Vancouver Canada visiting friends 5/29/15

Weather continues to be calm and allowing us to cross the strait at will.  We left Pender Island headed for Vancouver with arrangements made at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club.  A friend of ours is a member and with his help we got a slip for our visit as reciprocal members of the Point Loma Yacht Club in San Diego where we are members.  While PLYC is a small, quiet single room operation the RVYC is a major club.  Our slip was at their Coal Harbor docks, downtown Vancouver and adjacent to Stanley park.    They have additional docks at several other islands and a massive clubhouse on the other side of Vancouver at English Bay.  WORKNOT and crew were on their best behavior.  We made a graceful landing and our dry stack exhaust cooperated and did not soot up any of the members boats.

The club has two elevators for hauling members boats and a large floating workshop for members to share.  Great floating restaurant and reserved parking.  You can get a lot done when you start in 112 years ago.

Vancouver is a major port and very cosmopolitan city.  The docks can accommodate up to 5 cruise ships and often does.   Coal is exported from here along with other bulk commodities.  We saw sulfur being loaded onto hopper style ships, logs and several oil tankers inbound with crude.  Lots of ship and small boat traffic, sea planes and swift currents make this a harbor a challenge and thrill at the same time.

Our friends Tom, Fiona their two kids joined us for an overnight anchorage at Bedwell Harbor about 2 more hours into the Vancouver harbor.  Hard to believe this is only 10 miles from the hustle and bustle of Vancouver.

 Part of the Kramer clan who joined us for the evening.  Tom and Fiona are friends from Arizona and we spent a number of 4th of July holidays together on various boats over the years.  The current WORKNOT was deemed a lot more comfortable than the 30 ft go fast we stayed on at Lake Pleasant near Phoenix.

As time goes on the boats have gotten slower, wider and heavier........so has the Captain.

Tom gave us the use of his Smart Car and Mary and I toured around Vancouver, shopped, got lost and generally had a great time.  

We met a couple (Cam & Kim) who have signed up for the CUBAR trip to Mexico this fall. They will join us on their Nordhavn 60 and at least another half dozen Nordhavns.   We met for lunch and between us telling them about our Mexico experience and them telling us about cruising British Columbia we barely had time to eat.  

With the rainy weather keeping your boat in a boat house is a real perk.  Nordhavn's biggest boat to date 120' is in a boat house in the Vancouver area.  Below shows how those lucky enough to land a boathouse berth maximize the size of boat they can squeeze in.  The bow extends over the walkway and the boathouse was modified to fit.  The stern is just outside the boat house some 75 feet away.

Check out the view from the Cricket field at Stanley Park.  After watching Cricket for a few "innings" went home and Googled the game.  For once the internet was not much help in explaining this game to me.  Still not sure what the wicket is for..............

 The beauty came to the end of the RVYC and turned around just behind us.  Professionally crewed she was out for a sunset cruise with guests dressed for a formal evening.

BOX SCORE  7 HOURS   22.5 GALLONS 45 MILES.

STEAM DRIVEN CLOCK IN DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER