Archive for 'Fun'
Kinetic Weekend
If you have no plans for the first weekend in October, then a quick autumn trip up to Port Townsend is never a bad way to fill the time. The winds are brisk, the marinas are on off-season rates, open slips abound, and best of all, you will be in town for the annual Kinetic [...]
Full StoryWooden is wonderful
There is just nothing more salty and nautical looking than a finely cared-for wooden boat. Big, small, power, sail, a wooden boat glowing with oil and varnish applied by a diligent and loving crew tugs at the salt in the blood of even the most lubberly spectator. Combined with blue skies, fair winds, and warm [...]
Full StoryFlying through the air with the greatest of ease
We wandered back up our finger pier the other night after dinner to find our neighbors shifting supplies out of a dock cart and into their cockpit. “Hi Bob,” I said. “Where are you headed?” “Well,” he began, “There is this French couple who are sailing around the world, and they fill up their cruising [...]
Full StorySailing Stories
I’ve about had it with the “voyage of self-discovery/history-lite travelogue” that most sailing narratives settle into. These comprise probably fifty percent of our on-board library, and are frequently found in the book-swaps common to marinas in these parts, and so I have had ample opportunity these past months to sample the breadth of the field. [...]
Full StoryPlaces you sail past: Whytecliff Park
You’ve sailed past this lovely little park if you have dodged the ferry traffic out of Horseshoe Bay on your way to or from destinations deeper in Howe Sound, north of Vancouver. You may have noticed a large and distinctive white rock, jutting six stories out of the water, forming an island joined by a [...]
Full StoryHigh Temperatures and Low Tides
Note: There’s a reason this blog is called “Late Entry” and if you’re wondering why I am writing about nice weather when it’s miserable out, well, I’m not… this was actually written last week, when it was sort of nice. The combination of high temperatures and low tides seems to have kick-started the summer scene [...]
Full StoryWhat’s your coverage?
There are certainly ranges of coverage available in marine insurance today and I am frequently surprised at what clauses are available and at what cost. Family medical, hurricane haul-out coverage, fuel-spill liability, dock contracts, fishing equipment coverage… you name it, there seems to be a clause covering just about every eventuality, no matter how remote, [...]
Full StoryDecadent Living
My timing of the tides and currents through the San Juans en route to Seattle proved to be masterful and heroic in scale… yet deficient in one particular: Spieden Channel. I’d worked out our trip from Sidney to Seattle precisely accounting for the tides and currents at Sidney, through Haro Straight, down San Juan Channel, [...]
Full StoryHeading home too soon
Too soon, and too fast! Our sailing for the past two days has been fantastic, and we’ve been rocketing along at hull speed under clear blue skies, feted by porpoises, unimpeded by Customs. It’s all come too soon and gone too quickly. Our last couple of days in Vancouver were just spent wandering, taking it [...]
Full StoryHaving it both ways
I don’t want to say that I am feeling cozy, particularly, because that’s really more a word that my wife would use and she would mean something completely different than I might mean by it, so it’s probably best to avoid it entirely. Especially because right now men’s figure-skating happens to be playing on the [...]
Full Story
Marty McOmber
Scott Wilson