Sea Wolf: Sailing

Ever since I moved to Vancouver just over twenty years ago, I have had an interest in sailing. Apart from going on a few tourist boats with sails for say a couple of hours, travelling somewhere, I had never really sailed before. I signed up for a beginner course at Jericho Sailing Centre which went over elemental theory and a few outings in their plastic sailing dinghies. However I found that it was easier (and cheaper) to just learn by going on other people's sailboats and, eventually, getting my own boat.

Through friends, I had met these two brothers that had a 50ft Beneteau sailboat that they would race on Wednesday nights and I became a regular crew with their boat called 'Tiger Lily'. They were also relatively new at sailing so it was quite an experience say, going around a buoy in a race with the huge spinnaker getting all tangled up, screaming and cursing loudly in the heat of the action.

I love being on the water, with its wide views of the sky, clouds, reflections with mountains and the city skyline on the horizon. Sailing in Vancouver means going around and in between tankers. There are always over a dozen anchored out in English Bay.

I still prefer just cruising on a sailboat. The sound of waves and wind in the sails, the freedom you feel, the stillness without a motor. However when racing, you actually learn more because you are constantly tacking going upwind then doing a 180 around a marker, changing the foresail for the spinnaker going downwind... all while in close proximity to other boats as your team tries to do it as seamlessly and quickly as possible. It can get real exciting and sometimes frustrating. The course is set, usually with different divisions and time adjustments because there are many different kinds of boats. It's always great at the start of a race with boats circling around and getting the timing just right before the horn blows and you go through the imaginary line between the committee boat and a marker.

This was a regatta of the 6m class (meaning all the same kind of boat). The classic and

beautiful 6m keelboat, held bi-annaully in different parts of the world, this time in Vancouver.

I was out in my sailing dinghy as the fleet raced close by.

My experience with sailing went up several notches when I took a leave of absence from work in 2008 and joined Cedric, a young Frenchman, who was on a two year sailing trip across the Pacific and Indian oceans. I met him through a website for crew and flew off to Fiji to join him and his second mate Peter, on his 36 foot Jenneau. We spent the next five months together sailing from Fiji to the remote atolls of the Western Pacific; Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. It was an fantastic experience and I truly enjoyed the "blue water sailing" as it's called (when you no longer see land for many days). That and the routine of anchoring in tropical lagoons, visiting island villages and hanging out with local fishermen in their outrigger canoes.

Every island had slightly different types of outrigger canoes used mostly for fishing.
Many had sails. I was fortunate to join locals several times on their excursions.

Upon returning to my normal life in back in Vancouver, I decided to buy a sailboat. It was a 27 foot Thunderbird, a classic Pacific Northwest sailboat from the late fifties made of marine plywood covered in fibreglass. That was quite an adventure, not just for sailing but for the restoration work I did on it. There was way more rot in the wood that I had no idea about. I learned a lot about fibreglassing.

I had the T-Bird for a couple years but had no moorage (which can be expensive in Vancouver). I was just anchoring it in the bay... I continued sailing though with my friend Sandra, who has a 40 ft Beneteau in Antigua, and goes down each winter. I spent a few weeks for a few seasons sailing to various islands of the Caribbean with her and friends. It's a great place to sail as you can leave early in the morning from one island and arrive to the next one before sundown, all of course, in warm tropical waters and island life.

Deshaies, Guadeloupe

One winter, instead of meeting Sandra on Antigua, I met her in St. Barthes (where she sailed her boat 'Caramba' to join her good friend Jana) and we tagged along as guests on the mega yacht 'Sojana' (a 110 ft ketch) that was participating in the regatta "Les Voiles de Saint Barthes". Needless to say it was an incredible experience... on a huge sailboat with a crew of about twenty racing with other mega yachts around the incredible island of St. Barthes for several days. We sailed Caramba back to Antigua and joined them again for the race week regatta there. A glimpse into the world of the One percent...

A watercolour I painted of "Sojana" for Sir Peter (the owner) who celebrated his birthday whilst we were there.

I bought a 13 foot Enterprise sailing dinghy, which I enjoyed sailing out of
Jericho for a couple of years.

On my friend Erik's 28ft 'Mirage' that I borrowed a couple of
times to sail around Cortes Island.

When I travel, I am drawn to all the various watercraft in each country I visit and I always try to go out with locals in their sailing or paddling boats.

An afternoon sail on a traditional wooden dhow off the coast of
Mozambique.

On an outrigger, west coast of Sri Lanka

Sailing outrigger canoes of Madagascar

"pirogue" with sail on the Niger River, Mali

Sénégal river

Back in Vancouver, I started sailing somewhat regularly with friends on their 34 foot sailboat as part of the Thursday night races held each summer as well as the odd VARC (Vancouver Area Racing Circuit) race which has different courses, as the name implies, in and around Vancouver.

Eddie, whom I met at Jericho Sailing Centre, is an avid sailor
in his 80s that has both a Hobie Cat and an Enterprise.

I had an opportunity to join my friend Cedric once again on a new sailboat he had purchased in Spain for another sailing sabbatical. I flew to Barcelona and joined him on his first leg, a month sailing his 40.5 ft Hanse boat called 'Happy Days' down the entire Mediterranean coast and to the mouth of the Atlantic to Cadiz. It was a great trip. He later crossed the Atlantic with a crew in early 2020. His wife Gloria joined him and I was to fly down to Antigua and meet them in April for 2 weeks. The Covid pandemic unfortunately changed all that. They were stuck in Saint Lucia for a couple months, then delayed further with crossing of the Panama Canal into the Pacific, to French Polynesia (where I was to join them again, but unfortunately lost the vacation time I had booked off). They did eventually make it back to Australia.

It's always amazing seeing a sunrise after an overnight sail.

Gibraltar (the 'Rock') the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean.

I was very fortunate to meet a friend of a friend who invited me along for a sail up the coast in the Salish Sea, between Vancouver island and the main coast of British Columbia. Bruce has a 44 ft Hunter sailboat based in Pender Harbour. Along with his friend Paul and their group, on his 50 ft sailboat, we went north to the Discovery islands of Texada, Cortes and Desolation Sound. Beautiful islands, great anchorages and a variety of weather, sun mist and clouds.

With a larger boat, you can have kayaks and paddle boards on deck.

Skipper Bruce at the helm

Watercolour I painted of the incredible skies in Malaspina Strait.

As you can see, sailing has been quite inspiring for my art as well. This, a large oil painting I did
for my sailor friend Sandra's condo.

I must say it's great to have friends with boats and spend time feeling that sense of freedom on the water with the wind filling the sails The urge to buy another boat comes and goes... Perhaps one day.

I joined one of the clubs at Jericho Sailing Centre and now have access to
a variety of sailing dinghies including lasers, taser, vanguard and a couple
of Hobie cats. Lots of fun in the summer.

In September of 2024, a couple of friends from my sailing club invited me to join them and their wives for a week of sailing in a chartered boat to a circuit of islands in the Ionian Sea of Greece. I also invited a friend so there were six of us on a 2 year old Hanse 42 foot boat. We arrived at what was one of the largest marinas I've seen, where 90% of the boats were charters, just like us, leaving on a Sunday for a week of sailing. The weather was gorgeous, the waters indigo and turquoise and we had several days of great wind, stopping in the late afternoon to either anchor for the night or to some island village moored (with backed up stern tied to the dock as is the norm in the Med) to a dock which has tavernas appropriately set up all along the shore for excellent Greek seafood dinner and wine.