Since we bought SIRI in 2022, visiting the Butchart Gardens has been on our bucket list. We finally got to visit them recently: once this past fall, and again in early January during their "Magic of Christmas" display. To say the gardens lived up to the hype we had built up over the years would be an understatement.

Ever wonder how the heck we, two people who were most recently living in South Dakota and working in agriculture, got into sailing and are now living on a boat full-time in Canada preparing to head offshore in 2026? Here's the full story...

As I write this, I am enjoying a rare calm, mostly sunny, warm-ish day on the bow of SIRI at our marina slip in Sidney, B.C., Canada, with DTessi snuggled up on a blanket at my feet. We're just shy of two months since we moved aboard full-time on the boat which has somehow defied the logic of time by both flying-by and dragging on as if we're running a marathon of unknown distance. Sailing (motoring) across the Strait of Juan de Fuca bound for Olympia, Washington, a few days