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Travel
Fighting the tide

We got a bit of a late departure on our trip to the broken group this morning, leaving at 10am. We passed Moon Shadow off Sidney, then alternated motoring and sailing down Cordova Channel in light south westerlies. In Haro straight the winds increased to 15-20 knots, so we started to sail consistently. We made […]

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Learning
Stripping down and oiling up

Scream's toe-rail was covered in cetol varnish, which is a perfectly reputable product that we used to great effect on Wai Whare, our previous boat. However, the cetol was starting to lift after years of wear and we wanted to try something else. Some of our friends had recommended Penofin, which is an oil. The […]

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Learning
Up There and Back Again - Varnishing the Mast

The captain was kind enough to haul be up the mast three times today as I sanded, cleaned, and varnished the mast. We started by lightly sanding with a 220 grit sandpaper to scuff up the existing coats of varnish. The sanding was just enough to make the varnish a little rough and white/grey from […]

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Swiftsure

No, Scream is not participating in this year's Swiftsure International Yacht Race. However, Steven crews on local RVYC boat Stimulus for Wednesday night racing, and they are competing in Swiftsure.I managed to get some great footage & shots of Stimulus (sporting number 275) as I braved the winds on Dallas Road this morning. Since they […]

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Learning
Making a splash at the docks

When we returned from our most recent trip to Bedwell Harbour, we were a little apprehensive about docking the Big Boat for the first time by ourselves. The wind was blowing fairly strongly, even in the harbour, but as we made our approach, things seemed to be going well. Thankfully, Donna Gail, the very large […]

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Learning
A visitor and a diesel

Marc A few weeks ago, our friend Marc visited us from Vancouver. Now a librarian, Marc once apprenticed as an electrician, and we hoped we could press-gang him into service. As it turned out, he was a great crew member, and we'd be happy to kidnap him have him back any time. We poked at […]

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Travel
Our first gale

After finally getting the engine up and running, we set out for part of the April long weekend on our first trip by ourselves. As usual, we were hoping to get to Montague Harbour, and as usual, we ended up at Bedwell Harbour. We had some trouble with the placement of our new dinghy, so […]

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Learning
Diesel Maintenance

We knew when we bought the boat that there was some maintenance that needed to be done on the engine. But, in our haste to use the boat, we put it off. Of course, like all things, that meant that a couple of weeks ago, the engine stalled, right as we were trying to leave […]

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Fun
Run Aground!

We acquired a fourth boat, or fifth depending on how you want to count them. In addition to Scream, we own Wai Whare, two dinghys and an offshore life raft. The latest arrival is Gone Fission, an 8 foot Walker Bay plastic rowing dinghy with inflatable tubes on the sides and sails! Scream came without […]

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Learning
Surveys

We hired a surveyor to inspect Scream before we purchased her. We're not experts in boat maintenance and we were enamoured with the boats, so we wanted an objective, expert opinion. We called a number of surveyors. They were recommended to us by our broker, our insurance agent, and by friends. Surveyors supervise repairs paid […]

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