Sailing Kootenay Lake

Not much wind, not much to do.  Had a full cockpit so didn’t raise the jib, likely should have.  Love the views.  Our SV is a 25 foot O’day from 1979.  Loving it.  Sorry it is on an iPhone so a pretty narrow shot.

▶To Sail Or Not To Sail? The Right Boat?

Maybe a catamaran is the way to go? They seem to have way more room than a mono-hull.  How they sail would be my question.

 

The Unexpected Things You See

I took these pictures while the cruise ship we were on was departing Funchal in the Madeiras. No idea what ship it was, but it was clearly a replica of some significance. An amazing sight on the open Atlantic.

The Atlantic Meets The Caribbean

Some very raw and rough footage I took of a reef off the coast of Barbuda in the Caribbean sea.  What we are seeing is a reef where the Atlantic Ocean (dark blue) hits the reef, waterfalls over it and becomes the Caribbean Sea (light blue).  Very loud so turn down the sound.  I apologize for the bounciness of the clip, but a sailboat, or any boat for that matter, is not a very stable platform to shoot a video from.  We had anchored in this vicinity overnight, and enjoyed the sights and sounds through the evening and morning.  Pretty impressive.

 

You Never Know What You’ll See

In summer of 2012, we were doing our “To Sail Or Not To Sail” explorations and stopped in Blind Bay, BC for lunch.  Nice resort town on a bay on Shuswap Lake.  A beautiful, hot summer day, enjoying a cold one and a burger and then a plane blows by.  Love BC.

Love BC

Had To Be Quick

We did see a sailboat there, pretty much the only one we saw all day.  We stopped at a marina and were told, sailboats don’t work on this lake as there is never any wind.  Scratch a beautiful lake.

A Boat In The Bay

Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape

This week the challenge presented us is “Weekly Photo Challenge: Escape”.  In the description, one sentence hit me as so true in my thinking in the past while, “the desire to disappear and run away, the need to unplug and shut off”.  To some this may mean solitude, or winding down.  To me it means leaving nothing on the table as life rumbles on.  See it all, experience as much as one can and do it in such a way that maximizes the experience and allows opportunity for that solitude, and the lowering of one’s stress.  I think we have found our avenue to escape with a simple sailboat.  I sincerely hope we can work this one out.

The Volcano on Montserrat, seen at sea off the coast of Antigua

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Antigua – To Sail Wins, So Far

Our Nightly Light Show

We have asked ourselves several times the question, to sail or not to sail.  At this point, we have advanced to the point that it is not a definite no, yet still not a definitive yes.  We are satisfied that we can do it on a level of ability, now comes the thinking part.  As in, what will it take to make this a bigger part of our future.  Lots to discuss, lots to post, but at least we know we love doing it.  Four hours of 10 foot seas and 22 knot winds showed us that we can handle it, and, indeed revel in it.  A quick tease for you.  Raw video off Antigua.

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To Sail Or Not To Sail – Antigua

English: Sailing in Antigua Deutsch: Segeln auf Antigua (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As one can see by the day ticker on the right side of the page, we are 3 days away (less than) from departing on another adventure.  That’s right, we are giving the sailing dream it’s due and spending 5 days sailing on a Royal Yachting Association course in Antigua.  Crew Competency to be exact.  Both Lori and I have some experience, but 0 ocean and no certifications.  We hope to knock a few things off the checklist.  First, spending an evening in NYC on a layover, and with luck, meeting up with all of our favourite blogger, El Guapo.  Hoping that works out.  Second, starting on our road to certification and creation of our log books.  Lastly, we will find out whether booting around on a 40 foot sailboat is something we want to do for a few years.  One door opens they say.

The downside, I still haven’t finished blogging ANY of our trips, and this will just add to the pile. At any rate, blogging will be quite slow for the next couple of weeks, and I will truly miss all of you for that period and hope to eventually catch up, both reading and writing when I get back.  Hope the weather in Calgary is truly miserable while we are away as well (Just Kidding, stop the hate mail)

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To Sail Or Not To Sail – Ghost Lake, Alberta

Ghost Lake (Photo credit: Bods)

We last left off awaiting Lori’s post on the Glenmore reservoir Sailing School adventure.  As we awaited, I posted about our small road trip to Lake Newell.  Well, I guess we are still awaiting, so I will move on to our next investigation, Ghost Lake, near Cochrane, Alberta.

The lake is a reservoir on the Bow River, withing spitting distance of the Rockies.  We found it had spectacular views, a large community of boats, a sailing school and plenty of mooring availability.  In other words, it ticked most of our boxes.  What it is missing is the ability to go on week-long adventures, as in, no down lake areas to moor or anchor.  Very beautiful, only that this is all there is.  Scratch Ghost Lake.

Didn’t take to many decent pictures, but here is a video of crazy Canucks sailing Ghost Lake in November.

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To Sail Or Not To Sail – Lake Newell

When we last left off, we were about to take our first lessons at the Glenmore Reservoir here in Calgary.  Lori asked to write this and now, months and months later, I have given up and am moving on out of sequence.  After our Glenmore adventure, we determined that we may need a spot to practise with a cheap 20 footer, or something of that ilk.  Basically, we are full of ideas, but no plan, kind of winging it as we go.  We had asked around and we were told of another reservoir near Brooks, Alberta that offered space and consistent winds.  Many people had boats here, and it was reasonably close to Calgary.  So, off we went to investigate.

We quickly determined it was a lake of some substance, just not the prettiest lake.  This is quite common on the prairies.

We also determined that some pretty good size boats were out here.

Unfortunately, we also determined that the lake was not what we were looking for.  It definitely had few surprises for wind as it was a good-sized body of water with few impediments on shore to disrupt the wind.  This was also a negative as were looking for a place that could give us with enough variety and nooks and crannies to keep us occupied on overnight trips.  This was not a feature of Newell Lake.  Can’t win them all.  We will continue the search in our next instalment.