Page A2, August 8, 1979 - North Shore News from t a * speckulations by PeterSpeck » two weeks. We had worked most of the day before stowing the boat and filling the tanks. It ~was shortly after ten on a Sunday morning by the time we motored away from the dock. Down below in the galley last minute. groceries were going into lockers and on shelves and.in the salon bedding was piled up. on the floor. But soon everything was stowed, and a cup of coffee made us feel better. At Passage Island we came up into the wind and ran up the = mainsail. Everyone remarked on how clean it looked compared to the other sails we carried... On this, the first day of our journey, we had three adults and two children aged eight and three aboard: The weather was clear, with the wind from the northwest at twenty knots. There were no clouds, but the wind was strong and made the dark blue sea ruffled in ap- pearance. By the time we were out into the strait it was obvious we were in for-a good stiff westerly breeze. -Long streaks of spindrift, (foam driven by the wind), striped over the tossing sea. The vessel was heeled at twenty degrees and pounding nerth shore 1139 Lonsdate Avenue. North Vancouver,B.C. *> V7M 2H4 OFFICEINEWS (604) 980-0511 CLASSIFIED 986-6222 CIRCULATION 986-1337 Gon SN Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Bob Graham Edltor-in-Chiet Noel Wright Managing Editor Andy Fraser News Editor Chns Uoyd Photos Elsworth Dickson _ ee Vicector ——— a | RT rem MT rattic “Manager Oonna Champion Production Tim Francis Faye McCrae Classified Berni Mihara Administration Andrew Waiters Accounts Sytvia Sorenson North Shore Nows, founded in 1969 as an independent community newspaper and quatified under Schedule 111 Part 111. Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act. is published each Wednesday and Sunday by the North Shore Free Press Lid and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mai Aegistraton Number 3885 VERIFIED CIRCULATION 49,503 Entire contents”, 1878 Morn Shore Free Prose Ltd All rights reserved through the waves at a steady five-and-a-half knots. As I worked on deck the wind tugged at my cap and I was glad for the chin strap. We were beating -into. the wind, with sheets of spray coming over the bow. It was really quite exciting. SEASICK There was’ some sea- sickness on board, two of the adults and the three-year- old. The little one finally fell asleep on the salon berth on the lee side of the vessel, secured by a bunk cloth, while one of the adults sat in the cockpit wearing a bathing suit, half a pair of long underwear and a green face. The Skipper issued anti-sea-sickness drugs to the affected. By quarter to one in the afternoon the wind had dropped to fifteen knots and the seas were calming. We were still making over five knots. Half-way across the Gulf of Georgia the water was much greener and there were very few other sails around. The sick adults and the child were all sleeping now. It was a shame in a way, for the view was fantastic. There was haze to the south, but Mount Baker loomed up palely. We lifted into the wind again, and put the shaft brake on. With the propeller stopped with a pipe wrench there was a lot less noise on the vessel, and many of the more pleasant sounds of sailing could be heard. Sailing is quiet, but it is not all that quiet. The hydraulic steering groans, the cockpit drains gurgle, the flag pops and flutters, and the seas hiss as they go by. was ape Meee _ “with binoculars. Everyone else scemed to find something to do. Ellswerth took some pictures, the helmsman became absorbed in the relationship between wind and water, and the cook made good smells come out of the galley, and I got out the toolbox and crossed another project off my project list, JOB LIST By onc thirty in the af- ternoon the first sick adult had recovered cnough to sit in the cockpit and cat sandwiches. Porlier Pass was in sight, and we were moving toward if on a broad reach. | was on deck fiddling with the new main sail, and my log for that time reads like a job list. “Down haul is too hard to work. Needs heavier blocks. Mainsail winch needs oiling. Top inside tell- tale on genoa tangled. Wash = windows.” ‘We were abeam. the Porlier Pass beacon at 8:02, two minutes sooner than I had predicted. Events like this, while rare, give me great pleasure. We lined up the Race Point and Virago Point light houses and went through the.tidal pass under sail. The. wind died as we = _were half-way through, but. the current was going in the right direction, and we made . it without difficulty. A big power vessel, bucking the current, steamed blithely right over the wreck off Virago Point, although we expected to see it stop suddenly. By twenty after two we were out of the pass and reaching south down Trincomali. Channel. The other sea-sick adult was now taking nourishment; | beer and sandwiches. Everyone was awake by then, and feeling much. better. The tide was making quite a race_ off the Secretary Islands, when Ellsworth reminded me.that this was where I had | dropped his: wrench over-" board three years earlier. I discovered that the head was the best place to be while making entries in the log, as it was quiet and private. SLOW GOING At four o'clock we were still setting down Trincomali Channel, mostly on the tide. The breeze was very light, and the boat pointed in every direction. The helmsman and crew were forever making corrections. Down below the cight-year- old opened his fifth pop can for the day. His face was stained orange around the lips, and that’s how we discovered what he was up to. Everything was going very slowly. A fly buzzed lazily above the cockpit, and the helmsman took off his shirt to enjoy the sun more. From the log — “I go in search of a place to make entries in the log, but it is ho On... n.d ve wae ne aie Snderfieatit——