Curare's Adventures

Bringing Curare Home - The End

It has been difficult for LE to get sufficient motivation to write this last blog entry, but here it is - the end of our sailing adventure.

We left Curare in Bellingham on December 21, 2022 and did not return for her until January 5, 2023. This time, instead of taking the Amtrak train, we rode on a lime green coloured Flix bus. This is the same bus company (and colour) as the bus we took from Lisbon, Portugal to Vigo, Spain in July 2021. The world has shrunk in the 15 years that we were away, many services are now the same no matter where we travel. When we departed on our voyage we never knew what to expect. But I digress.

The bus departed at 0800, crossing the border into the USA went smoothly, and we arrived at The Landings at Colony Wharf marina just after 1000. While we were away Curare had been moved onto hard stands and was snuggled in between two other boats. She looked like a derelict without a mast and with her topsides and hull covered in road grime from her epic truck trip, she clearly needed some TLC. We were not scheduled to go back into the water until after lunch so while GG worked on finishing re-rigging the mast LE used a bucket and mop and scrubbed her bottom to top. She cleaned up nicely.

Curare was moved out of her spot and put back into the water at 1300 (1 P.M.). Prior to this we have always moved Curare out of and in to the water on a travel lift of some description, one that involves transport on wheels. This maneuver always causes us to bite our fingernails but seeing her in the air swinging from a crane was even more nerve wracking. The good thing is that slinging a boat is quick, one minute Curare was on the transport trailer and the next minute she was in the water, LE barely had time to snap two photos. Then GG, and the yard crew, re-stepped the mast and re-attached the standing rigging. By late afternoon she looked almost like a sailing boat again but without a boom or sails.

The best part of Curare's journey was at the end, and it (almost) made all of the other obstacles and transport fiascos leave our minds. Marc, the owner of the Landings at Colony Wharf marina, kindly and generously waived all of the fees associated with moving Curare off of the transport truck, storing her on the hard for two weeks, placing her back into the water and letting us stay at his dock overnight. We had not expected this. The currently overused word is that it was "unprecedented".

The next day we spent the morning organizing things down below and the afternoon grocery shopping, topping up the tanks with diesel and moving to a marina next door because we did not want to abuse Marc's generosity. The plan was to motor Curare home to Gabriola Island, a distance of 80 Nautical miles, stopping on the way in Sydney B.C. to meet Geoff's two sisters. LE calculated this would take four days, which it did, and we set off in the rain the morning of January 7. Our dedicated Furuno chart plotter was not working because we had cut the GPS cable when we took down the arch in Florida, but we did have a Samsung tablet with the Navionics App. Then we discovered that someone (GG) had left the tablet at home. Not to worry, LE downloaded the App onto her phone and using the tiny screen we were able to navigate the narrow passages of the San Juan Islands, a new-to-us sailing area. Prior to departing Bellingham we had tried to purchase a paper chart of the San Juans so that we could see the big picture but the local chandlery just laughed at us. Another change in the 15 years away - no one uses paper charts any more. When we left Canada electronic charts were in their infancy and it was strongly suggested that the prudent mariner never left the dock without back-up paper charts. So why are paper charts now obsolete? Electronics can still fail - that has not changed.

It was unfortunate that the day we left was so rainy because the scenery was fantastic, equal - but different - to the scenes we saw while sailing in the Patagonian channels in 2013/2014, or in the Baltic sea in 2017. After a long, wet, day of motoring we arrived at Sydney Harbour marina in Canada and tied up to the customs dock so we could check-in. Instructions taped to the window of the small, empty, shack instructed us to telephone. The customs agent asked the usual questions about what we were bringing into Canada and then she asked when we had left. When GG replied "in 2007" she got very confused, but after a brief conversation she simply said "Welcome to Canada".

The next day we stayed tied to a dock and two of GG's sisters came to visit. We planned to leave early the next morning and motor the rest of the way to Gabriola Island. This did not happen. We woke up to a lot of wind from the aft pushing us into the dock. Curare has a full keel and does not back up well, even in calm conditions, so there was no way we were going to leave until things settled down. We wandered around, drank some coffee and hoped the wind would abate prior to 1100, or we would be paying for another night. Finally at 1030 it seemed to be calming and GG was confident he could get us out of the slip, LE was not so sure but what was the worst that could happen? Curare's hull was already scraped from the mishap in Florida, so another scrape would not be disastrous. We departed precisely at 1100 even though the wind was still howling, and Curare made three full 360 degree turns as GG maneuvered her backwards, but we did not hit anything and in a few minutes we were out of the protection of the marina's breakwater. It was windier than expected, in fact we later heard that a small craft warning had been issued for local waters. We had no sails and were motoring into heavy seas so we decided that Saltspring Island was our destination, a distance of only 15 miles, but a great place to stop because our Yacht Club has an outstation where we could tie up.

The following day was calm, the sun was shining, it was perfect weather for our motor north. We left the dock shortly after 0800 and were welcomed home by a pod of five or six orcas fishing about 300 meters from our hull. Several bald eagles flew overhead or perched on trees, rocks and channel markers and seals popped their heads up to watch us going by. For this part of the journey we did not need to look at our tiny chart, things were very familiar. We lucked out and transited Gabriola Passage close to slack tide and  pulled into the dock at Tugboat Island shortly after 1300. Our yacht club has another outstation here and we are using it for winter moorage. We will have to leave for the summer months when other boats are cruising, but for now it is a convenient place to keep Curare while we do some much needed maintenance, only a 30 minute drive from our house.

The grand sailing adventure is now finished and so is this blog. Onwards to other adventures (still to be determined).

Bringing Curare Home: Part III

When we walked back to the marina the next morning, December 21, it was even colder than the previous day, and we were not expecting much to happen. To our wonder the truck was unstuck and it had moved closer to the crane. We continued working on the mast and after about an hour and a half the marina owner tried to start the crane. Red hydraulic fluid fountained onto the white snow. At this point the owner became a little grumpy and said "We are done here, I am closing the yard, no work will be done until after Christmas". What could we say? It was his marina and his crane. So Stan and Linda unhooked their truck and went to spend the Christmas holidays at a truck stop while LE scrambled to find transport back to Vancouver. With such short notice days before Christmas, not to mention the heavy snowfall, our transportation options were limited. Nothing was available until the Greyhound bus leaving at 9:30 P.M., not our favourite bus company but we needed to get out of there.

Although the yard was shut we continued working on Curare and managed to get all of the rigging reattached to the mast, put the anchor and chain back on the boat, put on the bow pulpit, re-attached the forward lifelines and went below to see if anything had been damaged during transport, or if any of the numerous canned goods had exploded. We could not put on the aft lifelines because the arch was not attached, it was tied in place with lines. About every 15 minutes we would go into the building that the yard manager had left open for us so that we could warm our hands. Without that small act of kindness we would not have been able to get all of the work done because it was windy and bitterly cold. We left the yard at 4 P.M. and trudged back to the train station (3 miles) stopping on the way to warm up in a brew pub and then stopping again to eat dinner by a cheery fire.

The bus stop is at the Amtrak train station and we arrived just as the southbound Vancouver train was disgorging it's passengers. Once they had left it was just us and the security guard. Fairly soon another couple arrived dragging huge suitcases, they were also waiting for the 9:30 P.M. bus. At 10:15 P.M. they phoned Greyhound in Seattle and asked when the bus would arrive. The agent said that the bus had not even left Seattle, Greyhound was waiting for the bus driver who was travelling from Portland; the bus might arrive in Bellingham at 3:00 A.M. At this point GG spoke to the local taxi company, also in the Amtrak building, and learned that we could get a taxi to the border. Thirty minutes later a Crown Vic rolled up and the driver hopped out holding a small dog wearing a pink jacket. We shoved the two huge suitcases into the trunk and carried the hand luggage on our laps, a squeeze even in such a large car. Away we raced at high speed, with the dog sitting in the driver's lap, and made it to the border in 20 minutes. At this point the driver told us that he and his car were not allowed near the official border crossing so he let us out at the duty free store and we walked across. There wasn't a cleared sidewalk so we trekked through the snow in the traffic lane, the other couple dragging their enormous pieces of luggage behind them. At the little booth the border guard laughed and directed us into the building where we were welcomed back to Canada. We arranged for another taxi to collect us and take us into Vancouver, a distance of 50 km (30 miles) and we were back in the condo by 1:00 A.M.

BUT wait - there is more. The next day we were taking the ferry back to Gabriola Island as foot passengers. Normally LE does not make a reservation as a foot passenger but this time she did. A reservation means the passenger (or vehicle) needs to be at the ferry at least 30 minutes prior to departure. We set off from the condo at 9:40 A.M. to take the local bus to Horseshoe Bay and the ferry. The ferry was not leaving until 1 P.M. but we left early because we wanted  time to eat lunch. The bus left downtown Vancouver on schedule and it was standing room only, we zoomed along, until we did not. Near the top of the hill leading down to the ferry dock traffic was completely stopped. Bus passengers wondered why and began demanding that the driver let us off so we could walk. After 20 minutes or so he relented and opened the door; less than 10 people got out. We jogged down the hill at a rapid pace, to claim our reservation prior to the 12:30 cut-off, and made it with zero minutes to spare. The agent told us that all foot passenger tickets had been sold, but we said "we have a reservation". Then she said "you are too late", but the other agent said it was up to the computer and the computer said we had arrived on time. It was only 30 minutes before departure, not enough time for lunch, but then we found out that the 1 P.M. ferry was not arriving until 2:15 P.M. which left us plenty of time for a quick bite to eat. Gotta' love B.C. Ferries.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful, but Curare was spending Christmas in Bellingham by herself. Not what we had planned.

Bringing Curare Home: Part II

Curare left Florida on Monday December 5, 2022, the start of her grand road adventure, and we flew home to the west coast of Canada to await her arrival. We had looked at Google maps and figured the road trip would be around 4000 miles more or less, which at a distance of 600 miles per day would be seven or eight days of driving, so we started to plan for a December 12th or 13th arrival date.

LE had asked Linda, the wife of Stan (the truck driver), to email her when the truck was about three days from Bellingham so when we had not heard anything by December 11 GG phoned the office in Florida and asked for an update. It was bad news. The truck blew it's transmission in Kentucky, only a two day drive from Florida, and it would not get going again until December 12. Then on December 14 LE received an email from Linda with the news that the truck was stopped in Iowa because winter storm Diaz had shut down roads in Nebraska and Wyoming. Despite the weather the truckers hoped to be in Bellingham Monday or Tuesday, December 19th or 20th. Upon Curare's arrival GG and LE had planned to unload her from the truck and motor back to Canada, but this updated arrival date meant they would most likely miss Christmas Day festivities. In the original "shipping Curare home" scenario, started in early October, we would have been back in Canada at the beginning of December and had tentatively organized a large Christmas gathering. Luckily we had not made any concrete plans.

We did not want to drive our truck to to the USA because there was no one to drive it back to Canada, so instead we took an Amtrak train leaving on December 19 at 5:45 P.M. from Vancouver and arriving at 7:41 P.M. in Bellingham. What could be simpler? As the train departed Vancouver it was starting to snow and when we arrived in Bellingham it was still snowing, the temperature had fallen to -5 C, and there was about 10 cm of snow on the ground.

GG had made reservations at a hotel near the train station so we trudged three blocks through the deserted snowy streets and crossed our fingers that the snow would stop. It did not. The snow continued falling all night and next morning the temperature was -12 C. When we departed the hotel at 7:45 A.M. there was maybe 20 to 25 centimetres of accumulated snow, none of the streets had been ploughed, and no one had shovelled their sidewalks. We thought we would take a taxi because the Landings at Colony Wharf marina was 3 miles away, but nothing was stirring so we started to walk, carrying our packs. It was not easy trekking through the snow, we should have brought snowshoes.

  We arrived at the marina at 9:15 A.M. and found the door locked with a handwritten sign that said "Office closed today due to snow". We could not believe it!  GG had phoned the day before to tell them the truck, and Curare, were arriving the morning of December 20 and they said they were expecting us. However, the main marina gate was open so we walked into the yard and, as we were wondering what to do, we saw our boat on the truck travelling down the street. About that time a pick-up truck stopped, the window rolled down, and a man asked "what are you doing here?". This was the owner of the marina. We told him who we were and the name of our boat and he said "I did not expect you today because of the weather". Then he said his crane was non-operational. Surely GG could have been told this the previous afternoon when he phoned the marina; the crane did not break overnight. The truck arrived about 10 minutes later and promptly got stuck in the unploughed yard which meant there was additional time to get the crane working.

GG, LE and Stan started to shovel but it was hopeless, the truck would not budge. It was now -10 C and both GG and LE were cold, despite the exertion of shovelling, so we left for lunch. When we returned no one was around, the truck crew was hiding in their cab and the marina owner had left, sending us a text that they would try to lift Curare tomorrow. It was only 1 P.M. and, although it was still bitterly cold, we decided we had time to get the mast off the truck and unwrap it, maybe even put some of the standing rigging back on. But first we had to shovel a path to the truck so that we could wheel the hand cart to transport the mast to a working area. This was a distance of slightly less than a football field and it took about one hour.

We successfully got the mast off of the truck and started to attach the standing rigging but we did not get far because our hands were cold, the proper tools were on board Curare,and we had to find a place to stay. GG had only reserved last night's hotel for the one night, the original plan was to be on Curare that evening, and we did not want to make the morning's long, snowy, trek again. We eventually found a place that was slightly closer, but it involved an uphill hike. LE didn't know which was worse - the 3 miles in the morning or the uphill in the late afternoon? The saga continues...

Florida Part II

Friday did not go as planned, this Florida part of Curare's journey was turning into a fiasco. The truck arrived in the morning, not at noon, and the driver told us that he had to be back in the company's secure yard before sunset, which meant Curare had to be on the road by 2 PM. At 10 AM there was still no sign of the crane truck and we were still at anchor in the lake. Geoff picked up the phone and started yelling, and miraculously we were told we "could come into the marina right now and the crane truck would be here shortly". Did I mention that Complete Marine is located where a river enters Lake Santa Barbara, and depending on the tide the current is fierce. It was just our luck that the current was at it's strongest when we came into the travel lift. GG had to turn Curare beam on (sideways) to the current to line us up for entry but the current caught us and slammed Curare against the dock. There was a full contingent of Complete Marine workers on this dock to assist us and fend us off the concrete sides, but none of them raised a finger to help, so now Curare has a scraped hull, the most significant damage in 15 years away.

The crane truck finally arrived at 3 PM, meanwhile the truck and driver had left at 2 PM and would not return until Monday. So a weekend in Pompano Beach, with no place to stay because the marina does not allow live-a-boards. The mast removal went smoothly, the first thing that went well, and soon Curare's crew was busy removing the standing rigging, labelling it, coiling it up and storing it in a tote (previously purchased for this endeavour). After the rigging was removed we placed Styrofoam around the permanent mast hardware and then wrapped the entire mast with indoor-outdoor carpet and carpet underlay. The same was done for the roller furling head stay. We found a seedy hotel to stay in for three nights, and because we had nothing better to do on Sunday we drove west to the Everglades to look for alligators. We didn't see any large reptiles but LE saw a flock of glossy ibis and another flock of white ibis so the drive was worthwhile from a birding perspective and it was lovely to get away from boat chores for one day. However her birding highlight of this trip was a pair of Egyptian Geese, seen in the Walmart Garden Center, no lie, they were honking at the top of the racks of garden soil.

Monday morning and the truck was there as promised. Curare was hauled out of the water but then had to be pressure washed to rid her of all zebra mussels that may have attached while we were anchored in Lake Santa Barbara. Loading onto the truck went smoothly and upright stands were erected to keep her in place. The mast and roller furling were strapped onto a cradle at the side of our boat and the pulpit, arch and two totes were placed on the bed of the trailer. At this point the truck left the yard and parked at the end of the street to finish the remaining tasks. GG and LE took the anchor chain out of the chain locker and stored it in the second tote and then LE booked a flight home, leaving that evening at 8 PM. Plenty of time we thought, it was only 2:30 PM. Once Curare was strapped securely with tie downs, as were the arch and pulpit, she was ready for her long road trip and we followed our boat towards the highway. To our dismay we could see, from a long way off, that traffic on the highway was stopped, no vehicles were moving. Using Google Maps LE found an alternate way to get to the airport so we turned left at the next intersection and contended with thick, stop and go traffic, and detours, reaching the airport at 6 PM; enough time to return the car, check-in and eat a bit of dinner. We had not eaten anything except a breakfast pastry and both of the crew were getting rather crabby.

Happily the flight, via Seattle, went smoothly and we were back in Vancouver by 1 AM.

Florida Part I

After Curare was offloaded from the trans-Atlantic freighter on Monday morning we motored north up the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) to a designated anchorage in Lake Santa Barbara. When we first investigated anchoring in Fort Lauderdale FL, LE contacted several friends who either live there, or had lived there in the past, and all of them said "anchoring is not possible, you have to go to a marina". However, due to a number of compounding issues, there were no marina slips available, so using a combination of the Navionics App, the Active Captain App and the online Waterway Guide LE found this anchorage, and it was in an excellent location. The word lake is a misnomer as is not really a lake, it is more of a large indent on the west side of the ICW but it had good holding, and it had a little park where we could leave the dinghy when we went ashore. But best of all it was within walking distance of Complete Marine, the place where we had arranged to have Curare put onto the transport truck.

Motoring north up the ICW we had to go under several draw bridges, these are located about 2 miles from each other and open either on the hour or on the half hour. All of them are staffed by bridge operators who have to be contacted by VHF radio, if you do not contact them the bridge does not open, not even if you are obviously waiting. Luckily we had been warned about this so we had a smooth trip up the ICW and were anchored by 1130.

This is when things started to go awry, despite all of GG's weeks of careful planning and organizing. What was to have been a six day trip turned into 10 days so we had to keep extending the rental car return date and, until our boat was on the truck, we could not make a plane reservation to fly home. The original day for loading the truck was Thursday, which meant we could leave that afternoon or at the latest Friday. But first we had to remove the mast with a crane truck so GG and the marina scheduled that for Wednesday. Tuesday afternoon we received a phone call from the trucking company that the driver's wife was on jury duty. They travel as a team, if one can't go the other won't either. We were told a different driver might possibly be here on Friday, but it would only be to load Curare and then she would sit on the truck until the original driver became available. We were OK with this plan. At this point GG tried to phone the marina to cancel Wednesday's crane truck but no one answered the phone.

On Wednesday morning we were wondering what to do about the scheduled crane truck when the marina phoned and said they could not get the crane truck until Friday. This was a good thing for the revised trucking plan but it would not have worked with the original plan, and it meant we would not be going home Friday; it would now be Saturday at the latest. We agreed, with the proviso that the crane truck should be there early Friday morning (the truck would be there at noon and we needed time to prepare the mast for shipping).

Meanwhile we were preparing the boat for trucking, living on board in a pile of belongings and on-deck equipment and taking our showers using a solar shower bag - it was exactly like camping in a small, crowded, tent. The highest part of Curare, when on the truck, could only be 13 feet 8 inches, because higher than that is considered over-height and requires special permits. As a result we had to remove the majority of deck hardware. We unbolted the aft arch and bow pulpit, took off the stanchions and lifelines and removed the dodger frame. Once the mast was removed the highest part of Curare was the top of the wind vane rudder, which could not easily be removed, and the final height measurement was 11 feet 6 inches, a big sigh of relief.  It looked like we were back on schedule and organized again.

Bringing Curare Home: Part 1

Shipping on a freighter

Once we made the  decision to ship Curare home we set about looking into how to accomplish this.  GG had previously done preliminary research looking into the various means of transport and which ports were better to leave from.  As it turned out, Palma de Mallorca was the most popular and frequent shipping point in the western Mediterranean.  We would be sailing right past this port on the way to our scheduled haulout in mainland Spain, so we decided to investigate further.

GG contacted nine shipping companies and narrowed it down to two reasonable possibilities.  The first choice was to use the float on-float off Dockwise Yacht Transport that had space available in March 2023.  This would require storing Curare on the hard in mainland Spain while GG and LE reset their Schengen time clock, and then returning to Spain in the spring to sail Curare the short 120 miles back to Mallorca.

The next choice was a freighter chartered by international shipping company Peters and May to transport an assortment of yachts from the Med to the Caribbean when the hurricane season was over and the start of the Caribbean cruising season was beginning.  This was scheduled for the third week of October and presented a number of positive aspects.  We could delay our scheduled October 20 flights home, prepare Curare for the sea voyage via freighter and fly to Miami in November to receive her rather than flying back to Spain in the spring. 

But before committing to the ocean transport we had to make arrangements for Curare in Florida.  With the recent hurricane (Ian) that damaged a lot of marinas on the west side of Florida, combined with the influx of yachts for the start of the cruising season, not to mention the Fort Lauderdale boat show, marina space was at a premium.  We needed to be at a marina to prepare Curare for her truck trip and the marina had to have enough space for the transport truck to load Curare. GG contacted many marinas by email and phone and finally one was selected that said they could haul us out and place Curare on the truck trailer.  So now we had a freighter and a place to go in Florida but we still did not have a trucking company. More phone calls were made, and even more emails were sent before finding Joule Transport, a trucking company that was experienced in yacht transport and was available when Curare was scheduled to arrive.  With all the pieces loosely schedule we were able to commit to the shipping company organizing the freighter, Peters and May.

Wire transfers were completed to secure space on the freighter, brokers were assigned to clear Curare out of Spain and another into the US, insurance policies arranged, and a marina and hotel in Palma was selected while we prepared Curare for her ocean voyage.  It was an organizational challenge to get everything to fit together, but GG persevered and got it done.

And then things started getting complicated.  The chartered yacht transport ship, MV Sophia, was delayed leaving Turkey, delayed again in Italy and Curare finally departed Palma 10 days behind schedule.  This delayed arrival in Fort Lauderdale until the third week of November, closing in on the major American holiday of the year, Thanksgiving. 

Loading Curare onto the Sophia on November 8 was delayed by almost six hours but as soon as that was finalized LE and GG raced to the Palma airport, barely making their flight to Madrid. From there we flew home to the west coast, arriving to Gabriola on November 10. We figured the ocean crossing would take about 14 days from Palma via Antigua, but then Sophia put into the port of Algeciras in southern Spain for an unknown reason, causing a further three day delay. We could not make a plane or hotel reservation in Fort Lauderdale because we did not know exactly when the Sophia would arrive and this waiting period added to our stress. Finally we received notice that the Sophia was scheduled to be in Port Everglades the evening of November 27 so we quickly made plans and flew to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday November 26.  Curare was offloaded Monday morning, November 28, and we were waiting to receive her.

We must give Peters and May good credit for their organization and handling of the sea transport.  Their local office in Palma was very helpful in finalizing all of the small details that needed attending to and the main contact in Southampton England kept us informed of dates, procedures and schedules nearly everyday.  The loadmaster, Colin, was very enjoyable to work with in spite of the need to shuffle numerous boats around the deck of the freighter to ensure there was sufficient room to squeeze Curare into her cradle. He took great care while lifting all of the transported boats on and off the freighter’s deck and Curare arrived in Florida looking exactly as she did when we left her in Palma, no extra scratches and very little grime on her topsides.

Now it was time to take Curare to the marina Geoff had found – more about that in another post.

Happy New Year

Many of you reading this blog entry have received our 2022 holiday letter and this post is exactly the same, but for others, whose email addresses we have misplaced, this is our year in review in a few paragraphs.

In early 2022, work on the Gabriola cabin continued and we finished the tiling around the fireplace, in the kitchen and bathroom plus installed a beautiful fir floor on the main level and staircase – flooring in the loft is this year’s project (and perhaps some proper curtains). The floor planks were milled by Geoff using his Woodmizer© sawmill from trees that were cut on our property. 

Geoff continued his training with the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department and attained the position of lieutenant and Linda lived part time in the condo in Vancouver and continued eradicating invasive weeds in Stanley Park. After the sailing trip was over (see below) Linda moved full time to Gabriola, with only occasional trips to Vancouver. We have a lot of invasive weeds here as well, so she has a lot to do.

The two highlights were: returning to Curare for a season of sailing and bringing her back to the west coast. I am writing this on December 28, 2022 and Curare is still not home with us, she has been stuck in Bellingham Washington since December 20 due to crazy weather, among other things. We hope to finally bring her to Gabriola in early January 2023 where we have a winter berth at a dock.

We flew to Paris at the end of June on our way back to Curare who was waiting for us in Sant Carles de la Rapita, northern Spain. It was a wonderful four day visit in the city of romance with perfect weather for walking around outside and visiting two of it’s famous museums; the Louvre and the Rodin. A train ride to Barcelona, a bus trip to Sant Carles and we finally saw our boat on July 1, Canada Day, after eight months away.

As Canadians we only get 90 days in the Schengen region so this year we decided to extend our summer season by sailing to Tunisia for 30 days. Prior to Tunisia we visited Mallorca and the island of Sardinia, where Linda visited her cousin, and two of our close friends came to visit. This summer the temperatures were almost too warm, an average of 35 C, but frequent leaps into the Mediterranean kept us cooled down. Tunisia was a stark contrast from Europe with it’s different culture, walled medinas, architecture, food, and more Roman ruins than we thought existed, but it was a country worth visiting, probably the highlight of the 2022 highlights.

Leaving Tunisia we sailed east to the tiny island nation of Malta, arriving on September 21 -Independence Day.  While wandering through the cobblestone streets of this ancient fortress we decided it was time to bring Curare home, to the west coast of Canada.  As everyone reading this can probably imagine there was a lot of discussion and we finally concluded that we did not want to make the Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and north up the west coast. Instead, we decided to ship her by freighter to Florida and then truck her overland to Bellingham, USA. This sounds simple but it was the beginning of a nightmare of challenges, some of them so unbelievable we have a difficult time wrapping our head around the events. We are planning to document the shipping journey in this blog but as we are still in the process of bringing Curare home we haven’t had much free time for writing. Hoping to get back at it in January.

Wishing everyone a calm and peaceful 2023, and now that we are home for a while please come for a visit.

Linda and Geoff

Homeward Bound

After 15 years of adventure we can say with certainty that Curare is heading for home. In September we made the decision that neither the boat nor her crew were interested in making the sea voyage back across the Atlantic. Due to our three month time limit within the Schengen area, and our own laziness, we had not been keeping up with proper maintenance because we had found it difficult to find competent and available mechanics, riggers, electricians, etc. The marinas and boat yards in Europe did not seem to have the repair facilities that we have seen elsewhere in our travels. While away from Curare we had left instructions for varnishing, sail repair and canvas work but when we returned the work was only partially completed, was poorly done, or wasn't done at all. Curare was desperate for some quality time with her crew, and Europe was not the place for that.

But also, after having sailed to remarkable places, enjoyed spectacular scenery and shared experiences with other cruisers in remote locations, we have come to the realization that we are not young cruisers any longer and it is time to start working on the rest of our bucket list. There are hikes we want to tackle, safaris to go on, gardens to grow and, more than anything, some of the most beautiful waters to sail at home in British Columbia.

This post is long overdue, it was written by GG at the end of October, but LE just couldn't post it, it was the end of her dream and posting made it real. However it has all happened and Curare is back in North America, although not yet on the west coast. We will write more about her journey later, complete with pictures, but that's all for now.

Real Club Nautico de Palma de Mallorca

After being at anchor for the past several weeks it was time for Curare and her crew to head into a marina to get cleaned up and ready for the next adventure. Since we were in the Bahia de Palma we searched through our Navily app for a suitable place stay for a week. Palma is an enormous, actually ginormous, superyacht basin. There are literally hundreds and possibly a thousand super yachts moored to the docks around the bay but mainly within the port area of Palma. The Port of Palma has an impressive superyacht work yard where the boats can be fixed up after the summer in the Med before heading across to the Caribbean for the winter cruising season. It boasts three travel lifts, numerous cranes and 50 or more boats greater than 100 feet on the hard in various states of repair, renovation, maintenance and painting. The possibility of getting any work done on 36 foot Curare was essentially zero. Why would a repairman bother with our steering wheel reconstruction for a few hundred Euro when there are multi million Euro projects to be had everywhere. Back to doing repairs ourselves I guess.

So, along with the superyachts come super high costs to moor. Fortunately there are still a few small boat basins in the bay and we managed to secure space within the Real Club Nautico de Palma de Mallorca, a member of the International Council of Yacht Clubs. When we arrived on our scheduled day we were greeted by a marinero in a inflatable that guided us to a small (very small) space between two sailboats. After a bit of maneuvering we managed to get Curare squeezed in and tied bow to the dock. Within minutes the hose was running and the washing began, we hadn't been to a marina since we left Tunisia and Curare was looking rather grubby. Our berth was near the end of a very long dock and we had a great view as sail and power boats went in and out of the marina, but it was a long, long walk to the bathroom and showers.

The RCNP is a huge marina and yacht club, the oldest and largest in the Balearic Islands, founded in 1948. It's most famous member is the King of Spain - his majesty Juan Carlos - but we did not get to meet him. There are berths for nearly 1,000 boats ranging from 15 feet to 70 feet, and around 30% of these are reserved for non-members. It is the host facility for national and international regattas, hosting three regattas in the eight days we were there, and daily sail training took place in Optimists, Lasers, 29ers and 49ers. As reciprocal club members we were permitted into the elegant clubhouse were we enjoyed a nice lunch one afternoon, but we did not have use of the two swimming pools or the gymnasium. This did not bother us we were far too busy cleaning, repairing and getting Curare ready for another trip.

Train Ride and a Hike

To get away from our seemingly endless boat tasks while anchored out in Mallorca we decided to take a day off and travel to the town of Soller on a narrow gauge railway, and then go for a quick 5 km hike on the Barranc de Biniaraix trail. The railway trip, the community of Soller and this hike are all tourist destinations - we were not doing anything out of the ordinary.

The train leaves from the city of Palma, Mallorca winding north to Soller through the Serra de Tramuntana mountains via 13 tunnels ranging in length from 30 to 2,900 meters. The town of Soller is located in a fertile valley which grows olives, lemons and oranges and in the early 1900's business was booming. Transportation of product to Palma was the bottleneck because this lucrative merchandise had to be moved to the south coast by donkey cart.

In 1911 construction began on a narrow gauge railway and it was officially opened in 1912. Today it is one of the few private rail lines in Spain and although it no longer transports fruit, it still uses the original wooden cars to transport day trippers. We left Palma at 10:10 AM, the trip took 1 hour and 10 minutes, we wandered through the town avoiding the tourist shops but stopped to buy 2 rolls of much needed electrical tape at a ferreteria, a couple of bocadillas (tiny sandwiches) at a patisseria, and walked 40 minutes to the small town of Biniaraix to start our hike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LE had spent the previous day gathering information about this circular route hike and storing it on her phone, but she forgot to take her phone. Luckily her memory is still mostly intact and we found the trail-head despite the non-existent direction signs. The recommended hiking direction is counter clockwise so that the roughest part of the trail is encountered while hiking uphill. The down hill part is like a paved highway of cobblestones. We did not walk at a rapid pace and LE stopped to take many, many photos of the olive groves, the dry stack stone terraces and walls, and the Soller valley far below. Various reports said it could be completed in a little over two hours, we took two and a half hours - slowing down a little after LE blew out her hiking sandal but could continue onward after GG repaired it with the newly purchased electrical tape. The highlight of the trek was the downhill part where we were walking alongside a small river, the Torrent de Biniaraix, which at one point went through a narrow canyon, the Barranc de Biniaraix. In the spring and early summer this river has waterfalls and small pools for swimming, when we went in mid-October it was dry, but it was still enchanting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were finished our hike with plenty of time to enjoy a frosty beer at a local cafe, to check out the free Picasso and Jean Miro art museums in the train station, and to go to a grocery store to buy a bottle of bleach for cleaning the boat. Our return train to Palma left at 5:15 PM.