Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Visiting Victoria BC via catamaran

Last three days my wife and I were gone on a short trip to Victoria British Columbia...it is a nice city and we really enjoyed ourselves.   We sailed there and back on the Victoria Clipper which is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think "catamaran" but it was a nice, smooth ride.   All of their catamarans have water-jet propulsion; check out these rooster-tails:


As you can see the Strait of Juan de Fuca was very calm....I've heard things can get much more exciting during the winter months.

Most of the trip was non-nautical, but I very much enjoyed visiting the Maritime Museum of BC; although the whole museum is fun, the main exhibit I was interested in was that of Trekka, a 20' boat sailed around the world in the 1950's by John Guzzwell.    His book Trekka Round The World is a inspiring read if you haven't done so already.

The boat itself appears to be in fantastic shape, although I did not try to climb aboard and poke around (there was a sign saying not to).   Here's a couple of pictures of the exterior though, one from the bow...



...and one from the stern...


It was a nice break and we had fun...now back to fairing and other work tomorrow.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Jay,

We were going to go to Victoria this weekend but my wife's passport has expired so we settled on Port Townsend. (It's just across the Strait right?) Anyways it was much cooler there than I had expected and I found that they have a thriving wooden boat building community there. It was very neat and I recommend a visit.

Also I am glad to see you are working on your boat again...Mostly b/c I plan on begging you for a chance to go out on it with you when you get it done. :)

Eric

Jay said...

Hey Eric,

We've been to Port Townsend many times - it is a nice place to visit for sure. My wife and I are planning an overnight sail there when this darn boat gets done... :)

Jay