Sidney, BC

On June 30, Claudia and I sailed out of Victoria Harbor and headed north to Sidney, BC. Elliot drove the car up and met us at the up-scale Port Sidney Marina. My long-time colleague and friend Alison Clarke-Stewart has a summer house in Sidney. She and her family kept us well fed and entertained during our visit.

We arrived just in time for Canada Day on July 1st. We attended the town parade and the annual boat building contest and race. Shown below are the boat building competetors about to launch their crafts. Teams of three had to assemble boats in an hour or so from randomly assigned sets of materials supplied by a local building supply company.

The competitors had to row their boats out into the harbor, around a buoy, and then back to the beach.


Here is the winning entry.

And here is a less successful boat,

that (thanks to the spirit of the fearless crew) managed to finish despite being fully submerged.

When the boats were displayed after the race, it was possible to identify some design problems.

It was very fun and interesting event.

We also visited the famous Butchard Gardens, located nearby.

Here is Claudia having tea in their famous dining room.

The stay in Sidney also gave me time to catch up on some of my academic work. I spent several mornings reading and commenting on drafts of graduate theses.