Changes in Latitudes

Over the past 10 years as is typical of most wanna-be and then out-there cruisers, I've assiduously followed numerous sailing blogs.  As with any good story, the desire to know the outcome is often bitterly counterbalanced against the selfish desire for the enjoyment of the journey to continue.  As I look back through my browser bookmarks list, it is like walking memory lane seeing the names of those who came before and have now moved on to other adventures, mostly on land and under the title of a different blog, or returned to their former land life for jobs, school, health or any myriad of other reasons.

When setting out almost two and a half years ago, we deliberately set out without a planned timeline; it made the adventure more real for us and with no concrete plans, we didn't have to deal with reality for a while.  For us, no deadline looming over us meant that we were free to live in the moment and enjoy every one of those moments to their fullest.

We then found ourselves returned to Ottawa with no real plan.  Is this a mark of the distance we have truly travelled?  Have we become such gypsies, blowing in the wind, that we've even let go of that intense trait of planning out every step of the journey that got us out on the high seas in the first place?  Is this a mind-space to treasure?  I'm going to say, "Yes!"

The flip-side of that coin however, is that reality does intrude and with a little number-crunching (probably all begun long ago but now percolating up to the surface) we've decided that while it would be lovely to stay out cruising indefinitely, we should take some concrete action to refill the bank accounts and think of the future beyond the next five years.

Fate has a lovely way of intervening, and the decision was made particularly easy when within a week of reaching out to my professional network, I was rewarded with a position I have coveted for a number of years.  How could I say no?  As of February 13 I will be starting a new job at PricewaterhouseCoopers!  I won't go into the gritty details but suffice it to say that it's a position that will challenge me, allow me to travel across Canada and I will be specializing in an area that I find fascinating.

Favourite line on my resume:

1st Mate & Navigator, sailing vessel Mowzer  (October 2014 - present)

So now that we've made the decision to return, the reverse of all those actions taken to divest ourselves of our earth-bound connections has to be undertaken.  Job, housing, transportation, furnishings, WORK CLOTHING!!  Yikes!

We're not done yet though - Mowzer remains patiently in St. Martin and Henry at least will be returning to her welcoming decks in the spring.  Stay tuned for the next chapter!

Meanwhile - I think we have a new ride.  Imagine just how much fun we have had buying a car in sub-zero, wintery conditions.

No two-stroke outboard on this new ride.  Guess I don't have to worry about dinghy chaps either.

Martinique to St. Martin ... and On To Canada!

It's been a while since I posted here so to close out 2016 I thought I should do a little catch-up on our adventures since we were last hiking on Martinique.

Ah, Martinique!!  One of our favourite islands in the Caribbean and would that we could still be there.  However, Mowzer needs some warranty work and the yards here are just too busy to fit us in until later in 2017, so off to St. Martin we went on word that we could be hauled and repairs started before Christmas.

Martinique, as always had her grips on us and just as we were leaving we lost a set-screw in the pin that held the boom to the mast.  After our initial shock, we turned around, effected our repair and were on our way again a few hours later.

Just one little set screw, stripped of its' threads, caused a heart-stopping moment as we got ready to hoist sail and head north.

We had the perfect weather window for our trek north.  We could have done it all in one go but we decided to enjoy ourselves and took day sails instead:  

• Martinique to Dominica, 
• Dominica to Guadeloupe, 
• Guadeloupe to Antigua, 
• Antigua to St. Bart's,
• and then a small hop from St. Bart's to St. Martin.  

As the rainy, squally weather cleared over the first couple of days we were treated to sunny skies once again.  Along the way we met up with friends, firstly in Anse d'Arlets we had a final dinner with Laura & Jerry on their charter boat.

From under her thick duvet of early morning cloud, Martinique awakes to the sunrise.

We caught up with Joe and Greg on Serenade as we reached Dominica, and from there to St. Martin we were boat buddies.  It was still raining heavily on the island and we were treated to views of spectacular waterfalls and a 'river' of freshwater run-off along the coast.

Waterfalls from above and you can just make out the colour change of the fresh water running south along the coast.

Early morning sun lighting up the water and Serenade's sails.  What perfect conditions!

As we approached Guadeloupe we were treated to a rainbow over the anchorage and then a little squall as we anchored - seemed to be the routine we had hit, but on this occasion we were able to celebrate with a little reunion.  Bill and Wendy on Overstreet were already in the anchorage.

Rainbows mean sunshine and rain - we were already in the sunshine so we assumed we might be about to get wet in the anchorage.  Not for long though and then we were primed for a beautiful sunset.

And so the days went - up and sail early for 8-10 hours and then settle into an anchorage for the night.  Conditions were near-on perfect with beam reaches between the islands and easy-to-dodge squalls few and far between.  Once we reached Antigua we were hoping for the forecast northerly factor in the winds as we made our turn north-west towards St. Martin.  Unfortunately, the winds do not always listen to the forecast but we weren't complaining - calm conditions for a motor-sail, no drama, and a mid-afternoon arrival in St. Bart's.  The only excitement we had was when we were just over 10 miles off the coast of St. Bart's and running in 70-100' of water, we could just make out a freighter up ahead that appeared to be stationary.  Once we were in range with our AIS we were confirmed, he was anchored - and RIGHT on our rhumb line!

Easy for us to tell that freighter wasn't moving, with the peaks of St. Bart's in the background.

Really?  Right on our rhumb line to St. Bart's.  Diversionary tactics were called for.

Not that exciting in all reality - just a little tweak on the auto-pilot, and mostly a way to break up the day.

Once again, under sunny skies we headed on the next morning to make the bridge into the lagoon at St. Martin.  As a first for us, we carried right on through the causeway bridge, which is a swing bridge with an in- and an out-channel, proceeded just over the border onto the French side and dropped our hook.

Just two of us going through the bridge on that day.

We settled into the anchorage and with our arrival the winds picked back up to howling level and the sunny skies took a break.  We had timed our trip perfectly!

The sun said farewell for a few days with a nice showy sunset on the clouds above.

Our home in the French-side lagoon, just below "The Witch's Tit".

They may be stormy skies, but a little ray of sunshine created the perfect light for an evening sail.

While we awaited our haul-out date and hoped that the winds would die down a bit, we socialized and caught up with new and old friends.

One of our favourite spots - Little Jerusalem for most excellent shawarma, this time enjoyed with Jo and Greg.

Here's a new one to try - an interesting combination!

St. Martin is a wonderful cross-road where people heading north, south, east and west all converge.  Here we met up with first-time Canadian cruisers Matthew & Kathleen on Kinship (friends from Ottawa) and Tess & Al on Ingomar (from St. John's, NFLD.)  We then reunited with Danish friend Peter on Mandalay and with that we had quorum for a hike and a beer or two.

Matthew, Kathleen, Tess & Al joined us for a lovely French meal on a patio in Marigot.

Getting lost up on Pic Paradis - it's amazing how quickly the path can become overgrown in the rainy season!

Our haul-out date arrived on December 15th, and ironically it was the only day on the forecast that had winds under 20 knots.  We hightailed it over to the yard early in the morning and before the winds could change their minds, we were lifted out and settled on the hard.  

Getting the lift straps carefully positioned.

And quick as that Mowzer was lifted by the crane and carefully positioned in the yard.  The whole operation took about 15 minutes.

A dusty, dirty yard is not a fun place to stay so we were very lucky to get an apartment right on Marigot Bay, about 15 minutes walk from the boat yard.  A friend of a friend of a friend owns the place - so wonderful what a good network of friends can accomplish!

Our living room and a tiny kitchen.

The view from the bedroom and patio completely made the stay delightful!

Mowzer now has to sit on land for about four months, so being homeless for a while we decided to head back to Canada for Christmas and spend the holidays with family.  On top of that, we celebrated my amazing mother's 93rd birthday with everyone in attendance except Jim, who joined us by Skype from Belgium.

93 years strong - celebrating with the family.

Winter has of course arrived in Ottawa and with fresh eyes we are enjoying the winter views.

Changes in latitude.

Return to Antigua

Here we are, sitting once again on Mowzer watching the sun dip to the west and I am left thinking how surreal the last couple of weeks have been.

At the end of May we arrived in Antigua and put Mowzer on the dock for a two week return to family and friends in Canada. The trip home was absolutely fabulous and included seeing Jim get his hard worked for degree in Chemical Physics from Waterloo. We packed in time with Caitlin, Jamie and Henry's mother in Toronto, stayed with Peter & Beth in Ottawa where we visited my mother, Jim and many friends. We even got in a couple of rounds of golf and ate out more than I could have imagined. A quick trip to Waterloo for Jim's graduation and the two weeks came to a finale with Caitlin & Jamie once again in Toronto. Whirlwind doesn't even seem to start to describe it, but it was so wonderful to see everyone and to have such a good visit. Other than all the personal connections, the one other joy was walking down the sidewalk and running errands without a constant sheen of sweat, although the 10 degrees Celsius we were greeted with was a bit extreme - brrrrrrr.

Our flight back was uneventful but interesting with various views:

We left Toronto flying right over downtown and a view of the CN Tower and the Air Canada Centre.

Now in the Caribbean with the islands laid out below us - first up Anguilla.

We passed St. Martin as well but it was just too cloudy to get a picture.

Next up St. Bart's. So much fun remembering our visits here just a few short weeks ago.

Passing over Jolly Harbour on Antigua we could actually pick out Mowzer on the dock at the top right of the bay.

The interior of Antigua is just parched brown. Will the rainy season green this up or has it just been too deforested to recover?

And there she is at the dock, patiently awaiting our return.

Now, we have put the boat back together, gotten off the dock and plan to leave early in the morning for Guadaloup. Back to the French islands we go!

 

A Whirlwind Couple of Weeks

Been a bit quiet here recently so I thought I'd do a little catch-up.

Following a day of sight-seeing on Antigua, we switched into boat-prep mode to get ready for our trip back to Canada.  Before we went to the dock however, we had a couple of nights in Jolly Harbour where we caught up with Nahani River, Izzy R and new friends on Horizons and Imagine.  We enjoyed some great sundowners and a dinner out with this international group of Canadians, Americans, Brits and an Italian; I know - not that international since we all pretty much speak some form of English but fun nonetheless.

Thursday arrived and time to put Mowzer on the dock.  The place is a bit like a ghost town now that the winter season has wrapped up, so it was super easy to navigate into our spot but the marina staff were so helpful with lines as we reversed in to the dock that it was one of the easiest dockings yet.  To be honest, we avoid going to the dock as much as possible because it's those hard crunchy bits that cause the most grief around the boat.  What ensued was a couple days of cleaning and sorting, and then digging into all the storage lockers, nooks and crannies to go through everything on the boat and decide if we had used it or would need it in the ensuing months.  Given that our original plan had been to travel north through the Bahamas and then up the eastern seaboard but has now changed to hot steamy Grenada this summer, we managed to unload a certain amount of cooler weather clothing that we see no need of in the near future.  Into the bag it went to return to Canada with the hopes of filling the empty suitcase space with boat goodies on the return trip.

Our time in Canada has been a whirlwind of visiting with family and friends and I am certain that we are going to have to do some serious hiking down-island to work off that multitude of lunches and dinners, but how wonderful to see and hug everyone again.

We started off with Caitlin and Jamie in Toronto where Canada greeted us with a chilly, wet Sunday at 10 degrees C.

My new favourite picture of these two!

We moved on to Ottawa for a week's stay with Peter and Beth and visits with Jim and many old friends.

I even managed to do some sight-seeing around my old home-town with Jim on the annual Doors Open event.

Jim took me on a little tour around the O-Train yards.

Aberdeen Pavilion in the new Lansdowne Park development

This space used to be a parking lot - so much better in this new pedestrian-friendly design

Women's FIFA is being hosted in Ottawa this year and the stadium is all ready

We moved on to Ottawa U. where Jim checked out the decay charts and the Acceleration Mass Spectrometer 

East Block of Parliament from Wellington & Elgin - always loved this part of downtown

The Old Mill (now a brew-pub) on the Ottawa River at Victoria Island.  We were visiting the oldest hydro generating station in Canada, still in operation for the city of Ottawa

We wrapped up with lunch in Little Italy.  Pizza, fresh-squeezed lemonade, an outdoor cafe table with a Ferrari parked on the road to enhance the atmosphere. 

We even managed to play a bit of golf as the weather continued to co-operate beautifully for the first week after the chilly greeting.

The course was looking absolutely beautiful

Ladies' fun with Laurie & Diane - thanks for being such a good sport Bob!

Bob contemplates the local wildlife - a snapping turtle laying eggs in a sand trap.

Evening winding down as we finished up the game.

Meanwhile, Henry got out with the guys at the annual Richmond Curling Club tournament (thanks to Ron for sharing the picture).

Jeff, Henry, Greg & Ron tore up the links to take second place!

Our second week is now underway and we've been having a grand time with family and more friends in Ottawa.  Today we drive down to Waterloo this evening with Jim all ready for his university convocation tomorrow.  Can't believe the years have gone so fast!  Wasn't it just last year that we drove you down to residence Jim?

A couple more days are planned with Caitlin and Jamie in Toronto and then we're back on the flight to Antigua and Mowzer on Sunday.  Hard to believe that two weeks is almost done; we've packed in so much and had such a great time but like any vacation, it is also nice to get home again.