November 21, 2012
The Voyage of Free Spirit V: Northbound!
Our first summer cruise aboard Free Spirit V changed our lives and introduced us to places and challenges we could never have imagined. Rob and I were complete novices when we bought our first boat, Free Spirit V, a 1991 Kadey Krogen 42 foot full-displacement trawler, in December 2010. Still, we wanted to follow friends north for a 10-week cruise the following summer. Bringing our knowledge and skills up to standard would mean a lot of winter cruising. Between December and the end of May 2011, with our reluctant standard poodle, Blue, in tow, we clocked almost 100 engine hours, and many of them weren’t pretty.
September 27, 2012
Tales of a Catcherman
Did I mention how much I hate standing in the rain in a seaway…fishing? Messing around in boats has been our passion for almost 30 years. Corinne and I currently spend our summers cruising the Pacific Northwest in our American Tug 41, Ocean Mistress. We have a passion for finding new and remote anchorages. We love to explore. About 10 years ago we began adding other activities to our cruising agenda. We do a lot of hiking into the remote areas of British Columbia’s rainforest, and we add to our cruising larder with a little fishing.
September 27, 2012
The Voyage of Free Spirit V – Starting From Scratch
Bitten by boating bug, the author and her husband choose a rugged 42’ passagemaker and start their climb up a steep learning curve…In the beginning…we lived on the prairies. We did not know a tide from a current but we harboured a dream of moving west, where we could see the ocean every day. We had spent a lot of time in Vancouver and, as the possibility of moving there drew near, we felt the urge to be out on the water – not just to look at it.
September 27, 2012
This One’s For You, Tolly
Yacht builder and boater’s boater, the late ‘Tolly’ Tollefson is remembered at a place he loved, Princess Louisa Inlet Princess Louisa Inlet is a narrow cleft in British Columbia’s Coast Range mountains, a four-mile-long appendage near the upper end of Jervis Inlet, 40 miles from Pender Harbour. Dark granite walls rise to peaks 3,000 feet above the surface and plunge straight into the inlet to depths of 600 feet. Beautiful waterfalls fed by snowfields on the heights above wash the rock walls year-round, but the waterfalls are more numerous and more dramatic during peak snow melt in the spring. At the head of the inlet, Chatterbox Falls bursts out, creating a stunning background for boat photos.
September 27, 2012
Our Four-Legged Crew
The perfect crew, Kona the Mastiff is always ready for adventure and never fails to entertain. Watching our boat Sea Foam steam up a channel in the early morning, an observer might notice many things: the red dinghy towing in our wake, the yellow and red kayaks on the pilothouse roof, her salty cabin and graceful lines. But you definitely won’t miss the mastiff riding on the bow. At 120 pounds, Kona is heavier than our largest storm anchor, roughly the same size as our engine and by far the best conversation piece in our 40-foot home. Again and again, we are asked the inevitable question, “Why not get a smaller dog?”
August 30, 2012
Our home and Native Boat
The 2012 C&C Yachts Reunion and Conference Brings Canada’s Greatest Sailboat Brand Back to Life. Is there a C&C on your dock? Yes. Did you ever race against a C&C? Likely. Do you own a C&C? Did you ever own one? The chances are extremely high that we have now included every one of the Canadian sailors and crew out there in the Canadian Yachting Nation. Each and every one of us has certainly had contact with this famous brand. I don’t own one, but I race against a C&C 27 and a Viking 28 every Wednesday.