SV Marjorie's Adventures

Vessel Name: Marjorie
Vessel Make/Model: Robert Stephens Ketch, custom 59 fter
Hailing Port: Bristol, R.I.
Crew: This vessel is cold molded, with all bronze hardware, hank on head sails, but with modern convinences! She was built in Maine and cruised the East coast of the USA before we brought her thru the Panama Canal and up to San Fran spring 2011.
About: Captain Colin Brayton grew up in Brooklin, Maine same place this boat was built. Been flopping around the seas for the last 8 years on various types of boats from traditional schooners to a sailing research vessel to sailing and motoring yachts.
Extra: Headed to BC and southeast Alaska for the summer of 2012.
03 December 2012 | Broughton Islands, British Columbia
29 May 2012 | Victoria, BC
13 March 2012 | Berkeley, CA
Recent Blog Posts
03 December 2012 | Broughton Islands, British Columbia

Summer 2012

The summer was spent based out of Port McNeill, near the north end of Vancouver Island. Spent most of our time at Steve Jackman's Marina and fuel dock. Very nice people, great energy, good docks, electricity, water, no bathrooms or showers, but a 5 minute walk to all services including, laundry, stores, cafes, bars, resturants, and shopping. Its a neat little town. During three different trips over the course of the summer, the boat and I with a variety of invited guests cruised and explored the Broughton Islands. Secluded anchorages, tried to catch crabs, but failed, really good at catching sea stars. Caught some prawns, they were mightily tasty. Got in to stand up paddle boarding with and inflatable board, that allowed me to go explore the nooks and crannies of our various anchorages. It was a mellow summer, but a good one. In the end of September, I left there with a buddy and we took the boat down to Nanaimo. No wind except the last day. My friend left and I sailed down through the gulf islands on my own for about 4 days, exploring places to take the boss in the future. Found some neat little holes to tuck into. Got back stateside the second week of October. Got to see some new country this summer, it was a grand time.

18 June 2012

Powell River to Port McNeill

We stopped briefly into West Veiw, just south of Powell River, to pick up food, and a friend of the owners, Kevin. Not much wind up here, usually out of the Northwest, the same general direction we are traveling. Our first stop put us in the Octopus Islands, there are numerous narrows/rapids that need [...]

11 June 2012

Victoria to Powell river

Howdy,

29 May 2012 | Victoria, BC

Swiftsure Race

Well, we attempted the Swiftsure Light Classic race, it was more of a "Driftsure"! The start was less then 5 knots. It took about 3 hours to go 8 miles, then the wind picked up and we went from full sail with the 150% genoa up to the 100% jib to a reefed main sail. The wind got up to 25 to 30 knots for [...]

18 May 2012

SF to Port Angeles, WA

Finally, the summer traveling season has begun. I left Berkeley Marina with 3 friends early on a Sunday morning enroute to Humboldt Bay. It took 60 hours, 230 miles, and it was rough. It was calm leaving the SF Bay and we motored out with just the Main sail up all the way out until past Bonita light. [...]

13 March 2012 | Berkeley, CA

Sitting at the Dock

We have been sitting in Berkeley since last June, doing a lot of day sails in the bay or most recently out to the Farallon Islands. We have done a lot of work to the boat in the last 6 months, nothing super major but its been steady as it always is when trying to keep a boat up to show room quality all [...]

Swiftsure Race

29 May 2012 | Victoria, BC
Well, we attempted the Swiftsure Light Classic race, it was more of a "Driftsure"! The start was less then 5 knots. It took about 3 hours to go 8 miles, then the wind picked up and we went from full sail with the 150% genoa up to the 100% jib to a reefed main sail. The wind got up to 25 to 30 knots for about 4 hours or so. The current was more favorable on the washington side of the straights but the wind was better out in the middle. We got within one mile of the mark, and the wind completely died. We tried for 10 hours to go 1 mile and couldn't do it. So we gave up and motored back. The wind never picked up all of Sunday. Oh well, just wasn't our year. Most of the boats that stayed in the straights had wind for the entire race.

Now, we are gearing up to go cruising, we got the crab trap, the prawn traps, the fishing polls, fuel gauges that finally work, and a desire to eat a lot of shelfish. So in a few days we drop the dock lines and head off into the willy wags of the British Columbia Coastline.
Comments

About & Links