Dan and Ellen’s Gambier Island Wedding

Dan: “Rich, can you take photos for my wedding? I’ll pay you in beer. I can’t be bothered to hire and drag a wedding photographer to Gambier Island”

Rich: “Uhhh…. that doesn’t sound like a good deal”

Ten months later, I found myself motoring into the sunset, still an hour from the dock, the Catalina 27 filled with kegs and cameras and lens. Here are some of my favourite photos from the weekend. There’s a lot more too, scroll down to the bottom to find the link to my Flickr album.

Untitled
Friday evening delivery to Gambier Island. Glassy calm in English Bay, with just a light northerly in Howe Sound. The sunset just as I turned the corner into Port Graves.

Untitled
My peace and quiet was only briefly disturb when the oncoming pirates in the dinghy, turned out to be Dan and Jason, who spotted me on the way in.

Untitled
My crew was quiet and didn’t talk much on the motor over. Payment complete, but Dan was wise enough to keep the CO2 cartridge and the backup hand pump separate to avoid the unfortunate situation of no beer, no photographer.

Untitled
Camp Artaban under the moon

Untitled
The next morning. Ash prepping the lamb. I delivered the 3 kegs on my boat, as the companionway on the Catalina 27 is massive and you can actually fit them through. The designers at Catalina may have had keg deliveries in mind. Meanwhile, the lamb was packaged up in ice and rested on the cabin sole of Dan and Ellen’s Choate 27 on the way over.

Untitled
Dan and Phil all dressed up and ready to go. “I guess we can start drinking now?” Note that Dan paced himself from mid-morning, all the way to 3am by starting slow…

Untitled
Ellen gets ready too, but with a little less beer and more makeup

Untitled
Benoit and Kate, stepping off from the Hotfoot raftup

Untitled
The Admiral

Untitled
Dan and Phil, cup and pitcher in hand.

Untitled
Ellen and Dan while the remainder of the friends and family arrive by water taxi

Untitled
Hey Steve!

Untitled
Nautical themed wedding

Untitled
Dock party on the Artaban floats

Untitled
Dan and Ellen picked Camp Artaban after cruising here just over a year ago. They hung out for the weekend, and realized this was the place. We actually sailed here the weekend before the wedding too. I guess we like it here.

Untitled
No motor, no problem. Nice work on keeping an eye on the lamb all afternoon!

Untitled
Dark and stormys on Equinox. This was Dan’s old boat.

Untitled
The sippy cup is key for zero spillage drinking.

Untitled
Meanwhile, Ellen continued with her makeup

Untitled
While Dan contemplated wearing this hat during the ceremony

Untitled
Untitled

Untitled
Walking down the aisle

Untitled

Untitled
This was the moment when Dan may have regretted inviting his sailing friends. “If anybody has a reason…”

Untitled

Untitled
Congratulations!

Untitled
Ben discovers that the consistent Howe Sound inflow makes for good bubble blowing conditions!

Untitled
Wandering through the forest and onto the rocky point for some photos

Untitled
The long dock to the right gave me a good vantage point to shoot from further away, with the telephoto lens.

Untitled
A little bit of posing

Untitled
Followed by some Bro-mance

Untitled
Awww…

Untitled
Untitled

Untitled
And happily ever after.

Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled

Untitled
Sippy cups and a sun helmet, essential for any outdoor wedding photographer. That hat is one of my favourite thrift store finds to date.

Untitled
Hat on, and upgraded to 4 cuppers now.

Untitled
Untitled

Untitled
Naturally, everybody gravitated to the small area behind the kitchen where the lamb, and more importantly, beer was. We were walking back from the dock after the short photo shoot and wondered where everybody went. The camp was deserted.

Untitled

Untitled
Taking a brief turn on the lamb.

Untitled
Inside the kitchen. Gluten-free chocolate cupcake prep

Untitled

Untitled
With a raspberry compote on top

Untitled
Meanwhile, it was a little less serious on the other side of the kitchen

Untitled
Turn and baste

Untitled
Ed’s contribution to the potluck. What else but bacon. Check out these photos from Baconfest 2010, that time Ed thought it was a good idea to roast a 35lb pig on his apartment balcony and I experiemented with a bacon-lattice apple pie for the first time.

Untitled
The happy family

Untitled
Demonstrating the nautical version of the ball and chain.

Untitled
Success! Anchor set. Dan’s lucky it’s just a Fortress anchor, a lightweight alumnium anchor. The Rocna comes later =)

Untitled
Where did you find these guys?

Untitled
The lamb roasting crew jumps into Port Graves for a pre-dinner swim

Untitled
Ash and Jason carving up the lamb

Untitled
Inside the dining hall

Untitled

Untitled
The potluck spread

Untitled

Untitled
Slicing into the carrot cake, decorated with two swans. Dan loves swans.

Untitled

Untitled
The scotch was delicious, but may have been the downfall of my night.

Untitled

Untitled
Dan putting on his best performance. Actually, this was my downfall. The next morning was a little rough for all.

Untitled
Hair of the dog. It turns out 2.5 kegs for 50 people is very generous.

Untitled
Two other sailboats off the south end of Bowen Island. I motored out of Port Graves into the outflow, hoisted the sails and reached across to the north end of Bowen Island. It was glassy calm in Howe Sound, sheltered from the strong northwesterly. Strong winds early in the morning up to 30 knots create some lumpy seas inside English Bay proper.

Untitled
At Point Atkinson, the wind picked up and I was on a broad reach starboard tack all the way back to False Creek. A fast and exciting sail home, especially as it was just me again and my crew of half drunk kegs sleeping down below.

More photos of a great weekend here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/richso/albums/72157674258493465

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *