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This summer my husband, Paul, and I bought our fourth offshore cruising boat, a new Southerly 480 built by Discovery Yachts in the UK.
Read more: Mediterranean Shakedown: A Summer Cruise in Spain
This month, Spirit of Portopiccolo, steered by Furio Benussi, with Alberto Bolzan at the mainsail, and tacticians Lorenzo Bressani and Gabriele Benussi, won the 50th edition of Barcolana, the largest regatta in the world held in Trieste, Italy
I don’t know what I expected the first time we made landfall in the Canary Islands but I have to admit that after sailing from the lush mid-Atlantic island of Madeira, I was seriously surprised when the barren desert-like landscapes of the Canary Islands came into view.
We did breakfast yesterday in the Greek port of Piraeus, just outside Athens:strong coffee, crisp bacon, fresh bread, and omelets spiked with Feta Cheese.
After much speculation Prince Harry finally popped the question to American actress and longtime Toronto resident Meghan Markle and people are EXCITED.
We had been out on the ocean for 17 days, just the two of us, keeping watch around the clock. One of us was always asleep while the other kept a sharp...
The sun rises over green hump-backed hills, backbone of an island called Prvic in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of Croatia, in the region of Dalmatia. We’ve docked overnight in one of the most beautiful cruising grounds in the world. The hills look across a blushing expanse of water riffled by winds whose names we discovered yesterday morning at the chart briefing that began our Sunsail charter flotilla near a village called Primosten.
By Greg NicollIt was great to get back on Le Boat this past summer, this time on the historic Thames River. Our vessel was the Royal Mystique, a 43 footer with everything we needed for a week’s cruise in style.
John Burns, an English politician and noted London historian from the late 19th century coined the phrase “The Thames is a liquid history.”
Paul and I seem to love the extremes of cruising – long ocean passages where our skills and stamina are tested followed by lots of gunkholing where we poke along exploring creeks, rivers, cuts and canals to gain insight into the heartland of our destination. Boating began for both of us on the Trent-Severn Waterway in Ontario and after setting sail for foreign ports in 1989 we have travelled through numerous canals including the Erie Canal and Intracoastal Waterway of the USA, the Corinth Canal in Greece,
Completing the Tour of the Six Celtic Nations. Sheryl and Paul Shard continue their sailing adventures with an autumn cruise of the Brittany coast of France aboard their Southerly 49 sailboat, Distant Shores II. It was a chilly and challenging summer aboard our Southerly 49 sailboat, Distant Shores II, exploring the beautiful west coast of Norway as far as 61°N and also the Celtic nations of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Wales and Scotland including the Shetland and Orkney Isles.
Boat Reviews
CY Virtual Video Boat Tours
We all love boats and nothing can break us up! So, what better way to spend our time than looking at interesting boats and going aboard in a virtual ride or tour. We have asked our friends at various dealers and manufacturers to help us assemble a one-stop online resource to experience some of the most interesting boats on the market today. Where the CY Team has done a review, we connect you to that expert viewpoint. If you can’t go boating, you can almost experience the thrill via your screen. Not quite the same, but we hope you enjoy our fine tour collection.
Read more about the CY Virtual Boat Tours....................
AXOPAR 37 XC
Whole new ball game…
Set aside your assumptions and expectations for a few minutes while we try to describe the new Axopar 37 XC that made its American debut at the 2020 Miami International Boat Show. This boat represents a whole new ball game in terms of design, performance, seakeeping and functionality. In fact, I’d say it takes a ‘clean sheet of paper’ approach to boating – it’s that different.
Read More about the Axopar 37 XC..................
The Rideau: Living the Past today
By John Morris
History: right after gym and just before chemistry class. Fifty minutes of naming the prime ministers by date and looking out the window. Who knew it was actually interesting.
And in some ways it hardly matters because the Rideau Waterway is just so amazingly beautiful. Driving your boat through the locks is wonderful fun for kids of all ages (adult kids, too) and the scenery is sensational. The history is a huge bonus however, and worth understanding from both as a political lesson and from an engineering perspective.
Read more about The Rideau...........
Lifestyle
Our boat: A beauty – the 1967 Trojan 42 Motor Yacht
By David and Barb Gamblin
Unknown to us at the time, the quest for VIA-MARA started in 1973 when I saved the back cover of a boating magazine with the advertisement for the Trojan 42 Motor Yacht.
Four boats, and eight years later we went shopping for a Trojan 42 built prior to 1972 (that year the house and binnacle became fiberglass and the bridge window framing changed to (ugh) black anodized aluminum.)
DIY & How to
Ask Andrew – The Bucket
I was cleaning up my workbench the other day. My eyes then scanned across my workbench and fell on ‘the bucket’. Everyone has a one. On a boat, it’s usually in a cockpit lazarette. It’s full of old paint cans and half-used tubes of caulking. There might be some white grease, painters tape or epoxy in there, too. I take my bucket everywhere and it’s full of all sorts of tubes of grease and sealants and adhesives.
I thought to myself that I should probably sort through the bucket and get rid of the stuff that isn’t useful. I quickly realized, though, that each of the items in my bucket (except that had gone bad) were useful, and each is used for a particular job.
Read more about The Bucket..........
Marine Products
Rayplex Gel Kits
Rayplex makes gel coat repair and colour matching easy. Minor gel coat repairs are easy to get professional results.
Available in white, black-gray-white, red and clear (for metal flake) in various sizes and colours. Rayplex gelcoat can be used for repairs above and below the waterline.
Read more about Rayplex Gel Kits..............
