Reflections of a winter, the past and the future

It’s been a long and trying winter out here on the hook, in Cowichan Bay, on a 22′ sailing sloop. Even so one could not compare it with sailing on the high seas, the hardships that come with being on the water, the lack of space, the constant exposure to all kinds of weather is very real. To survive the solitude and long nights I read a lot or listened to audio tapes. Patrick O’Brian published a long series of seagoing tales ( most likely best known from an adaptation to the movies “ Master and Commander ” ).

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Yes, there is a romantic mood included in living on the waters or being a sailor. To think that our forefathers many generation ago already have used the winds the same way we use them today… sailing can be an art form. In the begin of my sailing career I did not fully comprehend the force of the tide and was completely unaware of many facts. How to make the most of wind and currents is something I’m still learning… but by now I know what I’m capable off.

While there is a great need to simplify your life, it takes a lot more energy to live this way. The rewards are multiples and hard to conceive by some, but once you’ve been to sea… Here is a way of live that brings one closer to understanding nature with all her cruelty and all her beauty, closer to reality… …not quite as easy. 

The C-Dream frozen in 1’’ of ice and company coming…

Winter demands a constant supply of firewood. Not only to stay warm (that could be accomplished with another layer of clothing as well) but mainly to keep the boat, your bedding and your clothing dry and the mould away. I prefer the cold or a layer of snow to the seemingly forever lasting rain. Rain is draining most of my energy, undermining all of my ambition and seem to even deteriorate my brains. Rain keeps me from sleeping, soaks into everything from bunk to bedding into my very bones.

Time will bring this wet season to it’s end, but as time and tide waits for no man, I better make sure I’m seaworthy. I’m still in need of a good running outboard motor, My new tender is a small rowing boat / sailing boat. I intend to have a lot of fun with it this summer (it might sail faster than the “C-Dream”)

Passing a peer I had not seen for some time in the village, he commented on my change of attitude (from one of childish delight to one of worn out indifference in just 5 years). Did I grow up too fast or is it only a temporary lack of romantics. Let’s hope it’s the later and the new spring season will cure that.

As a challenge I would like to sail the “C-Dream” around Vancouver Island this summer.