Victoria Drop-off

The following day I was all excited to put my new food-gathering skills to use but instead we had to head back into society. Warg. At this point Aaron had decided Echo Bay was the best and he never wanted to leave but time marches on and we had a deadline, so we reluctantly threw off from the dock and said good-bye. Our goal for the day was to make it to Port McNeill by 1:00 so we could drive the marina's courtesy shuttle to Port Hardy to pick up a rental car and then drive back to Port McNeill. Mission accomplished.

The following morning Emma packed her bags and we hopped into the rental car and headed south for the six hour drive back down to Victoria. It's so weird that what had taken us three weeks to cover in the boat can easily be accomplished in just six hours in a car. Of course, we did take a very long and round-about way to get there. It's still felt really weird as we retraced our steps.

We made it to Victoria just in time for dinner so we headed to the yummiest pub in the vicinity Oak Bay. Then, after dinner we all indulged in warm, uninterrupted free showers in the hotel room before snuggling into clean, dry sheets. Land life is so decadent! I know I say this every time but the luxury is always a shock...endless water, electricity, easy access to food and showers.

The following day was a kind of a surreal break from the boat, like we entered somebody else's vacation. We spent the morning playing in the pools and then in the afternoon we gorged ourselves with obscene amounts of food at an afternoon tea service. Boy, do I regret that. I felt so horrible for days afterwards. Yuck. Dear readers and anybody who cares at all for me, please don't let me do that again. Luckily the hotel had bicycles to borrow so we hopped onto bikes and went for a ride with beautiful ocean views along the way. Now we have dreams of folding bikes for future island explorations dancing in our heads.

The following day was the day we had all been dreading. It was time to take Emma to the airport. Though we were happy she was heading home to her awesome family we were super sad to have her leave us. Thank you Emma for joining us again this year for more crazed nautical adventures. We adored having you on the boat, are missing you and are already looking forward to next year's adventure.

Click here for photos.