THE SWIFT

Even though I'm a knitter, the 'Swift' I'm referring to today is not a yarn swift!

Yesterday morning I got down to Clover Point (for my nearly-daily-knitting/meditation-time) just in time to see this...

This is one of Victoria's very own tall ships... the Pacific Swift, and it was just returning from four days in the Gulf Islands with childhood cancer
patients from BC Children’s Hospital, apparently.

The Swift is old and tired now and doesn't go very far, but its sister ship, the Pacific Grace, takes youth on adventures all around the world -- it's currently in Japan on a 'goodwill' mission of some sort, and you can read all about that here.

SALTS (Sail and Life Training Society) is an amazing organization that has over 1000 kids on a waiting list for its life-changing journeys, and it has recently released a 'Fresh Vision' to transform itself into a major presence here on our waterfront. If you want to read more about their plans for a heritage ship-building interpretive centre (and a new tall ship to be built!) go to http://www.salts.ca and click on "A Fresh Vision', bottom left.

In knitterly news, I've given up on Sivia's Moonshadow Stole for now, and taken it right off the needles. :-( After many, many trips to the frog pond and never getting past row 5 in the main body, I've decided to give it a rest. I'll try it again another time, but for now I'm just too frustrated with it. After the Secret of the Stole project and this Moonshadow attempt, this morning I cast on 3 stitches and will make a nice, SIMPLE 'dishcloth pattern' baby blanket!

THE SALISH SEA

The 'Strait of Georgia' is the body of water which has, on three of its sides (in a counter-clockwise direction), Vancouver Island, Puget Sound, and the 'mainland' of the province of British Columbia. The northern end of it, beyond Canada's Gulf Islands, becomes the 'Inside Passage' to Alaska.

Here's a pretty good map/diagram of the area. (The dotted line, by the way, is the border between the USA and Canada, and the red outline is the watershed systems that feed into the sea).

Lime Kiln Park on San Juan Island overlooks the southern end of it...


Many, many folks already refer to this body of water as the Salish Sea -- and there's an article in my local paper today explaining why, and suggesting that there may be an official move to change the name. I'd sure support that whole-heartedly! Since it was the Salish Sea for thousands of years, and only the Strait of Georgia for about 150, it makes sense to me...

DOWN TO THE WATER

Occasionally people have asked me, since I live on a boat, why I need to drive ‘down to the water’ so often.

Well, the answer is that even though our marina is located in the heart of downtown Victoria, and there’s often lots going on right here (and I love it!) – it’s not the same as looking out over the panorama of the Juan de Fuca Strait, which separates us from Washington State. It’s about 30 miles across to Port Angeles from here, and there’s always something going on – whether it’s great storm-watching, windsurfers, or this…

Sometimes several times a day freighters go by, en route to or from Asia (often China, Japan, the Phillipines...) and heading to or from the major port of Vancouver, BC. They all have to go right past the Victoria waterfront! Here’s a map of the shipping route from open Pacific to downtown Vancouver – the dotted line through the American San Juan Islands and the Canadian Gulf Islands is actually the US/Canada border, but the shipping lanes are pretty much right alongside that:

As you can see, it’s a busy area with lots of tight corners and lots of boat traffic. By international maritime law, a ‘pilot’ – an experienced local mariner who becomes an ‘advisor to the ship’s captain -- is put aboard inbound ships (and outbound pilots from Vancouver get taken off the ships) right here, at Clover Point. Pilot boats, built to withstand heavy seas, are usually painted a bright yellow, orange or red, and they are used to transport pilots between land and the ships they are piloting. These boats literally come alongside 100,000-ton freighters and maintain a speed of 7 or 8 knots while the pilot transfers. The pilot has to be agile, too – he or she sometimes has to climb a swinging ‘Jacob’s ladder’ 40 or 50 feet up to the ship’s deck, in all kinds of conditions.

So when I sit and knit at Clover Point, I sometimes witness this event two or three times in an evening.

Yesterday Michael came with me, and he sat and read the paper while I knitted -- I had to frog almost 30 ROWS of the 'Secret of the Stole' so I am slowly re-knitting it now. Good thing I love knitting!

Oh, I promised a pic of the 'Kiri' Shawl that Annie in Taiwan sent me..


It's beautiful, and she says it was her first lace project ... I wonder how much frogging *she* had to do. :-)

SANTA COMES BY BOAT

My friend Monica on Mayne Island sent me some pictures of a fairly big community event in the Gulf Islands, where Santa Claus comes by boat!



These pics were taken by an Island resident named Brian Haller, and they really capture the spirit of the Gulf Island Christmas season!

ON THE NEEDLES:
Well. There's less than 10 days until Christmas, and I have seams to sew and ends to sew in on all manner of projects. All those finishing details I was going to attend to 'later' are now in a pile in the v-berth, and it'll kill me, but I just have to tackle them one by one, and get them checked off the list!

PHOTO OF THE DAY: One of our favorite day trips (or more accurately, dinghy picnics) is to go 'up the Gorge' here in Victoria, in our inflatable. This is a picture of the bridge over the Tillicum Rapids, which can run up to 9 knots at their fastest. It's great fun to go through in the dinghy when it's running fast!