I’m Canadian now (sorry, eh?) and another exciting update

So! My last update was from Heriot Bay on Quadra Island, and I’ve left you hanging for a while.

There’s not much more to the sailing story. It took a few hours the next day, in the rain and moderate swells, to motor around the south end of Quadra and into Discovery Harbour Marina in Campbell River.

… And Boatato has been there ever since.

This was the first marina where I asked the office staff about staying as a liveaboard and they didn’t hesitate to say, yes, that’s allowed here, and yes they have plenty of spaces open.

I checked out the town and thought about it for a couple days before putting down a month’s rent. Not long after that I went back to Port Townsend to get my bus ready to sell, clear out and organize a bunch of my belongings, and cram them all into my Geo Metro for the drive back up to Campbell River.

I crossed the Canadian border on Nov. 4 and declared my intention to settle in Canada for the first time. I was at the border for about 50 minutes, filled out a couple of forms which they put into the system, and I was relieved that it all went very smoothly with no hassle and all 3 of the agents I dealt with were extremely chill and friendly. I camped for a night near Surrey where Atli lives and then took the ferry to Nanaimo the next day, arriving back at my boat as an official resident of BC.

I’ve been acclimating to the new living situation in a new country. No job yet, but I’ve got my Canadian phone number, bank accounts, and mailing address set up. Got my slip secured until May. Still need to do some things like driver’s license and car registration (long story, it needs a lot of fixes to pass the safety check). Meeting new people, exploring the area, making linguistic observations about the local dialect, and getting more familiar with how to live in such a small boat over a dark, wet, cold winter.

They really don’t say “aboot”, BTW. Think of the “out” more like “oat” 🙂

The marina itself is quite nice. Unlimited, free, hot showers; good laundry and washroom facilities; friendly staff, etc.

It’s been a pretty cool process, and I feel very fortunate to have had the option to make this move. People have generally been very gracious to this American newcomer. There is a lot to explore here. When I’m back and I have more time, I’ll post more pictures of the area.

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Now for the other exciting news:

My former boss invited me to join a different kind of sailing trip where we will be taking his 47′ sailboat on the open ocean for about a week, as part of an ongoing effort to get the boat back to Washington.

We leave Port Townsend in a few hours to fly out of Seattle and will arrive at our destination sometime tomorrow.

I think it’s more fun to leave it as a surprise, but I’ll try to make a quick update in a couple days with more info and some pictures. I will say that I’m looking forward to escaping the cold weather for a while 🙂

It’s just the 2 of us, so I’m a little nervous to be in charge of the whole boat whenever he’s sleeping, but it sounds like it’ll be pretty manageable and I’m excited to have a full 6-8 days of nonstop sailing, with no internet. I wonder if it will be boring, stressful, zen, or what. Good test run to see if a months-long voyage actually appeals to me or not.

Well, I’ve got some more stuff to do before we leave so I’ll leave it at that for now. Until next time!