La Sonrisa Sails: WHARF STREET DOCK, VICTORIA

Wharf Street dock in Victoria’s inner harbour is a pretty special spot. The harbour is a busy one, with tall ships, tugs and barges, the Coho and other ferries to the USA, little harbour ferries, fishers, tourists, float planes, dragon boats – it’s full of the diversity of life where ocean meets land. Downtown Victoria with its attractive older buildings on the waterfront is backdrop to a people-friendly paced city, a community. On the dock people are welcoming, competent, responsible, ready to lend a hand. It feels like another era, a welcome one.

When we arrived at Wharf Street Dock we were a Seabird 37 with a centre cockpit covered in canvas. Our goal was a fiberglass cover over the cockpit with canvas sides. The design has a ledge around the top--a useful handhold and the basis of a system for collecting rainwater. We first saw this design in the fall of 07, created by Bill and Donna on their sailboat “Alia.” Thomas and Bill talked about what we might build on La Sonrisa, and in early March we joined Bill and Donna in Victoria to begin the project.

Bill and Donna

It is a wonderful kind of friendship we have with these fellow “year round cruisers”. We don’t necessarily know when or where we will connect again, but when we do, our experiences and vision in common make us feel very much at home with each other. Both Donna and Bill are masters in delighting at what sea, wind and weather bring each day. And offering their skills and sense of possibilities to whatever comes. It was a joy to watch Thomas and Bill delve into this project, imagine, test out, discuss, step back, “what if..”, with fine feasts and stories along the way.

Bill and Thomas started by measuring and figuring and measuring some more. The first step of taking off the old canvas was challenging in our March “in like a lion” weather. Then the trips for supplies. The trial ribs went on.

The top began to take shape

Pleasant as the Wharf Street neighbourhood is, cold wet weather is not a good setting for boat construction. We created a plastic cover to our work site.

The measuring and figuring continued. How to achieve the right curves and angles, enough headroom, enough strength, not too much weight.

Inside details – do we need a pair of smaller windows above the dashboard windows?

Outside details

The right curve

Elizabeth took a break from the role of worksite photographer and went to visit the legislature for the MLA's Question Period.

Parliament buildings

Parliament with her lights on (energy saving bulbs)

An interesting destination for tourists

One of the fresco's in the dome on top shows seine fishermen with salmon in the net

Unfortunately the MLA’s were having a break, so all the spring break families visiting Victoria saw only empty seats.

Along the walls are framed photographs of the members of the legislature over the years. Here is the picture from the last session with old friend MLA Chuck Puchmayr in the first seat. Chuck regrets he will not be running as a candidate in the upcoming election – all his energy is needed for his battle with liver cancer. The very good news is that Chuck has had a successful liver transplant, and is recovering well. We’ve known Chuck since the kids’ soccer days, then as a city counselor from 1996 who had a special heart for the marginalized, and for justice issues. Since 2005 he has been a hardworking MLA for New Westminster. And Chuck has been a longtime friend at the St. Barnabas Christmas dinner – often a shepherd or wise-one in the nativity pageant. We hope for more MLA’s like Chuck to be returned in the upcoming election.

Chuck Puchmayr, MLA

REMEMBER TO VOTE ON MAY 12!

One of our (several) Victoria harbour westerlies ripped the first plastic cover to shreds. We had to get more serious.

We’d already been a week longer than we’d figured and still not a day of temperature over the necessary 10 C. The weather forecast didn’t look promising and we had commitments further north. We decided to make the boat temporarily weather secure and postpone the actual fiberglassing until the “out like a lamb” end of March, April? We covered the plywood with a coat of fiberglass resin, wrapped the hardtop in plastic and put more long johns on ourselves.