Tag Archives: salts

Summer on the Island

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Summer has come to the Island. With it also comes hoards of tourists and the re-emergence of the source of one of my pet peeves: people who walk slowly and weave so as to take up the entire sidewalk. How anyone gets anywhere faster than a snail’s pace is beyond me.
Summer also means that there are lots of great music acts playing practically every night around town. This week was no exception: I went to two shows and very nearly went to a third. Tuesday night was Feist. It was the opening night of the tour and, to be quite frank, it showed. All was redeemed last night when I saw Loreena McKennitt’s show at the Royal Theatre. I had a fantastic seat: centre of the front row of the 2nd section in the balcony. I was essentially looking straight at her the entire night. Unfortunately, I developed the urgent need to pee midway through the 3rd song and tried to focus on the songs while praying for the intermission to come soon. That did not detract from the experience though. Between the different sounds (There was quite the collection of instruments; I had no idea that she used so many different musicians and instruments. There were 9 other musicians and most of them played at least 2-3 different instruments!) and visual sights she used to create the atmosphere, I was pretty much captivated for the evening, as was everyone else I talked to. So now I’ve been listening to An Ancient Muse non-stop…
Hard to believe that two weeks from today I’ll be moving onto the boat in preparation for taking off for over a year. Today I went and picked up a bunch more things I’ll need in the medications and toiletry departments. That stuff is expensive! Now that I have all of it, I won’t get sick at all the entire Offshore, rendering everything I just bought unnecessary. But, Murphy’s Law, if I don’t buy it, I’ll get sick and wish I had. I am very glad, however, that I am not backpacking all of this and I have a “permanent” home and a place where I can store everything.
I’d also like to extend an open invitation to everyone in Victoria (or those who wish they were!) to come down to the Inner Harbour June 3rd (Sunday) around 2pm – that is when our send-off ceremony will be and it is the last glimpse you will get of me for a year. Mark it on your calendars and I’ll see you there.

Sunset over Swartz Bay

Hooray for guanxi!

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Today I went down to W Broadway to the Chinese Consulate to get visas for our crew because we need to get them before we arrive in Shanghai on the boat next February. I got there between 9:30 and 9:45; the embassy opened at 9am. The room for visa applications was already full of about 200 people, mostly sitting down on long benches like they have in train and bus waiting rooms. I was one of maybe 4 white people in the room and I felt like I was in China: all the signs were in Chinese, all I could hear spoken around me was Chinese, all the people were Chinese, I was taller than everyone, and it was very crowded. There was a sign at the entrance to the room saying “No numbers today.” Great, a free-for-all, Chinese style, of people trying to get visas (or so I thought). I surveyed the room for a few brief seconds before deciding to stand in one of the short lines at one of the two windows for visa applications, dreading wasting my entire day (of 5 very precious days off) at the Chinese Consulate. A very forceful white lady inserted herself in front of me: “What number are you?”
“The sign said no numbers today.”
“Oh, there are numbers alright, I’m 791 [or whatever it was].” She proceeded to enlighten me that they had already run out of numbers for the day – people started queueing at something like 6am in the alleyway. Well, I was not about to come back at 6am tomorrow morning, so I decided on trying my luck at today. Fortunately, the SALTS office had been in communication with someone at the consulate and had given me a letter, signed by our executive director, introducing me to them. I stayed in line, budged in front of people (in the Chinese way, of course) saying that I just had to speak with Ms. Whatever-her-name-was and saw no other way to do so. The best part was an elderly Chinese man, not in the queue, encouraging me to budge in.
I got up to a window and presented my letter (thankfully, I’d worn my Pacific Grace shirt today, one more identifier of me with SALTS) and said that my company had been in contact with someone at the embassy and I was here and didn’t know how else to speak with her. The lady at the window disappeared with my letter into the back for a few minutes. I spent those minutes hoping no one would discover I had no number and shoo me away. She reappeared and simply asked me if I had the completed form. I pulled all 15 applications out of my bag and pushed them under the window.
After a few minutes of explaining that, yes, I am not going to China until February and I know that is a long way away, however I will not be able to get the visa between now and then because I will be out of the country, she informed me that I had to change all of the visa applications to a multiple entry, 1 year visa. As long as it is the one that costs the amount of money for the company cheque I have on me, I don’t care what visa it is! I scooched to the side, unwilling to give up my place at the window in case I never got it back, and changed all 15 applications before shoving them under the window again. After stapling all the photos on to the applications, and removing all the paperclips, she smiled at me and said “You pick up on Friday, okay?”
“That will be just fine!”
Half an hour after I entered the Consulate, I was walking back down Broadway, laughing to myself for a good two blocks: guanxi is alive and well in Canada as well as in China and I am very glad I had that letter.

An end and a beginning

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And just like that, the spring season of sailing is done. I’m sitting here, in Dad’s computer room, on a beautiful sunny Monday (why is it always gorgeous when I’m not on the boat??) visiting for the last time before we leave in something like 3 and a bit weeks. Fabulous ferry crossing today… I sat on the outer deck the whole way in my T-shirt, enjoying the sun. There wasn’t much wind, so I was hoping I’d catch a glimpse of the boats if they were sailing, but I think they’d long passed that area. So now the fears and apprehensions I had starting off the spring season have returned full-force as the magnitude of preparing for Offshore begins to hit me. It actually began to hit a few weeks ago, which partially explains my silence lately.
As the weather gets nicer, I’ve enjoyed wandering around Victoria on the weekends. I love living close to downtown so that I can just wander in when I feel like it, and I make a point of walking a lot on the weekend to make up for my week of no to little movement on the boat. The cherry blossoms have just finished, but there was a period of a few weeks when they were spectacular; especially in Chinatown where the cherry trees alternate with well-maintained evergreen trees making the street a feast of colour.
Reading and re-reading some Madeleine L’Engle has also been a highlight of the last few weeks. I love her ability, in her non-fiction work, to say what I want to say but can’t or say what I wish I’d thought of. It is always quite inspiring and thought-provoking. Attending Choral Evensong at the huge Gothic-inspired Cathedral has also been a joy. Last week, the service was celebrated by someone who had been an intern minister at our church in Belleville about 15 years ago. He pretty much looks just the same!
And then there is the A&E/BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice that I got from the library and watched again this weekend. It is always so depressing and uplifting at the same time, a thought which brings to mind something I read from Madeleine L’Engle (A Stone for a Pillow) on the ferry ride over here: the idea that things are both/and. Like one crew member’s comment to another “You are a genius, except when you are stupid”. Like the idea that I can love and admire someone who does something which seems to be so contrary or unworthy. Maybe one day, we will have a trinary system instead of a binary system: “yes/no” becomes “yes/no/neutral.” Jesus used this when he answered the question of paying tribute to Caesar by asking them to bring him a coin. I suppose this way prods us to move out of a comfortable rut of easy answers and blanket statements; blanket statements allow us to ignore the people and think only about the problem, something that the world does too much of as it is.
With more sleep, hopefully I’ll be in good shape after this week off. I’m finding I need to divide my time between reading the “good” things – the fun and inspiring books (like Madeleine L’Engle) and the ones which are beneficial for me to read for work (Care and Feeding of the Offshore Crew, for example), although I only brought the good stuff with me this week…

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One trip left. One. Trip. Left. I’m sailing for the next three days and then it is a week off, and then shipyard for a few weeks. It is hard to believe that in a month I’ll be on the eve of leaving Victoria to sail around the Pacific for a year. Kind of overwhelming actually.

Another weekend

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It is midnight on Sunday and I’m not yet in bed; I’m not sailing this week which is a weird feeling. Instead, I’m headed out to Montreal on Tuesday for Granny’s internment service. Tomorrow morning I’m still going down to the shipyard for morning devos and to orient the substitute-cook to “my” galley and then it is up to the doctors to get things all organised for Offshore.
It is amazing how much one can pack into a weekend. I think I managed to spend my entire fortnight’s paycheque in two days: foulies (serious jacket and pants for out on deck), a fancy-smancy new iPod (80GB… that should do me for Offshore), shoes, various items of clothing like board shorts for Offshore, books… Its quite amazing really. Everything I do seems to be somehow related to Offshore.
It is going to be good to get to see the whole family again this week, despite the circumstances. It’s a bit of a bonus visit since I didn’t think I’d see any of them until I get back from sailing. Yay for having 4 cousins under 1 roof again and oh the chaos that will ensue…! We might have John Mayer tickets for Wednesday night which would probably make my month… John Mayer on top of the 2 concerts I’ll be going to here in Victoria in May (I spoilt myself with tickets to see Feist and Loreena McKennitt when they are here)… wow!
I’ve decided I work with a great bunch of people (although I knew that would be the case before I started working with them, I just underestimated how fantastic they were/are). It is not that many co-workers that, after living with each other during the week, elect to spend their weekends off with each other too. Somehow, I have managed to spend time with at least one crew member every day of the weekend – tonight it was dinner with four of them.
And now, 7am draws even closer as I have taken half an hour to write this (interspersed with random other things on the computer).

Sailing and some videos

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An Evening Climb

We had a fantastic sail today just before we dropped the kids back in at the Inner Harbour. I took some video footage to let you have a glimpse of what it is like. Pretty much all you can hear is the wind and me mumbling in the background. We were going about 9 knots (which is the fastest I think I’ve seen) close hauled and were, therefore, quite heeled over. Some of the kids were less than enthused, but I was having a great time (especially since all my galley duties were done for the day). This is what it will be like Offshore, except even more heeled over and for days at a time.

“Coming About”

“Sailing” – I’m sitting on a deckbox less than a foot up from the water…

Week Two: In which Gillian learns that stoves are still hot, sailing is fun, remembers the beauty of camp, and has a hard ending to a great week

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Trip two was with a group from Vancouver, Grade 10 and 11s mostly, so a bit older, a bit more able, and a lot of fun. This was my first 5 day trip and at first, it seemed to go on and on. There were a few problems, like almost running out of potatoes (so we had mac and cheese instead, which was a hit… no one really knows if you don’t tell them, I guess!). I had an intimate encounter with a pan of oatmeal cookies and my inner elbow (don’t know what that area is technically called), resulting in my first magnificent burn of the year. It is about 2 inches long.
We had a couple of good sails this trip, the first day being the best I think. We had to double reef the main because there was a decent wind out. Our first night was anchored at Bedwell Harbour, between North and South Pender Islands.

(Liz, before reading on, you have one guess to tell me where this picture is!)

From there we made our way up to North Cove, Thetis and docked at Camp. I got to say hi to Chris and Andrea, and Ben was back in the country for a bit before going back to Australia, so I saw him too. After the trainees went to bed, the crew took off to Bucks and Does for a lovely hot shower… ahhhh. The next morning, it was beautiful blue sky, not a cloud to be seen and no wind at all. The trainees played soccer on Junior Meadow and I made lunch. Then it was off down to Coles Harbour on the inside of the Saanich Penninsula. Thursday night was in Cadboro Bay where Jordan and I, with two trainees, took the Zodiac into shore to get some ice cream to surprise Karen for her 25th birthday. We had been giving her presents all day, and she loves birthdays a lot! I got completely soaked going ashore, being the only one with roll-up-able pants and no socks in my crocs, so I was the one to leap over and drag us up the beach, while splashing water all up my backside. The four of us must have been quite the sight wandering through Peppers Market in our orange life jackets, rolled up pants/rubber boots, unwashed hair, and video camera (yes, the trainees brought the school video camera so our actions can be immortalized forever). The best part was motoring back to the ship with one trainee holding a flashlight over the bow of the Zodiac as our bow light. Oh but it was worth it for Karen’s screams of delight.
Friday morning we were just “sailing” (at a speed of anywhere between 0.8 and 2 knots) south of the harbour before heading into the harbour to unload kids. Before I go any further, I want to say Friday was an interesting day. I had just come in to the aft cabin after breakfast when I hear my phone vibrate voicemail. I check the phone and it is a number I don’t recognize but an area code I do. So I go to check the voicemail and the reception has gone (it does that on the water). Up on deck I go and there is a message to call my uncle in Sarnia. Now I’m worried and go to call him back. My phone is out of credit… curses. And I didn’t even write down the number so I could use the boat phone. Double curses. Best of all, I just got a new credit card and I don’t know the number of by heart yet so I have to find my wallet, buried under clothes in the inaccessible stowage under my bed (think lift up mattress then lift up wooden slats then rummage around in small spaces with no light). Find wallet, locate credit card, top up phone, call Sarnia. My grandmother died Friday morning. My uncle was with her. It has been coming for the last little bit, we honestly weren’t sure she’d make it till Christmas, but she did, and we had a wonderful family dinner with her in December. My aunt and uncle in Sarnia have been doing a magnificent job of caring for her for the last few years and I am so thankful that Gord was there with her yesterday. Love you Granny.

I Survived

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Well, it wasn’t as bad as all that. I ended up with only one major galley burn – a lovely blister on the knuckle of my left hand (it has now popped, so a photo wouldn’t do its blisteryness justice) and some sore shoulders from stirring pots big enough to hold a small child (not that I have tried). The group of Gr 7 kids were lots of fun, although they did try all of our patience at times, as Gr 7’s are wont to do. I think I got off easy because there were 2 birthdays in the 3 days they were with us, and moms sent along cakes for both, so I didn’t have to make evening snack either night! This week, however, the true extent of it all hits.
There was a gale warning Thursday night for Friday morning, so we anchored in Esquimalt Harbour Thursday night instead of the usual Cadboro Bay so as to have the wind behind us getting to Victoria Harbour in the morning. The gale never really materialized, however our view from the boat was fabulous Friday morning as we sailed out of the Harbour looking over at the mountains in Washington and Fisgard Lighthouse, one of the oldest on the North American west coast.

The Pacific Swift Wednesday morning heading to Sidney Island.

The Swift entering Esquimalt Harbour, passing by Fisgard Lighthouse.

The Swift leaving Esquimalt Harbour Friday morning with the sun coming up

Pacific Grace at night.

Fisgard Lighthouse and the mountains in Washington, Friday morning.

And for a look at the inside of the Grace:

The aft cabin. My bunk is called “The Drivethru” and you can see it to the left. Above the walkway is “The Loft”, the current home of my guitar and didge.

The Drivethru – Karen, the Watch Officer and other female crew member and I share this cabin. My bunk is the bottom one. It is, contrary to all appearences, long enough for me, and actually quite wide at the head (narrower at the foot). There is storage under my bed.

The crew head.

The galley, where I spend pretty much all day.