It was another dreary morning as we upped anchor at 9 o'clock and left Pender Harbour, but it cleared as the day went on and we moved south gifting us with sunshine and blue skies which can go a long way to rejuvenate a person (namely me). David, on the other hand, has another headache brought on by a rising barometer. Had he woke up with it, he would have stayed in bed. But it made its appearance while we were under way and he had no choice but to tough it out.
The forecast called for light and variable winds building to 5 to 15 knots northwesterly in the afternoon, but what we saw was a steady 15 to 20 knots so we threw out the jib and motor-sailed, averaging over 7 knots the entire trip and dropping our anchor in False Creek by 3:30 pm.
Entering a new port, especially the second busiest one on the Pacific Coast, for the first time can be stressful because, even though you do the research, you never quite know what to expect until you experience it for the first time. But even with dodging floating logs, boats out for an afternoon sail, barges and cargo ships, the approach to False Creek is relatively straight-forward. Once you're in, there's a well-marked channel that takes you under two bridges before it opens up to several anchoring options on each side. David chose well. We just so happen to be lying off Charleston Park which has an off-leash area for dogs.
Now that we're here, we're a little overwhelmed. It was only three days ago that we were in Desolation Sound enjoying the solitude of late-season cruising and now we're in one of the world's major cities surrounded by thousands of people ... and a lot of noise! It's a big change and we're left wondering if we may have bit off a little more than we can chew. But it had to happen sooner or later, so here we are... welcome to Vancouver!
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