Sailing And Beyond

Flotilla Sailing Majorca

2009-08-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

Looking for a sailing holiday being with a Flotilla Sailing Majorca? This is a great time to explore wonderful regions of the Mediterranean and Adriatic sea.

Here is your chance of a life time Holiday, sailing along enchanting coastal regions of Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Sicily, Sardinia, Majorca, these are very enjoyable places to visit and you will greatly appreciate and fall in love with the cultures and regions.

Flotilla sailing is where, you sail your own-chartered yacht, exploring the islands and hidden anchorages, enjoying the company of other boats all the time with the support and guidance of a flotilla lead yacht. Flotilla holidays are available in Greece, Turkey and Croatia.

Yacht charters, are offered on an extensive range of yachts available for bareboat charters. Explore the Greek islands and mythical shores of the Ionian, Cyclades, Dodecanese, Sporades and Saronic gulfs, the magnificent Dalmatian coast of Croatia and the enchanting turquoise coast of Turkey.

Sail and or stay is for people who wish to combine a sailing holiday with a land base; you can also extend your sailing or cruising holiday by adding a week or just a few days at hotels, or private villas that are available for rent. Flotilla Sailing Holidays Majorca is a very good way of being in your comfort zone when you have a led boat and other boats going along with you. There is also a safety factor that you would benefit from.

So look for opportunities that come up, sometimes last minute deals are available so enjoy. Friends of mine did this sailing around Greece and visiting the islands close by. They said it was one of there most memorable sails ever. I myself am looking forward to do a trans Atlantic crossing from Burlington Ontario Canada, to the Azores, then on to Italy, and the final destination, Croatia on the Adriatic Sea.
Be adventures and enjoy what beauty other countries can offer.

Schooner Bluenose

2009-07-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

Next weekend is Canal day in Port Colborne Ontario were Tall Ships gather each August holiday weekend, for a four-day celebration of history and heritage. Dates are July 31 to August 3 2009. My boat partner has been going for the past 2 years and has enjoyed it very much. You can go on the tall ships and even go for a sail on one of the tall ships. As I was doing some research on tall ships and schooners I came across the story of the schooner Bluenose a Canadian icon built in Halifax Nova Scotia and launched in 1921.. This schooner was built as racing ship and a working fishing vessel. It was built as a response to the defeat of the Nova Scotian Fishing Schooner Delawana by the Gloucester fishing schooner Esperanto from the U.S in 1920. You see the U.S and Canada had a friendly rivalry between there fishing schooners. After a season of fishing the Bluenose returned to the international Fishermen's Trophy back to Nova Scotia. To find out why the Schooner Bluenose was such a great Canadian Icon go to Schooner Bluenose Story.

Sailing Safety and Young Children

2009-07-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

I was planning to sail this weekend, when I forgot that my partner was using the boat with his family, so I was off to see my daughter who works on a organic farm in Creemore. I had a great time in Creemore, and I thought I would see how my sail boat partners sail went. The first question that came out of his mouth was "Were would you keep a four year old safe on a sail boat?"
I replied " Maybe down below with someone watching, but that can be rough if you have any large wave action." Well, My partner then went on about how his little four year old grand daughter pulled down the table on her self, fortunately there was no injury. John said, "I don't know how she did it because I have been having one heck of a time getting it down my self." And it just went on from there. His grand daughter dropped the cell phone in the water, My partner commented, "Maybe I am getting to much out of touch with the young ones, i think once a year is enough for me." We had a good chuckle about that. It did bring to mind that safety on any kind of boat is always priority. We have a old sailing saying, always One hand for yourself and one hand for the boat. Enjoy your times on the water and when you do things safely the day ends sweet. Recomendations for Safe Boating. Also check out National Safe Boating week in your area for safe boating practices

Are You a New at Boating

2009-07-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

A lesson on how not to launch your boat.
Yes this could happen to you, and I hope it does not.
Have a great weekend and have fun sailing.
....having trouble grasping some basic concepts ....

Sailing on Canada Day

2009-07-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

Today is the day Canadians celebrate Canada day. Celebrating the country's creation in 1867, which is celebrated on this day July 1st. Here in Burlington Ontario, there will be a sail past at Spencer Smith Park this afternoon at 2:00 PM, all are welcome on land or by boat. I hope to be going out on our sail boat for some relaxation, enjoying this beautiful day with some friends and family. Then go over to the Hamilton side of the bay, Bayfront & Pier 4 Parks, anchor the boat, and watch the Canada Day Fireworks. This has always been a highlight for me, because the barge where thy set off the fireworks is right in front of our anchoring base, the fireworks go on for at least 45 minutes. I also like to get front row view. If weather goes foul, I will be going to my neighbors chef Susan, and enjoy some great food and view the fireworks from her deck. Enjoy Canada Day, and remember, we do have a great country that we live in.

Sailing Stories

2009-06-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in my living room, looking out over the bay, observing the violent thunder storm accompanied with hail stones. It was a rather peculiar sight. " O well" I thought to myself, I guess I will not be going out sailing and enjoying good company along the way. So I decided to look up some internet sites on sailing and I came across this very interesting story about the Mary Celeste sailing ship . Give it a read I think you will find it quite interesting. One highlite for me was that, we seem to give up common sense and safety to keep our pride. Enjoy, now I will go back to some more interesting reads.

Week End Sailing

2009-06-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

This was a great weekend for sailing. I was able to go out with the Sharkies and do a little mentoring and getting used to the Shark after 4 years of not being on it. The crew was great. They are fairly new to sailing, but a few more lessons they will show me a few tricks.

Here is a picture of the mostly crew.

On Sunday Kathleen my sweetheart of 30 years and I, with some friends went to Toronto for the Luminato festival. We saw this tall ship leaving port.

Cirque Du Soleil was putting on free shows, it was very hard to get a good veiw but here are a few pics.We enjoyed gret eats and with good friends what can go wrong.

Sunday Sailing on the good ship ODYSSEY V

2009-06-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

Well I finally had my chance to sail on the Odyssey V. A 36 foot custom Robertson design sailing vessel. This boat is built like a tank. All steel at 9 tons. Not much will blow this sailing boat over. The boat was made to handle very heavy wind and water conditions, but slow in low or moderate winds. It was a very cool day and we needed to wear multiple layers of clothing including our sailing jacket. The wind were between 10 and 15 knots and the boat respond wonderfully. Once the sails were set you didn't need to fight the wheel as I do on my Tanzer 26 tiller. The owner and other crew member were telling me, how thy want to do a Atlantic crossing, stopping off at the Azores, a wonderful paradise just off of the Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1500 km (950 mi) from Lisbon.I really got excited and asked them to count me in. There plan is to sail off of the Italian coast and end up in the Adriatic Sea, by Croatia were the owner of the boat is from. I asked if we could do a sailing holiday Majorca, Malta side trip on the way. I guess time matters in this equation. We talked about sailing gear and the cost of outfitting.... it really got my blood pumping that this could be a reality. When it came to sailing GPS the thought came up that we would need at least 4 GPS because of salt water and electronic malfunctions. If anyone has suggestions please leave a comment.
When I questioned, if this was the boat they where taking, Lazlo the owner said that, they were considering other sailing vessels, and that he had a 42 foot sailing boat at his farm to be updated,meaning lots of work. He wasn't sure if he wanted to wait to long. He said " You know I am not getting younger and the bones are starting to complain if I push myself to much". I agreed, lets do it as soon as possible. We talked about sailing terms, and how different people have there own word or phrase for a particular situation or command while sailing. All in all it was a cold but wonderful day. Here are some pictures of the Odyssey V.

Until next time. Enjoy the wind in your face and the sun to warm your heart.

Sail Past and Sailing on the Bay this weekend

2009-06-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

Kathleen and friend enjoying a great sail.

My sailing club had its Sail Past this Saturday. It was an absolutely great day. The weather was great and so where the different functions, and also getting together with people you don't see very often. Ceremonies started at 10:30 am, with the Flags handed out to different dignitaries. Then the blessing of the boats and christening of the new Able Sail boat. We all went to the floating dock where Able Sail volunteers put on a lunch, and at 2Pm boats that wanted to participate in the Sail Past headed out into the Bay. Participating in this Sail Past, different sized boats would group together and single fill, sail past the anchored boat that had the Commodore and Vice commodore on board. As you sailed by you luffed your head sail or dipped your flag and saluted the commodores as they saluted you back. It turned out to be a great time with lots of boats participating. My boat carried on to a nice pleasant sail around the bay. We encountered on our way back to the slip very strange winds, where the wind shift would change 180 deg. instantly. I even saw a boat being knocked down and about 100 yard away I spotted a funnel cloud. Very strange wind at that time. Other wise every one with a boat was out that day. I would estimate 150 boats, so there was lots of tacking and jibbing going on. All fun. The club put on a dinner, which was as usual Great. Here are some pictures of the event.

If you are interested in cruising check out this link.
Also for Father's Day click on this LINK, if you don't know what to get him. It's not to late. If Dad is a sailor he can always use something for the boat I know I can.

Sailing on the Bay

2009-06-03T08:15:00.000-07:00

It is the beginning of June and sailing on Burlington Bay has not been great. Very cool and very very windy. On a couple of race nights we had winds up to 30 knots. On our last Thursday night race my wife called me and asked " Could you come we are only 2 and the wind is really high we need your help". So for the next 3 hours we were standing on the sides of the seats just about vertical with only the storm jib flying. O did I mention that we got thoroughly soaked. 'Ah' but it was still a lot of fun. Here is a interesting story on a first time Sail. On Saturday BS&BC our sailing club is having it's Sail Past, with a lot of sailing community activity. Click on the following link to see what the club is all about. BS&BC

Fathers Day Sailing

2009-05-19T00:47:00.000-07:00

I know its early for Fathers Day, but I am just thinking about the Fathers Day cruise our Sailing club, BS&BC does every year, this year the 20th - 21st of June.
In memory of the past owner of our boat Redi a Tanzer 26, Bernard Grandby would sail every Fathers day with his son or grand son to 50 Point Marine. This was a highlight for him and he sure was proud of it in telling his adventurous stories. The last few ended up in him running out of gas or the motor acting up. The motor a OMC sail drive was a problematic piece of work. We did eventually remove it and now have a reliable Yamaha outboard to take its place. So thanks for the memories Berny, and My partner John and I will probably carry on the tradition this year, with no motor breakdown stories to carry on! Any ways just a reminder its ok to remember your father and just drop him a line "hi dad just been thinking of you, how are you?"any time of the year. For those that are sailors, or just passionate to go out on the water, give Dad a nice surprise on Fathers Day, and take him out for the day on your boat.

Race Night

2009-05-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday May the 7th was our first practice race night. As we were leaving the dock our skipper decided to hoist the spinnaker which I myself do not have much experience with, so up goes the shut and out comes the control end of the line from my hand into the water meanwhile the wind is piking up quite a bit. The spinnaker starts doing the dead mans roll and I here my skipper say " I think we better take this thing down."

If anyone does not understand the dead man roll,what happens is the spinnaker starts to rock back and forth and if you do not get it under control the sail will start to pull your boat back and forth till the sail hits the water were it fills up with water pulling your boat over to its side and bingo it starts to fill up with water. Not a good position to be in. So Kathleen went up to the bow to pull the sail in and absolutely got drenched. This is all before the race started. Needless to say she was very cold all race long. We won our class run thanks to Dave our great skipper, all in all it was fun. Here are a few pics of the race.

Here is Dave and frozen Kathleen

Lift In

2009-05-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

Well Saturday May 2 was the day I was looking forward to. Lift in of Redi, my 1980 Tanzer 26. All went well and I came back the following day to check the boat, it was still afloat and no leaks around any fittings. We had the hole were the inboard used to be filled in, and the young lady who made the repair did a great job, thanks Christine.
I will be putting up the mast later this week, then its time to sail. Bellow are a few pictures of our lift in.

In Italy

2007-07-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

It occured to me that we have not told zou everz daz ... so I start from the beginning

Julz 1...Rome
2 Sienna ... Palio
3 Montalcino...and Brunello wine
4 Cinque Terra and famous white wine
5Follinica
6 Rome
7 rest...sleep at pool...shop...nice supper
8 Sienna
9Massa Marittima...medieval mountain town
10 Florence ... Uffizi gallerz
11 Castiglione della Puscala...ancient castle ruins and medieval town
12 Pisa and tuscan pizza for supper
13 rest, swim, sleep at pool pack
14 drive to Venezia (Venice) for 6 hours...beeeeeautiful
15Venice special holidaz...amaying fireworks on the Grand Canal...and boat bridge
16Venice gondola ride and St Marco square...and Murano island
17 train ride to Austria 7 hours...amaying countrzside
18 Grosglockner...highest peak in Austria
19 Kitzbuhel
20 Salzburg...Helbrunn and Trick Fountain, Festung (castle fort), Salzburg river ride, Mozart birthplace museum, Domo (cathedral)....packed day from 6 a.m. till 12 30 a.m.
21 sleep in...rest daz and a Hiedi... Alpine picnic for supper on a high mountain pasture with little flowers everzwhere and a view to die for
22 Rattenberg...medieval village and glass and gold makers since 1400s
23 todaz...Innsbruck and Germanz

July 19 Austria

2007-07-19T01:44:00.000-07:00

Wow...so much so quick...Italy is gone and Austria is here...the train ride was beautiful...we went through a tunnel that took 15 minutes and then an amazing long valley filled with vineyards, and fruit orchards...about 3 or 4 hours long. Venice was incredible and very beautiful...so neat to go on a gondola...we had a guitar and a gondola singer serenade us the whole way...

the y and the z are in the wrong spots on this kezboard, so substitute a y for a z because its reallz messing up mz tzping.

in venice we saw fireworks from St. Marco square and we stazed in a palace...just beside St. Marco square. We arrived in Venice about 5 exhausted from a verz long drive so we laid down for a rest...and a concert in our square filtered up into our open windows and we awoke to beautiful string quartet and singer. We went to Murano island and visited the St. Marco basilica which is so overwhelming.

It was hard to get used to Austria and saz goodbze to Italz...but now we are used to it...another language for me to conquer but Ralph is doing verz well Zesterdaz we went to Grosglockner mountain and glacier...the highest peak in the Austrian alps...we drove through a national park ...the road was built in 1935 ... as a public works project during the depression...it is beautiful and amaying and scarz with 36 hairpin turns and an altitude of about 3750 meters

We saw ibex and marmots called to each other their warning as we went by. Todaz is another rest daz...our feet are rather damaged...weäre going to Kitzbuhel todaz and Salzburg tomorrow.

I miss everzone at home...and we see lots of little dogs that I want to cuddle. Hugs to everzone. Till next time Kathleen

Leaving Italy

2007-07-12T02:57:00.000-07:00

Hello all
We leave IL pelagone 4 am Sat for Venice then for Austria on Monday. We saw a coffee bar for sale in a small village just a hour from here what a great oppertunity but it was just the business had a great chat with the owner. Still havent found a cable for the camera I give up. You will see pics. when we get home. Every where we go we do not want to leave it is so bella. Driving is like driving in a computer game, gard rails on white line and when pasing a truck at 140 km he kind of swayed over into our lane just about lost the mirror or all of us into the gard rail very exciting.
Must go hope all is well.
Ralph

Second last day at il pelagone

2007-07-12T02:45:00.000-07:00

Hello all

Well we have been having a great time here in Italy. The driving is like driveing in a computer game you dont know what comes up around the next corner, be on allert at all times. At night its crazy coming back from Firenze (Florence) the gaurd rails on the roads are right on the white lines so there is no shoulder and when you are pasing a truck you better hope he does not move into your lane as it hapened to me I though I was going to loose my mirror on the gaurd rail, at 140 km very exciting. Still am not able to upload pictures you can see them when we get back.

We leave for Venice at 4 am Sat. morning its a 6 hour drive. I hope all is well. Buy for now

Ralph

2007-07-07T04:35:00.000-07:00

Hi Murry
If you read this, could you forward the blog onto the Bruins I did not have there email and was not able to contact them. Thanks

2007-07-07T04:21:00.000-07:00

Its Saturday and we just got up at 10:30 am from a long walk through Rome. It was great, we saw alot of fasinating arcitecture and meet a few very interesting people on the trains. Rome you need at least 3 days to really see every thing. I have even got a piece of history in my pack a piece of cobble stone of one of the famous Roman roads. Had a snack on one of the roads at a cafe literaly on the road as cars went wizing by. Weather has been 17c at night 28c day time very nice. I hope all is fine at home. Driving here is a real treat you never know what to expect and you need 6 eyes all the time watching for mopeds or moter bikes sneek up on you. I still am not able to get a cable for the camera so pictures are not possible. Sorry
Till nex time
Ariva Derchi
Ralph & Kathleen

Sianna and first day

2007-07-03T03:18:00.000-07:00

Hi all
We are having a great time, beside geting lost all is great. Pictures might not be posted, I forgot my camera cable and am having a hard time finding one. Went to Sianna and saw the great Palio ( horse race) in the square. The Italians sure are passionate. It was absalutlly great. Used up 1 Gig of mem already on the camera. You need to order Tickets one year ahead for the race $ 1000.00 euros was asking price on the web. Just relaxing on tuesday and enjoying the area.
Love you all.
Chow
Ralph

Our first few days

2007-07-03T02:37:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,
We are having a great time here in Tuscony, we went to Sianna for the Palo or (famous horse race) in the town square. You could not get tickets for the event booking 1 year ahead to get seats and one person we meet saw tickets on the web euro $ 1000.00. So we went to the middle of the square at the edge of the fence right on the track area and held our spot for 4 hours, it was well worth it. The Italians are very passionet about every thing. I would attach photos and vids accept I forgot my camera cable at home so, to find a cable I go. I think I needed to get a few more memory cards we used up my first gig mem card Just in Sianna. It is absalutly great here in Tuscanny the people are very helpfull and freindly, not sure if we want to leave. Coffeeeeeeeeeee is great, espressoooooooo im addicted. See you next post.
Chow
Ralph