Sidney By the Sea: Friday August 20 - Tues August 24, 2010

Finally, we are going to a place originally on our itinerary - if two people with no jobs, no schedules and no deadlines are even capable of having an itinerary.  Sidney is close to our hearts because in 2001 we visited our role models for this cruising, live-aboard life-style here. 

Another short 2 hour cruise from Ganges and we are happily docked.  Even though Sidney is on Vancouver Island (and the city of Vancouver is not - go figure) it has more of a mainland feeling and less island vibe.  It has a Starbucks.

There is a beautiful, modern harbor where you can walk on the docks without them tipping and swaying as you take each step.   And best of all, Zippy loves it here because he has lots of grass to run on.

Our Dinner View

We rent a car and as part of the contract, the rental company requires us to sign a “Peace of Mind Waiver.” This clause is right after the “loss of damage” and “personal accident insurance” waivers. There is no explanation of what it means to decline “Peace of Mind” and there is no provision for accepting “Peace of Mind.” We sign, secure in the knowledge that we are only surrendering our peace for the 24 hour rental period and we've already lost our minds.


Butchart Gardens is our destination – a 100 year old, 50 acre historic garden. The grounds are spectacular and we spend the whole afternoon surrounded by indescribable beauty – just us and the 2 million other visitors.

The fountain

The Beauty

Peace of  Mind

Dinner is at the Deep Cove Chalet in Deep Cove, at the tip of Sidney By the Sea.  The wind is still howling and there are white caps in the cove.  The wine is better than the dinner and the view is best of all.

We leave Sidney Tuesday morning, August 24th with quite a splash! Backing out of the slip is not going as easily as usual, in fact, after reversing approximately 2 feet,  it's not really going any further at all.  A certain panic ensues and slowly,  I recall we had added an additional line to secure the boat during the howling wind the night before.  A line we usually do not add.   Did we release that line?  Jim?  Did we?  The answer is of course "no."

I race to the port bow amid much confusion and Jim yells to "get the line."   Well, I do get the line -  but attached to the line, and floating in the water alongside the boat,  is the cleat from the dock... as well as a section of the dock itself.  Nothing to do now but bring the whole thing aboard since we are swiftly moving back, now that we ripped the dock off.  I guess that's one way to release a line.  But no worries, this is actually a big plus for us since there are many docks that don't have cleats.  Now we can just bring our own.

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