Happy Chinese New Year!

The start of the Chinese Year of the Monkey was February 8. The New Year's Parade, grand finale of the week long New Year's celebration in Vancouver, was on February 14. Vancouver has the second largest Chinese expat community in North America, so, we were expecting the celebrations to be something special and they were. It was a wonderful parade, unfortunately held in pelting rain, but, it didn't seem to dampen spirits much. It was long, almost two hours, and showcased many different Chinese organizations and groups. Of course, being Canada, it also included a lot of other groups as well including school groups, pipe bands, marching bands, military personnel, Highland dancers, martial arts performers and even a Sikh Motorcycle Club!

Lovely smiles, even in the rain...

Costumes and colours were amazing, almost made you forget the dismal weather....

There were many impressive dragons, trailing firecrackers and smoke in their wake...

...and lions that delighted the children...

Here is the Sikh motorcyle club...the only such club in Canada (and maybe the world?)

Stoicism in what must have been miserably wet uniforms....

There were indoor events as well, onstage at the International Village Mall. This mall was packed after the parade and their fast food court had interesting cuisine to choose from, not only Chinese, but, unusually Sri Lankan, Indonesian, Indian and others as well.

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Steveston BC

We had guests recently, my brother and his wife were here from Ontario for a week's visit. We dodged raindrops all week to try and see some of the sights. On another day full of rain and wind, we decided to visit Steveston BC, on Lulu Island, at the mouth of the Fraser River just south of Vancouver. It didn't sound that promising, but, was surprisingly interesting and made for a great day out. The Steveston Museum was beautifully presented. It documented the history of this historic fishing village and especially its Japanese Canadian inhabitants and their internment during World War II.

Steveston Museum

Steveston is today home to Canada's largest commercial fishing fleet, over 600 boats. At Fisherman's Wharf you can buy fish direct from the boats. It doesn't get much fresher.

The highlight of our visit turned out to be the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. We timed our visit just right and were able to receive a guided tour through the site. Very informative and I'll never look at a can of salmon the same way again! In the 1880's this area had over 45 canneries and was known as Salmonopolis. The Gulf of Georgia Cannery was operational from 1894-1979, but stopped canning salmon, switching to herring, around 1930, as the area was suffering from salmon overfishing even then.

The cannery building is huge, at its peak it had three canning lines. One line is currently on display and takes you from the fish arriving at the dock through to the end of the line where cans of salmon were loaded onto pallets. People (including children) of all ages and nationalities worked in the cannery in very harsh conditions. Each station was restored realistically. The 'sliming' station was especially graphic with lots of very realistic fish pieces, plastic slime and gore dripping from the table!

The 'Sliming' station

This station was near the end of the line, just prior to the cans entering the ovens for cooking.

Another interesting museum in Steveston is the Interurban Tram Building. It holds a beautifully restored vintage, wooden tram, one of 28 that were bought from the St. Louis Car Company in Missouri. The Interurban tram line ran from 1913 to 1958 greatly contributing to opening up the area.

Steveston Interurban Tram Museum

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February This and That

I haven't been posting much lately. It's true that we've settled into a nice quiet winter routine here in West Vancouver, but, we also have been out and about quite a bit even though the weather hasn't been conducive for much outdoor activity. Drenching rains continue for days on end. They don't call it the "We[s]t Coast" for nothing.We've just come out of one six day, very dismal, wet stretch to enjoy a single day of beautiful sunshine before disappearing again into another low pressure system with rain forecast every single day for another week. We're not really complaining, honest! The weather is warm, averaging around +10C and for those of you still frozen into winter in other parts of Canada, the following photograph is for you. Crocuses were up here on February 8!

We've done a few muddy scrambles along hiking trails. This photo is of Cleveland Dam in Capilano Canyon.

We took a trip to White Rock BC, just at the Canada/US border. They have a lovely pier reminiscent of the many that we visited while in the UK.

White Rock Pier

We've trekked all over Vancouver, this colourful street art is at Granville Island.

We also visited a lovely community in North Vancouver, Deep Cove.

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Gjoa is Sold!

It is with somewhat heavy hearts that we are announcing today that Gjoa has been sold!

Gjoa in her element, Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, September 2014.

 It may seem like a sudden decision, but, after completing the North West Passage this past fall we were in a quandary about what to do next. We'd been so focused on a year of planning, including acquiring Gjoa and two years execution of our North West Passage expedition that, all of a sudden, we were faced with new decisions. Where to go and what to do next?

Our full-time cruising life started in June 2010. Since then we haven't sailed south of 50 degrees North latitude and have spent two winters aboard north of the Arctic Circle. Patagonia definitely and strongly beckoned. It seemed a logical next step, but, to be honest, after almost six years north of 50, we've seen enough cold, snow, rain, fog, ice, mountains, fjords, glaciers and low pressure systems to last a lifetime. We'd now like to experience some of those azure blue seas and white sand beaches that exist in the lower latitudes.

Gjoa is a great high latitude boat, but, lacked desired attributes for more tropical climes, so, although we weren't actively looking for a buyer, when one appeared it seemed to make sense and Gjoa is now in new hands. We met her new owner, Randall Reeves, in Nuuk, Greenland in 2014 and at various places in the NWP thereafter. He indicated an interest in acquiring her at that time, but, we weren't ready then.

Randall is planning an ambitious expedition voyage of his own. You can read all about it and follow along with him at  http://figure8voyage.com/. We wish him every success.

We are now 'boatless' and probably will be for some time to come. This blog will no longer be a sailing blog, but, more of a general travel blog. We are busy planning the year ahead and have lots of ideas. We are planning a three month road trip north to enjoy another Canadian summer followed by a 'busman's holiday' aboard a cruise ship in September. We will be aboard for 43 days and travel from Vancouver to San Diego, then Hawaii, visit a number of the South Pacific islands and Australia before ending up in New Zealand. A once-in-a-lifetime voyage. Upon arrival 'downunder', we'll have a look at what tropical boats are on offer, so, stay tuned! Could there be a multihull in our future?

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