This summer was filled with excitement as I traveled around Canada for 18 days! 10 of those days were on a sailboat, over my birthday, which was a dream come true. I wanted to share some of my adventures, and my fellow trainee in my watch, has written about our trip perfectly. She has given me permission to post them here. I hope you all enjoy reading them! Mahalo, Nicole!!!!
"This is the Pacific Swift! She is anchored here at Klemtu, a small town where we stopped for a night (and that is another fantastic and slightly surreal story… I’ll get there!).
If you want to see her under sail, check out the SALTS website: http://salts.ca/media2/images/850/pacific_swift/james-maya-swift3.jpg.
She’s a topsail schooner (the Pacific Grace is a gaff-rigged schooner, like the Bluenose on the back of the dime). Her sparred length is 111’ (that’s the length from the tip of the jib boom at the bow to the tip of the main boom at the stern) and deck length is 81’. Her beam is 20’ 6”, her draught 10’ 6”, and she displaces 98 tons. She has 3316 sq ft of sails (and the trysail was stowed beneath my bunk…).
We had 35 souls aboard (oh, what a splendid sight)—5 crew, 4 volunteer crew, 26 trainees. The trainees ranged in age from 13 to 25 and the oldest crew members were 28 (we celebrated 4 birthdays during the trip… lots of cake and spontaneous singing!). We sailed a total of 543 nautical miles through inland waters and on the open ocean, with 2 nights at sea (another great story there).
Here’s a plug for the program: If you have kids between 13 – 25, or you’re between 13 – 25 yourself, I will unreservedly recommend SALTS. If you want to hear more, just ask me! Their website is here: www.salts.ca."
~Nicole
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