Day 48 July 29 - The VIA is over

We left Sooke at about 07:00 and motored for about 2 hours until we had
Race Rocks in our sights. We put up the jib and main and didn't take
them down until we were opposite Van Isle marina just outside of home
base, Canoe Cove; 8 hours of sailing and 2 hours of motoring for a total
distance of 52 miles.

One strange thing was that by monitoring our speed through the water and
our speed over ground (via the Gps) we found that the predicted currents
were off by at least 2 hours or more; unless we were in some kind of
back eddy.

In any event we had a good day sailing; Sun was out for most of it but
it was still surprisingly cool on the water; i had 4 layers on and my
wool toque ( BUT NO SOCKS).
Passing Race Rocks marked our furthest point south and we began to
travel north again. Discovery Islands just outside of Victoria marked
the point where I was no longer sailing in waters I had never been in
before which made it feel like i was back in home waters. The wind rose
up to about 20 kts as it squeezed between James Island and Sydney island
for our last run before Canoe Cove.

It is good to be back and know that i'm within a few days of being back
in Calgary and seeing Robin and the lads again.

I've organized for a diver( he comes out on Tuesday) to check the
condition of our zincs and bottom paint; i hope that I can defer doing
the bottom painting until September and not have to think about it this
week.

For now it is off for a shower, a HOT shower and then a pub meal and to
bed without worrying about an alarm in the morning!! I looked in the log
, and aside from the cold shower on board in Bamfield, this is my first
hot shower in 16 days... it will feel great.

I plan on posting a final wrap-up later, once all of this has sunk
in,etc. I'll also post a last batch of photo's when I can get to the
internet cafe.

Cheers for now from E dock, slip 74, Canoe Cove, B.C.