Off the Boat - Whew!! - What a year!

Hi; We are sorry about no additions to our blog for the last year. We have been off the boat since last march. And.... to tell the truth, we have been busy!!
We took a quick trip to France in April to look at  aluminum sailboats and catamarans.        We are trying to decide what type of boat would best take us safely and securely around the world. We had a great time looking at sailboats and just diddling around playing tourist. We basically did a full circle of France including the Spanish Basque country, the Pyrenees, Andorra, through the south of France, over to Switzerland including the North Face of the Eiger (yes, we took the train up inside the mountain), through Chamonix and back to a Catamaran Boat Show at Le Grand Motte in Montpellier in the south of France. Then back to Paris and home.        I'm sure we have been blacklisted by the car rental company.
One of our most embarrassing moments was following our GPS (blindly) in Pamplona, Spain, where they have the running of the bulls. We were searching out Hemingway's favourite bar and ended up happily in front until we realized we had somehow driven inside the centre of a 3 block 'walking only' area. Some, not so nice, Spanish Policia showed us how to duck out ungracefully. In Switzerland we went to Grindenwald and saw the North Face of the Eiger, a legendary mountain where over 63 climbers have died. We toured Geneva but truly enjoyed Lucerne. We set the GPS for the "Shortest Distance" and ended up on all the little back roads, over mountain tops and through amazing quaint little, centuries old, stone villages.      This is our little rental car on a narrow '2 way' road.

The Normandy Beach monuments were eerie. The amount of marble crosses staggering. As My father and Sharen's grandfather were in this war we were very interested in seeing as much as we could.

We were toured thru the Allures Boatyard by the owner, the sailboat we specifically went over to see. It is an amazing boat. Very well built and we were very much attracted to it except that it did not have the large amount of interior space that our present boat has, so we declined. Sharen refuses to give up her closet space.

We toured the western shore and especially enjoyed Mont St Michel.      This is a centuries old monestery built on an island with a small causeway linking it to the mainland.  When the seas are up you can't cross for the waves spilling over the road!  In the "olden days" ( as the grand kids say) you had to row yourselves over. After trudging through the narrow cobble stone streets and up several flights of stone stairs we arrived at one of the old inns in the castle. Neat. The rooms were small of course but very comfortable and we had an amazing view of the sea and the main land. 
La Rochelle and Les Sables on the western seaboard were exceptionally interesting. This is the centre of sailboat racing activity in France. It is where many of the "around the world" sailing races start. This is a carbon fiber race boat and was one of many in the marina. The marinas were many but the downtown waterfront cafes out numbered them by the hundreds and were absolutey the best we have ever seen. Another huge thrill was seeing Bernard Moitessier's boat "Joshua". It was under renovation. It has since been completed.Moitessier was probably the actual winner of the first race 'alone' around the world in 1968, but chose to continue around again instead of coming in.  He is quoted as saying "It is not about the finish, it is about the journey". He came in after going 1&1/2 times around, landing in Tahiti.       The other wonderful experience was staying at the Biaritz Castle (now a hotel) built by Napoleon III for his new bride Eugenie. It was quite over the top.       Here I am in my dinner jacket (supplied by the restaurant). This is what I received when I asked for vegetables. Pureed asparagus! We were feeling super extravagant for checking in for one night. We met couples who were there for 2 weeks. Way past us.

We drove south looking for the Basque country and were wonderfully surprised to find exquistely kept farms, beautiful rolling hills and red bandanas worn by all. We stopped in Pied de Port, the start of the final leg of St James Way, the pilgrimage Camino de Santaigo de Compestela.        We met this couple (Australians) who had been walking 20+ miles everyday for the last 2 months. They had started in Switzerland.               This is the "Port" in Pied de Port.
The Pyrenees were awesome. Wonderful villages. Beautiful farms in rolling landscapes.        One of our most frightening experiences was when we broke our cardinal rule of travel. Never drive after dark in a foreign land. We were pushing it thru a shortcut on a backroad in the Pyrenees to get to the next village where we knew there was a nice hotel. We came around a corner and there in the middle of this narrow road was the hugest horse we have ever seen. We slammed on the brakes and stopped just in time. The horse never moved. We had to drive part in the ditch to get around him. All in the pitch dark. Quite un-nerving.

Andorra was amazing.            It is a wee small country in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, in the tiniest valley with a river flowing through it. The town was built over the river and up the valley sides. When driving out of the valley heading to France we came to the ski area.           It was open but very late in the season and the snow looked very slushy so we decided to pass on going skiing.

As mentioned, we journeyed across the centre of France while we waited for a catamaran boat show starting in a week in Montpellier in the south of France. I was focused on visiting Grindinwald and seeing the North Face of the Eiger.         It was amazing. We took the Jungfrau Railway, the world's highest, going up the mountain and on up the inside of the Eiger itself. It was crazy that they had built this in the early 1900's. We could not figure out how it could be economically feasible until we found out it cost us $350 each to go up.         We hiked the top to a fantastic back country hut where climbers were preparing to head out onto the mountain.  The Top Of the World building was filled with numerous frozen tunnels with many ice sculpture  displays.
We visited Geneva and although interesting we were much more impressed with Lucerne.         This is a covered bridge that Sharen remembers from her visit 40+ years ago when she traveled Europe with her nursing friends Grace and Lynn.
 
 We drove thru the St Moritz and the Chamonix Ski areas.  Fun to see.  It would have been better if we had enough time to ski them.  But.  It was late in the season. Driving thru all the backroads, we ended up in some neat spots.   Once we dead ended at the entrance to the Rothschild Mansion.  It was amazing.

We stopped in Avignon to see the bridge. 
 Arriving back in Montpellier for the Catamaran Show, we were treated to a ride on the new Outremer 49.  This was an unbelievable experience.         We were consistantly over 10 knots and once we even exceeded 14 knots.  A normal sailing vessel does between 5 and 8 knots.
 The one that caught our eye was the new Dean Catamaran 50. It was by far the sexiest looking boat at the show.         We had a lot of emails flying back and forth to South Africa with the owner and they were offering us a great deal.  We finally decided it was just too big.

 Leaving the boat show we drove back to Paris, stopping in Versaillies.         This is one of this world's most beautiful places but one is struck by the extravagance.  Built to fulfil the whims of an egocentric king to the burden of the peasantry of
France.

 Next we drove northeast of Paris to Giverny to see the resplendent gardens of Monet. As much as the Eiger was the epitomy of our trip for me, this was it  for Sharen.   She is a big Monet fan and we both truly enjoyed our day in the gardens.  


On our drive back to Paris we stopped in the beautiful, tranquil village of Fourges, which we happened to come across in our backroad wonderings as we journied towards the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris .            It seemed to be a spot many Parisians come for an outing.  We glanced back and noticed a couple who were picnicing in a field with their helicopter nearby.            I guess if you have it....

Well, in 2011 we most certainly felt like we were part of the jet crowd.  We flew from Europe, back to Edmonton and then 2 days later we were off to Kauai to join Nicki and family.       She had asked us to come help with the grandkids while both her and Aaron were attending conferences.  Becky and David, not wanting to be left out, decided to come also. Here is Max (and his biggest fan Maddie) attempting to scale a palm tree to get a coconut.            This is David with a Max bobblehead.
Here Becky and David are off for an outing with their chaperone.

We had an exceptional summer. We started with the wonderful wedding of our daughter Becky to the love of her life, David.        With a lovely and exquisitely beautiful bride, a very handsome groom, it was a gorgeous wedding, a fun reception with great speeches and dancing to the wee hours. It was great to have all our family from eastern Canada attend.  The partying was non stop.  It started with the rehearsal party at our friends Terry and Theresa.         As with her sister Nicki's wedding, we had an after wedding party the next night at our house complete with a band, and lots more dancing.   The next day we had an amazing dinner prepared in the outside kitchen at friends Neil and Terry's for our whole families.
Too much fun.

As we were having renovations done to our house our countractor asked us to move out  so, after Becky and David's wedding and, after moving everything into storage, we flew to Nova Scotia where we enjoyed time at our family's cottages, seeing our Dads and attending our High School Reunion.    Linking up with school chums we haven't seen for 40+ years was truely a special time. Sharen also had a get together with her close nursing chums.
  We had a wonderful visit (and some great parties) with our sailing friends Gerry & Isolde from Northern Sky. Gerry is a terrific entertainer.

We had heard about Pollet's Cove and we decided to hike in for an overnight camping trip.   An awesome area. We were thrilled to share our camping spot with 4 wild horses.        In August Grandad Lipton had his 95th birthday party.        He was his normal fun self.  It was great to see all our extended families who joined us at Sally and Bob's country home to help us celebrate our wonderful father.

We found out the house renos in Edmonton were still not complete so we decided to take a trip.  Vienna sounded like a great idea and from Halifax the price was really good.  We enjoyed two wonderful classical orchestras celebrating Strauss and Mozart.        We fulfilled a dream and took a Danube River Cruise up the Wachau district from Krems to Milkt.        This area is heralded as the most beautiful section of the Danube.   Durnstein Castle where Richard The Lionheart was imprisoned, gilded churches, exotic river cruise liners and nude swimmers. Lots to see.  We rented a car and drove thru the back roads of Austria, through Slovenia, and then on thru Croatia and Bosnia to Dubrovnic.   An amazing adventure.   The riverside open air restaurants were to die for.        We thought we have a pretty good life in Canada.  They certainly showed us.  Wow!!  The seaside villages, the gravel beaches, the old castles were beautiful. Everything was wonderfully clean.   This is a photo of Bled Castle in Slovenia. There was a rowing championship while we were there and Canada did very well.  

We arrived back in Edmonton in September and our contractor was still not close to being done so he had to deal with us underfoot for a bit.  Needless to say we were not happy as we had our son Richie's wedding to his long longtime girlfriend and the love of his life (and ours) Ashleigh, soon approaching.

And... We now have 3 beautiful Grandchildren!!  Elle Jasmine was born to Becky and David on Nov 1. At 6 lbs, 4 oz, she is a dazzling, blue eyed, perfectly beautiful baby.  She fits in well.       Here she is with proud cousins Max and Maddie.

Our house renos were finally completed about 2 days before our next big event of 2011 on 11/11/11. Richie and Ashleigh's wedding was a pulchritudinous celebration. A spendidly beautiful bride and a very, very handsome groom.        We had a wonderful rehearsal party and a spectacular beautiful wedding and reception. Tearful speeches and knockout dancing until the wee hours. And again, an after party with a band and more dancing the next night. We were very excited to have our entire families (excepting our dads) come once again.        While the bride and groom escaped to Hawaii for their honeymoon, we capped off the festivities with all our families going to Las Vegas before heading back home.   Both weddings were so much fun we are now looking to adopt so we can do it all again.

As much as we all knew it was inevitable, and we hoped it would not happen for many years to come, our father, grandfather, great grandfather and much loved patriarch of our family, Grandad Lipton passed away on Christmas Eve. He was telling jokes with his own special kind of humour til the end.           A wonderful, full life to be envied by all that knew him. We miss him terribly. A wonderful funeral and send off and we will sing his songs and tell his stories forever.

On February 1st we returned to the boat to get it ready for another wonderful season of sailing.
It seems the yard that was working on the boat went to the same school as our house renovator. Lots still to be done when we arrived. Sister Sally and brother in law Bob joined us.        We worked with the yard, canceled a number of projects and finally convinced them to drop it in the water where it looked much more at home. While the last bit of work was being completed, we were docked in front of a frightening old rust bucket freighter that was some 70 ft high and 300 ft long. It scared us every night as it groaned and swung and moved like it was going to run over us in the wind. A few short days after we left we heard from the yard that it decided to roll forward and sink, right where we were docked. We would have been crushed.
       We sailed off at the first good weather window for Great Harbour Cay in the Berry Islands. The entrance is through a 50' wide canal that was blasted out to bring us into a calm, placid lake with a marina at its far end. We met some interesting cruisers including friends of Bob and Sally's from their days when they lived in Windsor, Ont. We were also privileged to have Jack Nicklaus docked 2 boats down in his M/V Sea Bear. No. He wasn't driving golf balls off his bow into the bay.
Our next port of call was Chub Cay in the south Berry Islands. This is an overbuilt, poorly run marina. It is beautiful but sadly, it is in bankruptcy.
Here we are tied again to land by our electric umbilical cord. Our new batteries, altenator and the balance of the super expensive stuff we had been talked into getting was not working at all. We patched what we could and limped onto Fresh Creek, Andros.  It was a wonderful motor sail  although we had a touch of fear that our motor would quit as we entered the narrow shallow channel thru the reef to the dock . Andros is the largest of the Bahama Islands but very seldom visited. It was very quiet. The Androsian people have a history of being known as the laziest and most selfish people anywhere. One boater told us the Lighthouse Resort and Marina, where we were docked, employed over 20 staff. They did not want anyone to stay there because they would have to clean rooms and laundry. The Dockmaster did nothing except go fishing everyday.       The beautiful restaurant never had anyone eat there and the staff liked it that way so the food was all for them. Of course the resort is owned by the government so life will continue. To get anyone to work on a boat was impossible.  
 This is a trimaran owned by an 82 year old lady who, after a life of sailng the world with her husband, dropped her engine overboard after he died and used it as a mooring. She has been here for the last 6 years. She still free dives for lobster with the locals. We dinghied by to say hello and after a bit she appeared, apologizing for the delay. She said she was down below "buck naked", painting the interior.

Sally and Bob enjoyed a few days to themselves as Sharen and I flew off to Georgetown to visit some close boating friends. We had planned on being there with our boat prior to them flying off to the US where they had commitments. Our troubles with the boatyard had delayed us terribly.
It was great to see them after their travels across the Caribbean from the ABC's to Haiti. They were off to the US for a time and our planned boating schedules were not due to cross in the near future. We did lots of contriving on when and where we would link up. Great fun.
Georgetown had almost 300 sailboats who had arrived for the annual Family Island Regatta. 

On our return to Fresh Creek we departed for the Exumas to gunkhole our way down the islands. Sal and Bob were anxious to find sand and beaches and there are thousands of world renown beaches in the Exumas. We had a wonderful sail and motor sail across to Allen and Highbourne Cay.  Highbourne is a private island. It is exquisitely groomed and well cared for. The only mode of transport is golf carts.        We partied at the new open air restaurant and bar with cruisers from the 100+ ft yachts anchored off. And these people do like to party. (We took this picture just before dark.) There was also a National Geographic team there doing a shoot on the island with models in scanty bikinis. (Oh this life is tough sometimes!) 
Next day we moved on  to Sampson Cay, another private island owned by a ridiculously wealthy individual from Maine. We dinghied to another neighbouring private island called Over Yonder Island. This one is quite nuts. They have their own wind mills, a huge array of solar panels and the houses were way beyond belief. It is owned by a Texan who appears to have done well for himself. Nearby is Bell Island, famous for having recently been purchased by the Aga Khan. He is overdeveloping it to attract the world's richest. It is close to Little Halls Cay, the island owned by one Johnny Depp.
In Sampson we were fortunately referred to a sailor who turned out to be an electrical genius. He became our savior. He and his wife owned a neighbouring sailboat.  He understood all boating issues and systems better then anyone we have ever met. He sourced out and fixed every problem we had on the boat, rewiring (correctly) all the screwups done by the boatyard. We learned a lot. He solved our solar charging, our new Balmer installations and our missing AC power issues. He was quite incredible. We are now very happy boaters. Now if the weather would cooperate we could actually go someplace.