UPDATE: The Executive Director of Sail Manitoba, Sheila Bellido, has just requested that we submit articles to the Porthole Magazine twice a year during our Big Trip!

Article written by Amanda for the Porthole magazine in February 2019 after having the opportunity of my very first night watch on passage

FIRST WATCH

February 2019, my husband Jason and I were generously invited again onto Easy Goin’ down south with Wolfe and Luann Smythe. We first spent a week enjoying the spectacular beaches in Turks and Caicos with them and our boys, Alexander and Dylan. Following that, our boys went home and we set off on a two week adventure sailing along the coast of Haiti. The following shares my unforgettable memory of my first ocean night watch. We set out as planned at 07:00 as it was time to head off for our passage from Turks and Caicos to Haiti. We were expecting that for 20 hours of our sail we would be in wind gusts no higher than 24 knots with 2 meter high waves. In reality we ended up with winds gusting to 32 knots and much bigger waves. Poor Jason…in all his years sailing he’s rarely been hit with seasickness. Unfortunately he was nauseous the whole way to Haiti. Luann (Lu) as well struggled unfortunately with her stomach during the passage. Once off the Turks banks the waves quickly began to build. Off the port stern the odd one would crest and crash onto us. We were wet the entire time. I was never cold though. Wet and wearing just a tank top and shorts I somehow stayed warm. So neat, even in the dead of night, waves of warm air would loft over you. A strange concept for a Winnipeg girl to experience in February! The auto helm did its job perfectly as we spent the day and night riding the wind and waves. As prepared as we thought we were, Jason and I had not realized that it would be too rough to spend any time below. Our stomachs would not allow it. I was convinced it was just a matter of time before seasickness would hit me too but thankfully I was wrong. I had to play my cards right though, no going below, no sitting backwards and I had the occasional ginger chew just as added insurance. Fortunately, Wolfe has a stomach of steel so as needed we would send him down below with our verbal wish lists of necessities. Losing the ability to go below also meant losing the option of any good sleep between our watches. At the same time I just loved the passage! With our sailboat back home, Starship, being the same size as Easy Goin’ I was comfortable in our conditions. Thanks to all crap Lake Winnipeg has thrown at us over the last 20 years, I had the experience and knowledge to know that these conditions, although rough, were not bad enough to get us in to trouble. We stuck to our plan to reef early so by the time we witnessed the hot sun slip into the horizon we had furloughed the jib and double reefed the main. The moment night fell we all responsibly attached our tethers to the jack line. Around that time the winds were at their highest which made me really start to wonder what the night was going to be like. It was about 18:00 when Wolfe handed us all up cups of wonderfulness from the galley. Mugs of hot, homemade beef stew accompanied by Panini bread! Even served in mugs it was a challenge to consume as each wave tried hard to knock it out of our hands. We succeeded and it was delicious. It was nice to see Jason and Lu’s stomachs allow them to enjoy it too. Jason and I had our watches at 16:00 to 20:00 then midnight to 04:00. The night turned the waves inky black and produced our bright half-moon. That was followed by the appearance of layers and layers of stars. When the moon set at around 01:30 even more layers of stars appeared. Beautiful! With Lu giving into sleep down below, Jason also curled up on the cockpit bench to sleep for a while. With the winds still strong, Wolfe decided to stay up with me for part of my watch. After 02:00 the winds, as predicted, dropped nicely to a steady 17 knots and Wolfe decided to go below to sleep. Here it was! The moment I had been looking forward to for so long – alone at the helm on an ocean night watch! Now in my fantasy of that moment the winds had been much lighter but here it was anyways. With my crew all sound asleep somehow I was still going strong. It was adrenaline I think and I was thankful for that. I was very happy with my endurance and comfort level. I loved it!

I felt alone on the ocean as though I was the only one awake while the world slept. Wet but warm I did my duty every fifteen minutes to stand and study every part of the horizon for lights. The rest of the time I stared up at the stars and made wishes on three shooting ones. Bioluminescence all around the stern! Little white, blue and purple lights in the water…gorgeous! They would be more impressive if the waters were calm but I still enjoyed seeing them finally for the first time. When I smelled the coffee Wolfe was brewing below at 04:00 I knew my shift was ending and good thing as I was absolutely done. I needed sleep. I was planning to go below, finally strip out of my wet clothes and launch myself into a four hour coma in the v-berth. No go! The waves were still tossing the boat so much that if I stayed there I would quickly get nauseous. Back to the cockpit to curl up and rest the best I could. A few hours later the giant, orange fireball lifted itself out of the ocean and the next day began. It was still another 7 hours before we dropped hook in Carnage, Haiti on the north peninsula after travelling a whopping 141 nautical miles nonstop. Our arrival into Haiti also included a tremendous show from the most incredible welcoming committee! A pod of about 25 gorgeous dolphins swimming off our bow showing us the way! We did it!

Amanda Ward (Starship)

Gimli Yacht Club

Article written by Jason for the Porthole magazine in Spring 2018 looking ahead to another sailing season on Lake Winnipeg

Heading North

As a new sailing season slowly starts to approach many of our thoughts turn towards all the boat projects yet to complete before launch. Not wanting to get too discouraged with all the things I need to do to prior to putting the boat in, I take a moment to enjoy the warm afternoon sun on the back deck and reflect back on last summer and how wonderful it truly was. Sailing on Lake Winnipeg is always an adventure and last year’s low water levels kept that theme going strong. Some of the harbours you had no trouble getting into other years now required you to follow charted paths precisely or you got to practice your hand at dragging your boat off the bottom. In addition, many rocks that were well below the surface other years, were now only feet or even inches away from the makings of a very bad day. Needless to say, the trip kept everyone on their toes. This past summer, GYC introduced an organized cruise north for either one or two weeks depending on vacation time available. Being new to organizing something like this, advertising for the vacation got off to a late start. However, despite my own procrastination, when the day of departure arrived we left the harbour with 4 boats; Magic, Empress, Wind Mist and Starship. It was a nice mix of experienced cruisers, intermediate cruisers and two first timers who, to their overwhelming credit, single handed. The trip started on a slow note as winds were light from ENE. As the day progressed the trip become interesting as visibility diminished to less than half a mile in the smoke from the forest fires in Eastern Manitoba. At times it was like a scene from a movie as ships come together and materialize out of the haze. Fortunately as the day progressed the winds shifted more to the north and by the time we got to Hecla Village we were in clear skies again. We stayed in Hecla Village the next day due to high winds. Some of us took this opportunity to top up the final provisions while others enjoyed the guided tour the park offers. It was an interesting afternoon of discovering what life was like for many of our forefathers in the early days of settlement. Needless to say I am glad to be born in the current era. Very interesting though, I would definitely recommend it if you have a lay day there and the tours are going. This time also gave Trinity a chance to catch up to the group and join in on the northern flotilla. From Hecla, the group moved to Wells Harbour where we only spent one night and unfortunately had to part ways with Empress due to a family situation and Wind Mist due to only having one week available. Heading north, that left Paul on Magic, Dan and Rose and the three kids Austin, Logan and Annabelle on Trinity and myself and Amanda with only Dylan on Starship. Alex decided this year that an invitation from the Jones family to sail on the Sunshine Coast sounded like more fun than sailing with his parents. Over the next couple of days we got to experience some of the rougher sides of the Lake. Winds of 25 – 35 knots true and usually coming from the direction you want to go. We moved on to Biscuit Bay and Collins Harbour. This was my first time in Collins and it proved to be a nice spot to stop. With the low water levels we were not able to get as far back as other years, but the harbour still provided plenty of shelter. We spent an extra day there exploring the creeks and back areas, as well as enjoyed an evening bonfire as a group; showed the kids how to make torches using bulrushes and gasoline. Kids, don’t try this at home. We left Collins on a beautiful calm morning making our way to Princess Harbour, our planned northern most port. However, by 10:00 AM, and after some quick calculations, the suggestion went out that if we continued motoring we could be in Swampy by late afternoon. It did not take long for the group to decide to push on, and so we did. We waved to Princess as we went by and looked forward to visiting on the way back. We got up to Swampy and had a lay day there exploring the bay and enjoying the 2019 fantastic beaches. Dan got to play with his drone and got some fantastic aerial shots of the place. I also took the opportunity to show how to get your boat off a sand bar. To make sure it was a good teachable moment, I made sure my 5 foot draft boat pushed into 4 feet of water. Needless to say it made for a very convincing demonstration. Since we only had two weeks and we did not plan on going this far north, it was time to start heading back down the lake. We left in 10 to 15 Knot WSW with a shift to W late afternoon. True to the unpredictability of the lake, the wind shifted and then proceeded to drop to nothing. Just another opportunity to charge the batteries, and make ice of course. We spent a lay day in Princess enjoying the sunny hospitality of Ed, Brenda, Cindy, Steve, Barry and their two dogs. From there we made our way back to Biscuit Bay and on to Gull Harbour for fuel (we did a lot of motoring on this trip!) and to check out the new docks we had heard so much about. It was a nice, unplanned stop to the trip because we were able to meet up with Empress and Wind Mist again as well as Hot Chocolate and Horizon. That is the nice thing about the cruising life, plans change but with that new opportunities arise. We enjoyed a pleasant evening socializing on Starship and plans were made to head to Black 8 the next day. I was particularly excited because in all the years I have cruised the lake this was the first time I was going in there with my family. We stayed in Black 8 for a day of exploring, fishing and some nice family time. Having to make our way back to Gimli, Magic and Starship parted ways with Wind Mist, Empress and Trinity and headed for Hecla Village. Trinity joined us later in the day and we spent the night there. That evening we enjoyed watching, and experiencing, a fantastic prairie thunder storm. We registered 50 knots in the gusts with 40 knots sustained in the front of the storm. It is times like these that we like being tied up to a dock. From Hecla we made our way down to Hnausa where we met up with Beamer, Wind Chaser and Alex. We finished off the trip with a fantastic run to Gimli in a NNW 20 knot wind. Pulling into our slip, it was nice to be home but I know it won’t be long before I am looking at the horizon again planning our next adventure up the lake. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who participated in GYC’s northern cruise and for having patience with your first time Cruise Director, I know I learned a lot. Hats off to Paul off Magic who not only went up the lake for the first time but did the entire trip single handed. It should also be noted that he was well inaugurated into the cruising life. He lost his autohelm on day 4 and unfortunately ripped two headsails. Also to Darrel on Wind Mist who was a first timer single handing for a good part of the trip. He too experienced the cruising woes when he lost part of his rudder due to structural failure around Hnausa on his trip home. Fortunately he was able to contact the Coast Guard and get a tow back to Gimli. Unfortunately we did not get a chance to meet up with the Silver Harbour crew or a few of the other Gimli cruisers, maybe this year. Well the sun’s starting to set behind the trees and the air is cooling off. As I meander my way back into the house, my thoughts are already starting to plan for this years’ trip. Encompassing the essence of cruising, I am thinking a “South Basin Tour”. A few of everyone’s favorite spots and time to enjoy and explore them. Have a great spring and see you at the club!

Jason Ward (Starship)

Gimli Yacht Club

Jason Ward (Starship)

Gimli Yacht Club