What a spectacular day, yesterday, to spend a few hours sailing on the L'orenda, a 40 foot yawl built by Don Mellor who learned his boatbuilding trade at a Quebec boat building shop. He built the L'Orenda by hand over 8 years in Crescent Beach and has lived on Salt Spring for about 25 years so he knows the Gulf Islands well. The tour is 3.5 hours and costs $69 per person.
I went on this sailboat about 2 years ago and at the time my expectations consisted of going really fast, maybe having the boat tilt with the force of the wind in its sails and seasalted waves spraying the deck. That didn't happen.
Yesterday's mission was more of a fact-gathering exercise. I needed to know more about his boat but I have to say, getting information out of this guy is like herding cats. I mean, tell me some stories, cut the bad jokes and it will all be good but NO...Listen up people. If you ever have anyone want to know something about what you do because they want to write something about it, get very detailed and if you can tell them stories without boring the hell out of them, so much the better, but be specific about the type of materials, the type of customers, any funny anecdotes, what makes you or your boat (business) unique, etc. Coyness? Humbleness? Just screw that. I want the facts, I want what makes you unique and I want them to be interesting. Oy Vay!
I basically gave up on that little exercise, but nevertheless, I did have a good time on the 3.5 hour trip that goes out into the harbour and over to Galiano. There was a couple from Denmark and a woman from Ontario who had just returned from a kayaking trip through the Broughton Archipelego where she had done a three-day kayak trip with her grown daughter and they saw whales about 100 metres from their boats. First they had to drive 6 hour drive from Ucluelet to Telegraph Cove.
The couple Sven and Solveig were from a town called Koege in Denmark and they spoke perfect English and were fun.
Coincidentally, Sven and I both have a degree in Communications and he has been doing Kommunications (his spelling) for 25 years for IT companies in the U.S. Solveig is a family therapist. And, oh yes, I did manage to glean this little bit of info from the skipper: Apparently there is an increased number of therapists, psychiastrists who end up on the L'Orenda for a short R&R interlude. None have abandoned ship yet by diving off so it's all good.
We had a really nice afternoon. It was fun to talk to these visitors and learn about Denmark and to meet Jennifer who has just retired at 58 and figured out that if she rented out her own Cottage on Lake Eerie that she is free to travel for weeks at a time every summer.
And, there really is something ultra relaxing about being out on the water, just being alone with your thoughts and the natural environment or enjoying the others as much, or as little,as you would like.
It was a nice day.