Welcome to my blog!

Back at the end of 2013 I decided (apropos of nothing) that I wanted to live on a sailboat. Armed with only a copy of This Old Boat and my blissful ignorance of anything to do with boats, sailing or handiwork I bought the first boat I looked at, a mere 3 hours drive + 2 hours ferry ride away. What a great idea!

Luckily the boat (a Cherubini designed Hunter 36) turned out not to have anything too disastrously wrong with it, so with a lot of time, money and reading I managed to get it into a livable condition. And then I discovered I liked sailing and decided to sail around the world.

Well, I got as far as Mexico before firstly Brexit and then Covid scuttled my plans. So I sold Gudgeon, the Hunter 36, down in Mexico and am now back in BC with a second boat, a Rafiki 37 called Sooner.

Channel Islands and San Diego

Channel Islands and San Diego

I forgot to post this last update but here is a photo of Sooner in the sunset I mentioned in the last post, taken by MQP. Look at them red over greens Santa Rosa was a cool place - I went on a hike with Phil and Alley and we got to see the 2nd rarest pine tree in the...

Morro Bay CA to The Channel Islands, CA

Morro Bay CA to The Channel Islands, CA

Holy smokes, is this blog being updated? So I realised it's been QUITE the while since I have, partly because Instagram is where I do a lot of posting and also because I went through a bad breakup (longtime readers get to add another checkmark to the count), followed...

Half Moon Bay, CA to Morro Bay, CA

Half Moon Bay, CA to Morro Bay, CA

So we ended up hanging out at Half Moon Bay for quite a while - the anchorage was lovely and sheltered, the yacht club people were incredibly welcoming and friendly (shout out to Karen and Ben) and there was a bunch of crappy swell outside so we thought it best to...

Drakes Bay, CA to San Fran, CA, to Half Moon Bay CA

Drakes Bay, CA to San Fran, CA, to Half Moon Bay CA

I woke up early to leave Drake's Bay - and found it covered in thick fog. Awesome. Actually it was awesome as I got to use my new foghorn for the first time! AND this time there was no Emma around to give me disapproving looks, the perfect combo! I sent Russell and...

Eureka, CA to Drakes Bay, CA

Eureka, CA to Drakes Bay, CA

After almost a week in Eureka. it was time to head out. Holley (my old boat neighbour captaining Maquinna Pt) had finished replacing her transmission so we were going to buddy boat - nothing quite as fun as sailing with someone else! We decided to get the second slack...

Hanging out in Eureka

Hanging out in Eureka

I wasn't going to make this it's own post but so much happened in the following passage (foreshadowing!) that I decided to separate out my stay. Basically we were there for a week, and although the town itself has seen better days (esp the area we were in, oof)...

Neah Bay, WA to Eureka, CA

Neah Bay, WA to Eureka, CA

So before I wrote this I reread my entries from last time, when I hopped from Neah Bay to Astoria, Astoria to Coos Bay and then Coos to Eureka. It is pretty amazing how bad a time I was having, especially on that first leg (also in the last entry I mention having...

Victoria to Neah Bay

Victoria to Neah Bay

As mentioned previously, it was Big Sailing Trip Mk II (this time with less Brexit/Covid). I planned to leave on Monday 28th - however I still hadn't finished redoing my standing rigging (always leave redoing your rigging to the week before your planned departure date...

Update time – return from the dead

Update time – return from the dead

So it's been a hot minute since I've written anything, and the main reason for that is that I decided to try to sail across the Pacific again because of the previous point, I had to do the stuff I did with Gudge over 4 years in a few months so basically, it's been...

Adding a dual racor system to the boat

Adding a dual racor system to the boat

Last year, on the free table at my marina I found the following 'But Matthew', I hear you say, 'That is literally a pile of dirty trash' And I would say - actually, that's the best find I have ever made. Take my hand and let me lead you through the exciting world of...

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