Photo: geese flying overhead in Vancouver harbor.

The roar of trucks and the stench of diesel assailed us. "A short distance to shops, restaurants and the Sea Bus Terminal to Vancouver" is how our yacht club pamphlet on reciprocal moorages had described the Burrard Yacht Club of West Vancouver. But since the pamphlet had been written, the adjoining Mosquito Cove marina had been fenced off, forcing us to walk first through an industrial area, then on this busy road before we finally reached the Sea bus terminal forty minutes later.

We had motored into Vancouver Harbor that afternoon, passing under the First Narrows Bridge. The high rises of Vancouver were off to our right while on our left we passed anchored freighters, giant piles of yellow sulfur and a fleet of log boats before we finally came to the Burrard Yacht Club.

Mooring at the Yacht Club had seemed like a good idea because it was close to our friends Miles and Suzie. Now I wasn't so sure.

We met Miles and Suzie in front of the Sea Bus Terminal and they took us to dinner at a pleasant Greek restaurant nearby. Over dinner, conversation touched on the way we'd rigged our lazy jacks, lines on the mainmast and boom to make furling the sail easier. We invited them to see for themselves on our boat.

"I can't believe how big this place is," Suzie kept saying as we walked out the Burrard Yacht Club's very long main dock. By the time we got to Osprey, the sun had set and the sky had turned pink. Spread out in front of us was the Vancouver harbor with its highrise buildings and waterfront convention center made to look like a giant ship with white sails. Suddenly the raucous sound of honking filled the air. A flock of Canadian geese flew overhead followed seconds later by a second flock. "Oh my gosh!" said Suzie. "This is amazing." She pulled her camera out of her purse and started taking pictures. I followed suit and for the next half hour, while Miles and Steve talked rigging, Suzie and I watched and listened and photographed geese flying into the pink sunset.

Every cloud has a silver lining, but in our case it was pink.