Starting small
02 April 2009
• Portland, Oregon
by V
We made the long trip up to British Columbia last weekend to look a few boats that sounded promising. Friday night we stayed in Seattle in the back of the 4Runner right on Lake Union. It was a surprisingly warm night and quite comfortable. In the morning we headed over to a nearby LA Fitness to go for a swim and take showers. This was definitely more fun than the supposedly four star hotel we stayed at in Vancouver, BC. They tried to get us to stay in a very stinky smoking room by promising us free breakfast. No thank you! We'd always heard that people in Canada are very friendly... sadly we did not encounter too many fitting that bill on our trip.
We looked at a couple of boats in Seattle - which turned out to be disappointing - and then kept on driving up to Vancouver. The wait at the border was about an hour, and not until our drive back did we realize that there was another crossing a short distance away that seems to have much shorter wait times.
One of the many boats we looked at was the only aluminum sailboat on this coast. It was very beautiful inside and out as it is a completely remodeled 1977 hull. Sadly the headroom left a lot to be desired and my captain was only able to stand up straight in a very small section of the boat. We were also a bit worried about how many potential problems might be lurking behind all of the shiny new wood and riveted headliners.
One good thing came of the whole trip. We bought our dinghy! At least that is out of the way and now we have a nice boat to play with on the Columbia this summer. We got a slightly used Walker Bay sailing dinghy with ALL the options including a trailer and electric outboard. We've been busy scrubbing and polishing it. As soon as the sun comes out we will be heading out onto the river to do some sailing!
Comments