For Sean’s birthday gift, I had booked a charter boat and invited some of his closest friends to join us for an afternoon of sailing. Neither of us had sailed before so I thought it would be something Sean would enjoy. Perhaps even more so when he would find his friends, who helped keep it super secret the past couple of weeks, there too.
When we got down to Coal Harbour to meet the S.V. simplicity, Sean was surprised to see Dustin, Kristina, Blackwell and Jen sitting in the boat.
“What are my friends doing here?!”
I loved that I psyched him out, letting him think it would just be us on the boat and when we were walking down the gangplank, I could sense a wee bit of disappointment in his voice when he saw the other people from afar, realizing maybe it wouldn’t be so private after all.
I got him good.
The one thing I was nervous about was if the weather would hold. Days before, it was pouring buckets with no end in sight. I was even worried that Sean’s surprise gift would have to be re-scheduled. And if it was just us, that would’ve been fine, but there’s 4 people’s schedule to think about. In the end, it worked out fine. Yes, the day started out cloudy and cool, but ended up sunny.
We set sail on a 3 hour tour around, sailing from Coal Harbour, under the Lions Gate Bridge, around Stanley Park and into English Bay. When we got out to English Bay, our skipper Jeremy taught us how to put up the sails and how to steer.
Blackwell also joked that if something should “happen” to the skipper, we could sail the boat to Hawaii. Cuz we could get there on a 28 ft boat, right?
Some pictures:
See Sean doing the Steve Zissou. See me attempting, not ever having seen The Life Aquatic before. I look more like baseball players doing the home-run point.
It was indeed a fun day filled with waves, friends, great conversation and cornball laughs. Happy birthday, Sean!
View more photos of our day on the water on my Flickr album.
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