Trip 2

Wow.

Two down three to go. This is the point in the summer, when you can't believe how little time you have left in the season. It's really like one big long trip, since leaving Victoria this time means I won't be back again until September, and then its a month and half worth of trips before the sails will come off again.
Trip 2 was great, visiting the old desolation haunts one more time, enjoying the sun while always praying for a little more wind... We had fantastic volunteers again, they really make the trip amazing. We always joke about how fabulous it would be if we could stock pile volunteers so by the end of the summer we would have 5 bosun's mates and assistant cooks, 10 watch leaders, etc. I think we don't do this because we would be laughing so hard we would never get anywhere. Gong show!
After only a few days back in Victoria, I'm already looking forward to being back on the water again. Being in town makes me realize all the things that are STILL on my to do list... like travel visas and forms and banking...ugh

I'm learning to play the fiddle

Please pray for my roomate, Kara... I've rented a violin

Trip 1

Back to the routine of summer. Its glorious, and really not so much of a routine at all. It is fantastic to be back into a longer trip after so many shorter three day ones. The summer trips are my favourite part about working for SALTS, I figure the longer the trip the better. You can get to know everyone so much more and relationships onboard develop so much deeper as well. Not to mention the fact that one can reap the benefits of all the teaching they do and not have to start all over every three days. It was a such a treat to be able to furl the topsails and headsails with trainees and then have them jumping at the gun to be able to go and do it by themselves the next time.

The first trip of the summer was full of all its usual shananigans and colourful characters,

Let me introduce you to:



RICO! ROSALITA! and CHANCHO!

not to mention was blessed with an unusual amount of wind.

The inside passage trips up to Desolation can be quite flat, but we were able to have worthwhile sails 7 of 9 days with a special treat of sailing all the way down the Georgia Strait averaging around 6 kts on our way back to Victoria. We hit up all the favourite spots: Savary Island (a glorious beach), Tenedos Bay and Unwin lake (possible my favourite anchorage in Desolation), Teakerne Arm and the waterfalls from Cassel Lake, and Hornby Island (another amazing beach, and with an icecream store to boot!)

We were blessed with four stellar volunteers and a whole boat load of amazing trainees who really bought into the program and where excited and up for anything.

This trip really drove home what it is about this program that I love. It's all the relationships that are made, the community that is developed, seeing people being challenged and learning from them, hearing peoples stories and sharing in a part of their life.