(Read more about Nanaimo & view the photos.)
Flags flying, streamers streaming, salutes snapped crisply on command: sixteen Grand Banks and their owners came out in style to mark the launch of Grand Tour 2006: Inside Passage. Mother Nature did her part and supplied a picture-perfect day*, while several BC-based owners did theirs as well, lining up to take the official "sail past" of GB boats, owners and guests.
Last night, participants feted at the beautiful Poets Cove resort on Pender Island, BC, in a kickoff banquet sponsored by Cummins MerCruiser Diesel, top sponsor of the Grand Tour event. Grand Banks CEO Bob Livingston, along with a strong showing of GB personnel from across the country, was on hand to wish the participants well and give special thanks to GT Executive Director Susan Bland.
The dinner, and the cocktail party that preceded it, provided an ideal setting for members of the Tour to meet and make plans for the three weeks away. What became immediately clear: that while the Tour is sure to provide some remarkable backdrops, the real story - the best stories - are the people here. Owners from the Northwest, but also from Japan, Germany and beyond; couples enjoying a rare getaway, families cruising together to share the experience; new owners, long-time cruisers; people with a lot in common, and others whose only bond is the love of a great boat - and a great boating experience.
Over the next days and weeks we will try to give you a closer glimpse at the people on the Tour and the experiences that they will share together. Wherever possible we will share them with you in their own words and pictures.
Today, though, was a time to think about the ports we will visit and places we will see. Under a brilliant blue sky we made our way to Nanaimo. In the early 1800's the Hudson's Bay Company discovered rich coal deposits in the area. White settlers who came from England and Scotland to work in the coalmines originally named the city Coville Town. Later, the town adopted the native name of Nanaimo - meaning "big strong tribe" in reference to the area's five villages.
Our sixteen boats made good time (we were up and leaving the docks at 5:30!), each getting into a new groove of cruising in a large group. The only challenge, a small one, came at Dodds Narrows, between Vancouver Island and tiny Mudge Island, where you felt you could reach out and touch the rocks that loomed nearer and nearer before the passage opened up to Nanaimo Bay.
One more challenge, actually: docking all of us amid the crowded docks of the marina. But we'll get used to it - and the farther north we travel, the less and less we'll face such crowds. In fact, tomorrow we're off to cross the Strait of Georgia to Pender Harbour as we shrug off the bigger cities and towns for smaller, isolated anchorages.
But today thought, lined up sixteen strong with Grand Tour flags flying and streamers blazing, our party was indeed to star attraction of this town. Until tomorrow.
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> GRAND TOUR HOME
> ROUTE MAP
> LOG BLOG
- Day 1: Nanaimo
- Day 2: Pender Harbour
- Day 3: Prideaux Haven
- Day 4: Shoal Bay
- Day 5: Lagoon Cove
- Day 6: Sullivan Bay
- Day 7: Sullivan Bay
- Day 8: Sullivan Bay
- Day 9: Duncanby Landing
- Day 10: Shearwater
- Day 11: Khutze Inlet
- Day 12: Klewnuggit Inlet
- Day 13: Prince Rupert
- Day 14: Foggy Bay
- Day 15: Ketchikan
- Day 16: Ketchikan
- Day 17: Meyers Chuck
- Day 18: Santa Anna Inlet
- Day 19: Wrangell
- Day 20: Wrangell
> DESTINATIONS
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