Private marina where we first lived aboard our lovely little floathome.
When we first moved to the Island we lived in an apartment on a busy street, it also happened to a route the ambulance took regularly. We were ready to move out of it within 9 months. We stumbled across an ad for a floathome that was for sale and we were intrigued and ended up purchasing it. The house was moored up in Cowichan Bay, lovely little spot, quaint coastal community and we were welcomed with open arms. We loved our little seaside retreat, but eventually the 90 minute commute was getting to us so we towed our house down to Victoria and happy lived aboard for 10 years and the precipitating factor for moving back to dry land was our wee baby daughter who was starting to toddle. We needed grass under our feet instead of water.
Sunday we headed off and went to some of our old haunts and strolled the village. It was like going home again and made us both homesick for our floathome. Cowichan Bay is an eclectic little village with wonderful little shops and great restaurants. Our favorite was the Rock Cod Cafe when we lived there and their crab nights were legendary, all you could eat crab for $10. We stopped there and had a cold drink and some appies.
 Aren't they a cute couple...
This floathome belonged to a friend and is moored in the spot our house was.
Looking over Cow Bay from the Government Wharf
My hubby in Hecate Park
View from Hecate Park
Miss Scarlet sunning herself.
Moi very happy and contented after an afternoon of moto wandering. | 
17 comments:
Dar:
I love Cowichan Bay. I have stayed at the Wessex Inn many times. I think it is right across from Hecate Park. I've eaten at the Rock Cod Cafe too. Thanks for the memories. We also had ice cream at the Udder Guy's
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
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Enyoyed reading about your ride. The area looks wonderful. Being landlocked in Oklahoma is quite different than your area. Loved your story. Thanks!!! :)
I still think the idea of a float home to be really interesting so I'd really like to hear your story sometime. (with pictures of course!)
Pretty day for a ride. Agree with Richard - would be interesting to hear about living on a floathome. I always thought that would be kind of cool.
Hooray for moto dates. It looks like a fabulous day - the weather and the company.
I think a float home would be a great place to live. No yard work. But I can see how you needed some grass when your daughter came along. But still, think of the experience you had that few ever do.
What a wonderful day to spend together. Love it!
What a beautiful area. I think I could live there.
Thanks for the great photos!
The bikes and the people - cute couple(s). I love the floating houses (ever since Sleepless in Seattle, I'm such a chick!) We actually have a company in our area that was building them. Great Day(te), thanks for sharing.
Lovely day! Glad you have a nice time!
Dar,
Heather, too, wanted to know about the float homes, particularly if they moved much.
Loved the photo of the bikes together.
~k
What a lovely day. I bet living in a floathome was cool. Your bikes together are a cute couple, but the two of you together are even cuter. :-)
Diane - glad you enjoyed my post. Vancouver Island is breathtaking. I would like to travel through your neck of the woods.
Richard - when I get back from vacation and pull out the box of pictures because none of them are digital of course. I will write about my lifestyle aboard and my love of living on the water.
Bluekat - it was a beautiful day and just breathtaking on the bike.
Trobairitz - there was no yard work per se, but there was always hull work, which usually involved hiring a diver to go and have a look at the underside for damage from electrolysis and to see how the zincs were holding up. We hauled it out of the water once to clean the bottom and get new zincs on the bottom and around the sides - this would stop the corrosion. It was weird seeing the house up on the weighs and it was one of the only times it has been on dry land.
Pam - it was the perfect day and we had a really great ride.
Martha - the gardening business booms here, there are lots of folks that don't garden and hire folks to work for them. You never know.
Deb - it was the perfect day for a tootle.
Circle Blue - it depends upon the time of year. During the winter we moved much more because of the location of the house in the marina, we were at the end of the dock finger sticking further out into the bay and it would get really choppy and sometimes a little hairy. We had a couple of occasions where hurricane force winds blew through and we were up all night tying and retying ropes. The house would pull away from the dock when the wind caught it and then the ropes would snap and jerk the house back when it the ropes pulled taught. It was also a very noisy place in a windstorm because of all the sail boat rigging clanking.
Kathy - I loved living on the water, it was very romantic and I always called it my little piece of heaven on earth.
What a beautiful day. Must have been very enjoyable and relaxing.
I love the idea of the float home. And can appreciate the joy of living on the water. I tried to convince my hubs to live on a boat when we were first married. He wouldn't go for it. He needd his garage and tools. ;)
Beemergirl
My hub was thinking boat, but I nixed that, I don't like being confined in a small space and on a stormy night a sailboat could be very confining. Not to mention the minimal space. The floathome was awesome because it was 750 sq ft and we actually had a small workroom to store tools & stuff. The main floor was cross shaped and we had a diningroom, galley kitchen, fairly big livingroom, and laundry room. Upstairs was the bedroom & bathroom and large outdoor deck.
Looking forward to the stories as I, like many others have mentioned, always thought that a float home would be wonderful or at least unique.
Very nice day ride!And I too feel carried away by the romantic notion of a boat house.
Hi Dar,
I heard that there was a mini blogger get together in Ladner for lunch on Sunday. Unfortunately it was simply impossible for me to get free from the conference I was attending. I was on deck teaching all day Sunday.
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