Tag Archives: pictures

Welcome back to the West Coast

Posted on by


Two weeks ago I rejoined the Grace in Port Hardy and we left on Trip 4.  Trip 4 is the only West Coast trip I’d previously done but it is always a joy.  There was a bit of yucky weather we wished to avoid, so we headed north-ish first off, to the mainland, before ducking around Cape Scott to Allison Harbour.  We made our way through a bit of fog to Brooks Peninsula then down to Rugged Point and finally Hot Springs Cove.  Scenery on the west coast of the Island is some of the most unspoiled in the country and is simply stunning.  We were treated to humpback shows and porpoises playing.  Jordan managed to lasso a ginormous sunfish which proceeded to dive so he chose to let go rather than do for a dive of his own.  It was crazy to see him in the water with that “thing” (it doesn’t really look like a fish. It actually doesn’t really look like anything from this planet).  The last two nights of the trip were in the Broken Group just south of Ucluelet (Pacific Rim National Park).  In a bit, the water was so warm, I actually went in.  Quite the accomplishment.  We had a great group of trainees and fantastic volunteers.  My assistant cook was amazing and I couldn’t have done without him.  Two of our volunteers were offshore trainees and it was so good to have the chance to see them again and sail with them once more.  Hopefully we’ll see more of them.

For now, we rest in Ucluelet and get ready for trip 5 which starts on Wednesday.  My food arrives from the wholesale supplier tomorrow and I am petitioning crew to hang around to help me carry it onto the boat.  They don’t call the dock where we are the “54 Stairs Dock” for nothing…  I’ll have a fit bum by the end of this.

BC Day (and the last week)

Posted on by

Happy BC Day! Today British Columbia celebrated 150 years. Of what, I’m not sure. Canada hasn’t even been a country for that long, but the land has been around much longer than that. I think it is 150 years of being a British Colony. Because time begins when Britain makes you a colony.

Enough of that.  Here is my week in review:

Purden Lake, where we stayed the night before driving out to Edmonton from Prince George. Colleen’s sister has a cabin here. Very nice! It would have been ever better had we had time to enjoy the things one can do there, like getting out on the lake! Next time.

On the drive… Mt Robson!

To Edmonton we go for Carlynne’s wonderful wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and the reception was lots of fun. I had a great time catching up with people I haven’t seen in at least a year, most more.

I flew back to Victoria from Edmonton because I knew I wouldn’t have time to drive back down to Vancouver and then get over to Victoria to get in the van to drive up to Port Hardy to get back on the boat. Whew, I’m exhausted just thinking about it! This is flying into Vancouver where I had a 2 hour layover. The fact that I had to wait 2 hours wouldn’t have been too bad except for the fact that there were  approximately 5 flights for Victoria that left between the time when I landed and the time my flight was. Why they couldn’t have put me on one of those, I don’t know.  I tried to change my ticket, but I had checked luggage. Speaking of which, Air Canada has gotten even stupider and now charges you if you have more than 1 checked bag. One more good reason to fly WestJet.

Finally, Victoria! I had time last night to set up my new room.  There were a few things I still needed to pick up this morning (like hangers), and there are still a few modifications to be made, but here is where I sleep and hang out when I’m actually in town.  (Janis, if you’re reading this, yes, this is your old room!)

TV room – room you walk into from outside.  Roommate’s TV, not mine. Large collection of DVDs on left, his. Smaller amount on right, mine. The three closest to the middle on each side are the same: Lord of the Rings, Extended Edition. At least we have some similar tastes!

Kitchen, as seen from TV room.

In my celebration of coming home last night, I heard from one of my friends in town and she told me there was a sweet concert going on tonight at the Legislature.  Upon further research, I discovered there were lots of things going on at the Legislature today. So, after doing all the things that needed doing this morning, I headed down for noon to see what was going on. It seems that BC Day is a pretty big deal. Who knew? There were about 8 MPs, an MLA, a mayor, a Premier, and a Prime Minister all sitting up on the stage. I’m not sure why some of them, like Stockwell Day, were there (he needed a party to flash his grin at??), but it was fun none-the-less.  Gordon Campbell spoke first and introduced our mascots for the Olympics. A funny thing happened while he was speaking. A lady got up quite close to the front and started yelling at him for cutting down all of our forests. This old lady sitting near her apparently didn’t appreciate her comments because she got up and tried to slap the yeller. Next thing you know, there’s a full-on slap fight going on between them. It was fairly humorous.  There were a number of protestors who showed up during the speeches, but they, for the most part, got booed into silence by the crowd.

Next, our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, spoke. As bad as his french is, I liked it better when he attempted to speak french because none of the protestors seemed to understand him: they only booed when he spoke English (and I’m pretty sure I was in BC, not Quebec!).

Then, the next thing I knew, the Snowbirds are flying overhead. It was kind of freaky because I’ve never seen them fly that low before. I’ve also never seen them fly over a major city before – only over the prairies or large air fields. I was minorly hyperventilating the whole time. It was strange because they would periodically disappear behind buildings and then they’d come back for a fly over. It was quite a fun show though!

After that excitement, I wandered around town, reacquainting myself with Victoria after a 14 month absence. I got lunch, went in a few shops, visited my favorite coffee shop in town, and eventually parked myself with a book in the rose garden at the Empress.  From there, I could hear the sounds of bands playing at the Legislature – Alex Cuba, Burton Cummings… but I was comfortable in the shade.

I met up with my friend around dinner, we hit up a classic Victoria institution for dinner before heading back to the Legislature to take in the rest of the festivities. There were a couple more people there than there had been in the morning, but we managed to worm our way into the crowd and find decent spots to watch…
Sarah McLaughlan…

…and Feist.

I left before the show was done because today was a long day and the next month is going to be even longer. I head up to Port Hardy tomorrow to rejoin the boat and sail back around to Victoria. I’ll be home sometime around the end of August, beginning of September. Don’t expect to hear too much from me as there isn’t (shock, horror) Internet in the middle of the ocean. I know, its hard to believe. I don’t anticipate much cell reception either. I’m looking forward to getting back on the boat and spending time with some of my favorite people to sail to exotic places with. While this will be no Tahiti or Papua New Guinea, the west coast of the Island is some of the most beautiful and untouched landscape in all of Canada, if not the world. Maybe BC really is The Best Place on Earth.


PS – the concert will be broadcast on CBC on August 30, so you can relive all my fun then!

Posted on by

I’ve got just over 100 of my favourite Offshore images loaded now (click ‘slideshow’ top right on the album page for the best viewing). This takes me up to November in PNG. The rest of PNG and Offshore will come next week. Enjoy.

Update on the Photo Uploading

Posted on by

I ditched Flikr because it would only let me put up about 10 photos a month without resizing them and I can’t be bothered to do that (and I haven’t figured out how yet on a mac… anyone??). So we’ve switched to Photobucket. But the current source of Internet hates both me and my computer so I’ve given up at around 30 photos. I’ll find a coffee shop with good Internet while I’m in Montreal (leaving tomorrow!) and while Jen’s at work I will be photo upload machine.  Offshore photos coming.  Stay tuned…

My Home and Native Land

Posted on by

It was the weirdest sensation yesterday sailing up from Port Townsend, past Victoria, to Bedwell Harbour on Pender Island. Past Victoria… there it was, Mt Doug, Cadboro Bay, Oak Bay, the golf club… So familiar but not because I haven’t seen it in over a year. I’d never been down in the San Juan’s before so coming back up and seeing Victoria in clear daylight really brought it home. We’ve checked into Canadian customs finally.  Officially in Canada.  This is the last customs we will have to clear on Offshore!  We’re here, even though we don’t sail into the Inner Harbour until Saturday. Now all that remains is to make the most of the last few days that we are here together on the boat and prepare for sailing in next week. The Swift will be doing some schooner ballet with us outside the waterfront for a bit before we sail in at 3pm. There’s going to be a big ceremony in the Inner Harbour complete with some speeches from Skipper and a couple trainees and there will be some photos from all over place! Come and party with us!

Port Townsend


The Day the Sea was Lighter than the Sky

Posted on by

Having passed Cape Guadarfui, we have entered a zone of absolute calm.  For the last 48 hours the sea has been smooth and oily, except where a slight breeze ruffles its surface or covers it with a network of minute wrinkles as regular as the weave of a tapestry.  Upon this mirror flying-fish rise up, glide, and take off again, like swallows skimming the water.  In the middle of this great shoreless lake the evenings take on an exquisite beauty.  Yesterday I could never tire of looking to the east where the sea was uniformly milky and green, with opalescence that was still not transparent, lighter than the background of the sky.  Suddenly on the horizon a thin diffuse cloud became tinged with pink; and then with little oily ripples of the ocean still opal on one side and turning to lilac on the other, the whole sea looked for a few seconds like watered silk.  Then the light was gone and the stars began to be reflected around us as peacefully as in the water of a quiet pool.

– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Letters from a Traveller, written somewhere between Egypt and India, 1923.
We have returned to the Pacific Northwest after being gone a few days over a year.  The foreign yet familiar smells of the coast: the salt and seaweed, the rocks and the trees were one of the first things to assail our senses, quickly followed by green.  Despite being in many different and stunningly beautiful far-away places for the last twelve months, this is home and there is a strange beauty to this countryside.  Strolling through the quaint streets of Port Townsend, Washington, I realize how good it is to be home, even though I’m not quite there.  Sailing down the Strait of Juan de Fuca a few days ago was a surreal feeling.  The lights of Victoria offered a glow on the horizon off to port, escorting us along.  Are we really back?  Yes, but no.  There are still ten days left before we sail into Victoria’s Inner Harbour in all our glory.  Ten days to keep living this isolated, simple life that exists on board.  Ten days to continue to enjoy life with this wonderful group of trainees and crew that I’ve spent the last three weeks crossing our final stretch of Pacific Ocean with.  Its been an epic adventure; one full of amazing experiences and valuable lessons and lots of good times.

Is it Really Almost Done?

Posted on by

Leg 6 is officially over.  Here I am, sitting in my $150/night hotel room that I got for half price because I was upgraded when I got here.  I just finished my massage in the mini-spa beside the pool out back and my room overlooks Waikiki.  Maybe I’ll just stay here for the next month and fly home for the end of offshore. 

This leg, while being lots of hard work because of its length and the challenges we faced, had one of the most amazing communities develop of all of offshore.  Our first week out at sea from Osaka, it seemed that something went wrong with the stove daily.  It got to the point of me being frustrated to tears.  The problems seem to have been the result of a wonky carburator (which has been replaced) and some dirty fuel from Japan (which is all used up).  Then, after running way south to a void a storm and staying hove to (even going backwards at times) for two days, we worked ourselves down to about 2 days worth of fuel and a week or so left of variety in food (lots of dried food was still on board, but things would be dramatically less exciting after that… rehydrated beans and pasta or rice for lunch and dinner.  Cream of Wheat for breakfast.  Japan was the hugest let-down when it came to shopping for food supplies.  A lot of what we had on board last leg was leftover from our gigantic shop in Guam).  The problem with that is that there was little to no wind, we were making max 80 miles in a day and it would take us at least two weeks to hit Hawaii.  
Sarah and I enjoying a rare sunny time in the first half of the passage

Then, Skipper announced we were going to call in at Midway Atoll.  All along, I had dreamed of visiting Midway, but it was out of the question: as a US Military Base and being way south of our course line, it would never happen.  But, the military moved out nearly 10 years ago and all that is left on the island is a wildlife refuge.  And, we were already way south of our projected course because of the storm.  Skipper had contacted the island and told them we needed to fuel up and re-provision and could we please have permission to land.  Happily, they said yes and, amid much excitement on our part (and theirs too,  I think) we docked in Midway for two days.  Katie and I had a great time with Pong and JR, the chef on the Island and the logistics guy in charge of all the ordering, getting lots of food for the boat.  Everyone nearly died when they saw all the fresh stuff we loaded on board: it had been a few weeks since we’d had anything not dried or canned.

As I mentioned before, Midway Atoll is home to some 70-odd people and over 2 million birds.  If I thought the roosters in French Polynesia were annoying for crowing at all hours, they have nothing on 2 million albatross and assorted shearwaters, petrels, and terns.

Midway Atoll
Approaching Midway

Fields of Leycan Albatross

Albatross “getting to know each other”

White tern staring me down

 North Beach, one of the nicest beaches all offshore

Then, it was back to sea.  One more week until Oahu, and we all strove to make the best of it.  I will admit, it did not really feel like we were actually going to make it there until we could see the lights of Honolulu (a weird sight after 30+ days at sea!).


Life at Sea
One of the many stunning sunsets we get to see on a regular basis at sea.  There really is nothing like it.

Maddie and Simon goofing off in the stern.

Sarah and Diana (one of her sisters) hanging out on watch

Lowering the trysail, often a several-times-daily occurrence as we move between try and main to get the most out of the wind.

Sunrise over Honolulu

Ian steers us in

The whole, good-looking group poses while we wait for customs and immigration to clear us in.  I now have all of 3 pages left in my passport.  It doesn’t expire for 3 more years…

Jose, Adam, and Liam help Katie and I carry all of our groceries to the boat.  This was just a small part of our initial “holy cow we are at land and they have real grocery stores here” shop the afternoon we landed.

Once again, we had work days: three teams, rig, hull, and galley blitz the boat.  Rig tensions the rigging and greases the mast.  This leg they also sanded and oiled the spars (booms and gaffs).  Hull completely sands and repaints the hull.  We have at least 4 colours on the hull plus lettering).  Galley hangs out with Katie and I and we completely clean the inside of the boat as well as shop for food for the next leg and stow it all away in various hidey-holes while inventorying what we still have left.  Work days leave us fairly tired…

So, that brings us to now.  I had a few days here to hang out here.  I’ve visited  Saint Andrew’s a few times since arriving to get in my fix of eucharest. It has been a long time since anything other than boat church. On Sunday, Elske, Steve, and James came with me and then we hit up Safeway for an angel food cake, strawberries and whipped cream on the way home. A road-side feast ensued…





The security guard came out at one point, and we all thought we were busted, but it turns out he was bringing us napkins. We needed them.

In other news, I’ve been holding on to a secret since Osaka that Matt, Katie‘s boyfriend of 3 years was going to fly to Hawaii to surprise Katie.  My end of the surprise was planning stuff on the boat end to make sure that she would have the night off when he wanted to come out to the boat, that she wouldn’t book a hotel room for her days off, and all that.  What he didn’t say, but what I pretty much figured would happen was that he would propose while he was out here.  I didn’t think it would happen the first night, but it did.  So now Katie is engaged to be married some time in the fall.  Yay Katie!  Matt is still here, so she’s been too busy to update her blog with the story, but when she does, it will be a good read because its a great story… think secluded beach, picnic, and a shirtless man running down the beach with flowers… not to mention 11 months without having seen each other!
Friday our last group of trainees board for the sail home.  There are only about 10-12 new trainees, not much turn-over this leg.  The group staying on are all great fun and I’m looking forward to sailing another leg with them.  We’ll likely hit the San Juan Islands before coming up to the Gulf Islands but start looking for us around the beginning of June.  We’ll be trying to avoid being seen as long as possible!  See you June 14 in the Inner Harbour!