We had a short “fall” getting home as we did in late October. It seemed to be no time at all before we were adding Christmas lights to the boat and heading to Campbell River for our “Christmas Tea and Cruise” tours. They have become so popular that I am sure these “by donation” tours will continue. There are so many coastal folks who have personal associations with the Columbia III that it is great to facilitate the reunions over tea, coffee and Christmas treats! Then throw a short harbour cruise with the ship well decorated and everyone had fun! But the best part this year was the spontaneous gift to the Columbia III of a silver platter which was given to the Rev. Greene family on the occasion of the launching of the Columbia III 51 years ago! I wrote more about this on the CIII history page of our website.

After the tea party we pretty much hunked down for the winter. We hammered out the details of our next season, we put the boat to bed for the winter and enjoyed a bit of R&R . . . well, sort of!!

I never stop working on the boat and we began almost right away on a major upgrade to the CIII. The boat had an aging (50+ years!) Lister fire pump that I wanted to upgrade and it took most of the winter to remove it, renovate that corner of the engine room, install new thru-hull fittings, wet exhaust systems, drip tray, wiring, painting, etc, etc!!

The snows were flying around that time and I can never resist the urge to take ONE MORE PHOTO of the boat. It looks so different from the warm and summery images most of our guests have of our coastal world!

Two young neighbours down the channel received kayaks for their Christmas presents (with a little advice from Miray and Luke!) and so it was a snowy cold day that Miray gave a small “clinic” on kayak safety for the girls.

And of course there is more to keeping a wooden boat, we get to maintain our wooden dock and pier as well!