Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Day 357 Now we're foreigners!

We made it to Sidney, BC!! Now we are the foreigners!

We left Reid Harbor this morning after doing another pump out. Got to keep those tanks clean you know. Since we had so much fun with the freighters the day before, we decided to fire up our navigation computer and use the AIS feature we use to locate and identify the really big ships that use these waters. Each ship that meets a specific criteria must send out a radio signal that identifies who, what and where they are going. If you have the proper equipment, you can receive that signal and find out who is out there and exactly where they are on my computer screen. It can read signals from boats as far away as 50 mile in good conditions. With this on, we know who was out there and where they were before we could even see them.

As we crossed the Haro Straits, we detected a freighter coming up the channel. We were doing 6+ knots while they were doing 17+ knots. They were just over 5 miles away so we made it across before they finally showed up and crossed behind us. If I had been smarter the day before, we would have known who was coming and how to better avoid them. Lesson learned. When you go out to play with the big boys, take the right equipment.

We got into Sidney, BC (48 39.205N 123 23.592 W) about 1230 hours. A quick 2+ hour trip. There were several other boats crossing into Sidney at the same time--fishing and sailboats so we tried to keep up while still staying out of their way. We pulled into the harbor and up to the "Customs" dock to get checked in. A dock was all it was. No Customs personnel were there to greet us. All there was was a phone. I picked up the receiver and on came the Custom's agent. After a few questions(documentation number), he asked if this was William. Boy I was impressed with their knowledge of who owned Zephyr. He then asked who was with me--my answer was of course my wife Diana. His response was--"Not Susan? OOPS, he had the wrong William. He thought I was Bill Gardner, Zephyrs previous owner. We then started all over again getting the new information into their computers as to who we were, how long we would be staying, what we had on board, liquor, tobacco, food, guns, etc. All in all, it took about ten minutes to get checked in. He gave me a number and we raised the Canadian courtesy flag that we are supposed to fly from the starboard side of the boat as long as we are here. We finally made it out of the country!!!

Once we got through with that, I walked up to the marina office to get a slip for two days. That took a while as they weren't sure they had any available. The marina manager made a call and found that one man who had reserved a slip wasn't going to make it as his new boat was delayed in being delivered to him. Now he still has to pay for his slip since he had signed up for a monthly rental but we got to use it. We also had to pay so they doubled their money for one slip. Not a bad racket. One question they asked me as I checked us in with the marina was for a phone number. We don't have one anymore. I cut off our phones on Sunday since we will be sailing where Verizon can't reach and there is no reason to pay for a service we won't be receiving. It was strange to tell someone we don't have a phone number. Everyone has a phone of some sort. I walked back to Zephyr--we were about as far away from the marina office as you can get only to find that another boat(one that had just followed us into the marina) had taken the slip. A big 65 foot, two masted schooner. I walked back to the office to get a different slip or find out what to do now. As it turns out, they(big schooner) claimed that they had a four night reservation (nothing in the files at the marina) so they stayed exactly where they were. Luckily, the boat behind them(big schooner) had moved out a few minutes after they (the schooner)had pulled in so we got assigned the slip right behind where we were originally supposed to be. It was at the very next pier. A quick easy move. Untie the lines, start the motor and bingo we were in for the night.

We walked up the pier and found a nice place for lunch and then toured the town of Sidney. Nice place with lots of shops. Boating stores, Safeway, drug stores and liquor stores. We can see why they restrict the amount of booze you can bring into Canada. They want you to buy it here. It's not cheap to be an alcoholic in Canada. It's a good 40% or more, more expensive!! Many were double what we had found in Newport a year ago. We bought a few things and scoped out the bus stop for a trip to Victoria tomorrow. We're glad we came in a day earlier than we had originally planned. We get some rest and know how to get around tomorrow.

Today was one of the prettiest and warmest days we've had in the last 6 months. Seattle hit a record temperature of 74 today. I was out in a short sleeve shirt and felt quite comfortable in it. Tomorrow it is supposed to be a bit cooler but still beautifully sunny.

About 1800, as Tracy was out on deck with the furr people, along comes a heron strutting down the dock at Zephyrs bow. Snowshoe was sitting on top of the dingy right up at the bow and he just stared and stared and stared. Not moving a muscle. I can't imagine what was going through his mind. He's never been that close to any bird, let alone one that looks like a heron. The bird was fishing off the end of the dock. He would stick his head down near the water and pluck small fish out and gulp them down and do it again. I think he(she?) finally saw Snowshoe as it finally let out a bunch of loud bird calls and flew over to the next dock. Snowshoe just sat there not knowing what to do. Tracy walked over and brought him back to the cockpit where he promptly took off for down below. His day of exploring was over as far as he was concerned.

I set us up so that we will be able to get back on the internet here in Canada as of Tuesday, which is actually now since it's 0100 hours. Boy I'm up late tonight. Oh well, there is no no rush to get up tomorrow or should I say today?

More to come along with some pictures now that I will have better internet connections. At least I hope better connections.

Have a great Tuesday everyone.

1 comment:

mhaws said...

I wonder if we are missing a post, just got Tuesday with references to your experiences on Monday, but no message of what actually happened. Sounds like you had a freighter you were vying with for space on the ocean, maybe???? Take care, glad to hear you are finally foreigners! It's been a long time coming, so enjoy!