waterfront condos, past the float homes in False Creek, past a host of expensive marinas and finally under the Cambie St. Bridge.  The final bridge only has roughly a 40 foot clearance so even a moderate sized sailboat can’t get in here.  When I go out in the dinghy this afternoon I’ll get some pictures, for now you’ll have to make do with the one stolen from Google Earth.

Meanwhile …………. back at the ranch ……………. Marilyn had been on the web looking for other flight options and eventually booked herself into Vancouver tonight.  Its still storming in Regina but it sounds like it is blowing itself out and most importantly, all of Westjet’s flights so far today have been on schedule.  So maybe we’ll go through a rerun of Thursday night or maybe she will arrive late tonight. 

Stay tuned.