It’s so easy to get fixated on expensive updates to our boats, like cool electronics or new electrical systems, but sometimes things that cost relatively little deliver big benefits.
Phyllis and I were chatting during our last sail of the season about our favourite upgrades to our new-to-us J/109 and both agreed that the Blue Performance pockets at the companionway was a big contributor to our enjoyment.
Stuff that we use all the time is now close to hand:
While I’m no fan of the Golden Globe Race, or at least not in its present form, I am a huge fan and follower of Susie Goodall and was absolutely gutted when she lost her boat in the 2018 race, particularly since she was one of the few competitors to fit what I believe is the correct storm survival gear, only to have it fail due to a defect.
After the race Susie kept admirably quiet about the whole thing as she processed the huge disappointment she had suffered, rather than capitalizing on the media frenzy around her, as many would have.
But now, four years on, she has told her story. A worthwhile read, and great to hear she has put her life back together and intends to go cruising.
I know, they are on this acquisition spree with the goal of enhancing products and services and wouldn’t dream of stifling competition or price fixing…I also have a nice bridge over the East River you might be interested in buying.
What the hell ever happened to the trust busters? Margrethe, we poor yacht owners need you…OK, maybe not.
Phyllis and I were fortunate. Being in the safe semicircle and well away from the centre of Hurricane Fiona, we had only gale force winds with gusts to around 50 knots.
Our power was out for just 36 hours and even our internet came back on today.
We were lucky, others were not. We are thinking of Atlantic Canadians to the east of us who had a far rougher time of it, and particularly of the residents of Channel-Port aux Basques, a town we have visited countless times over the last 30 years, either on our boat or when taking the ferry to and from Newfoundland.
You can search Google to see videos of significant wave height seas of 14 metres, which means there were probably waves of at least 25 metres, crashing in and sweeping parts of the town away. Truly terrifying.
The harbour, with its many sheltered wharves, friendly people, and good provisioning, as well as fun and interesting walks, has often been both a way stop and refuge from heavy weather for us and many other cruisers. We know it well.
A welcome haven after the tough beat south along the west coast of Newfoundland, or a crossing of Cabot Strait.
To remember the town in better times, here are a few photos I took over the years. (Click on each to see them bigger.) The wedding appearing out of the fog is my favourite and says the most to me about good people living in a tough place and making it home. They will fix their town.
We are just starting to feel the outer bands of Fiona here at AAC World Headquarters…our cottage in the woods. Thankfully, it looks like we are in the safe semicircle and so will likely avoid the worst of it, but we may be “off air” for a while.
The photo is our J/109 stripped and snugged down for the storm.
Phyllis and I are sending good thoughts to those in eastern Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland who it seems will feel the brunt of Fiona.
A friend invited me along to watch some of the races.
Amazing how performance sailing has changed since my days in the 505, and yet, in some ways, is still very much the same.
Also interesting that of the few races we watched, the women’s teams in the FX seemed by far the most aggressive, and maybe skilled, too, at the mark roundings. Perhaps the smaller rigs in the FX, and therefore slower straight-line speed, puts more emphasis on boat-to-boat tactics.
The women mixing it up at the top mark; two boats had to do turns in the space of 30 seconds.
Anyway, a fun day and huge congratulations to Sail Canada and all the other partner organizations and volunteers for putting on what looked like a great regatta on St Margaret’s Bay, as perfect a body of water for closed-course racing as one could imagine.
