Fort McMurray crew try their hand at cruising

After a cruise around with my brother and Uncle (see previous blog). Loree flies out to visit from Fort McMurray for her first cruise on the new boat with me. Our friends Anne-Marie and Jeremy whom recently moved from Fort McMurray to Vancouver catch the ferry over to the Island and join us for a cruise. Below you can see a story in pictures of cruising the Islands. While there are no pictures of it there were many games of "sequence" had where Jeremy become the insuferably undisputed winner. Good friends, food and booze led to a great long weekend trip.

Anne-Marie can cook a great feed

Enjoying lazy life at anchor after a big hike

Winch that main halyard a little on the job training for the new crew

The ladies taking charge and showing how it is done

Team work 

Another great sunset

A chilly last day motoring home

Cruising with my bro

Another trip to the boat and this time my brother can make it so off we head back into the Gulf Islands after being away from the boat too long. This time there are two Sailor Spilly's on board as my big little brother come too along with my Uncle Dave.
First point of business is to load up with timber for a delivery run to a mates place. I got more comments from the old salts walking the dock about how nice the timber was than how nice my boat was.

The crew having loaded timber boards for delivery to Saturna Island

My younger brother Anthony taking charge on the was to Saturna

Delivery complete and enjoying a beer with the locals, oh what a life to live in Gulf Islands

Checking out the rig before heading out

View from the top of the mast about 60ft up in the air

The work is done now time for some play exploring the Islands and off too Montague Harbour amongst other places.

Pub crawl by boat

So a marvellous adventure was planned for a pub crawl by boat around some nearby islands to sample the beer that was available here in the Gulf Islands of BC. The motely crew consisted of

• Sailor Spilly - Justin
• Chief Navigator and Beer Connoisseur - Uncle Dave
• The big cheese - Jesse
• The Aussie Wanderer - Pat

From left to right Justin, Pat, Dave, Jesse

The route is shown below with stars indicating stops

And no for some gloris pics of a great trip

Jesse steering towards the next pub

Pat at the helm

A sunset in amongest the Gulf Islands

Snake charmer in actio

Smoking BBQ and another great Sunset back on the mooring in Teshum Harbour

Farewell

Just Dreamin's new home

So Just Dreamin's new home is in Tsehum Harbour see below pictures on the mooring with new solar panel and davits installed on previous post. I found webcam which enables me to keep an eye on my dream from Fort McMurray see circled picture below

Boat work part 1 of many

So short term repairs of the infamous delivery run were to have a diver go done and through bolt the hole in the boat with large washers as a more permanent solition to the dish rag but time has now come to fix it properly so the boat was hauled out to replace the fitting with a new one. Also at the same time some new dinghy davits, solar panel and dinghy were installed on the boat taking advantage of the boat being out on the hard.


See below the inside sapce on the boat that has become the workshop

The first sail on the new boat

So the first day sail on the new boat happened today where we just went for a cruise around the Sidney spit for the day. All told it was a marvellous day with great weather.

Me and Uncle Dave

First time sailing the new boat.

The crew enjoying the sunshine

What is in a name?

The name of the boat from the previous owner was "Starship" this felt a little bit space cadet to me and did not ring true. The brainstorming was on from friends and family to come up with a name. The winning name was supplied by long time family friend Hannele in discussion with my mum and dad back in Australia. The name was "Just Dreamin". This really hit a chord with me and so the new name was found but as with all things nautical to change a name of a vessel requires a boat name changing ceremony to ensure fair wind and seas in the future. Also a lot of drinking and eating and drinking. See below the naming ceremony where we renamed the boat at my Aunt and Uncles yacht club (Capital City Yacht Club)

Boat Renaming ceromony with family and friends on the fore deck

I think we can fit more people in the cockpit

My mate Pat supervising my uncle Dave as the new name goes on