SWIFTSURE

The annual Swiftsure sailboat race was this weekend, so the harbour's been a busy place! I was at the start line, as always, but just a few hours earlier the water was pretty busy ... here, a China Shipping Line freighter goes by, and then the MV Coho is arriving, sandwiched between two cruise ships:


And the US Coast Guard probably turns up to help...


Then the sailboats started to arrive -- 180 of them in all! And off they went...


My personal favorite boat, for years now, has been Dragonfly -- and the final results aren't in yet, but apparently when Dragonfly was the first across the finish line a reporter commented that if they'd gone any faster the skipper would've needed a pilot's license!

The winds were fierce for the first several hours and apparently almost a third of the boats dropped out of the race by the end.

I had to go to Sidney, so I wasn't able to be at the finish line, but instead ...

... I stopped here to knit for a bit (started a pair of socks for Gibson, and the wedding-present afghan, pics tomorrow)!

Yesterday morning I woke up to a noise on the dock...

I barely had time to take that picture before something spooked them and they ran off up the ramp!