Vic-Maui Eve, by Catharine

The guys spent July 2nd running around like crazy people.  Food shopping, buying dry ice, getting delivery of some new sails, stowing everything away, last minute trips to various stores, sending Steve C up the mast.

Travis nearly had smoke coming out of his ears as he tried to troubleshoot email via the Sat Phone.  The rest of the guys arrived (Adam, Steve T, Jason, Ty), and there were meetings, and an overall sense of stress and maybe a bit of panic, at least for some of them.

The guys decided to re-purpose the dry ice chest as a cheeky tool to psych out the competition. They wrote Lamb Day 4 on the side of it and positioned the chest on the transom for all passersby to see.  The looks on people's faces were priceless.  Of course there is no lamb for Day 4, but it doesn't hurt to have other people thinking there is!

By evening most important things had been sorted out, and we all went out for dinner at Cactus Club.

Canada Day and Vic Maui, by Catharine

Steve C, Darin, Travis, and I attended the Phase 1 send-off party on July 1st on the docks.  Just in case the Mai-Tais and leis weren't enough to put the guys in a festive mood, we had the background Canada Day celebrations of the inner harbour.  

There was certainly an air of excitement among the various crews as they exchanged preparation stories and past experiences, but I could tell there were a lot of nerves too.  Give the current unsettled weather, a crew member from Bedlam explained they'd likely be navigating using Tea Leaves and Horoscopes :)  It was fun to see how various boats were set up.  

Travis sporting his rainbow loom bracelet Sylvia made him :)

Vic Maui 2014 Official Flag

Maybe Turnagain will have this many one day!

Vic-Maui Prep - June 30

June 30^th started early with a departure from Scott Point on Saltspring Island for the final stage of the delivery to Victoria. I arrived in Victoria by 10 am in fantastic weather. After a few hours of boat jockeying on the dock to get everything lined up the way the committee wanted, it was time to figure out food and beer (both successful).

By the end of the day, there were two complete fingers of the floats in front of the Empress hotel full of Maui boats or spectator boats for the Maui event. I understand that on the 2^nd, we are going to have a third finger filling up. It should be a fun event.

Nothing like leaving things to the last minute. I finally figured out why the SSB radio would not let me dial in frequencies manually. This is now one significant item off of the ToDo list. The list seems to be hovering around 10 items with one going on everytime I complete one. So goes boating I guess, you only finish preparing when you leave the dock.

Tomorrow, July 1, is a big day. Being in front of the Empress, Canada Day and having our cast off party on the dock, I expect that by mid afternoon no work will be getting done :)

Travis