2008 Overview- Around Vancouver Island then South to San Diego
2008 Plans – After a great winter in Telluride with good snow and some adventuresome skiing, we arrive back in Victoria, Canada toward the end of May at the Canoe Cove Marina where Avante has been stored for the winter. Our sailing plan this year is also adventurous. We will spend 6 weeks this summer circumnavigating Vancouver Island. In the fall, we plan to sail south along the Pacific Coast to San Diego.
.
Year End Summary
Our trip around Vancouver Island during the summer turned out to be a great adventure with a lot more actual sailing than we experienced the previous year on our trip to Alaska. In the fall, we had a good passage along the entire west coast of the United States
| Dates | Places | Miles |
| May 30 – Jun 19 | San Juan Islands, Gulf islands, Desolation Sound | 480 |
| Jun 20 – Jun 26 | Broughton Archipelago | 256 |
| Jun 27 – Jul 8 | West Vancouver to Tofino | 369 |
| Jul 9 – Jul 15 | Tofino to Canoe Cove Marina | 235 |
| Total Vancouver Island Trip | 1340 | |
| Sep 4 – Sep 10 | Victoria to San Francisco | 1065 |
| Sep 15 – Sep 29 . | San Francisco to San Diego | 646 |
| Total Canada to San Diego Trip | 1715 | |
| Total Year – 2008 | 3055 |
.
From the end of May to mid-July. we completed a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island We began our circumnavigation with a farewell tour of our favorite spots in the San Juan and Gulf Islands. Then we headed north to Desolation Sound. Our next stop was the Broughton Archipelago, a scattered group of islands we had earmarked as an area to return to for further exploration. After re-provisioning in Port McNeil, we sailed into new territory and began the more adventurous part of the trip rounding the northern tip of Vancouver Island and heading down its rugged western side. After sailing down the western coast of Vancouver Island, we stopped at beautiful Victoria Harbour for some R&R before returning to our marina in Canoe Cove. In mid-July we drove back to Telluride for a short 6-week mountain summer at home.
In September, we returned to Avante and sailed her from Canada south to San Diego. Unlike two years ago when we traveled north along the Pacific Coast and mostly motored directly into wind. The passage south was a great sailing trip.
We very much enjoyed having the boat in the Pacific Northwest and would probably have stayed longer if it were in our backyard. For us, it was time to move on. We bought Avante with the dream of cruising to distant lands, and we are eager to get going. We plan on leaving Avante in San Diego for several months and having some maintenance work done to ensure she is ready for extended cruising. In early 2009, we hope to continue south to the warm waters of Mexico.