Author Archives: Gillian

It’s September?

Posted on by

Apparently getting back into town means one has to already be running at top speed when land is hit. Since I arrived home on Friday, I have managed to take first aid, schedule orientation shifts at a new job (more later), attend 2 meetings and give a presentation at a third, work, sleep, eat … you get the picture. All of this sunshine doesn’t help with the need to be indoors to accomplish most of this. I’ve got some crafty stuff I want to finish – inside – but find myself fairly reluctant to stay indoors when it is so stunningly gorgeous outside. I just want to be outside with a book! Not inside with a sewing machine!

I did manage, partially because this machine travels outside, to get through some of my photos and put about a dozen of my favourites online. They’ve been added to my Sailing the West Coast album, beginning with this photo.

UPDATE: It appears that I’ve been slack on the updating of photos. So in the Europe album, begin here for some from my time in France last spring and in the Daily Life album, beginning here are a few from this summer.

Back on Land

Posted on by

Despite having spent nearly two solid years living and working on the Pacific Grace, I have probably spent more coastal time on the Pacific Swift. As a result, I have a lot wonderful pictures of the Grace and few of the Swift. Case in point. We passed the Grace as we were going north to Brooks Peninsula and they were headed south. We had stunning weather nearly the entire time.

More stories and pictures to follow soon… and the pictures will likely get put here.

Friday Photo

Posted on by

I’m sailing the West Coast of Vancouver Island right now. Instead, this photo is from the summer I cooked the West Coast after returning from Offshore. After seven or eight days of playing on the West Coast with the kids we pick up in Ucluelet, we round the bottom of Vancouver Island back to Victoria, ending the last trip of the summer. On the way around we pass Race Rocks lighthouse. The light has been going for something like 150 years. There are lots of sea lions that make their home on the island. Another Race Rocks trivia item is that there is a local brew named after it…

Fog

Posted on by

I’m sailing the West Coast of Vancouver Island right now, but I couldn’t resist leaving a few West Coast sailing memories to keep you company while I’m gone.

Fog. It is a way of life when sailing around Vancouver Island. Hopefully we are not encountering too much of it this week.

Sailing the West Coast, I have had full days of fog, with the blast of the fog horn going off every minute or so. It is amazing how one becomes so accustomed to hearing the horn that one is able to tune it out. Life carries on with minimal interruption after awhile. Conversations pause mid-word to allow the blast to pass and then pick right back up without any notice.

When the fog lifts and the fog horn goes off, it is a strange silence that descends over the boat, especially if the motor is also off. All of a sudden the fog horn becomes noticed again, this time in its absence.

It is interesting how we are able to tune out annoyances so that life can continue without any interruption while they continue to occur. Then, when the annoyance ends, it is like a weight has been lifted and peace descends. That which we didn’t know was bothering us is gone and all of a sudden we realize just how much it was taking out of us.

I wish you clear days and smooth sailing, on and off the water.

Going Sailing in the Morning

Posted on by

I’m getting on a bus this morning to head over to Ucluelet. There I will board the Pacific Swift for 10 days of sailing around the West Coast of Vancouver Island before returning to Victoria. I am looking forward to this trip in so many ways.

I have been involved with SALTS for 12 years. From my first trip, as a high school student at a new school in a new city and province, I was hooked. Three days was not enough. I arrived home and immediately signed up to go on a 10 day trip the next summer. Since then, I have been a volunteer and professional crew in several different roles. Soon, ten day trip were not enough and I worked for them for two years, sailing around the Pacific Ocean.

There will be no remote South Pacific Islands on this trip. However, the coastline I am about to explore is amongst the most beautiful in the world. From rugged rocky coastlines to sandy beaches, from tall spruce and cedar forests to the red flashes of arbutus, from rolling breakers to natural hot springs.

It will be a wonderful ten days.

Here are some of the memories from previous trips… I look forward to making more soon…


Posted on by

I woke up just in time to listen to the 7am CBC Radio news this morning… rolled over and turned it on, as I usually do each morning, and lay in shock listening to the lead story. It was like a punch in the gut. Looking at the “news feed” of my Facebook friends this morning, it seems I am not alone in that feeling.

I was able to hear Jack Layton speak once in person, when he came to speak at the University of Victoria in 2006. I have voted for him and his MPs in the last several elections.

He did a lot of good work for Canadian politics and it is a shame he will not be able to be around to reap the official opposition rewards of his work. He will be greatly missed.

UPDATE: Jack’s letter to Canadians.

Getting Crafty

Posted on by

The last few days I have been at a loss for what to do. Since my Major Case Presentation was finally accepted on Tuesday (!!) and my degree was conferred, I have had some time to fill. So I started making things. Thursday morning I went and picked up some fabric scraps. One of my favourite local clothing makers sells bags of their scraps for $10-$15. It is luck of the draw, but I’ve gotten some good pieces of fabric out of the bags. I have enough large chunks of silk-screened fabric or wools to make some skirts and some other things. The smaller pieces will be saved for patchwork projects or something of the like. Thursday afternoon I sat at the kitchen table and created patterns (based on existing clothing) and sewed a shirt. Photos will follow when I actually wear these articles. It is fun to have ideas bouncing around in my head and things I’d like to create. No idea if any of them will actually look good, but it will be fun to try.