Blend essential oils of : 

• orange – 4-5 drops
• marjoram – 2 drops
• Roman chamomile – 2 drops
• benzoin – 4 drops

in 1 ounce of jojoba oil. Blend well. Add 30 mls unscented hand and body lotion to the mixture. Blend well.

You can purchase unscented hand and body lotion from Green Valley Aromatherapy or from Rae Dunphy. I have been a customer of these Canadian essential oil suppliers for over 10 years. They offer terrific customer service as well as quality products shipped anywhere in the world.

Brooding sunrise

We live surrounded by salt water. I suppose this is obvious when you write about living on a sailboat, but I am trying to make a point here. Where is all this dust coming from? We used to live on an acre of land and never had as much dust as we do on this boat. What gives?

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the topic: “Particles in the atmosphere arise from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind, volcanic eruptions, and pollution. Dust in homes, offices, and other human environments contains small amounts of plant pollen, human and animal hairs, textile fibers, paper fibres, minerals from outdoor soil, and many other materials which may be found in the local environment.”

Bingo. It must be the wind. We have lots of wind here on the edge of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Wikipedia continues to list all the different kinds of dust: domestic, atmospheric, road and even cosmic dust – dust in outer space! However, the following sentence caught my attention: “In addition, if enough minute particles are dispersed within the air in a given area (such as flour or coal dust), under certain circumstances can cause an explosion hazard.“  Wow, now the dust is attacking us! I think I just found my inspiration to step up my cleaning routine.

Dusty propane sniffer

When you live on a sailboat, you bend some of those rules but sometimes you can slip into complacency and before you know it you’re spending too much time at the dock falling back into old habits of being busy with meaningless things that just fill up time.

When you sail on an old, heavy sailboat you need time – lots of time. Time to get somewhere at 5 knots an hour.

This weekend we didn’t have a lot of time, but we did have a need to get away from the dock so we did something we haven’t done very often – we went sailing. Sailing for the sake of sailing. Not pushing ourselves or our boat to meet slack tides or to avoid storm systems; we just went sailing.

A little more wind would have been nice, but the experience was effortless. All three sails balanced so that the boat sailed herself without much assistance from us.

Effortless, like when you hit the sweet spot on a tennis racket. The ball moves across the net with grace and a fluidity that belies the whack that you just gave it. And no matter how many times you try to duplicate the swing, it is never quite the same. The joy is in the unexpected gift of accidental perfection. Maybe when you let go of trying so hard and just “be”, magic happens.

This is how sailing was for us. We came back to the dock with smiles on our faces with our shared experience of accidental perfection.

Accidental perfection

Shades of blue

I stood there for awhile because I knew that this feast of colour would last momentarily as the sun set over the hill behind me.

I have watched this patch of water for the past 2 1/2 years now and it is never the same. Living aboard a boat allows you to have a private conversation with Mother earth and Father sky every day and reminds you that you are a guest in this place.

In addition to the main stage, there are 6 smaller stages that allow the musicians to collaborate in jam sessions and provide instructional workshops. I sought out Dala (Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine) at the Art of Duo workshop and was treated to this beautiful version of Red Is The Rose.

Dala

These two friends from Toronto blend their voices and harmonies, each balancing volume and tone so as not to sing over the other, but to create magic. Goose bump moment.

Sitting under towering Douglas Fir trees listening to this beautiful music, I could feel all boundaries of self melt away until all that was left was Dala’s pure music. It always amazes me that music can touch my soul so deeply. If all the warring people in the world could feel this feeling, surely they would put down their weapons and let their hearts expand to feel the lyrical beauty of music.

On the other end of the scale, was Baskery- three sisters from Sweden: Greta, Stella and Sunniva. You can’t really peg this trio into a musical genre but boy, can these girls rock!  Greta’s slide banjo was incredible.

Baskery

Joan Osborne showed her years of experience during the Human Voices jam session. The sound guys could not get the banjo mic working for The Beez, so Joan picked up her vocal mic, plunked it down in front of the banjo player, adjusted the height and went back to her chair at the other end of the stage. Sound problem fixed.

MusicFest is over for another year, but the magic will stay with me for a long time.

No city noise, just birds and sunshine…

and then finally, on our way home to our chores - refreshed and grateful for this amazing experience ……

Fishing with John

I was reading Fishing with John by Edith Iglauer – a chronicle of a woman’s experience of commercial fishing on the British Columbia coast. Edith was an American raised in an upper class family in New York City when she met John,  a closet scholar and commercial fisherman who trolled for spring salmon using traditional fishing methods. His passion for fishing and his respect for the natural resource that sustained his livelihood earned him respect up and down the coast.

The book takes us on Edith’s journey as she adapts to her new life at sea and reveals some interesting observations by John after 40 years as a commercial fisherman.  The following paragraph in particular caught my attention:

“A doctor friend of mine who lives in Crumpet Town – that’s Victoria – says I cured his New Zealand nephew of various viruses because I took him trolling and got him so goddam seasick that when the doctor examined him on his return he was well again. The doctor said, “The ocean completely cleaned him out.”"

Some proponents of natural medicine believe that sickness is not always a bad thing; that in fact you have to have enough vitality in the body to become sick and rid yourself of the seeds of disease. The body is performing a natural cleanse of toxins.

It is an interesting  way to look at our overall health. I know for myself that I have not been seasick since we moved onto the boat 8 years ago.  Touch wood. I have been on a personal journey of becoming healthier for the past 14 years and perhaps there is no need for my body to become seasick anymore. I hope that this is true because sea sickness is nasty business.

I am always intrigued by things that make us look at our health in different ways. Thanks John for this piece of wisdom.

The harbour is busy for such a small island with float planes, several marinas and a couple of outstations for yacht clubs. This is a popular destination in the southern Gulf Islands. It is a long way into the anchorage and many boaters do not respect the 5 knot speed limit so during the afternoon, it can be lumpy with boat and float plane wake as well as fetch funneling in from Captain’s Passage and Swanson Channel.

Since we were here, we decided to take advantage of the seaside amenities and finished our day by treating ourselves to dessert at the Oyster Catcher Bar & Grill while enjoying some live music.

Early the next morning, the sound of dinghy motors told us that the Saltspring Market was open. On Saturday mornings in the summer starting at 8:30 am or thereabouts (island-time) the market is a colourful display of arts, crafts, musicians and fresh produce. We picked up fresh ingredients for dinner including some amazing homemade goat cheese from SaltSpring Cheese and 10- day old pea shoots for our fresh salad greens.

Shoppers enjoying the Saltspring Market

Saltspring Saturday Market

A prize purchase was a cool bandana (www.koolerbandana.com) designed by Andrea Leake. The bandanas are filled with plastic absorbent  crystals which when soaked in water, will remain cool for 4 days. Small, reusable – a perfect item for a liveaboard boat. You wear the bandana around your head or neck to cool down, alleviate sore neck muscles and to provide headache relief.

Kool Bandana

We always meet wonderful people when we cruise and today was no exception. This young Saltspring girl brought her pet chicken to breakfast at the Tree House Cafe.

Tree House Cafe

Girl with pet chicken

 So although we were only planning to refuel here and be on our way, our visit to Ganges was enjoyable. Prevost Island will have to wait.

Arms stretched to their limit, bordering on becoming monkey arms from carrying too many groceries much too far. You squish as much as you can into your backpack but still – monkey arms 20 minutes later. The liveaboard lament.

It seems that when you live on a boat you are always hauling something - groceries, laundry, diesel, propane. You shift bags from one hand to the other, trying to redistribute the weight. Sherpa sailor girl.

I have seen other boaters with improvised carrying devices – a milk crate strapped to a dolly with bungees, plastic wheelbarrow, suitcase and a little-old-lady shopping cart. I kept telling myself that I was a strong woman and I did not need a little old lady shopping cart.

Well crap, I injured my left shoulder from stubbornly carrying groceries that were too heavy. Vanity has now been tucked away in a drawer and I am the proud owner of a collapsible, little red box. I walked from the grocery store this afternoon with everything on my list. No more deciding against buying soup because it was too heavy to carry.

Little Red Box

This nifty creation has a collapsible box and handle so it can stow easily on a sailboat. It’s brilliant! Vanity has no place on a sailboat because there wouldn’t be room for the little red box.

Pack and Roll collapsed

Margo told us that she was going to explore Knights Inlet which is known to have very few protected anchorages.  Margo had been swapping tales with some local commercial fishermen and they marked little “x”s all over her Knights Inlet chart indicating small “hidey-holes” that they used whenever the outflow winds increased to a gale.

Sharing such coveted local information was a testament to this fiesty, solo female sailor who has told us that she was Margo Woods of Charlies Charts. Wow! We were in the presence of a legend.  Margo and her now deceased husband, Charlie have charted and written cruising guides for the coast of western North America, Mexico and beyond.

If you want to know more about Margo, she chronicled her transformation from a scared prairie girl to adventurous sailor in her book, “A Prairie Chicken Goes to Sea”.  A fun read but also a testimony to the difficult path this woman has taken.

With no hint of arrogance or boasting of the thousands of nautical miles under her bottom, Margo continued by giving us a little weather lesson. She told us that she wouldn’t be starting up Knights Inlet the following day because of the pronounced mares’ tails in the late afternoon sky. These clouds are harbingers of strong winds and staying put in a smug anchorage was her plan. Since we were on our first extended cruise and did not know the area, we decided to stay put too.

We said our farewells and decided to move across Chatham Channel to a quieter anchorage called Cutter Cove. Shortly after setting the anchor, the winds began and continued to strengthen throughout the night. Whitecaps in the “protected” anchorage made for a rocky and noisy evening. It was so rough the following morning that we could not bring our dog ashore for her morning pee. Margo and her mares’ tails were right.

I was so impressed with this chance encounter with Mrs. Charlie’s Charts that I decided that I wanted to learn how to forecast weather by looking into the sky. I finally tracked down a couple of books recommended by Lin and Larry Pardey in Storm Tactics.  The books are called Instant Wind Forecasting and Instant Weather Forecasting by Allan Watts. The author explains the information in easy-to-read charts with lots of photos. These books are a good addition to your boating library.

We have taken an additional weather course offered through the Bluewater Cruising Association that taught the basics of weather forecasting but when I look up and see the familiar pattern of mares’ tails in the sky, I always think fondly of the adventurous prairie chicken that I met in the middle of the Broughtons.