Our Sailing History So Far

Musings by Shar

When Rob and I were first married, I read a book called, Children of Cape Horn by Rosie Swale. It was about a young family who left England in the 1970’s and sailed a catamaran to places around the world. It made me start to think and dream. One small catch. I was from Northern Alberta. Who, from the prairies, knows how to sail the ocean blue? 

Lucky for me, Rob grew up in Victoria and had some boating experience. His mom taught him how to sail a small Laser on Shawnigan Lake, his dad lived on a power boat, and his brother hired him as a deck hand one summer to fish salmon commercially.

It wasn’t long before we took a beginner’s sailing course in Victoria and fell in love with the ocean life. Being teachers gave us the opportunity to have the summer’s free to travel and charter sailboats. For now, this was enough.

After 3 years of teaching in Northern Alberta, we ventured overseas and taught in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. After five years of living overseas, we returned to Canada for a few years. Brian was one and Hannah was born two years later. Before returning overseas, we took a year off and sailed in the Caribbean. Brian was now seven and Hannah was four. The year was 1999.  

We bought a sailboat in St. Maarten. Unfortunately, the dream of sailing for most of that year did not come to fruition. Before leaving St. Maarten, we weathered two hurricanes which set our plans back about two months. It took another month to get work done on the boat. Finally, our time had come to leave St. Maarten. Unfortunately, within a month, our engine packed it in. We had to decide…do we try to sell the boat and go home, put in a new engine, or sail without an engine. We chose the latter. Smart, stupid, or ignorant? Not sure. But at least we were sailing. 

We had no refrigeration, no shower, and no engine, but Juno was comfortable. Even though other boaters put out extra fenders when they saw us sail into a bay or harbour, we weren’t deterred. Rob was at the bow, I was at the wheel, Brian was in the dinghy pushing us with the 8 hp outboard, and Hannah was…well…four. She was the cheerleader. 

After all was said and done, I wasn’t sure I would ever want to live on a sailboat again. Charter, yes. Live, no. But time heals all and eventually we began to dream again of traveling further afield on a sailboat. However, we knew it would have to wait until retirement. By then, the kids would be mostly self-sufficient, and we would have enough money to start throwing it down the infamous ‘money pit’.  In the meantime, we returned to overseas teaching for a few more years in Indonesia and China.

Before retirement, we found Cambria in Victoria. It was a Westerly Ocean 43. It was a solid boat made for offshore sailing. Perfect. After a setback or two, we bought Cambria and enjoyed sailing it for part of that summer. We then returned for our last year of work in China. 

Retiring to Canada in 2020, right at the peak of Covid, we began to get Cambria ready for offshore sailing. It meant replacing the standing rigging, buying new sails, changing some of the electrical work, updating systems, and making it our home. The plan was to sail to Mexico in a year’s time, then cross the Pacific. 

Of course, Covid had a lot to say about that. So, we postponed our plans and enjoyed a second year cruising on Cambria, as well as spending more money and time working on projects.

So where does that leave us?

After two years of waiting for Covid to settle down and just completing a sailing trip around Vancouver Island, we see the end of country confinements and are now ready to sail south to Mexico. We will spend the winter there and then head across the Pacific Ocean to finally see all those ‘only dreamed about’ places. As a child, the Dr. Dolittle book fascinated me, and I’ve always thought its location was somewhere in the South Pacific. Now I will see for myself if a Pushmi-Pullyu really does exist!

We hope nothing will curtail our plans between now and then. Fingers crossed. If not, then we can say, “Anchors Away!”