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Regards,
Bruce Warren P. Eng
403 560 2451

-----Original Message-----
From: stewart harris [mailto:sharris1@telus.net]
Sent: 13 May 2006 10:39
To: bruce
Subject: via

Bruce:
I've booked flights to Port Hardy on Sat Jun 24 and will stay at Glen Lyon
Inn on the waterfront - it's probably above my normal style, but I'll get
used to it!. The Quarterdeck Resort was booked - something about ferry
night. The flights are Westjet to Vancouver and Pacific Coastal to Port
Hardy and I arrive at 11:15 am.
Regards,
Stewart

The Plan

The plan is for Ralph, Robin and I to leave our berth at Canoe Cove (Sidney, B.C.) on or about June 12. This will allow time for Robin to wrap-up her greenhouse business. I will be out working on the boat in late May to finish off some priority items on the never-ending job jar list.

We'll meet Stewart in Port Hardy on June 25; Robin will leave us and the 3 Stooges will carryon. Depending on weather and current, we will cross the infamous Nahwitti bar the day after that and then round Cape Scott and be on the "downhill" leg.
Stewart needs to travel to Nova Scotia about mid-July and will bail out via floatplane/bus/teleportation sometime in the following 2 weeks. Details will become clearer as we get closer. It is difficult to have a firm schedule when the key mode of transport is a sailboat; it forces you to have some flexibility.

We are on a “slow itinerary” [much like the new slow eating movement!] so that we can see as much as possible. All the literature I’ve read indicates that everyone wishes that they had had more time. Ralph and I will continue back to Sidney hoping to arrive near the end of July. The beauty of this is that we don't have a hard, fixed schedule which leaves with a lot of flexibility to hang out at an anchorage as the mood moves us! A circumnavigation can be done in under 2 weeks; we are planning for 5 -6 weeks.

I hope to have a satellite phone with us to test it out for weather gathering and email. It will also be used to provide updates to this BLOG on regular basis so that folks at home can follow the adventure.

We will also publish a map with our daily travels onto this site, which will look something like the one here only it will the route taken from the last report.

The Crew

The crew will change slightly as the trip unfolds. Leg 1 from home port of sidney to Port Hardy will be me, my wife Robin and our friend from Seattle Ralph. At Port Hardy we will be joined by Stewart from Calgary and Robin will leave us. She is not comfortable with the idea of rounding Cape Scott and being in the open Pacific..not yet anyway!

I met Ralph when I took an off-shore sailing course with Mahina Adventures where we sailed from the Queen Charolottes down to Friday Harbour in the San Juans. He has owned both sail and power boats and is a keen navigator. He teaches navigation to his local power squaderon. He also has a great collection of gizmos and will be arriving with sextant, fishing gear, crab net, and portable chart plotting capabilities. One of his challenges will be to get me up to speed on celistial navigation.

Stewart is a friend and work colleague(my ex-boss) from my days at Novacorp. He and another friend were my partners for the 5 years that we owned our Catalina 36. We have shared many sailing trips together.

Going around to the West side has been on the "TODO" list for some time and we are all keen to get started.

Background

This trip was planned as a bit of a shakedown before undertaking an open ocean voyage. This will be a chance to ensure all is working while still in sight of land. Since this trip will take us on the outside( i.e west side) of Vancouve Island, we will have an opportunity to try sail combinations and understand how Tatoosh handles in swells and waves.
If time allows, we may head out due west into the pacific for 2-4 days or so of open ocean sailing,depending on timing,etc.

Going around VI is a big trip for most local sailors, our equivalent of rounding Cape Horn if you like. The west side is sparcely populated, has a lot of historical and aboriginal sites to explore as well as the challenge of rougher conditions, tricky entrances to anchorages, possibility of fog and lack of amenities.

another view of the mother ship

This is our boat, 40' Valiant built in 1978. It is a solid boat with a great pedigree. They have a wonderful reputation for seaworthiness and comfort at sea.

the boat