Being in the excellent marine center of Victoria BC, its been an opportunity to have some needed work done on Emerald - R&M - the Repair & Maintenance period. Victoria has a good array of professional services and chandlery shops which Ive tapped into but most work I'm able to do myself.

We've also decided to remain in Victoria for the winter season before heading back to SPac again next year (maybe) and have secured some long term berthage for these months while continuing to live aboard. The folks at Greater Victoria Harbor Authority have been super friendly and accommodating and have offered us prime real estate in downtown Victoria in front of the majestic parliament buildings and the Empress Hotel. We're really enjoying it here and all the amenities.

What is really outstanding is that our friends from SV Sage, who we sailed with thru the Indian Ocean with and originate from Victoria, have notified their friends here of our arrival and they've all come down to meet us, invited us out, etc. So we've made a number of new friends right away and its been super. Canadian hospitality at its finest!

And as the cooler months approach we've have to arrange for keeping the boat and ourselves warm. Emerald has 220V electrical systems and Canada is a 110V system and not wanting to get into the complicated business of converters, we've run a simple 110V cable from shore power, with good watertight connectors, thru a small hatch and connected these to two high output oil filled heaters in our salon and cabin. These seem to be doing quite fine. And should it get too frosty we can run the generator and the aircon in reverse heat mode - which really heats up the boat quickly. Also we've laid out a carpet in the salon, placed a thick duvet comforter on the bed, bought some socks, jumpers, cook warm winter meals, etc. We should be in good shape! Victoria gets a fair share of blue skies and sun and Emerald is in a good orientation for the solar to fill the batteries each day.

Some of the spa treatments for Emerald have included:

- Having the mainsail removed and take to UK Sails loft in Nanaimo for restitching the work UV damaged threads, batten replacements and a few patches along the batten pockets. The genoa was inspected and still in good condition.
- Fitting smooth plastic cylindrical protectors on the jack-line to prevent abrasion/chafe on the main sail.
- Full servicing on the Onan-Cumins generator
- Full servicing on the two Yanmar engines and sail drives
- Replacing the base wood under the freezer where dripping condensation has partially rotted out the existing wood. Earlier on I had added more thermal insulation to the freezer exterior wall but we finding that the condensation is now mostly coming from the door and door sealing which is near impossible to find a solution.
- Finding a fixing the water leak on the runner on the port side of the full. We discovered a slow leak into the port aft toilet cabinet.
- Servicing of the Locomarine Yachtrouter 4G/Wifi booster. This was shipped back to Europe as its just too much electronics for me.
- Replacement of the two bilge switches.

We do miss the warm tropics but still love the romance of living on our boat, its cozy atmosphere and our great neighbors and this wonderful city. We are looking forward to do some exploring of the Gulf Islands soon.