Foreigners

We have left the San Juan Islands and are officially in a foreign country. We checked into Canada a few days ago and made the first of many border crossings to come. It was a pretty painless process. You pull up to a dock, pick up a phone at the end of the dock that is a direct line to someone sitting at a desk across the country, give them your passport and boat info, and that's it. We are let in. Pretty simple.

Turn Point Lighthouse

It's pretty surreal to be in a different country with no real time agenda. We would normally be trying to cram as much stuff in as we possibly can in 1 week and then rush back to work. Not this time. I know, its not like we pulled into Tahiti or Australia or some other exotic place, but it is very symbolic to me. I have been planning this trip for as long as I can remember and to actually check into another country, even Canada, is kind of a big deal. I'm not trying to down play Canada, it's a great place. We have sailed up here in the great white north a few times over the years and loved it every time, although we have never had this kind of time to really get down and dirty and explore before. The inside passage through British Columbia is one of the most beautiful places on earth. So here we are. Checking it out.

At anchor in Canada baby!!! 

The first thing I have noticed while here is the language barrier. It is a foreign country you know. I have been trying to do my best to fit in with the locals by throwing out words like eh, Wayne Gretzky, and Molsen's (it's Canadian for Beer). It seems to be working. When I get stuck communicating, it's usually time for another eh, and pointing, and hand gestures. We seem to be able to get along so far. Cheeseburger seems to mean the same thing here as it does in the States. That's a good thing.

Going for a hike on South Pender Island

Anyway, the Canadian Gulf Islands are pretty amazing. They are surprisingly different than the San Juan Islands which are only a handful of miles away. The trees are different, the weather is different, even the rocks are different. It's hard to describe but the whole feel is different. There seems to be hiking trails everywhere and they are maintained superbly. Canada has been buying up chunks of land and entire islands and turning them into preserves and marine parks for public use which I think is great. A couple of days ago we hiked to the tippety-top of Mt. Norman on South Pender Island which I was told is in one of Canada's newest national parks. Beautiful.

The tippety-top...and socked in.  Bummer.

We have been doing our best to try to slow down and take our time at each place we visit but it's hard to do when there is always a new place right around the corner. Our routine has been pretty constant for the last week or so. Get up whenever we feel like it, have some coffee (this may take a couple of hours some days), take the dinghy to shore and go for a hike or explore the town, haul up the anchor, sail to a new island, and do it all again. It's a great way to live.

Stewart Island

We have some friends that are about 1 year ahead of us on their around the world sailing adventure and are now in Ecuador. They started their trip by going north through BC and around Vancouver Island before sailing down the coast to Mexico and Central America. Anyhoo, on their trip north, they decided to keep track of how many islands they set foot on (they called it conquering...I am more passive so I am calling it exploring...it seems more friendly). I think their end tally for the summer was 103 islands conquered. That's a lot of islands. We have currently explored 10. We have 3 more months to go on this leg of our journey and if we keep up the pace that we are now on, it may be a close tally. I will keep you posted.