This year, I thought Iwould create this blog to talk about sailing in Prince Edward Island and the Canadian Maritimes, general thoughts on sailing, interesting articles and books, and our travels with the s/v Obsession.
This was our second year with "Obsession 305", a Beneteau First 305, which my husband Jay and I sail out of Montague, PEI.
Jay and I bought Obsession in May 2008. As new sailors and new boat owners, the past two years have been exciting and sometimes a bit anxiety inducing. This blog is meant to share some of the things we have learned, some of our passion for sailing, and some of our adventures.
In 2009 we sailed 988 NM by doing several day sails, several short trips to other ports in Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown, Souris, Murray Harbour and Brudenell) and Nova Scotia (Ballantyne's Cove and Pictou), and a two week trip to Nova Scotia's Bras D'or Lakes in Cape Breton. In 2008 we had managed only 778 NM with day sails, overnight trips to ports in PEI and a three week trip to the Bras D'or Lakes, so 2009 was a definite improvement. But if you had of told me five years ago I would be skippering my own sailboat, I would never had believed it.
Jay and I had only learned to sail keelboats in 2006 when we took the CYA Basic Cruising Standard from Waveskills (http://www.waveskills.ca/), which is based in PEI. This course and the Instructor, Ellen MacPhail, ignited an absolute passion in me for sailing (which delighted Jay, who never could get me to enjoy sailing his Laser) and gave me the confidence to do something I had never done before. Jay and I spent 2007 sharing with other former students the use of a 20 foot Santana, which Waveskills owned, getting several additional certifications through the Blue Heron Power and Sail Squadron (http://www.blueheroncps.pe.ca/), and searching for our own sailboat. In 2008 we both acheived our CYA Intermediate Standard (Skipper). This year we entered our first Northumberland Strait Yachting Association (nstya.com) Race!
Now with Obsession safely tucked away for the winter, I intend to spend time dreaming and blogging about sailing as only one who is truly obsessed can!
This is a wonderful blog! I really wish you'd recount your visit to the Bra D'or Lakes last year as you provided perfect imagery of the trip and adventures.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the mention of WaveSkills - as it's all about sailing....in trying to paint with watercolors and some may think it's a fridge, or tree, it's actually pictures of sailboats....as it's just so hard to suppress the conviction to boats!
Looking forward to more of your entries. Ellen
salut je prevoie etre a charlotte town , fin juin -debut juillet . je suis un marin et j ai fait mon premier transat en jan dernier . j ai aussi navigue dans les iles greck , a san francisco et dans le sagné .... je cherche un embarcation pour la semaine ou pour quelque jours ... si vous connaisser quelqu un qui cherche un bon ecquipier je suis pret a partager les frais de location si il y a ...
ReplyDeletemerci beaucoup
patrick gagnon
maitregagnon@hotmail.com
Patrick,
ReplyDeleteSorry I can't respond in French. Although I can read fairly well, I'm not up to writing in French.
You may want to contact the Charlottetown Yacht Club. We sail out of Montague, which is a marina and not an official yacht club. Charlottetown has a lot more sailors, and they may be able to give you more assistance. You can reach them at manager@cyc.pe.ca.