It’s been a long couple of months since we first bought The Monk, but we were finally able to bring it home to our marina last weekend!

A couple of the guys from the boatyard where we were working on it had volunteered to help us, even knowing that based on tides and currents, we needed to leave Steveston around 7:00 am on Saturday.

We showed up with coffee and muffins, and were soon ready to take the leap of faith and cast off:

Lenny is ready and waiting!

We had a beautiful morning to cruise up the coast, but first had to make it out and around the Iona jetty, which stretches out a good 4km into the Strait of Georgia

Our location, going around the jetty

On our way, we did get to see a big sea lion hanging out on the rocks, which was the first one I’ve ever seen:

Sea lion

It wasn’t a very quick trip home: both because it’s a fair distance, and because we weren’t going that fast (maybe 7-8 knots/hour). This gave us plenty of time to enjoy the trip, and to check out the view. My favourite spot was up front on the bow:

Relaxing up on the bow

From there, I had an excellent view of the horizon:

View from the bow

A little while later, Alex and I decided to check out the future fly deck:

Dreaming of the finished fly deck

After about four hours, we made it to the home stretch: the Lion’s Gate Bridge.

Almost home

Not much longer after that, we were safely docked at home:

It’s good to be home

Now comes the next major stage: designing and building the interior. It’s not an easy task, but is something that we are both excited to undertake.