Logan and I were pretty excited when we finally were blessed with days off and favourable weather that allowed us to take the boat out for a sail! After sailing from Vancouver to Nanaimo with Rudi and then taking part in the Cooper Boating 5 day Liveaboard course, we had a pretty good grip on what we needed to do to get from point A to point B safely, but had yet to try it out ourselves without any assistance.
For our first solo sail, we decided to head from Nanaimo to Gabriola Island. Once we arrived at Gabriola, we quickly decided that the anchorage we were planning on stay in wasn't going to work. However, notes on our charts told us that there was an anchorage on Valdez Island, right next to Gabriola, which had a nice little spot we could anchor in. So, we hopped across the narrows and found a new spot.
We explored the island, took Max on his first ever dinghy ride, and made friends with some otters! Check out the videos below to see more of the adventure!
On the way back, we sailed beautifully wing on wing until we went over a decently sized swell and one of the boom vang blocks broke! Luckily, Logan and his quick thinking got us back to sailing home safely.
P.s. we are still looking for a name for our dinghy! Any suggestions welcome ;)
Pt 1: Sailing from Nanaimo to Gabriola and all of the fun stuff that went along with it!
Pt 2: We Broke the Boat! Sailing wing on wing from Valdez Island to Nanaimo