Vancouver

As luck would have it, the voyage started off in Vancouver the year that I went. This saved me the cost of a plane ticket to some exotic locale.

However, being on my "home turf" made everything seem a little less real. This was Vancouver, the place where I was born. Nobody set off for 11 months at sea from their home town!

My parents took me and my gear down to the Maritime Museum where the Concordia was docked. Once on board, there was a day or so of farewells and some introductory time getting to know people and letting some people see Vancouver for the first time.

The first voyage was a bit anti-climactic -- turns out the ship needed some parts, so we sailed off up Howe Sound, past Bowen Island. This is where I grew up! This is where I had lived since I was 4 years old! This wasn't an adventure, this was going sailing in the neighbourhood.