After leaving Vancouver we headed over to Victoria on Vancouver Island, where we spent a month in a berth at a marina in the Inner Harbour. The highlight of our time in Victoria was catching up with our ex-cruising friends Derek and Cathy who have come back to their home turf. Never easy slotting back into the modern life after a life as free spirits but they are doing a sterling job.

The south eastern part of BC has the mildest climate of probably the entire country and so we have had little actual contact with snow. Mind you we had a few days where there was actually ice on the water ! Our friend Steve from Rhapsody who came over to see us had intended to anchor in a bay a few miles to the north but was unable to do so as THE ICE WAS TOO THICK FOR RHAPSODY TO BREAK THROUGH. So I guess it's a bit cool but not nearly as cold as further north. In the marina, as our pontoon was "off the beaten track" so to speak we shared it with a few river otters who came onto the pontoon to eat any crabs they catch so we were kept in touch a little at least with the local wild life.

The bottom photo is of Monkey Fist moored in front of the Empress Hotel in the Inner Harbour, Victoria. A magnificent old building. Although not a remarkable photo I have included it for one particular reason. The Hotel was undergoing extensive renovation at the time and, in accordance with regulations the relevant areas had been covered up with large tarpaulins. It took us a couple of days to realize that the right half of the building was covered in a tarpaulin that had been painted to look like the building underneath - it's not an exact match but it managed to fool us (and some locals). Never seen that before.