Our trip this year began  with a little different pace. We didn’t leisurely begin our True Love Adventure, but we motored quickly north, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, through the San Juans past Friday Harbor and to our anchorage just across the Canadian border at Cabbage Island marine park.  We’ve been there before and it’s one of our favorites.  We needed the long day on Friday to be sure that we could easily get to Sidney, BC on Saturday afternoon to meet Jasmine, David, James and Robert when they arrived by ferry from Anacortes.  Luckily, even though we got to Cabbage Island at 6:30 PM. there was still a good spot to anchor in the little harbor and we were treated to lovely views and a peaceful evening. 

The next morning we had some house keeping to do to get ready for the troops before we headed west towards Sidney. It was a perfect cruising day with calm winds and we were treated to lovely views of Mt Baker, eagles and seals.  It striking how prominent Mt. Baker is in southern BC.  You can see it well from so many places.

Our plan was to arrive in Sidney a couple of hours before the kids, get settled, reconnoiter and find the ferry terminal.  We had never moored before at Sidney Harbour Marina and it is a truly lovely stop.  The marina is very nice, the town is great to walk around and includes an exceptional bakery (the “monster foot” shaped donuts were a hit), and what has to be the fanciest self-serve laundromat I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world — complete with leather chairs, a big screen TV and a snack bar.

The ferry from Anachortage was on time and an ideal way for traveling with young ones.  We all walked back to the marina where Jasmine and David dropped off their bags and quickly rallied to grab a taxi and head out for a date night at Butchart Gardens for a concert, dinner, fireworks (in the sky) and brief evening together.  

We had a blast with James and Robert, ate dinner, played, showered and helped them into their bunk beds.  Jasmine and David had a nice evening although a cruise ship was in town so the gardens were packed.   

I wish I could say the kids slept well, but that is not the phase they are in now.  It was a theme for their visit.  This too shall pass, but poor Jasmine and David are so sleep deprived, we don’t know how they do everything they do!  Children are certainly for the young.

Sunday we woke up and stopped by the baker in town before cruising around the top of the peninsula that is the north boundary of Victoria and its suburbs and then south into the bay that includes the boat entrance to Butchart Gardens.

We thought it would be a perfect spot for James and Robert and it was!  David got to spend Sunday with us before heading back on the evening ferry for an important meeting at Amazon on Monday.  We played with the kids at the little beach area, enjoyed the gardens and generally a great time was had by all.

Jim and I even got to enjoy a romantic dinner at the gardens on Sunday night while Jasmine was back on the True Love with the grandkids.   We’ve never had dinner at the nice restaurant  at Butchart Gardens before; it was yummy and peaceful.  A string quartet was playing at the outdoor amphitheater nearby and after dinner we strolled through the gardens serenaded by lovely music.  If it sounds perfect, it was.

The next day after some fun swimming and beach play we lifted anchor to journey to Montegue Harbour.  Before leaving, however, the first of several “appliance” failures began when the kitchen faucet stopped working.  Jasmine and I took the top off and tried to repair a small piece of plastic that makes the thing work, but to no avail.  But after removing the handle we could get water using a pair of pliers.  Not a big deal we thought, it should be easy to replace the faucet in Nanaimo, a mid-size city and our next stop.

 Then shortly after we began our cruise  north the fridge went “nock, nock, nock, put, put, put, big sigh.”  Oh no!  We thought our 12 year old fridge had just died!  This would be a much bigger problem So we rerouted back towards Sidney, made some calls, put a thermometer in the fridge and found to our surprise that it was still working.  

The Captain and I decided we could take the risk and head towards Naniamo with our planned one night stop at Montague Harbour.  Anchoring there we had another 24 hours of beach play, sand castles, swimming, pretend baseball in the salon, reading, lots of laughter but again not much sleep.  

Poor James suffers from occasional night terrors and he had a doozy on this trip.  They are so weird. He’s very upset, but not awake, and inconsolable.  Jasmine is a saint, calmly holding him and soothing him. We were really no help.  Jasmine stroked James, I stroked Jasmine and Jim stroked me until James finally woke up surprised that we had him out of bed.  The next morning, as usual, he remembered nothing about it and was our normal happy James.

As many of you know the Captain is a compulsive sand castle builder and this trip had lots of castle building.  I’m sure it is just the beginning of many years of fun sand castle building with Baba.

Our final stop on our True Love Adventure with the grandkids was Naniamo.  We enjoyed the beautiful waterfront, the big playground, and some yummy fish and chips and ice cream before they boarded their seaplane back to Lake Washington. 

After they flew home, the Captain and First Mate breathed a sigh of relief that all went well.  We were now ready to enter the more tranquil part of our journey.  Little did we know that our faucet repair was going to be much more of a challenge then we first thought.

Part 2:

While in Nanaimo we did our usual reprovisioning at the local Thiftway, and had a scrumptious dinner at our favorite Greek restaurant (Astera Taverna).  We also took a taxi to the Loews to buy a new faucet and some other supplies.  

I also decided to remove the shower door from the front bathroom.  It’s a great shower, but the door is a killer, opening a foot into the small shower with a sharp corner. The new shower curtain works so much better.  But the sharp corner got me one last time while I was removing  it.  Good riddens! 

While in Nanaimo we called ahead and made massage appointments for the next day in Egmont at the West Coast Wilderness Lodge, a beautiful little hotel with great views.  Crossing the Strait of Georgia was typically bumpy and rocky.  No problem really, but just uncomfortable for about two hours. Once we were safely across near the mainland shore it was an easy cruise to Egmont. 

And we were treated to a spectacular rainbow.

The next morning we decided to wake early and replace the faucet before our massages at 10. And so the faucet drama begins.  First, it was not easy to remove.  We didn’t have the nifty tool to remove the bolt from the long bolt underneath the sink.  Actually, we learned later that we did have the nifty tool in the new faucet kit, but not before we brutally took apartheid old faucet, complete with bending and breaking each copper pipe.  It was quite an accomplishment.  No problem, we were now ready to install the new faucet, easy sneezy.  But no!  The size of the new pipes did not match our water system!  This wouldn’t normally be a problem, we would just drive to any hardware store and get two 3/8th to 1/2 adapters.  Unfortunately, the closest hardware store was a two hour boat trip away; or a thirty minute taxi ride but the nearest taxi is two hours away.  And, to further complicate the situation, on the boat if one of the faucets cant be turned off the entire water system shuts down because there is just one master shut off.  No Water!  #!&@!!!!! And since we just destroyed the pipes from the old faucet to remove it we couldn’t put it back.  

We asked for some help both at the Back Eddy Resort where we were moored and the Wilderness Lodge next door where we scheduled our massages.  Everyone was so helpful.  Jacqueline, the manager of the Back Eddy Resort found us some old parts from her emergency plumbing repair box but unfortunately nothing worked.  But Paul, the owner of Wilderness Lodge and a really nice guy was driving into town that afternoon and got us the two adapters we needed while he was there.

Massaged and fed we were ready to easily complete our plumbing project.  Which we did, only to find the now the water pump would not turn back on!  Are you kidding me?  We did everything we could think of: check every fuse and breaker, bled the system of air but clearly there was no power at the water pump.  Could the pump have died too?  Are you kidding me.  We couldn’t call our boat guru Ben Rhoades because there is no cell phone service in Egmont, so we tried to communicate by cryptic, intermittent, weak wifi-assisted texts.  Two hours later, feeling stupid, exhausted and very frustrated (after walking to the office and calling Ben on a land line) we learned where the solenoid was, what it is, and how to rewire it to send the electricity directly to the pump, avoiding the solenoid and the circuit breaker.  And voila, easy as that, the water system worked again.  

We celebrated with showers and although we both wanted to collapse in bed we rallied to walk up the dock for a beer and some food before collapsing in bed.

Now every time we turn on the kitchen faucet we smile with pride.

I’m now committed to read the entire Boat Owners Illustrated Electrical Handbook this trip.

Now the Bliss

We left Egmont two days ago for a whole week alone in Princess Louisa Inlet.  This is truly one of our favorite places in the entire world.  The snow capped mountains, warm water, and minimal people are completely energizing and restorative.  Our days our made up enjoying quiet time together, the beauty all around us, floating on the water, eating,  kayaking and some hiking.

The last two nights we have gone to bed early and woken up in the middle of the night for star watching.  The dark sky entertains us with lots of stars, the Milky Way, shooting stars, satellites tracking across the sky and even the International Space Station.  We read a couple of nights ago that you can see about stars with the naked eye.  I think we can see all of them! 

Other than the Electrical Handbook, The Captain is reading Thick Nhat Hahn’s How to Love, Relax, Walk, Sit and Eat books.  It’s leading to some wonderful discussions. I’m reading book 12 of the Inspector Ganache murder mystery series.

A week reading and enjoying the beauty of nature, no phones,  no internet.  True Love, true healing.  Thank you God and the universe for this wonder gift.  And thank you for running water!

Part 3:

We’ve never given each other a gift like the last 6 days. Complete calm and bliss.  Mary Chapain Carpenter’s song “What If We Went To Italy” captures the feeling perfectly.  We have both been mentally lazy and physically active.  We’ve had lots of quiet and great conversations.  Our love and healing is very deep.

We took a short hike near McDonald Island and the moss was fantastic.

But the time has come to share our beautiful space with friends. We had to prepare for our guests.  For the first time we left the tender with the shore tie and took the True Love out to the deep waters outside the main Inlet to run the engines and clean the tanks.  Out here the “solution to pollution is dilution”.  And we went to where the big inlet is wide, the currents are strong and it’s 1,200 feet deep.

After retrieving the tender and re-anchoring it was time to do some tidying.  Our chores were completed by lunch leaving us plenty of time to enjoy our last day in PLI alone to its fullest: meditating, floating, loving, reading.  Last night when we woke to see the stars the Captain noticed a glow from the small waterfall.  Phosphorescence!  So cool!  Has it always been here? Making the water glow with the shore ties and the paddles was true giddy fun.  Stars in the sky and in the water!  Turns out it was just for one night.