It’s official: we circumnavigated Vancouver Island. We took our sweet time on this exhilarating yet humbled journey, exploring one of the most exciting landscapes of the continent. Last time we dropped anchor in Nanaimo was April 16th, day four of our trip; and here we are again, more than 140 days in and still enjoying the ride. I am fully aware that my attempt to summarize the last few months will fail miserably: too many stories, impressions and encounters, some of them have been written down in earlier blogs or published via Instagram, most will forever stay in our hearts and just shared between the two of us many years from now when we think back on the summer of 2021.
When we left Vancouver in April it hadn’t fully hit that we would be privileged enough to spend an entire season on Fortitude X exploring the West Coast of British Columbia. There were many evenings sitting in secluded bays in the Broughhtons reminiscing about how lucky we are – and still it somehow felt surreal.
Some of our friends were concerned that we would get bored of this lifestyle after a few weeks and it became a running gag between us to remind ourselves “how bored we were again today” before switching off the lights for the night. In all honesty, our pace of travelling, switching between ocean sailing, lingering in a cove, going out fishing, and exploring new hikes and sites did not leave enough room for dull moments – and if it did, we filled them with daily chores of cleaning & maintaining the boat, doing laundry, cooking, baking, and grocery shopping when available.
Additional tasks included communication, weather observation, course plotting and navigating. I honed my skills as a mariner and learned many new trades introduced by Torsten – and life.
Leaving the city life didn’t take any adjustment at all. The solitude of the Broughtons had been heaven, preparing for the circumnavigation was a welcomed challenge, venturing into the unknown (at least for us) was an adventure.
They say every story has an end. In life, every end is a new story. We are excited to spend the next few weeks with friends, returning to Vancouver, and cruising closer to home. Fortitude X will be spending the winter in Campbell River while we are visiting families in Germany. Summer 2021 had been one for the books; we fully enjoyed the little things throughout this journey. Looking back, we realize they were actually the big things!
