Several of you, my faithful readers, have asked whether we finally took delivery of Étude and whether we were finally cruising. Yes and yes. We planned to meander around visiting Canadian ports denied to us since before the pandemic and familiarizing ourselves with our new floating home. But after about
Several of you, my faithful readers, have asked whether we finally took delivery of Étude and whether we were finally cruising. Yes and yes.
We planned to meander around visiting Canadian ports denied to us since before the pandemic and familiarizing ourselves with our new floating home. But after about two weeks, we realized that we have a ton of things to do in Seattle before we depart for Scottsdale in mid-October. So rather than remain aboard fretting, we returned to port and headed home.
You can follow our route by having a look at the Where’s Étude page.
Because our ports of call were mostly familiar, I wasn’t inspired to take many photos. But since people were kind enough to ask about this trip, I’ll share what I have.
Here’s Mary Anne preparing to eat her first dinner aboard Étude.
Our custom-made chair with slide-out foot stool. It’s nice to have enough room in the saloon (pronounced salon, remember?) for more than a bench. Note the reading light.
We anchored for the first time at Portland Island. The entire small Island is a marine park with many hiking trails ranging from easy to difficult. The drawback is that the Island is right on the BC ferry line and wakes can be astounding. Our position behind these rocks was somewhat sheltered.
Mary Anne studies before we begin a fairly strenuous four mile walk around the coastline.
After leaving Portland Island, we traveled down the western side of Vancouver Island’s Saanich Peninsula to tiny Todd Inlet. This was a marvelous place; quiet, sheltered from the wind and surrounded by trees. Even better, the Inlet abuts The Butchart Gardens. They make it easy for boaters by providing a dinghy dock and back entrance.
Butchart made his money by grinding up rocks and turning them into cement. The factory, worker housing and dock were at Todd Inlet. There’s little trace of them now except for the empty shells of some cement buildings. No need to build using wood when you can make and pour your own cement.
Speaking of which, what do you make of these? Note the metal end caps.
They are leftover pilings from the old dock.
Étude at rest.
We left Todd Inlet after a couple of days and headed north to Mill Bay. We had read good things about their marina and thought it would be a good place to weather a predicted day of rain and wind. Which never came.
This beauty was moored next to us. It’s a wooden former racing yacht built in Italy in 1952. The current owner’s father purchased her in 1976. Keeping a wooden boat looking good is a lot of hard work. This one was exceptional.
At Port Browning on Pender Island, we found this Party paddle board. Although there was a wedding at the marina/campground, no one rented this little beauty. I would have loved to see fourteen drunks trying to take it out for a spin around the harbor.
Our final night was in the luxurious embrace of Roche Harbor. They had me at “donuts”.
