In early August, Mimi expressed the idea of a sailboat. It has been years since we sailed in the gulf islands. In early 2000’s, we owned a 32 ft cutter for about 7 years and it was moored in Nanaimo, BC.

Neighbors near the cabin had a used 10 FT sailboat for sale, we passed, it needed repairs and I have never worked with fiberglass. Back in Calgary, I looked on kijiji, lots of used sailboat for sale. We finally decided to go to the only sailboat dealer in a city of 1.6 million people in the prairies. Slim picking but we found one that suited our needs: 13 FT enterprise, mainsail, jib and centerboard, perfect for 2 and need very little repair and comes with a trailer. One week later, we are on the TransCanada highway towing the boat to the cabin. We had few snags; lanyard stuck inside the mast was the bigger event and we fished it out using an electrician fish tape.

The first time we put the sailboat in the water, everybody on the beach came to help raising the mast and somehow it seems that everyone had sailing experiences and stories to share. Despite the weak wind conditions, we managed to get out using the jib only.