There is only one person on this planet I would want with me on my maiden voyage as owner of Trouper II.

My Dad.

He and I brought her to the West Coast from the C&C factory in Oakville Ontario 33 years ago. We dragged her across this great country behind a ford pick-up truck. We slept on her every night. She was nothing more than a bare fiberglass hull and deck back then. Did I mention it was the Easter long weekend? Fucking cold!

Talk about yer pirates! How's this for a crusty sea Captain?!

We left Capital City Yacht Club at 11:00 this Saturday morning, the 26 day of October, 2013. I was at the helm. The over-sized powerboats berthed on either side of us made the task more difficult than it needed to be. But I manage to get us out into Tseum Harbour without incident. Our first stop was the gas dock as we were seriously low on fuel. She hadn't been out of her slip in over a year according to dad.

Dad was a little nervous about how much fuel the tank could hold so we played it safe and only took 8 litres on board. (According to his log book he's taken as much as 50 litres of fuel on board at a time 08/24/1997: Roche Harbor) Although I made it a point to put another couple of bucks in the spare gas can he keeps on board.

My dad has been taking me sailing ever since I was Rio's age.

We cleared the gas dock and headed for Sidney Spit. My dad has been taking me to Sidney Spit since I was old enough to remember. First on board Sea Jay (Mom and Dad's previous boat. A 26' Thunderbird) and then on Trouper II. The public wharves had been removed for the winter, but the mooring buoys were still there so we tied up to one and enjoyed a lovely lunch of chicken sandwiches and Fresca prepared by Mom.

We talked about Trouper II and dad showed me some of her plumbing but soon is was time to caste off and head back to port. We were enjoying a routine crossing when all of a sudden the engine started to miss and cough large clouds of blue smoke. Dad throttled back and our mighty Yanmar engine was soon, once again purring like a kitten.

Trouper II flies her new 'colours'.

In discussing this with Tom we agree that it was probably some kind of fuel contaminate. The mechanic's report commissioned by a potential purchaser a few months back gave the engine a very favorable report. Compression is good, etc. So it's not like there's oil leaking from the head or anything. The engine is sound.

With dad at the helm, we leave Sidney Spit in our wake.

Having said that, the same diesel has been sitting in her tank for over a year. I plan on doing an oil change and replacing both the oil and fuel filters at the next opportunity.

I managed to get us back to our slip without ramming our enormous neighbor and soon we had her buttoned up and were heading for home. What a wonderful first voyage!

By the way, the weather was great. There was no fog, for the first time in a week. The sun came out and we even had a nice light breeze although we had the dinghy on the fore deck so we couldn't hoist a sail.

Looking forward to getting her sailing again. Dad will like that too.