Next sailing trip planned is during the May long weekend. We'll be going to Van Isle Marina on Vancouver Island on the Friday, meet up with my sister Martine Simard, and then slowly make our way back to False Creek in Vancouver. Can't wait! It will be Martine's first sailing trip involving full days at sea and sleepovers; plus it is going to be my birthday. Should be fun.

We arrived at Quayside Marina in Yaletown bright and early on Thursday, 9 October 2014, hoping to provision the boat, run a few errands, and turn on all the systems so we could be underway by noon. There had been some kind of power shortage while we were away so there was no power on the boat. We had to stay put for the day, to give time to the batteries to recharge. Next day, we went to Plumper Cove at Keats Island. Beautiful and sunny day. We woke up to rain on Saturday so we decided to just stay put for the weekend and relax. By lunch, temperature was great so we took the dinghy down and outboard and used them for our first time. We went to Gibsons by dinghy and expired the famed little fishing town a bit. Then we went to explore Plumper Cove Marine Park, watched a movie, relaxed some more. Sailing life is tough! We went back to False Creek in the afternoon on Sunday (it was a bit of a chilly ride and day), cleaned the boat in and out, and met our good friends Laird and Glenda O'Connor for dinner. We flew back to Calgary the next morning, too bright and early. Can't wait to be back again.

Today, Rick and I took a bus, taxi, train than walked for about 5 km to get to Point Roberts Marina where we took possession of our sailboat Lotus, a brand new Hunter 40 aft cockpit. Let our adventures begin!

This photo shows the happy owner of Lotus at the marina, Captain Richard L. Johnson II, with Ted Smith, the Specialty Yachts representative who delivered Lotus to us.