It’s time to dust off this page and give it an update because as Bob Dylan sang, the times they are a-changin’. I won’t delete the original text. I’ll leave it below. It’s fun to see what we thought would happen on this trip.
Cambria will soon be loaded on a freighter in Brisbane, Australia and shipped back across the Pacific to Mexico. From there we will take our time sailing north. We plan to arrive home to Victoria in mid to late summer 2025. After that, we will spend the next couple of seasons exploring the BC and Alaskan coasts.
We look forward to exploring Canada’s west coast again. We have seen some spectacular places on this trip but we have also realized that the cruising back home is amazing too. We’re excited to explore a little further afield than we have in the past.
We know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and men but here is our plan for the next couple of years. Don’t hold us to it. Already Covid-19 has caused us to change our plans. Who knows what’s going to happen over the next six months let alone the next two years.
Cambria is currently on the west coast of Canada near Victoria, British Columbia. We plan to move aboard and spend the next year or so getting to know her and making a few changes.
All boats are a little bit different so though we’ve been sailing for years we look forward to sailing the west coast of British Columbia while we get to know Cambria’s unique characteristics.
Cambria was very well maintained by the previous owners. Having said that, it’s a boat. Boats always need work. There’s always something to fix or upgrade so we’ll spend time making repairs and upgrades as needed.
After a year we’ll point our bow south and head to warmer waters. The plan is to sail down the west coast of the US. Once we reach San Diego we’ll head to the Marquesas in French Polynesia. From there we’ll hop our way across the South Pacific until we have to move out of the area to avoid the Southern Hemisphere typhoon season. That means heading south to New Zealand or Australia. We don’t know which at this point.
Once there we’ll have a decision to make–either sell Cambria and head back to Canada or keep going. It’s a big decision. To get back to Canada we can either keep heading west and go home by circumnavigating the world or head up through the Philippines to Japan and back across the Pacific. Either way means a lot more kilometres. At this point we really don’t know what we’ll do and that’s okay. We’ll take it as it comes. There’s a lot to do and a lot of sailing between now and when we have to make that decision.
That’s it. That’s the plan so far.
Cormacks On Cambria 
Exciting!
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Agreed, Harish. We’re very excited. We’re looking forward to this weekend when we’ll have finished our quarantine and be able to get to the boat. We likely won’t have anything fun to report from the weekend though. We have a long list of mundane things like “change oil” and “service the fridge” that we have to get through before we can get away from the dock.
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Truly exciting Rob! If you sail near Seattle in any trial run, let me know. I would love to see you both and Cambria. Looking forward to following your adventure.
~ Cynthia
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Thanks, Cynthia! It is/was in our summer plans to sail that way but Covid has interrupted those plans. We’ll have to see how it all shakes out. We will definitely let you know if we head that way.
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Hi Rob & Sharlene , I am so excited For you both , You both have told us what’s your plan were, so happy for you both ,that you can start your journey without anymore delays ! All the best ! I can’t wait to read all about your experience Sailing On Cambria!
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Thanks, Sue! I wish we’d been able to get together the last time we were in Beijing. Now we’ll just have to meet up somewhere we can sail to!!
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Hey Rob & Sharlene, When are you arriving in Turkey? I just retired myself, I being Stephen. My final year of teaching in the time of coronavirus . . . . let’s just say I wasn’t motivated enough to take on that challenge. I joined Velora in retirement. We are staying in Turkey because at this point, there is nowhere else to go. However, Turkey is not a bad place to hang out while we wait for the world to open up. Your plans sound awesome!
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Wow, congrats on your retirement! Turkey seems like a great place to hang for a while. Us arriving there? It’ll be a while 😉
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While others are dreaming to live your life, you are living your dreams for the next couple of years. Thanyalak and I will follow your trip. Greetings from Phuket, Thailand. Jo & Thanyalak
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Hi Rob, Mike and Sharlene;
I am Kenn McLaren, I have the good fortune to play hockey with Mike.
For some reason I just found your email now!?!
I would like to stay in-touch and follow your adventures.
Kenn
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Excellent, great to hear from you! When we push off this week we won’t be able to post to the regular blog but we can post to our PredictWind page. Here’s the link https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_Cambria/
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