Month: July 2018

Dragons, Silly Boats and Bathtubs.

Dan Drews2 Comments

The city of Nanaimo B.C., is known as the harbour city. This month it more than earned that moniker.

Three events took place in the month of July. First was the Dragon Boat Festival. Started in 2003 as a means of bringing cancer survivors together to join in a common social endeavor. Today it is a fund raiser for cancer detection equipment for the Nanaimo Hospital foundation. DSC_0039

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The next event is billed as the Silly Boat Regatta. In its 34th year, its goal is to raise money for the Child Development Centre which help children with disabilities. This event is just a hoot. Silly boats, silly costumes. Actual boat construction starts at 8:00am the day of the race, to be ready to put in the water by 1:00pm. To coin a phrase, ‘build it and they will come,’ viewing room was at a premium, but I got lucky and elbowed my way to the rail.DSC_0330

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The third and final event is the International World Championship Bathtub Race and Nanaimo Marine Festival.

The first race took place in 1967, and took a course from Nanaimo to Vancouver. In the last couple of years it has been run in a loop, up the coast from Nanaimo, in the Salish sea and back. Well represented by local tubbers, it also draws competitors from around the world. Competitors, both male and female, can race in a number of different categories, from stock to super modified.

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We were blessed with perfect weather for all 3 weekend events. That is about it for water events this summer. We still have a folk festival, a blues festival and a jazz festival to look forward to. Until then, enjoy the pics. Cheers.

Here, There and Everywhere…well nearly.

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As part of our travels around Vancouver Island, we decided to take in some camping at a provincial park near Port Renfrew on the west coast, about 21/2 hours from Nanaimo. As put in their glossy by the Chamber of Commerce, “Port Renfrew is where the Pacific Ocean collides with the rugged west coast of North America, and massive trees earn it the Tall Tree Capitol of Canada. Home of the West Coast Trail, and Juan De Fuca Trail”. Many trails lead to the beaches along a 50k stretch of the coast. Being open to the Pacific Ocean, some of the beaches are very popular with surfers.

I love the water, but I will leave riding the waves to the younger bunch. No sharks, just lots of rocks. We spent 4 days there, so these pictures only take in our first day, at Mystic Beach.

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Always lots of drift wood along west coast beaches.

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Mystic falls is down to a trickle at this time of year. Next year we plan to visit in the spring.

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This could be a place to spend the night… but only at low tide!

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Too many pictures to include in one blog. I will post more on our journey up the beach in a couple of days. Cheers.