We got in to Sidney Harbour around 4:30 pm and made contact with our old friends Peter and Nora who were visiting from Alberta so that Peter could run his first marathon in Victoria. I was sitting on the concrete dock in my portable arm chair reading the newspaper in the fading sun when our friends arrived to join us for dinner at the little pub restaurant that we have frequented many times. Sidney Marina is a lovely spot, well maintained with a nice gift shop and facilities. We enjoyed our Chicken Oscar and Seafood Dishes and had a good visit. Peter's mind was of course locked on the huge challenge lying ahead of him on Sunday morning....his first marathon at 52 years of age. We shared his completion last year of his 1/2 marathon so we had our fingers crossed for him. At that point the furthest he had run was 32 km.
We retired early to the warmth of the diesel heater and watched Gladiator cuddled under the blankets in our stateroom.
We slept in on Sunday morning and after breakfast at a Sidney coffee shop, we took a double decker bus into Victoria. What a great way to travel....no worries and lots of visibility. The fall day was beautiful, crisp but with sunshine. A good day to run.
We met Nora near the finish line about four hours into the race. Peter made it in at about 4:09 as fresh as a 20 year old runner. It was an emotional moment and a wonderful accomplishment for them. I was glad to be able to share such a special achievement.
Sunday turned out to be a long day of motoring. We cut the motor and drifted just after the Whaleboat Islands waiting for slack. We were grateful that it didn't rain, but we were dressed in wools and windpants to keep warm under the autumn overcast skies. I had a fleece blanket on deck for a while and the hot tea and turkey sandwiches warmed our innards!
Tuesday morning we skedaddled and stayed ahead of the rain, past Nanaimo and Schooner Cove and back to the familiar territory of Winchelsea Island. Whiskey Golf (area WG) was active as we went by, and we listened to the radio chatter between the military and a fishing vessel that had wandered into the restricted waters and was ordered out.
We ended our journey back at Beachcomber with a visit from Bruce Carr aboard Aleydabeth. We hadn't seen him since spring so we shared a few boating yarns about our summer and his, over a cup of coffee. We unloaded our supplies and scurried up the hill to the truck in the first hard rain we had encountered all weekend. We left the marina with the promise of a topsy turvy night in wind and rain. It was a good Thanksgiving weekend.