Tag Archives: salts

Offshore Reunion

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Last night was the S.A.L.T.S. AGM. The last half (two-thirds?) was devoted to a multimedia presentation of Offshore put together by Skipper, complete with with photos and video highlights of the trip. People started arriving 15 minutes or so before the doors opened and it was like a huge reunion of trainees and crew: I hadn’t seen lots of them since we arrived home in  June of last year. Strange really, I spent every moment of every day for months with some of these people and now I haven’t seen them in months. Needless to say there were hugs flying all over the place. I felt a bit disjointed as there were so many people I wanted to see – I kept turning and seeing someone else to grab. I’m not usually like that. I usually stand on the edge of the room and have a select few conversations while people-watching. It was really exhausting.

The presentation, however, was fantastic. The video footage was all new to me: most of it I hadn’t seen since we actually lived through it. Some of the most moving footage to see was of our time with various islanders in remote locations. There was quite a bit of our friends on Hiva Oa, including their singing of the Marquesan National Hymn. Then there was some of the Palmerstan Islanders, including our dancing and that of the ever-graceful boys. The video of the whales we swam with in PNG was also moving. It was so graceful to see a dozen or so whales gliding through the water and some of us diving down to see them and them surfacing to see us. Wow. At one point during the whales, I caught the eye of another crew member and we mouthed “SHARK” at each other because that is pretty much how it went down. Skipper left that out of the presentation.

The whole thing brought tears to my eyes. Such good memories, amazing people and places and community on the boat. Someone said to me afterwards that they felt they had lived it with us. “Hmmm, not quite,” I thought to myself. The show missed some key things below decks. Sure, you see the crazy motion from on deck when waves come crashing over the side, but what about when those waves lift up the closed skylights to dump water on the table in the middle of a card game. Or when the waves lift the skirt around the bottom of the mast and pour waterfalls down onto freshly baked muffins you were planning on serving for breakfast in 15 minutes. And what about when the swell is so huge that your galley assistant for the day drops the 100 oz can of chickpeas all over the floor as she slides all the way across the galley and slams into you. And the heat, nothing in the photos gives any indication of how bloody hot it was on deck and how much hotter it was in the galley. Oh the good times, that is what memories are made of.

Getting my Exercise

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Yesterday ended up being quite the day. I was walking to my chiro appointment in the morning when work called me to see if I could come in that evening for a four hour shift. Since I haven’t worked in a month, who am I to turn that down?! As it was, however, the day was getting packed.

By the time I got home, I needed to leave about 45 min later to head up to the university to return some textbooks. (I’ve been able to borrow my anatomy text from a very wonderful person who has saved me $170.) Then it was down to the public library to return a couple of books (Anne Rice’s Called out of Darkness and Peter Hopkirk’s The Great Game that took me forever to read but was quite interesting) and pick up a hold that just came in. The latest addition to my must-read pile (made more urgent by being library books) is a new-ish one by Colleen McCullough, an author I’ve enjoyed in the past. The book is called The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet and is about Mary from Pride and Prejudice. Reviews have been mixed, so we’ll see how I like it.

From the library, I biked, on the new bike I purchased the day before the heavens opened with snow, out to the Saanich Police Station to get my criminal record check done so I can volunteer on the boat this summer. (Trip 3 y’all, be there.) The officer on duty just happened to be the same [very attractive] one who was on duty when I got my check done for work three months ago. He recognized me. My questioning whether or not it is okay to flirt with attractive cops who do your criminal record check has generated one of the most commented Facebook discussions I’ve ever had… The consensus is yes, it is just fine. In my defense, he initiated the conversation. I just kept it going… I guess I’ll look forward to going back next week to pick up the completed check.

I digress.  From the Police Station it is a fairly nice (but also partially uphill) bike ride to Royal Oak where I was visiting the wonderful Bonice (of the SALTS log fame). We enjoyed genuine Chinese jasmine tea and chocolate, just like old times in the stern of the Grace, until she had to meet the boys at the bus stop and I had to head back into Gordon Head for work. Whew. I had just enough time to grab a coffee at the new Starbucks in Gordon Head before getting to the home in time for my 4 hour shift. I decided coffee was necessary to make it through the evening. I did cause more than one motorist to double take in my general direction as I was biking down the road with my coffee in one hand.  Don’t worry, Dad, I was being safe. They were all backstreets and motorists do it all the time.

By the time I got home, it was nearly 8:30 pm and I did little else but check emails and collapse into bed with a wonderful book I’ve been lent: Organic Edge: Targeted Review to Ace Organic Chemistry. Apparently satisfaction is guaranteed.  I hope that means I’ll pass the course. I’ve never used one of those fancy books before, but I’m willing to do a lot to understand this stuff. Dredging up chemistry factoids from the deep, dark recesses of my brain where they’ve been decaying for the last 9 years is proving to be a challenge.

Despite all that exercise, I didn’t sleep as well as hoped last night. Probably because I currently have the sorest bum on the planet from all that cycling.

Something’s Missing

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This week has been a busy week of getting the boats ready for the winter.  Along with the normal things we do every year like take all the food off and give away what will not keep until next year, take all the mattresses, deck boxes, dories, life jackets etc off the boat, unlash all the sails and remove them and the booms/gaffs, and clean the boat really really well, this year we took a couple extra things off.  Those couple extra things weighing upwards of 5 tonnes…
Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the barge Pacific Grace.
That’s right.  The Grace no longer has any masts.  It looks fairly strange to see her completely mast-less.  On Tuesday, the main came out.  It took the crane 14 tonnes of force to lift it out of its hole.  Today, the fore came out and it took 9 tonnes of force.  It is the strangest thing to see these mammoth sticks dangling in the air above the boat.  

When laid out in the lot, they take nearly the entire length of the parking area.  
We had some interesting maneuvering with two fork-lifts to get them out of the parking lot, around the corner into shop.  
In the shop, the main takes up over 3/4 of the length of it.  Tomorrow will be strange when we go for fuel under the Johnson St Bridge without having to raise it up.
Incidentally, tomorrow is also my last day working for SALTS.  Its been a fantastic last two years full of great relationships and wonderful experiences.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  At the same time, I’m looking forward to some rest.  While I will be out pounding the pavement looking for a new job first thing Monday morning (well, maybe not first thing!), I anticipate some well-deserved break time.  You can pray for me as I’m looking for work.  I think I’ve gotten a little picky, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it means I have to be careful not to turn my nose up at perfectly good jobs.

Changing Seasons

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And just like that, as quickly as the leaves are changing colours here in Victoria, the fall sailing season is over.  That’s it; no more cooking for me.  It is kind of strange to think about really.  All I’ve done for the last two years is cook on a sailboat.  Now I’m done.  Two weeks of shipyard and then I’m really done and unemployed.

Its been a fantastic last two years, I’ve throughly enjoyed my time on the boat: the people I’ve met, the people I’ve worked with, and the places I’ve been very fortunate to travel to both at home and abroad.  Soon I’ll be on to the next chapter.

Katie’s Married!

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This weekend, the entire offshore crew trekked over to the mainland for the wedding of Katie and Matt.  It was a great ceremony full of intimate moments and hearty laughs.  The bubble-boy and ring bearer (youngest two of Skipper’s kids) did a fantastic job as well!

The reception afterwards was lots of fun.  I enjoy wedding receptions where I know lots of people and those people are as crazy as the people I work with.  Pretty much nothing phases us anymore and we have no problem making fools of ourselves…  This is evidenced in our offshore tradition of re-writing famous songs in our songbook for special events on the boat, thus far, that has been pretty exclusively birthdays.  We decided to make an exception, and did a one-time only performance of a song we wrote for the wedding.  Antony, Sarah, Tony and I wrote it in about half an hour on Thursday after breakfast.  Karen suggested some changes then away we went.  We had two guitars and were supposed to have a kazoo but it missed its ride to the ferry (aka was forgotten).
The lyrics, below, are to the tune “I Will Survive”…
At first she was afraid, she was petrified,
Didn’t know how long she could go on and still survive.
She spent oh so many nights just dreaming of his face,
Because it was embroidered on her pillow case.
She took the year, let herself go
It’s the only time she could and Matt wouldn’t know.
She never shaved her legs and she tooted in the night,
Her hair was left unwashed and her clothes were getting tight.
Go on now go, sail out to sea,
Don’t turn around now, don’t you worry about me.
Weren’t you the one who softly said goodbye,
My name is Matt, I am a man and I don’t cry.
Oh no not I, I’ll grow my hair.
As long as I don’t cut it, your touch will still be there.
I’ve got only one year to last so I hope it goes real fast,
But I’ll survive, I will survive, hey hey hey…
(Drum and Kazoo duet…)

It took all the strength she had not to fall apart,
She journalled every day to you right from the start.
Matt you should know that you were really missed,
She brushed her teeth, just waiting for your kiss.
I must admit, I’m feeling blue,
I am so far away but still in love with you.
I was dreaming you’d drop in, just to visit me
Cause I’m saving all my loving for the one who’s loving me
And then you came, to Hawaii
With no shirt and a scooter down upon one knee.
You were the one that I wanted for all time
I could hardly wait, and now tonight you’re mine
And that’s the start, they will survive,
As long as they know how to love we know they’ll stay alive
They’ve got all their lives to live and all their love to give,
They will survive, they will survive, Amen.
And now for the requisite photo accompaniments:
The mildly offside, but oh so Katie, cake topper

George walking Katie up the aisle.

Katie and Matt

The cooks…

And the girls

Welcome back to the West Coast

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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)

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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!