... try and find us

Canmore is still beautiful ...and back in Canada we land, and promptly both get sick!  A BIG thank you to Ruth and Terry for allowing us to hole up at your place while we recuperated.  Nothing like the joy of house guests coughing and snivelling. It's hard to stop snapping pictures ...  ... particularly when the weather is so glorious. Upon recovery, it was a whirlwind of life administration - renewing passports, drivers' licence, doctor, dentist, optometrist, accountant, bank.... everything to keep the plates spinning.  We voted in the municipal election and caught up with friends and family, slipping in a 65th birthday party and a high school reunion. Engadine Lodge, a five-star backcountry lodge, the perfect place for a school reunion We may be a few years older, but we can still winter hike! Mountain Sheep on Highwood Pass Packed lunch (Thanks Engadine Lodge staff!) at the Peter Lougheed Discovery Centre Looking through school...

Chinook's travels to date - 5000nm, 10 countries and we are yet to leave Europe! All too soon the days are getting shorter, the leaves are starting to change and there is a chilly nip in the air.  Time to head south - waaaay south, so far to the south that we're going by plane!  But what of Chinook ? She needs to be lifted for some routine maintenance such as bottom paint and anode replacement.  So, since we need to lift her anyway, we have decided to go to Australia for Christmas and leave her on the hard.  And since she is on the hard and it's summer in Australia, we have decided to leave her until the Spring so we can laze on the beach rather than shiver through another European winter. At the suggestion of friends, we decided to leave her in The Netherlands, in a little town called Elburg.  Elburg is a ridiculously quaint town dating from neolithic times and its current grid pattern dates from the 14th century.  It was a coastal port and part o...

  Are you sure we will fit through there?? Scurrying in front of the storm, we wiggled our way through the sand bars of the Waddensee and through the Lorentzsluis into the IJsselmeer.  We had a glorious sail across the IJsselmeer - it is very shallow but thanks to our awesome lifting centreboard, there were no problems with zipping across the 2m deep water. Well protected from Storm Amy in the old harbour, particularly after they closed the lock Here is the old lock entrance. We navigated this BEFORE we got to the drawbridge.  Whew! Chinook safely alongside in the Old Harbour As the storm was approaching, the harbourmaster came 'round and warned us that the lock doors at the harbour entrance would be closed for the next three days in case of a storm surge.  Unless we left in the next two hours, Chinook was staying for the duration. Not a problem - we will just have a good reconnoiter of this lovely little town. Just in from the harbour is w...

The BLUE dot is Chinook. After a glorious night (despite having to motor) with a sky sparkling with stars and the sea filled with phosphoresence,  we wiggled through the narrow channels and arrived in Vlieland, The Netherlands.  Vlieland is one of the barrier islands separating the North Sea from the Wadden Sea and is a popular place to visit during the summer.   The Netherlands! Being a beautiful, sunshiny day, we pulled out the bikes and went for a ride.  Only residents are allowed to have cars on the island so most people travel by bike.   Saying g'day to the locals Flat and car-free riding - just gorgeous Windswept dunes and wide, sandy beaches Oost-Vlieland is the only village on the island A perfect way to take in the view and people watch Next to us in the harbour was a Grand Banks 46 owned by the charming Peter.  With armloads of charts, he came aboard and gave us lots of local insights. He kindly left us with his chart book of the IJsselm...

Guess where?! The Germans have very kindly built a canal shortening our trip into The North Sea by nearly 300 nautical miles.  The Kiel Canal was built in the late 1800s and is large enough to accommodate ocean-going ships.  It runs from Kiel in the north to Brunsbüttel at the mouth of the Elbe River which leads to the Port of Hamburg.  It is said to be the world's busiest man-made water way. Fun! Officially left the Baltic Sea! We hovered around the sea lock waiting for the combination of lights that would allow us to enter.  It was us, a small tourist paddle-boat and two other yachts in the 310 metre-long lock so it was very straight forward.  The water level drop was not very much (30 - 45 centimetres) and before we knew it, we were motoring out into the canal - a big, wide canal with big ships and lots of industry. The Kiel Canal (source: Wikipedia) The Kiel Canal can be traversed in a day but rather than push through the 60 nautical miles, we opte...

With the wind on our beam, we sailed along the south coast of Sweden and cut through the Falstrebo Canal from The Baltic to Öresund. The canal is short but has a bridge obstructing the passage. It's always nice to see it all the way open! The canal has an interesting story.  During WW II, the Germans did not recognise the Swedish four-nautical-mile offshore fishing limit so, just for good measure, mined the waters up to three miles from the Swedish shore.  This caused problems for shipping around the Falstrebo Isthmus due to the shallow water. So the Swedes built a canal! Great for us as it cut off some distance and we avoided the choppy waters that the shallow area around the isthmus is known for. We saw FORESTS of wind turbines.  Lots of wind here, so endless electrical generation. The Øresund Bridge is an impressive structure, together with the Øresund Tunnel , it connects Denmark and Sweden by road.  We didn't sail under it, but quite close t...