October 18, 2011
Cruising Into the Sunset
It hits me as hard as the waves crashing into our bow just outside the shelter of Sunsail’s St. Vincent base, strong as the thirty-knot winds gusting out of the east, that I have not planned this trip as well as I should have. We ship two good friends as crew – both relatively experienced sailors – but they aren’t ready for this. Nor am I. Supposed to be a bucket list adventure but it starts as a romp from hell.
October 14, 2011
Celebrating Our Boating History This Summer
Antique and Classic Boat Shows Round-up Whereever you travel in Canada this summer, if you plan the dates right, you could spend a glorious day admiring, photographing, perhaps listening to and maybe even riding in an antique or classic boat! There are shows planned across Canada from Victoria, BC to Hubbard’s Cove in Nova Scotia with plenty of great events in between.
October 14, 2011
Thar She Blows!
Don’t call me Ishmael. No apocryphal white whale for me, no leaking longboat bristling with harpoons. Our vessel is more seaworthy, our crew and passenger manifest less motley. We will not kill the great leviathans that pierce the skin of the sea, we will merely share their playground. We will also share the lives of the people of the sea on Canada’s great island, skimming over waters once plied by Basque and Portuguese fishermen, past shores explored a thousand years ago by Vikings,
August 30, 2011
Malta – A Golden Destination
The Mediterranean island nation of Malta is a golden destination for sailors and when you arrive at Grand Harbour at the fortified city of Valletta you realize why. This perfect natural harbour, one of several on the island, has offered shelter to seafarers since ancient times. Add to this Malta’s strategic location in the center of the Mediterranean, 90 km. south of Sicily and 290 km. from the northern coast of Africa, and it’s easy to understand why Malta has been conquered and ruled by nearly every major power that has shaped the history of this part of the world from the Stone-Age and Bronze-Age peoples, to Romans and Phoenicians, Arabs, Normans and Carthaginians, Castilians, French and British.
May 8, 2011
Back to the Channel
“So you’re back,” says Canadian Yacht Charters co-proprietor Ken Blodgett as if it hasn’t been a year since we’d last seen him. “I’m back.” I sit down on a Muskoka chair beside Blodgett just outside their office, snugged down on the shores of Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island’s north shore. I stare at the waters – dark green and mysterious in the late afternoon.
May 8, 2011
Cruising Through History – Belgium’s Canals and Rivers
“Who wants to go first?” I do, so up I step up to the controls of our 34 ft. Le Boat cabin cruiser. A few minutes earlier, my two friends and I had been eyeing the cruiser eagerly and a touch anxiously from the safety of dry land. It’s our new home for the next week. In the interests of full disclosure, I’m not a boater. Not from lack of interest, just lack of opportunity.
February 7, 2011
Planning Your Dream Cruise: 1 – First Steps
You’re not quite sure how or when this happened, but the casual thought of going off cruising someday is starting to become a goal you’re taking more seriously. Perhaps at the moment you don’t know if, given your current circumstances, it’s even possible to say goodbye to the rat race for a while and set sail for warmer climes, but you’d sure like to check it out!
January 13, 2011
Sea Ray Wood Shop – Hallmarks of Quality
While attending the Miami International Boat Show last February, Rob Noyes, VP of Marketing for Sea Ray Boats made special arrangements for me to tour their new woodworking facility at Merritt Island near Orlando. I’m a lifelong antique boat fan and refinished my own mahogany runabout a few years ago, so the chance to see the latest, state-of-the-art woodworking facility was an invitation I could not refuse.
January 12, 2011
Bruce Peninsula, Ontario
A rugged path strewn with rocks slices through a dense stand of cedar just beyond a red-roofed square wooden lighthouse squatting beside Georgian Bay on the furthest reaches of Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula. You trudge along this path that meanders through forests boasting five-hundred-year-old trees; you deeply inhale the cedar aroma. Then the forest thins and you emerge onto a plain of stone and sand and shale.
January 12, 2011
A Ration of Grog
From the ubiquitous red shirts and baseball hats with the yellow map of Barbados emblazoned on them – the secret code of serious sailboat racers worldwide – to the Royal Navy tradition of serving up a thick, syrupy and brain-befuddling concoction daily to her sailors, it seems like rum and boating are synonymous. For what sailor worth his salt doesn’t savour a ration of grog? Almost a moral imperative.
January 12, 2011
Island Grooves
It is so hot in Codrington, Barbuda, even the chickens are napping. Then the afternoon explodes in sound. Around the corner come people swaying their hips in time to a band, one musician grinding out chord roots on a bass, a drummer pounding cross-rhythms.
January 12, 2011
BVI Dreamin’
All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey. Is it time for the BVI Spring Regatta yet? This summer was a wonderful one – I put a lot of water under the boat, had a ball and it didn’t seem to rain on a single weekend! But now the boat is under its tarp and my deck sneakers have that wandering feeling. The pull is stronger than in years past because just before launch last spring, I started my season extra early by taking in the BVI Spring Regatta.
January 12, 2011
Skinny Sailing
“IC24’s have a crew weight limit of 850 pounds and there are five of us,” said Tyler Rice, a high school senior from St. Thomas, USVI, and my skipper for the 2010 Rolex International Regatta during a pre-race phone call. “We did some math last night and we all need to loose some weight before weigh-in.” Thus began a time of thirst and hunger but the trade off was compelling: ten days of sacrifice for the serious fun of sailing in a legendary Caribbean event.
January 12, 2011
Looking For Vinci in All The Wrong Places
Just outside the elegance of the reception office at Young Island Resort in St. Vincent, crown jewel of the Grenadine Islands in the southern Caribbean, are two perfectly happy Vinci parrots, perched lazily on tree trunks in very nice cages. Just as happy as you, these birds, lodged – like you – in a luxury resort that Johnny Depp used as a pied-a-terre while filming the first УPirates of the CaribbeanФ, that Bill Gates fully booked for his millennium celebrations.
January 12, 2011
Champagne Cruising
It’s 11:59 p.m. on New Years’ Eve and I’m ensconced like a king on his throne in the cockpit of a sailboat. The clock strikes twelve and a hundred ships’ horns shatter the night. Cheers echo across waters that shimmer with the Christmas lights strung from the railing of the candy cane lighthouse.
January 12, 2011
History’s Harbour
The sun breaks over the cactus-studded slopes of Shirley Heights, spotlighting the wooden crosses of a two-century-old cemetery, bathing in a scarlet-hued glow of the crumbling battlements that still stand sentinel over the opening to Antigua’s English Harbour. It rises higher, illuminating villas and a beach that fronts on waters that glitter like a sugar-glazed donut.
January 12, 2011
South Pacific
Since he was seven years old he knew he wanted to spend his life at sea. Now at the tender age of 54 Captain Toni Mirkovic is plying the breathtaking waters of the South Pacific at the helm of the award winning luxury cruise ship, Paul Gauguin. Unlike Captain Bligh of the ill-fated Bounty, Captain Mirkovic has gained the respect of his 217 crew and the confidence of his 330 grateful guests. On an eight day cruise in March, we visited the Society Islands of French Polynesia , an eight hour Air Tahiti Nui flight south west from Los Angeles, landing in a pocket of the Pacific Ocean seemingly at the very end of the earth.
January 11, 2011
The Best of British Columbia Boating Part 1
The Gulf Islands of British Columbia envelop a beautifully diverse cruising ground – an alluring and accessible pocket of paradise. Boaters will be charmed by each island’s distinctive character and lured by clean sandy beaches, sheltered bays, hideaway anchorages, spectacular sunsets and abundant wildlife. In addition, the area’s marine parks are unique to British Columbia’s coast and are often only accessible by water.
January 11, 2011
Sun, Sea, Sand and Sails
You have shovelled snow from more than enough driveways. Your parka feels like a straightjacket. The only ice you want to see is in a glass of rum punch. And you have had enough of wind chill minus a million. Celsius. Little do you know that your recipe for happiness needs very few ingredients, that with a cornucopia of island paradises and a brisk cruise thrown in for good measure, you too can increase your happiness quotient.
January 6, 2011
Planning Your Dream Cruise: 2 – Destinations & Route Planning
Most cruises are based on a destination: “When school finishes, we are going to take the kids on a summer cruise of Georgian Bay.” “When I retire, I want to sail through the islands of the Caribbean for a couple of years.” “We’re going to ship our motorboat over to Europe and explore the Med for a few seasons.” “We’re going to sail around the world!”
January 4, 2011
Planning Your Dream Cruise: 3 – The Cost of Cruising – Financial Matters Afloat
Most people believe that long-term cruising is expensive but it certainly doesn’t have to be. When we first cut the docklines in 1989 we were surprised at how our monthly fixed expenses dropped when we let the apartment go, sold the car, and suddenly didn’t have rent to pay or home and car insurance premiums. The cable TV fees stopped, as did our fitness club memberships. Costly commuting expenses disappeared. No longer working in offices, our clothing budget dropped drastically since our wardrobe simplified and cruising in the tropics didn’t demand several sets of seasonal clothes.
December 30, 2010
Planning Your Dream Cruise: 4 – Making Cruising Pay – Earning While Cruising
Travelling by boat, as I’m sure you’ll agree, offers many pleasures and freedoms but can present plenty of challenges and high-stress moments as well. Adding financial stress to the adventure can really take the fun out of cruising so, as we discussed in our last article, it’s important to maintain a good financial base when cruising. As in life ashore, financial security provides freedom and peace of mind. The ability to earn a living while cruising then seems the ultimate freedom.
December 23, 2010
Planning Your Dream Cruise: 5 – Benefits of Part-time Cruising
There is a misunderstood notion that to become a long-term, long-distance cruising sailor it is necessary to truly cut the docklines by selling everything and leaving. You know, get rid of the house, quit your job, and wave goodbye to the rat race. Paul and I have been cruising now for 18 years and can assure you that this just isn’t so. In fact, the happiest long-term cruisers we meet are most often those who have found a pleasurable balance between life afloat and life ashore.
December 22, 2010
Cruising the Leeward Station
As the sun died in the western sky we strolled across a cobblestone parade ground, following its path like the faithful. We watched it burn a pink and orange penumbra onto a harem of undulating mountains. We watched it etch deep shadows into east-facing slopes, silhouetting the palms that surmounted their heights.
December 21, 2010
Planning Your Dream Cruise: 6 – Maintaining A Home Base While Cruising
The decision to cast off the dock lines and undertake a long-term cruise involves considerate financial planning from establishing a budget for outfitting your boat, travelling expenses, insurance, sightseeing costs, maintenance and repairs, and changing costs of living as you move from destination to destination. So it’s no surprise that in the process of planning a cruise, the topic of whether or not it’s economical to maintain a home base while you’re away nearly always comes up.
December 17, 2010
Grenada of Land and Sea
Just off the headland of Grenada’s True Blue Bay a huge rock bathes in the Caribbean Sea. It is thirty feet high and ruggedly beautiful. Wind has etched lines upon its face; the sea has softened its rougher edges. We sail past in the Bavaria 46′ we’ve chartered from Horizon Yacht Charters, gazing out toward waves hurling themselves against the rock, shattering into a million pieces.
December 15, 2010
Chichester Harbour, England
Commissioning a new boat can be exciting, enlightening, challenging, sometimes frightening, often frustrating, but mostly a delightful experience. At least that’s how it’s been for Paul and me for the last few weeks as we go through the process with our new Southerly 49 sailboat, Distant Shores II, the latest variable-draft cruising boat built by Northshore Yachts in England. We took delivery of our new baby in mid-March at the Northshore Shipyard which is located on beautiful Chichester Harbour on the south coast of England.
November 1, 2010
The Way South – Bahamas to the Caribbean
The past year had been filled with adventures – a new boat built in England, the transatlantic passage bringing her across to our side of the Atlantic Ocean, a winter in the Caribbean, spring in the Out Islands of the Bahamas, and a fast trip home to Lake Ontario via New York and the Erie Canal.
October 28, 2010
St. Martin to the BVI
Our overnight passage from the island of Barbuda to St. Martin had been boisterous. The easterly winds had built through the night so that by the time St. Martin came into view, bright green and mountainous on this mid-January day, we had a reef in the mainsail and had changed down from our 135% genoa to our sturdy little self-tacking jib. Distant Shores, our Southerly 42 sailboat, charged along in the confused seas her variable draft keel down the full 9-feet keeping her motion steady and comfortable.
June 23, 2010
Two-Footitis
Two-footitis – the need to move up to a boat 2-feet longer than the one you have – is an ailment that hits most sailors at one time or another as their passion for the sport grows, new challenges are sought, the crew expands or, let’s be really honest here, the desire for bigger and better toys hits hard.
June 16, 2010
Eleuthera Bound
It looked like we were floating in the world’s largest swimming pool. For as far as our eyes could see was the most beautiful sparkling clear water with no land in sight. It was a warm windless morning in early June and as we motor-sailed along over the glassy calm we could see bright red starfish slide by on the pure white sand bottom beneath us.
June 11, 2010
St. Martin – Half Dutch, Half French
Sometimes everything just comes together to make an island landfall the perfect experience. We approached St. Martin in an absolute torrential tropical downpour. We had sailed overnight from Barbuda – leaving at midnight to arrive in the day. The night was a rollicking sail with nice strong winds from behind and we flew along at over 8 knots.
June 10, 2010
Anguilla – Sailing for the Stars
I didn’t see much on my first cruise through Anguilla Passage in the Leeward chain of the Caribbean Sea. I was crewing for Steve Fossett on a one-hundred-twenty-five-foot catamaran called “Playstation” and we were chasing the Heineken Regatta’s round-Sint-Maarten record.
June 10, 2010
Hopetown and the Other Loyalists
The first thing I see on my approach to Hopetown is an undulating emerald silhouette rising up from the horizon, dominated by a circa-1864, candy-cane-painted lighthouse that still uses kerosene for power. Inside the harbour is a forest of sailboat masts. A chorus of dancing casuarinas trees, feathery branches seductive as a burlesque dancer’s boa, serenades me.
June 9, 2010
Petit St. Vincent – The Real Fantasy Island
It is twilight when we step onto the dock at Petit St. Vincent, a tiny tropical resort island snugged down like an anchored sloop in one of the most beautiful bays in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. No Ricardo Montalban waiting to greet us in a white suit, but this is no TV show. This is the real Fantasy Island.
June 9, 2010
Bahamas – Out Islands
This year Paul and I celebrated 20 years of long-distance cruising. As writers and documentary filmmakers we’re fortunate that we can work while we travel and since setting sail from Toronto in September 1989 on our first international voyage we have logged 76,000 nautical miles cruising to over 50 countries on 5 continents. And whenever anyone asks, “What’s your favourite place to sail?”, we both say without hesitating, “The Bahamas!”.
May 31, 2010
Our Caribbean Arrival
Our goal when we set out to cross the Atlantic Ocean aboard our Southerly 42 sailboat from the Canary Islands was to arrive in the Caribbean island of Antigua in time for the legendary Sunday night jump-up atop Shirley Heights. We almost made it.
May 26, 2010
Transatlantic Crossing – From England to Antigua
It had been a fast 2-day passage south from the Portuguese island of Madeira to the sun-baked Canary Islands of Spain, our jumping-off point for a transatlantic passage to the Caribbean. We’d had great sailing with wind all the way – and from the right direction – until the last few hours of our approach to Gran Canaria on December 13th when the wind headed us. But our new Southerly 42 sailboat, Distant Shores, charged effortlessly into the building seas under power of our small self-tacking jib and reefed mainsail.
May 19, 2010
Sunshine Coast, British Columbia
Strung out below Syren Point on the east side of Hotham Sound is popular Harmony Islands Marine Park. The biggest and smallest of these four islands (the rest are private) are designated as a marine park, with the southernmost park providing flat, grassy spots for kayakers to beach their craft and set up camp. The adjacent waters in the channel between the islands and the mainland are also within the park’s boundaries. We headed for our favourite, sheltered spot known locally as Kipling Cove – tucked between the three northern islands, it offers dramatic vistas, good snorkelling opportunities and warm water swimming in July and August.