The Adventures of Vakasa and Crew: May 2013

Learning things about your self is one of the huge perks of taking part in a “Great Adventure”. And what an adventure this has been:

11 ½ months of cruising (we left our dock in Victoria on May 15 of last year)
5230 nautical miles covered (that’s almost 10,000 kilometers….about the distance, by road, from Vancouver to Halifax and back. And we did it at an average speed of 6 kts or 10 km/hr)
113 ports and anchorages visited (during 2 months in Canada; 3 months in USA, and 6 1/2 months in Mexico)
2000 litres of fuel used
169 books read (Kathy 166, Tony 3)
720 cervazas consumed (Kathy 3, Tony 717….just kidding!)
18 equipment failures (with only 248 swear words spoken)
250 straight days of sunshine (we experienced a light drizzle way back the end of August, 2012, but since then it’s been sun, sun, sun)
Countless sea life viewings (dolphins, killer whales, humpback whales, sea otters, seals, sea lions, turtles, sea rays, etc…..)
4 fish caught (OK….we still haven’t quite got the hang of this!)

We could go on and on, but we think that you’ve probably got the picture; we’ve had a fabulous time. So what have we learnt about ourselves, you ask?

We don’t like long distance cruising. After 3 to 4 hours at the helm we start to go a little squirrelly and we’re looking to get off the boat and do something different. This is a little tough (not to mention dangerous) if you’re out in the middle of the ocean.

We positively despise overnight cruising. We are not, never have been, and never will be, good at losing sleep. A night or two of getting up for a couple 3 hour watches puts both of us in a cranky mood.

Despite meeting a myriad of wonderful new friends, 6 months is a long time to be gone from our family and friends at home. We won’t tell them that we miss them because that would just go to their heads, but the truth is…..well……we miss them!

We also miss boating in the Pacific Northwest. The beauty of cruising amongst hundreds of islands; the challenge of big tides and currents, narrows, rapids, rocks and reefs; the serenity and comfort of secluded and sheltered anchorages; the diversity of activities once we are anchored.

So, we have decided to do an “About Face” and bring Vakasa home. We will reinvent the adventure and start planning 5—6 months of Pacific Northwest cruising each year. It will include a new PNW boat .We will miss Vakasa, but the change in plans and venue is too exciting to allow us to feel too sad. Tony will have to give up his 365 days a year of sunshine and Kathy will have to live without the romance of exotic sounding destinations, but getting back to cruising “our style” will be more than worth it.

So now all we have to do is actually get ourselves and the boat home, which isn’t the easiest task with Kathy, “the one-armed sailor”. But when the body is unwilling sometimes the wallet has to be and we’ve hired a delivery crew to bring Vakasa north. In fact, we watched in awe yesterday, as she sailed away without us. Part of us expected that she would get a few hundred yards out and then just refuse to go any further without her loyal crew aboard….sort of like the Lone Ranger’s horse, Trigger. But no, even Vakasa realizes that it’s time to move on to a new adventure!

Thanks to everyone who has followed along with our journey. It’s been a blast. We should be home by the middle of May and we’ll let you know what comes next.

Kathy, Tony and Rizzo