Jackie and Carter headed off to the market on Granville Island while we tidied up the boat and Scott and Tom worked on some more wiring projects. We had dinner on the boat which was Cindy’s marinated chicken, potatoes and salad, and it was yummy. We watched the pilot show of a television series called Dead Like Me which we found strangely intriguing and humorous in spite of its dark plot. Couldn’t wait to see more of it…
-Admiral Marian
The trip from Semiahmoo to Vancouver was delightful. The famed Strait of Georgia was as calm as could be, just like last year in the last week of August.
One thing of note was a call I made to a fishing fleet off the Tsawwassen Ferry terminal. I saw a number of floats in the water and was concerned that they may have been nets rather than crab pots. I made several calls to any boat in the fishing fleet and none answered. After the 3rd call the Victoria Coast Guard radioed to say they were crab floats, that they couldn’t have been nets. Hats off to the Coast Guard for taking the time to call me when the fishermen wouldn’t! Seeing the Lions Gate Bridge as we came in the harbor is stunning. 
Approaching Vancouver is stunning. Floatplanes are landing, cruise ships are departing, boats of every type mill about the harbor. Top it all of with a world class skyline and you understand why Coal Harbour marina is one of our favorite places to stay. 
Tom took the helm and gracefully landed us at the Customs dock. I called customs, told them about our supply of wine and lack of meat and produce products and we were the way in no time. Just a few minutes later we were tied up in a beautiful waterfront slip in Coal Harbour. 
Right across from Alanui was Senjero, a 57’ Nordhavn owned by Neil and Elaine Williamson, who we had met a few months earlier. We will be joining them on the FUBAR rally from San Diego to La Paz in November. I didn’t see Neil or Elaine, but I expect them to pass us on the way down the coast. 
Knowing we were going to be in Vancouver for a day or two, I took the opportunity to open up the helm console and attempt to connect the Nauticomp display, the FLIR camera and get the PC going. The first item we went after was the all important Nauticomp display. For those of you who aren’t boat savvy, this is essentially a $6,000 19” LCD display. Now you may be asking, how the heck can a 19” display cost $6,000, because it’s for a BOAT. You know what BOAT stands for? Break Out Another Thousand. Seriously the reason it’s $6,000 is because it has inputs for 10 devices. Two HDMI, two VGA, two S-Video, three Composite Video, and a Component Video. It also has a hardened case with an extremely small bezel. The fit to install the display requires 1/32nd of an inch accuracy in cutting the opening. It also has a lot of software features to scale the video and dim to red. All in all it’s a $3,000 piece of technology selling for $6,000 because it’s on a boat. Anyway, back to the story. We went to complete the installation of the display and discovered that the power supply was for a 24volt input, rather than the 12 volts that my house bank provides. A quick call to Nauticomp had the parts on the way next day air, for a modest fee. I’ll need to talk to my buddy Brian at Emerald Harbor Marine to see how we ended up with a 24v power supply on a 12v boat? Here is a picture of Tom and I in the middle of this electronics effort. 
Completing this phase of the installation was providing power to the 2nd ICOM VHF radio. A backup radio is essential for cruising and affords great flexibility in maintaining the ability to monitor CH16 and listen to weather or talk to fellow cruisers. -Skipper
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