Three Weeks to Go,

With three weeks to go everything (except our passports) are looking good. Canada has completely dropped the ball with issuing new passports. Getting them is using up lots of time that could otherwise be spent working on the boat.
Songline is back in the water after spending 5 days on the hard at Mosquito Creek. New bottom paint and zincs, a bit of grease in the prop and a quick polish of the topsides. We keep packing equipment and provisions onto her. The waterline is slowing going down. Dale Sanders has agreed to come along with us to San Francisco. This will make the trip down the coast much easier.

Greetings From Songline

Greetings and welcome to our blog. In the summer of 2003 we purchased Songline, a 36' steel sailboat manufactured by Waterline. We knew we wanted to go on a cruising adventure but didn't really know exactly where and when. In 2004 we took her up to the Queen Charlotte Islands. In 2005 we went around Vancouver Island and in 2006 we did a short but pleasant trip to Victoria and the Gulf Islands. Songline is our first boat and we bought her with very little sailing experience. We hired a very good instructor to spend five days helping us to get to know the boat. Since then we've spent about 8 months total cruising the waters of British Columbia.
The end of April 2007 will be our launch date for a cruise to the South Pacific and New Zealand. Meanwhile we spend very little time sailing while preparing for the trip. The details that need to be dealt with are seemingly without end. Making sure everything is properly dealt with is very time consuming. Insurance is a problem unless we are willing to take extra crew which we do not want to do. However most of the big hurdles are behind us and it's just a matter of pushing ahead until the last of the details are complete.

Crossing Hecate Strait to the Queen Charlotte Islands.