As I sit here looking out on another rainy Vancouver day I’m not sure how we managed to arrange such a great weekend of weather for our latest instalment of the May Cruise, but I’m not complaining. We had some rain Saturday night once the boats were anchored, but I’m convinced that’s just fate confirm my choice to sail aboard the Hunter, with its fully-covered cockpit.
The weekend started with Vikings and guests converging on Port Sidney Marina and the Rumrunner Pub. Boats where checked out and provisioned with too much food and alcohol, and the group gathered at the pub for a drink and some dinner. Having learned my lesson with one or two ‘first-morning-of-the-May-Cruise-hangovers’ I kept the celebration to a minimum and left the tequila shots to the more hardy (or less experienced) among us. If anyone wants details of the evening past 10pm they’ll have to talk to Matt.
The next morning we were up bright and early and off the dock by shortly after 9am. The wind wasn’t great so there was some motoring to do to get to our destination at Wallace Island. All the boats in the fleet arrived within 30 minutes of each other, including Gary’s boat Querida. Most of the boats rafted together before settling down to the business of making dinner.
As many of you know in the past we’ve held a beach barbecue on the first night of the cruise, but in all the cruises I’ve been on I’ve never seen one where cooking took less than an hour. This year we decided to remain close to our gas-powered barbecues and stoves to avoid the pain of those tiny disposable things which have been the cause of so much hunger in the past.
Sunday brought great winds (close to 20 knots) and an opportunity for Resolution (the Hunter 41 and slow boat of the fleet) to school Lucy Jane (the Bavaria 37) on proper sailing techniques (history is written by the organizers, I believe the saying goes?) as we beat into the wind before anchoring for lunch. Our 2IC Nicole then calmly sailed Resolution off her anchor before heading out to complete an afternoon of great sailing.
That evening the five boats converged on Poet’s Cove Marina where showers and hot tubs were had, dinner was eaten, and the many of Vikings, generally worn out from sailing or a little too much celebration the night before, enjoyed a quiet evening in. Again, for a recap of the evening’s events after 10pm please contact Matt.
The next day we made our way back to Sidney marina. The winds picked up and the three charter boats — Resolution, Lucy Jane, and Kerkyra (a Hanse 40) spent an hour or two sailing up and down off the coast. We were NOT racing. But I’m pretty sure Resolution won. (To the crew of the Hanse — stay tuned for classes on how to efficiently tack a boat.) Sailing (not racing) complete, we headed into harbour to get packed and clean the boats up.
The traditional round up of leftover food donations for Freya put a big smile on Colin’s face as he prepared Freya for her next cruise to Port Renfrew. Strangely there was no alcohol left, but they did score a whole pie.
I’ve sent out a survey to gauge how will the cruise went. So far we’re at 15 responses and everyone has stated they’ll join another May Cruise in the future. For those of you who hesitated this year, I’ll leave you with some parting quotations from the survey so far …
“I had an absolutely tremendous time – please pass on thanks to all the people who made it happen.”
“The charter boats this year were excellent. The cruise was well organized. I liked the rafting up.”
“The 2010 May Cruise was excellent and the boats were in great condition.”
“It was a truly great time!”
“Couldn’t ask for more.”
Alex Hamer
Staff Captain
staffcaptain@vikingsailingclub.bc.ca
