Blog

This post is best viewed on a computer or large screen: There’s lots of high resolution photos. If you don’t know the history and prep that led up to this trip, check out my past blog posts! With that said… On to the Adventures! May 15-18: Freil Falls & The Harmony Islands The Harmony Islands and Freil Falls were the first stop. The Harmony Islands are a small group, with just enough room in between the northern group to slip into a tiny anchorage that can fit maybe 2 or 3 boats at a pinch. The main attraction was Freil…

Covid seems to be affecting everyone’s life in different ways. For me, lucky enough to have a stable, “essential” job in Dryden, Ontario, nothing really seemed to change for most of 2020 until I applied for the 2021 Race to Alaska. The Race to Alaska, or R2AK, is a 1000+ km race from Port Townsend, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska, that has been running since 2015 for a first prize of 10,000 and a second prize of…. steak knives. You’re not allowed motors or outside assistance and the race culture really slants towards independence and self-sufficiency. If you complete the race…

Sometime in the summer of 2015  – Tim, the fellow liveaboard sailor who had sold me my little 25’ Coronado sailboat, Seileaster, knocked on my hull one Friday afternoon as I sat napping below: “Ahoy! There’s a bunch of guys heading up to Halkett Bay for a get together, if you want to join.  I’d go but it’s the missus’s birthday tomorrow, and my friend Alex can get a little wild”. I was down for a change of scenery, even without knowing anyone who would be there: I hadn’t been doing much except lounge that day, and I had no…

Once in a while, you have to just get out there and shake off the dust, see something you haven’t before. With COVID-19 in full swing and fall in full effect, Banff was about the farthest I could get with a single week off. Luckily, my usual trip tactic of “take the cheapest transportation possible and camp out instead of paying for hotels” works pretty well in these troubled times, and is a helpful excuse if anyone questions you! The main objective for this trip was to climb at least one mountain and see the sights in Banff, which I…

Pender Harbour had been welcoming the night before, lit up with the lights of the houses as Seileastar slowly chugged in, her little diesel turning over as smooth as ever. Nobody had turned up to oust me from the mussel-covered buoy that bobbed in the little bay where I ducked in, and so the next morning I had left bright and early, heading north towards Alaska again. I hadn’t followed my usual routine of checking the Weather on the VHS, but the water was calm, the winds gentle, and the skies clear. I wanted to be out, farther towards my…