June 1, 2016 - Victoria - and the end of cruising in Mexico

This blog is likely the last one for this trip.  We have started some writing and took many pictures and videos of living on board the boat over the past several weeks, as our regular posts did not seem to really cover day to day life onboard.  We hope to post some of those soon as they will help put in writing for Cindy and Kevin how life was for us, and give them something to look back on to help them remember what it was like.

First a couple pictures being at home for the few days before heading to Victoria to pick up the boat.

The legos we left at home came out as well as Nerf guns.  Our living room requires
some careful walking.  Give the kids the room, look what happens!
Glad we had some friends over so they needed to clean up.

After no rain for nearly a year while in Mexico, Cindy and Kevin head outside
on our first morning back to enjoy it.  They were both excited to get out in the rain.
Notice:  shirts and pants, and jackets.  No more Mexico attire....

We had an adventure on a Washington State Ferry.  Believe it or not, Cindy and Kevin had never been on one in all their years as we always boat to the islands whether in the US or Canada.

Walking the ramp to the ferry in Anacortes

On the ferry as we leave Anacortes.  Yes, the brown on the deck is rust!

Getting ready on the boat deck for offloading in Sidney B.C.  You walk off on this stop before cars.

We walked through Sidney, got some Canadian cash and caught a BC bus to Victoria.
BTW, Mexican and Canadian bills are just beautiful, beats the green USA.
Modern Double Decker bus so we were on the top deck and in front, what a great ride.
This bus was a total of $10 Canadian for us, not as cheap as Mexico but a nice ride!

Lunch at Fisherman's Wharf with Kathy's cousin Jackson.
He owns Jackson's Ice Cream right behind us.  It has been too long since
we last saw each other and great to spend a bit of time together.

Jackson with a side view of his floating ice cream shop.  The boat here
was owned by his Mom up north in BC and Kathy had the privilege to be on it
years ago before it was floating.  It used to live in their back yard.

Jackson's shop from the front. If you go, he says the Salted Caramel is a favorite.
He was out of it as the US Memorial Day crowd ate it all the day before we arrived!

Ok, now on to picking up our vessel.  We wish we had more time in Victoria to visit and explore but now that we are back home, there is too much work for us to be able to spend any time in Victoria. After visiting with Jackson, we decided to walk toward where the ship would dock when it came in overnight.  To our surprise it was finishing docking right then, maybe 3:30pm (12 hours early).  As we talked and walked, the couple in front of us heard us talking and started a conversation telling us that their vessel was there too.  It was loaded on the ship in Florida.  More than this, Linda and Martyn live down the street from us in our community, wow, small world.  This is a new vessel for them, so exciting!   As the afternoon turned into evening we met with Mike and Vee of m/v Freedom, the exact same boat we have.  There are not many of our model vessels around so we had a great time with them having dinner.  We wanted to see their boat float but it is under the top deck (lots of work opening decks) and they were not scheduled to float until around 8pm, 11 hours after us. They are planning to stop in our area as they head south to Tacoma, so we will get to see them soon.

To our amazement the ship is there.  m/v Adagio is there among the cranes.

Zoomed in from shore, there is m/v Adagio.

Our ride to the ship had us getting to play with Cooper, 3.5 months old.  The driver
for our ride said since he was a taxi driver today he figured he could bring him.  This very
large inflatable is normally a whale watching tour boat.

Adagio floating in the water, the sling from the crane raising as we came out on the inflatable.

MOVIE...........to come of our departure (gratis Mike and Vee on land watching us depart)


We always feel that we are blessed in life.  Today was no exception.  Although we were 20 minutes late getting onto the boat, since the ship offloading was slow, we had a good day getting home.  Currents were in our favor and Deception Pass had a slack current at 1:30pm.  If we are late we will have to go north up around Anacortes and motor for 4 more hours.  If we get there in time we can be home in an hour.   Abandoning our leisurely and relaxing cruising style of Mexico, we ran both engines with more umpf than normal and made it in time to get through.  We could not have made it but the STRONG currents and extra power helped us make it eastbound from Victoria.   For almost an hour our 6-7 knot boat was going 12 knots! We were home within 5 hours of leaving Victoria.  We then said, "wow, that was not that far to go, we could visit Victoria for a fun weekend."    We may go back there to spend some time exploring this beautiful city over the summer.