Our First Passage

2 Comments

When we left Esquimalt on the afternoon of September 18, I think we were both experiencing nearly every emotion possible – stress (so much stress!), excitement, anticipation, anxiousness, probably a little fear. This was to be our first overnight passage with just the two of us and we both wondered how we would handle the lack of sleep, worried that one or both of us would get sea-sick and of course feared bad weather or gear failure that could put us in danger.

We were so not ready, truthfully the boat was so not ready (reef lines? Oh yeah, those were in the v-berth!). We pointed out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca determined to handle whatever was thrown at us, ready for a great sail (I mean we hadn’t actually even had the mainsail up this summer – we were READY to sail!) and psyching ourselves up for the first night…. and we found NO wind… not even a bit. So we motored, for hours. Finally, as dark fell, we found the slightest bit of breeze and were able to ghost along with only the jib out, doing about 2.5 knots.

Owen took the first shift on deck and I tried quite unsuccessfully to sleep – finally I took my first shift at about 11pm – almost from the first moment, I could hear them… a little whoosh off to starboard, and then another behind me and then another to port – whales…. sleeping? A pod of whales had nearly surrounded the boat and stayed with us all night. Through the night you could hear the occasional exhale, reminding you that they were RIGHT THERE.

As the sun began to rise we would make them out, and finally, as they and we woke up, they started to move away from us, rolling on their side, “waving”, one was working off some excess energy having moved a bit closer to shore and we could see him jumping and flopping in the distance – after about a 1/2 hour of this show they moved away and we continued on – slowly!!! It was surreal to have these beasts floating along with us all night!

Finally, at about 11am on day 2, we cleared the point of Cape Flattery and were out in the Pacific Ocean – again with hardly any wind. We kept the main down (so we didn’t need to listen to it flog) and tried to coax whatever movement we could out of the little wind we had. Thankfully, as we rolled and bobbed in the swell, we discovered that the Meclazine was doing its job and neither of us got sea-sick.

The wind did finally fill in a bit, of course on the nose! (did we mention that EVERY model indicated that we would have wind only from the North for the first week or so?). Luckily the sea state had settled out a bit so that even upwind, it was not too uncomfortable. We did keep hoping for that promised northerly that would give us a sleigh ride to California.

This little bird arrived on our boat about 30 miles from shore – presumably blown out with the morning’s wind – and hung out for a couple of hours. He was quite cheeky – crawling on my blanket – at one point I was leaning out moving the block on the sail track and he waddled right under my arm with no fear of me!

We got into a good routine with our shifts – we gave ourselves a 3 hour sleep timer when we managed to crawl into bed – the 10 minutes or so for the person who was last sleeping to get up, dressed and on deck and the 10 minutes to get out of gear and crawl into bed were not factored in – when you crawled into bed you set the timer for 3 hours …. it meant that you might actually be on shift for 3 1/2 hours, but I think this worked best for us as it guaranteed us the chance at 3 whole hours of sleep.

We managed to eat really well most days – chicken pot pie, corn chowder, souvlaki pork chops, pasta, tacos – although cooking (and eating!) underway could sometimes prove a bit challenging – thank heavens for a gimbled stove!

Night shifts were interesting as we moved down the coast – suddenly you would see a fleet of lights on the horizon – no targets on AIS but you knew you were headed for a fishing fleet and would try to drive up or down a bit to avoid them best you can. Then there were the freighters, tankers and small cities (cruise ships). Being able to see those on AIS gave you the comfort of knowing that they were in fact usually not going to come within more than a couple of miles of you.

We did encounter one ship off the Oregon coast that had us scratching our heads – we could see the lights on the horizon but could not clearly determine what direction they were going – they were only occasionally coming up on AIS and when they did, only their AIS number would show. Being a bit concerned that he couldn’t determine if they were a threat, Owen tried several times to hail them, using their AIS number and their location, with no reply. Finally, as we got closer their AIS info filled in and we realized that they were a freighter headed for Vancouver BC, drifting 90 miles off the Oregon coastline, doing around at 2 knots in the middle of the night. Seemingly they had just turned on every light and all went to bed! You know the port situation in Vancouver is bad when they were just parking out at sea off the Oregon coast to avoid arriving too soon.

Sunrise
Sunset

Finally, on September 23rd, the wind first died, leaving us driving in circles and then started to fill from the North. And boy did it fill – by 9:30pm the wind was 18, gusting 25 – by 2am we were seeing steady 22, gusting 30. By that time we had dropped the main and were surfing with a 2/3rd reefed headsail, doing 8 knots down the waves. It was about a 30 hour blow – we took a ton of water in the cockpit (usually on my head!) and the movement was wild and unpredictable. We could only manage about 2 hours on deck before we were frozen and could only sleep on the settee (in the middle of the chaos that had erupted when EVERYTHING came off the back of the shelves on the port side and dumped out on the floor). Our great record of well-planned and executed meals was lost to a handful of granola bars.

The wind began to die off in the early morning hours of the 25th, leaving a terrible sea state behind – possibly more uncomfortable than when it had been blowing. We were rewarded for our hard work in getting through the blow by dozens of dolphins playing in the surf around our boat, three or four at a time swimming right at the hull and then diverting off towards the bow, surfing in the giant waves that had been left behind.

It felt like we made virtually no progress that day, tacking back and forth at the whim of the wind and trying to find an angle to take the waves at that would make the boat more comfortable. As evening fell that night, so too did the fog – at times we could barely see the bow of the boat and it was so thick it felt like rain. Sometime in the middle of that night I literally spent an hour going in circles as the wind changed directions and died, picked up a bit, died again.

The morning of the 26th Owen was reviewing the weather and realized that we were headed into yet another blow, though this one we would see in the middle of the night, somewhere off the coast of Cape Mendecino (in the fog presumably) – at that point he figured that we just didn’t need to push ourselves to make San Francisco. Luckily we had preregistered with the Roam app and, with the help of the Humbolt Sector Coast Guard, we were able to deal with checking into the US via the app and email and we were able to secure a slip at the Eureka Public Marina – once we knew we could in fact go to Eureka, we made a quick detour and headed that way – finally arriving on the docks a little after 7pm that night – 8 days after we left Esquimalt.

We didn’t quite make it to our goal destination but we did make California! We proved to ourselves that we (and the boat) are capable of handling big wind, little wind and fog. We figured out what needs to be better stored. We have spent the last few days cleaning up, clearing a few things off the boat, trying to dry everything out (still not quite accomplished!).

We did manage to explore town a little bit, making it feel like we were finally getting into cruising mode – we even found our cruising trifecta (bakery, used bookstore(s) and ice cream shop).

The engine oil has been changed, we will get water on board in the morning and tomorrow (barring any big weather changes) we will head out to make San Francisco.

And We’re Off!

1 Comment

There has been much to write about this summer and no time to do so – and those posts will wait for another day. Right now, as we sit at anchor in Esquimalt Harbour, readying ourselves to head offshore, it seems more timely to jump ahead to now, the last few days, the next couple of weeks.

The last couple of weeks the question of our departure date hung heavy over us – whenever we were asked when we were going our only reply was a hopeful soon – and as people stood there looking at the deck strewn with tools, boat parts, hardware, paint and the dreaded sicaflex, they would just raise an eyebrow and remind us we were beginning to get late in the season to leave.

We knew, we know – our big plans to get all of our projects done in the first 6 weeks after leaving our jobs and then head out around the island seemed comical at that point. Our initial planned departure date of around August 15?! Ha! As August came to an end and September marched along, the pressure to get things done and get off the dock became almost too much to bear up under. We sold my car (but what if we don’t actually make it off the dock?!), the tenants were scheduled to move in September 15 (so now we really are homeless!) and the jobs on the boat and the house continued.

Our amazing C Dock neighbors gave us a gift to remember during an impromptu pizza party (well now we really have to make it off the dock!) and reminded us yet again what a wonderful environment we were leaving (why do we want to do this again – I am so tired!). We have been lucky to have such wonderful neighbors in our little corner of the marina and boy are we going to miss everyone!

water jugs that will always remind us of our wonderful neighbors!

We finally mopped our way out of the house on about the 11th of September – with outside jobs still to be done and finally felt like maybe we could move along to the boat!!!

In a matter of days, the toerails were finally installed (goodbye to the old worn out rails that threatened to give out at the slightest pressure), the solar arch was finished up, polished and, under cover of darkness and with the help of some of those amazing neighbors put on the boat (not actually installed mind you!). The big dodger project shrunk from a fully fiberglassed and painted finish to “put it together and slap some primer on it – the fiberglassing will get done somewhere” – and so it too was put on the boat (again not so much installed).

Is today the day we asked ourselves for several days in a row and quickly the answer was nope – let’s try for tomorrow. And then, finally, it was time – the jobs weren’t done, we weren’t necessarily ready, but we were going. I sent out a message to a few people, Owen started sending texts and just like that, we were leaving. We got the solar arch installed – all of the other jobs that were “must do’s” before we left would have to wait! At about 4pm on the 14th, we threw the remainder of the stuff that had been accumulating on the dock onto the boat and moved her over to the visitor’s dock. Owen gathered up as much as he could find and fired it down below. As friends and family started to arrive, Owen, with the help of yet another amazing dock neighbor, got the name on the boat finally (Solstice Tide had looked so naked since her name was removed for painting in May), I filled water jugs and water tanks and tried to clean up the deck as much as possible.

Putting the name back on.

At 6:30, having given hugs to friends, family and our favorite puppies, we tossed off the dock lines and headed out of the marina, sent off to a cacophony of horns – even a conch horn – grinning from ear to ear (and maybe crying a little as well).

Leaving the Dock!

We went as far as Preedy Harbour on Thetis Island, dropping the hook just as the sun went down and nearly collapsed. It was really happening – there was so much still to do but we have finally taken that big step. We were off our dock.

The next couple of days found us doing a few jobs in the morning and then moving along in the afternoon – first to Musgrave Landing and then to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club (what a mecca of sailing!) and now, tonight, Esquimalt Harbour.

On the dock at Musgrave Landing – a little progress everyday!

Tomorrow we will head out the Juan de Fuca and if everything goes well, we will enter open ocean and make the big left turn tomorrow. It looks like we will have good winds on our stern for at least the first few days, perhaps a couple of light days in there – we don’t know when we will make it to San Francisco but our best guess is between 6 and 10 days.

At anchor in Esquimalt – almost ready!

For now we will try to put away the last of the chaos below deck, try to get a good sleep and look forward to this next adventure.

Us looking more relaxed than we felt a couple of weeks ago!

An adventure begins

2 Comments
chaos is the order of the day

Being in year six of a five year plan, we are finally making the move to head out on our adventure. We have given notice on our jobs – as of May 13 we will be unemployed and busier than ever! Between now and then we have a ton of work to do on the house and on the boat – in time to do even more work once we quit!!! There are house jobs, yard jobs and so many boat jobs.

A couple of the jobs are well underway – the aft cabin is finally starting to go back together – soon we will be able to move the new mattress (having already cut the foam and cover to size) out of our living room and back down to the boat. Our little 12 volt freezer will be able to be moved back down to the boat, freeing up a precious 2 feet of floor space in the spare bedroom. The sails may be able to go on and hopefully we can start to fill up the below v-birth storage with the extra sails. All of that will leave us enough room to put the life raft that currently lives in our living room into the spare room. At that point, we can hopefully start to rip up the floors and get new ones installed. We also need to paint the entire inside of the house so there is that…

starting to pull out the engine

Meantime, the engine was pulled today!!! Yep, our boat is without a heart right now… the new engine will be arriving next week and then we will need to do the whole process in reverse! A new engine was not originally on our purchasing list and deciding to buy it was tough – it is a big chunk of money we didn’t think we would spend. Owen was worried about new strange sound it was making and compression tests suggested not all was right. Well thank heavens we ordered it a couple of months ago as we fired it up last Sunday only to have it run for a few minutes before dying – Owen tried to restart it only have a horrific metal grinding noise instead of a running engine – catastrophic failure!!!

and just like that, no engine!

Right now the house and the boat are a disaster and our lawn is a bit of a jungle. Hopefully we can start to make some forward progress.

Although the adventure began nearly six years ago – it truly feels like it is now on!

Onto a new year….

1 Comment

Well 2020 was certainly one for the history books and 2021 seems to be starting off on the same thread – the pandemic is still raging, with new variants causing extra challenges, we are confined to our household bubbles and masks are mandatory everywhere. Add to that the craziness that is the American political and social scene and the world feels pretty out of sync right now. But vaccines are starting to be administered – it will take time for everything to go back to any sort of semblance of normal – likely fall before everyone is vaccinated… The inauguration is next week – both a hopeful and terrifying prospect – with the violence in the US Capitol in the last couple of weeks and the idea that the idiots who follow the man who refuses to accept his loss are prepping for more violence, I think most of the world will be holding their breath next week.

Hopefully though this year will bring more visits with friends and family – we so miss those visits. The pandemic has necessitated a delay in our departure date – we are now aiming for 2022 – so we will make good use of this year to get projects done. Our next big purchase is a Hydrovane and we are excited to add that to our boat – it will truly feel like we are prepping for offshore when that is installed!

Aside from that is of course the need to get stuff done around (and outside) the house so that we can be in a position to rent it out when we go – so many projects, so little time and no motivation!

My goal is to get back here more this year – as we tick off jobs and get work done.

Stay posted!

THE TWILIGHT ZONE!

Leave a comment

It seems hard to believe that just over a month ago, we were in Malaque, Mexico, worried about nothing more than where the closest Pina Colada could be found and deciding which taco stand to go to for dinner.  While we enjoyed lazy afternoons gazing out at the water and watching sail boats coming and going, we thought ahead to our hopes for bringing Solstice there – with hopes to arrive in Mexico in late 2021.

Melaque from the pool

In the few weeks that we have been back, it feels like we have slipped into the Twilight Zone.  At the time we were coming home, the Covid Virus was a distant idea – something that was happening on another continent.  We were aware of the need to wash our hands and wipe down surfaces on the plane – more out of concern that someone who had traveled through the same areas we were travelling may have come from one of the countries were Covid was actually a concern.

When we got home it started to become a bit more real but it wasn’t until I tried to do a first shop after I got back that it hit home – when I stood agape in front of the empty racks where once the toilet paper would have been stocked!!  People were panicking – stores were getting wiped out and the fear of the virus was becoming real.

And then they started to shut down events and then sports – first basketball (meh) – and then, dear god no! – hockey!!!  Just as my beloved Oilers were making a final push to the cup for the first time in years, the NHL season was suspended indefinitely.  Soon thereafter, most other events were cancelled or postponed.

The sailing season started next – regatta after regatta posting that the races were cancelled this year.  Rendezvous are not happening and marinas are closed to transient moorage.  The Gulf Islands are asking that no one comes to visit to protect their vulnerable population in light of their limited medical services and access to supplies.

Just yesterday BC Ferries cancelled one of the major routes to the mainland for 60 days and cut service on may other routes.

We now find ourselves, about 3 weeks into true shut down – we are still working – both of our jobs being considered essential services (we probably wouldn’t consider our jobs to be essential but…).  We do consider ourselves lucky that we don’t have the added stress of worrying about mortgage payments.  We also don’t have car payments to be made or credit card debt which allows us a bit of comfort in case we do see a reduction in our income as this situation proceeds.

For the first couple of weeks, while we lived in a state of complete limbo – not sure if our jobs would be shut down or if we would be ordered confined to the house for weeks, I lived in a state of stress so high that I could barely function!  Sleep was not an option – as soon as I lay down, my brain would start going in hyper drive – and then came the week of REM – every time I tried to go to sleep – the song “It’s the end of the world as we know it” by REM popped into my head – I probably hadn’t heard that song in 15 years before that but suddenly it was stuck on repeat!

At this point, I am a bit more resigned to the idea that we are going to be “social distancing” for some time yet.  Knowing that in all likelihood, I will be working throughout makes it a bit more doable.   I am however entirely tired of cooking – I soo want to go sit in one of our favorite restaurants and order a nice dinner that someone else cooks and, perhaps more importantly, someone else cleans up!!

My bigger concern now is our future plans.  As countries all over the world lock down their borders, and as we hear reports that this could take 18 months to 2 years to resolve, it makes me realize that our dreams of sailing away next spring may not come to fruition.  It breaks my heart to think that we might not be able to head out – though any delay would be just that – a delay – we will still go – I just hope it is as scheduled.

barra

For the time being though – we will stick to the house (or the boat – luckily we are still able to take her off the dock though most places around us are asking people to not visit so any trips out would be just to go drop the anchor and enjoy a few days of peace).    Our Province is making great strides in flattening the curve and hopefully the news will continue to be good.

This is a weird time to make a return to blogging I suppose, but I needed to get my thoughts on paper and wanted to have this a reminder, when things are more normal and we are looking back, that we should not take for granted the ability to be able to visit with friends, hug loved ones and explore the world!

Take care and keep safe!

We are still here!!

Leave a comment

Forgive our absence – a very busy summer of sailing and a not so productive winter have left us with big boat projects to get finished before the summer sailing season starts!!

We managed to spend a lot of time on the water this past summer – Julia and I even got the boat out for a girls weekend!!

We managed to extend our sailing late into the fall with the Bluewater Cruising Rendezvous at Thetis Island for Thanksgiving and a spectacular weekend at Thetis Island for Remembrance Day.

We discovered a fantastic trail right in the middle of Thetis Island – with all of our years of travelling there, it is amazing that we had never found it before!

Sadly, when we got back from that weekend, we could see that the weather was about to turn, and we set about getting the sails off for the winter.  Even that resulted in some work to be done, as the uv strip on the head sail was coming loose in some places so we had some handstiching to do.

The winter was a bit wild – a crazy windstorm right before Christmas led to our needing to rebuild the fence – we are partway there but it looks better than it did after the storm!

2018-12-20 16.11.25

We had a wonderful New Years on Saltspring and with the new year, we again started to make plans for the boat.

The boat show was a bit later this year, in the early part of February, and happened to coincide with what would become almost the snowiest February on record!!!

2019-02-11 16.02.14

The snow didn’t stop us from opening our wallets though – we had quite the spree!!  We ordered a new dinghy (still waiting on it to arrive) and bought a new single side-band radio.  We also ordered a new fridge  and shower sump shortly after the show and we are now working on the install!

2019-03-09 14.30.04

It will be so pretty!!!

We also received our new cruising spinnaker – we had wanted a bright pink sail, but sadly once we ordered it, we were advised that all of the fluorescent colors were discontinued.  We weren’t left with a lot of options, and finally had to settle on blue – blah – it is pretty much the same color as the bag – or a tarp…

2019-03-06 22.41.01

Our current projects include the fridge install, completing the v-berth and building a dodger…

Owen is out racing this weekend and we will only have about 4 weekends left before the Thetis Island Regatta so I guess it is time to get in gear!!!

The rain is pouring down right now (I have an idea Owen is having a wet weekend) and I have a cold that won’t quit (day 11 and counting!).  It is hard to get enthused to do the work that needs to be done in these conditions – hopefully tomorrow is more inspiring!

Haul-out – bleck!

Leave a comment

This past weekend we hauled the boat out – that was… fun?  I delivered the boat to Maple Bay on Thursday night – what should have been a 3 1/2 hour tour took nearly 5 1/2 hours – between wind on the nose, fighting current and what was obviously a dirty bottom, I felt like I was going backwards at some points.  I finally hit the dock at 10:45 at night and had a disastrously bad docking – luckily I didn’t hit anything and someone came to help Owen get me somewhere approximately alongside the dock so that we could tie up.

Owen was down at the boatyard at noon the next day, waiting for the boat to come out.  At first glance, it seemed – not too bad – a bit fuzzy and some barnacles on the bottom of the keel, but okay.  Oh, and speaking of barnacles, the propeller was a barnacle farm!  And the prop zinc was gone – Owen just replaced it last year but it was completely eaten away!!!   I guess the barnacle farm might have explained by extremely slow speeds the night before!

haul out

Then he got a closer look and, yup, blisters – yes, on a steel boat.  This has been an ongoing problem and we had hoped that all the time and attention spent to get the bare metal epoxied and covered the last time would have improved this – we could definitely see areas where the previous repairs had held, but once again, there was a LOT of bare metal.

bare metalThis picture really doesn’t do justice to how much bare metal there was – a lot of the keel and much of the rudder were nearly bare and there were random patches all over the hull.  This pic must have been taken after Owen had been scraping and before he started grinding – he is not nearly blue enough in this pic!

Owen went around and ground all the blisters and loose paint off so that we had a bunch of bare metal.  I went around and gave that a solvent wash, and he then followed up with another grind.  I then applied 5 layers of 2 part epoxy (with 3 hours dry time between coats that takes quite a bit of time up!)  Eventually, the boat looked something like this:

epoxy started

At this point, I was just thankful that we really only had another coat of epoxy and then we could get going on the bottom paint.  We had already agreed that we did not have enough time to do the topsides this time, as much as it might have been needed.

Owen apparently chose to ignore that we had already agreed to that, and soon enough, our boat was covered in rust killer and looked like a dalmation!

dalmation boat

There really is no going back at this point.  Of course, it soon became evident that we would not be going back in the water on Monday as planned.  As we were driving home on Sunday night and discussing all that was still to be done, it quickly became apparent that it would take a miracle to get everything done even to go back in on Tuesday.  I ended up taking Monday afternoon to head down and help again – when I got there, Owen had sanded one side of the topsides – the other side had not even been started and we contemplated leaving it as is, but having one shiny side and one rusty side didn’t appeal.  He started to scrape the other side while I started to prime the first side.  While that was drying, I started to paint the last coat of bottom paint, stopping occasionally to add a coat of rust killer to the starboard side as Owen progressed with the scraping.  Owen eventually started to paint the port side topsides while I created a dalmation on the starboard side.  Once I had that done, I took over painting on the port side and he started sanding the starboard side.  At about 8pm, he was questioning whether he should just do the bottom chine near the bow, as it was getting late and was worried we wouldn’t finish – I told him to keep sanding and I just kept painting.  I finally finished painting the topsides at 10:13 pm, by the light of a full moon – literally, it was dark outside and I had to lean in and turn my head to see if the moon was shining off the side – if not, I had missed a spot!!!  While I was finishing that up, Owen was getting zincs on and getting everything cleaned up.

Owen stayed aboard that night so that he could get up at 6am to tape the topsides and clean up the waterline.  He also drilled out an additional through-haul on the transom and finished putting on the zincs.  After running to work for an appointment, he was back at the boatyard just in time for her to go back in the water.

going back in

It was a ton of work, and we were both exhausted by the end, but after 3 1/2 days in the yard, she was back in the water (sadly with a bit of a schmuck on each side from the bow strap, but we will get that fixed up asap).

Owen left the yard a bit after 4pm and was back at the dock in Ladysmith before 8 – what a difference a clean bottom and prop makes!

That was likely our last haul out until we get ready to leave – hopefully she holds up well in the next few years. I am certainly not gunning to do this again if we don’t have to!

SPRING SAILING

Leave a comment

It is almost funny that I am titling a blog post “Spring Sailing” because truthfully, we usually spend much of our time in this area motoring.  This year however, we have been blessed with some beautiful sails.

We kicked off the season with the Thetis Island Regatta – had I been braver, I would have had a rocking sail across to the Island in 12 – 15 knots on the beam – but I was by myself and I am a chicken so instead I had a bumpy hour and a half trip over to the Island on the Friday.  The race was Saturday and we were blessed with great wind to start – an awesome upwind first leg, a launch of the spinnaker at the top of the Island and the ability to fly it to about the 3/4 mark.  Unfortunately, the wind shut off nearly completely (when it wasn’t going in different directions at the top of the mast than it was at the water), leading to a LONG, slow last leg.  Even with that though, we were done by 3pm (we have not finished this race by the cut-off of 5pm a number of years so we were happy to finish, and to not finish last!).  We were able to sneak the head sail out for a bit of a motor-sail on the way home on Sunday but it was still a great weekend.

sailing to Ganges

The next weekend we started off with a long motor to Princess Cove on Wallace Island Thursday night – with less than desirable wind forecasts for the long weekend.  Lucky for us, and for those that completed the Round Saltspring Race, they weren’t all correct – we left the next morning and, once we were clear of Wallace, raised the sails and had a screaming sail all the way down Saltspring Island, into Ganges harbour and nearly to the yacht club docks.  Sunday, when my miserable cold finally allowed us to leave Ganges, we had another spectacular sail across and all the way into Montague Harbour – the feeling of being able to shut off the noisy engine and just sit back on one tack nearly the entire way to your destination is so peaceful!  Unfortunately, the wind was not so accommodating on Monday, and we had a long, noisy, motor home.

Last weekend we lucked in again – we didn’t leave the dock until Saturday morning, and were almost immediately able to put up the sails.  After 3 or 4 long tacks to get out of the harbour, we rounded an anchored freighter, set the sails and, on one tack, sailed all the way up to and through Ruxton Pass, only easing the sails out to head around to Pirate’s Cove.  We finally dropped the sails right outside the cove – our engine hours for that day were about 0.7 of an hour!  I love a day like that!  Had we gotten away early enough on Sunday we might have had a similar return trip – however, we unfortunately ended up motoring or motor sailing most of the way home.

This weekend is not going to bring any exciting sailing unfortunately – with a haul-out looming in a few weeks, we have decided to get going on pulling out the not-at-all finished work in the V-berth so that we can build a proper anchor locker, and finish the V-berth.  I know a few friends who will be excited about the idea of actually having a berth!

The Books that Inspire

Leave a comment

Too many years ago to remember, while living a land-locked life in Alberta, having never dreamed of sailing before, I somehow came into possession of a book called “An Embarrassment of Mangoes” by Ann Vanderhoof.  The story of an Ontario couple stepping away from their lives to experience life in the Caribbean was truly my first inkling that people really do run away from home to live on a sailboat.

embarrassment of riches cover

It was about the time that I read this book that my step-dad got a sailboat, sailing her on a lake west of Edmonton.   I would only sail with them once or twice a year, and generally the sailing wasn’t too spectacular, but being on the water, seeing how the boat responded to any changes to the sails – it was fascinating, and I was hooked!

There are so many amazing books related to sailing – whether they be the practical, every boat should carry these types of books (I am looking at you Nigel Calder!) or the fantastic adventures of brave souls single handing around the world (with the reemergence of the Golden Globe race this year, I would highly recommend “A Voyage for Madmen” – it tells the story of the first Golden Globe race, and the sometimes tragic results) or stories about your “average” person or couple who just head out to experience a bit more of the world, or, depending on how you look at it, a bit less of their normal world, there is truly a book for everyone or every situation.

While I could hardly make a dent in the list of the sailing books that I have devoured, and loved over the years (we have entire bookshelves in our house dedicated to this subject!), I can say that I have absolutely loved “Love with a Chance of Drowning” by Torre DeRoche and “Maiden Voyage” by Tania Aebi and I have made nearly everyone I know read both!

Books help us join these people as they explore the world, and feed our desire to see these places, do these things.  I don’t know if it would have ever occurred to me to set out to sail away from North America if not for Ann Vanderhoof’s story – perhaps something else would have inspired me – but I do know that for me, that was the first inspiration.

What was yours?  What made you want to sail away, or climb a mountain, or just move away from your home town?  Is there a book, or a story, or a movie that put that idea in your head?

It is truly amazing how small the world can be when we allow the adventures of others to open our eyes to what lies beyond the borders of our town, province, country.  For now, as we plan, and save and work on the boat, I will continue to visit distant shores via the books that tell the stories of other people’s adventures.  Maybe someday, I can put my own adventure into the pages of a book?!

What is your favorite sailing related book?

Vancouver Boat Show fun

Leave a comment

This past weekend was the annual Vancouver Boat Show – it has become our rather expensive habit to head over every year with a “big purchase” in mind.  This year, we had decided that we were going to purchase an electric Windlass – we currently have a manual windlass, which is definitely better than just pulling the anchor up by hand, but can take a really long time to bring the anchor up and gets rather hot and sweaty mid-summer!  We very often just opt to pull it by hand anyway but as I cannot seem to manage the final pull free from the bottom myself, that means either Owen is stuck with doing it, or we are both up there (and no one is at the helm!).

When we arrived at the show, Owen knew exactly what we wanted – it was just going to be a case of finding the best price.  When we saw the actual unit that he wanted (Lofrans Tigress) close up however, we realized that it was WAY bigger than we had thought, and the way the motor is situated, it would stand out from the mounting platform, leaving a nice 1/2 inch space under it for lines to catch.  Though it is the forever workhorse of the windlass world, we pretty quickly realized that it was not going to work for Solstice Tide.

So now what?  We looked at a Lofrans X2 1500 and thought we had it settled at that – but then of course, we found others to look at (it is a big show!) – so we had it narrowed down to 3 – a Lofrans, Lewmar and Maxwell – all with similar specs.

After hours of googling and figuring, Owen had determined that we could safely carry 5/16 high test chain, rather than needing to go to 3/8.  As the models we are looking at all have a top capstan, that will allow us to use a heavier chain on a storm anchor if necessary.

So, our little list of models in hand, we approached our favorite boat chandlery (Harbour Chandler in Nanaimo – highly recommended!) and asked for quotes.  We wandered back a bit later and Matt gave us the list of prices, but also mentioned that he was pretty sure that he has a windlass in stock, with the capstan, that was ordered for someone who never picked up or something of that nature.  If it works for our boat (has to be at least 1000 watts), he would be able to give us a great deal on that.  Owen will go do some recon on the model at the store (they just couldn’t remember in the chaos of the boat show which model was actually in the store) and that may make our decision for us.  Otherwise, we will need to narrow down the three options to one winner and get it ordered.

I am so excited about the idea of having this done, but realize how much work it will be.  Our v-berth is not finished – at all.  At the same time we install the windlass, we need to make a proper chain locker, and if we are doing that, we might as well finish the v-berth – our friends will be happy to hear that is happening – I am not so excited about all the work involved!!!  At least we will be able to get some more storage sorted out – and maybe this will be a good opportunity to remove some of the stuff that we have had kicking around up there and lighten the boat up a bit – which will be needed once we feed another 200 feet of chain on board!

Though it was a rainy, wet weekend, and we didn’t actually walk away with the windlass ordered, it was a great opportunity to meet up with some friends, have a weekend away and get over to the “big city”.  Once the windlass arrives, we will find ourselves with a lot of work to get done before a haul out in the spring, so it was a good chance for downtime!