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.
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.
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.
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.
Camp Artaban under the moon
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.
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…
Ellen gets ready too, but with a little less beer and more makeup
Benoit and Kate, stepping off from the Hotfoot raftup
The Admiral
Dan and Phil, cup and pitcher in hand.
Ellen and Dan while the remainder of the friends and family arrive by water taxi
Hey Steve!
Nautical themed wedding
Dock party on the Artaban floats
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.
No motor, no problem. Nice work on keeping an eye on the lamb all afternoon!
Dark and stormys on Equinox. This was Dan’s old boat.
The sippy cup is key for zero spillage drinking.
Meanwhile, Ellen continued with her makeup
While Dan contemplated wearing this hat during the ceremony
Walking down the aisle
This was the moment when Dan may have regretted inviting his sailing friends. “If anybody has a reason…”
Congratulations!
Ben discovers that the consistent Howe Sound inflow makes for good bubble blowing conditions!
Wandering through the forest and onto the rocky point for some photos
The long dock to the right gave me a good vantage point to shoot from further away, with the telephoto lens.
A little bit of posing
Followed by some Bro-mance
Awww…
And happily ever after.
Sippy cups and a sun helmet, essential for any outdoor wedding photographer. That hat is one of my favourite thrift store finds to date.
Hat on, and upgraded to 4 cuppers now.
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.
Taking a brief turn on the lamb.
Inside the kitchen. Gluten-free chocolate cupcake prep
With a raspberry compote on top
Meanwhile, it was a little less serious on the other side of the kitchen
Turn and baste
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.
The happy family
Demonstrating the nautical version of the ball and chain.
Success! Anchor set. Dan’s lucky it’s just a Fortress anchor, a lightweight alumnium anchor. The Rocna comes later =)
Where did you find these guys?
The lamb roasting crew jumps into Port Graves for a pre-dinner swim
Ash and Jason carving up the lamb
Inside the dining hall
The potluck spread
Slicing into the carrot cake, decorated with two swans. Dan loves swans.
The scotch was delicious, but may have been the downfall of my night.
Dan putting on his best performance. Actually, this was my downfall. The next morning was a little rough for all.
Hair of the dog. It turns out 2.5 kegs for 50 people is very generous.
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.
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
