Cowichan Bay

ORCA III anchored in Cowichan Bay

Well its been a heap of fun here!! We arrived yesterday morning to seeing Malachi and Maryka Violet rafted together and anchored . We tied to them for a short visit before they headed out - we'll see them again.

Then Dave Ego , connection with the Blue Street Band Steve played in, came down to the docks and we picked him up by dingy for a visit. We went to Dave and Pat's place for dinner and saw how Dave had been following our route. He had the atlas open and yellow stickies marking significant events ( even the long and lat of where we lost our spinnaker!) and all the emails I had been sending. What a treat to see that!! We had a great dinner , and he plays the alto sax. So Kyle played it , first time in almost 2 years!! it sure was great to hear him again! We sure enjoyed ourselves. They are wonderful wonderful people and what a nice welcome to Cowichan Bay!Maya, Dave, Steve, Kyle, Pat Emma - dinner at their house

Dave and his wonderful collection of our trip - see the yellow stickies! and the emails, I love this!!

The kids just hanging around Cowichan Bay Village

We also gave a call to Gordon and Sandy Rutherford - the builder and first owner of Orca III, they came on aboard too!!

We had a great time with them, talking about Orca III's adventures, showing pictures and talking about all the changes we did. They are absolutely lovely people! We went and saw them after dinner at Dave and Pat's . I had burned a DVD for them of Orca III sailing in the big waves in the Tuamotus ( Remember that Dave H?! thanks for filming us!!!) They were thrilled!! Nice to see Orca III sail!!Wooden Model of ORCA III - done by Sandy's brother!

picking plums in Gordon's yard. We even had raspberries! and we picked blackberries where ever we saw them - oooh how we missed those!!

We then went out today with Gord - he gave us a tour of Cowichan. Saw the tressel bridge and the suspension bridge and then he lent us a van to go and check out the BC Discovery Forest Museum. that was fun!checking out the info on the Kinsol Trestle bridge.

US!!!Next we were off to the Suspension Bridge at Bright Angel Park! We had lots of these in the south island of NZ - remember?!yes that would be the monkey man Kyle in his tree! I love me BC trees!

At the BC forest museum. Gordon gave us his pass and we had a blast! got to ride the steam train too! We have been there before in the old cars during a rally years ago. When we got home we stopped at the best ice cream place ever. "Udder Guys" - they make homemade ice cream! We said our good byes to both Dave/Pat and Gord/Sandy and wil stay the night here , leaving in the am for Pirate's Cove.

We dropped 2 crab traps today, first time in 2 years , hope we get some!! Oh and I forgot to mention - poor Steve has had to rebuild the head - nice that it broke down here and not on a passage! Never had to fix that the whole 2 yrs!!