We were not at the party that launched BCA in April of 1978. In fact, we were not even in Vancouver at the time.
However, later that year after we had moved ourselves and our Contessa 32 Akvavit to Vancouver from Montreal, we were invited by Cathy and Bill Clark to sail Akvavit along with them on their Spencer 35 to go to a BCA rendezvous at Newcastle Island in late August or September.
I don’t remember how many boats were at the rendezvous, but there were few enough that the party was held aboard Compass Rose owned by Fred and Sandra Tremblay. The Tremblays with their children (including Steve) were just about to leave on what turned out to be an aborted off-shore cruise. Sandra happened to be one of the 5% of people who never get over seasickness. She would have died if Compass Rose had not turned back so she could experience the sure cure for seasickness: sitting under a tree. They did, however, spend six months cruising the inland waters of the San Juan and Gulf Islands.
We joined BCA directly after that 1978 rendezvous but for some reason did not renew our membership. Perhaps we had not decided about sailing off shore. Perhaps we were just too busy with work.
In 1993, however, we had determined to do some offshore cruising. We rejoined BCA and spent three months between June and August cruising to Alaska and back.
After that we became active BCA members. Nancy was secretary of the Vancouver Watch for a couple of years, and we joined Fleet under the leadership of Karen Curry in 1998-1999. In early September 1999 we headed south for what turned out to be 15 years of cruising.
We look forward to celebrating BCA’s 40th Anniversary this coming June.