Well Hello!! It’s been months ! Now it’s Sept 19th 2022! Just happens to be; International Talk Like A Pirate Day! A good day to catch up on our much ignored blog.
We got back to Salt Spring in April and went right to our Trawler boat . The weather was really wet and cold, kind of a shock after Mexico. We expected it to soon warm up, but, it didn’t! I think late July summer finally arrived.

We had fun sprucing up our Trawler, named KT Williams. We are changing the name to “Summertime”but because there’s ceremonies in doing this, we haven’t got to that yet!
We painted and added some nautical decor. Cam made a fibreglass countertop for the head, he also hooked up a sink from a beautiful wooden bowl that belonged to his Mom. It looks so good, also of course it’s soooo nice to have a sink in the head.
Cam fixed some electrical things that made it so we could plug in our phones etc. He also hooked up a shower outside- very handy ! Cam as usual has really done a fantastic job on the boat. ❤️

We really love just puttering around the Gulf Islands, we never tire of the extraordinary scenery. A very memorable day was having a massive Humpback Cow and her calf surface RIGHT in front of the boat. Cam quickly turned off the motor and we watched her gracefully slide through the water and then disappear . I managed to get a few photos . This was the first time I had seen a Humpback Whale in the area. It truly was thrilling and breathtaking,to be so close; and at the same time, a little frightening.

We finally decided to try crabbing! At first we were unbelievably surprised to have 7 crabs 🦀 in a trap! Wow! After that we didn’t have too much luck- the next big catch was all females which you have to put back. Just lately we have been getting 2 or 3 which is perfect! You can do a lot with 2 crabs. Poor Cam got badly chomped by a crab! He bit right through Cam’s nail. That took forever to heal- he was very careful after that. Great respect for the strength of those claws!!

A big part of the cruising life is socializing, we had some wonderful visits with friends! Thanks to all who joined us for a cruise.

Cam continues to teach Tai Chi in Salt Spring, I participated in the Saturday Market with my Art Cards and canvases, I wasn’t able to go too many times due to weather.

I do love being on the water but am looking forward to land time. I now really appreciate conveniences ! We aren’t totally off grid on the boat, we have hot and cold water, shower etc. you just have to be conservative with your usage.( good practice anytime) Things are just smaller lol! Getting groceries and doing laundry, going to town means loading up in the row boat- rowing to shore carting things into the car then doing the same back to the boat. I can’t believe I ever whined about having to carry groceries into the house!! Or having to go all the way to the other room 10 feet away to put in a load of wash!! The water ran freely from a tap! We now have to go for 2 hours to a marina when we need more water ( actually always fun to do that) . It’s amazing that we use so few pots- I used to have way too many, I really realize that now.
All in all living on a boat makes you think more about consumerism, how easy it is to get caught up in having so much more than we need. I’m working on it- when you don’t have the space you tend not to indulge, and that is a good thing.

We both managed to get Covid ( fully vaccinated) Cam didn’t feel sick at all really, no symptoms even. I didn’t feel great for a couple of weeks. Hopefully we are even more immune now.

We will be looking after friends place on Salt Spring until end of Oct. We are taking the current boat out of the water for the winter, that will happen near the the end of Sept.

Cam is waiting to here about his knee surgery which has been delayed again. Hopefully he will get it done in October. So, we are not exactly sure when we will get to Mexico.

Until next time!! Take care all!A few thoughts from me; Let’s hope We are all Covid free soon! Strange to think we now have a King! I hope D.Trump is finally caught up with for all his tyranny.

Cheers!!

and rainbows..
Everything that's wonderful is what I feel when we're together”
Well most of the time !! Lol
We are still in Nuevo Vallarta at the Paradise Village Marina, and it’s pretty darn nice !! If we have to be somewhere working on boat things… this is very nice!
It’s been very convenient to get parts sent here, ( never used to be easy) . The Marina is well run and looked after.
We’ve met so many people with such interesting stories about how they ended up in this lifestyle… so much so I’m thinking of a book? Journal Sketching the stories and turning it into a book? ( suggested by Kent a sailor friend) what do you think? Does that sound interesting? Ideas many, many ideas !!

On the boat front…Wow, the list of upgrades, repairs is too long for here ( it could get a bit boring - but maybe not for other mechanically inclined types)is so fantastic! Cam is the man! He’s been working so hard to get the boat all caught up !.

We’ve been out sailing with various groups of friends, I’m still a bit nervous when the wind picks up too much - ( others are loving the speed)
I’m definitely more for the relaxed sailing days ! Lol.
Cam was happy to have 4 Trimaran sailors join him for a day. They were in the area getting ready to deliver a Tri to the states.

Enjoying the local produce and making fun meals - part of cruising life! Sundowners and meals together and sometimes with others all part of the sailor lifestyle.

This area is a little more expensive than the usual areas that we go to. Now and then it’s really nice to go out, but generally we eat on the boat. Also, because of Omicron we weren’t going inside places other than grocery stores. It seems to have peaked here now, and the numbers are almost back to what they were in October.

I’ve been just amazed by how many Iguanas you see here! Sometimes right on the docks ! Not to mention the many Pelicans, Egrets and other beautiful birds.

The weather is steadily sunny, much cooler in the mornings and evenings which is nice ! I think I may find it cold when we go back in April.

We are following the horrific news in the Ukraine, so unbelievable that in 2022 this can happen. I’m glad the rest of the world is doing what they can . I can’t help thinking that some of these vastly wealthy Billionaires should help the people of the Ukraine somehow? Something other than sending rich actors into space? Can you imagine what a tiny bit of their fortunes could do? Elon Musk is worth over 200 Billion dollars… think about that number? 1 Billion is a thousand millions …. 1 just 1 .
Anyway ….

We are so excited that a group of Kamloops high school friends are coming March 15 for a couple of weeks. We will be celebrating our age! Lol.( we are all young at heart) They will stay in the area and come sailing with us. ( if they want to).
Take care everyone, if you’re in the area and want to visit or come sailing let us know.

It is joyous to be living this lifestyle, the older I get the more I realize it.
I miss my son and other family members and friends. but we’ve all had such a long couple of years apart due to COVID- let’s hope this is nearing the end.
Adios mi Amigas
Cam and Vikki
The photo is returning into the Marina

Hola mi Amigos!🌵☀️⛵️
Wow! Is it really January 20th HUH? Some of this USA bit of a repeat for FB friends .
We are still here in the Marina, just everything is on Mexican time lol!
We did make it to the anchorage for New Years Eve, found a few more issues while sailing! But… we were out on the water, ya- HOO! .Last time we were here, I was suffering with some left over anchor dragging fear from when we were in Sicily! I was so happy to know I wasn’t feeling it this time.
So, we were back to the Marina and continuing with the fixing of things.( I’ll be honest, Cam is the one fixing things😉).

We now have full air conditioning, what a treat! The motor was repaired for a mere $150.00 and in boat world that’s .15 cents boat bucks! A relief, and that it could be repaired instead of buying a new one.
Yesterday we finally got a bunch of parts we were really needing, thank you Ron Tomas in Vancouver for making that happen! The package has new hinges for the hatches, we won’t be stressing out wondering if they’re leaking next summer during the rainy season. Also a new motor for the aft cabin head. Cam is installing that right now!
We are still waiting for our new shade covers ? The canvas guy has been txting almost everyday since well before Christmas saying he’ll be there at such and such a time …. But alas, he never does show up. It’s almost a game now- we’ve since learned that this isn’t unusual and there’s not much we can do other than wait ! As Cam says “ what are you going to do? Getting mad won’t help anything”.


We entered the Vallarta Cup race here, it runs two weekends . Last weekend we won our multihull class ( only one other boat lol) but still! Then we were very surprised to find out we came 1st overall on corrected time. We hadn’t raced this boat before, had no wind instruments and made a lot of mistakes lol. We will try again this weekend and we have more crew, most of which are also Trimaran owners.


The weather is just very pleasant right now!
Covid is getting worse again here, but not anything like BC. It was bound to happen. It’s very good here as far as rules go. We just stay on the boat for the most part other than getting groceries and a bit of visiting with fellow sailors.
I’ve been painting a bit, need to do more though! I tried my hand at a short story, then sent it to family.. apparently they really liked it ha ha!
Cam is keeping up with his Tai Chi workshops via Zoom! Pretty cool, he puts the lap top on the boat and does the Tai Chi on the dock along with the group.
We are so close to just plain old sailing!
We are in paradise but we miss you all🌵❤️☀️. Can’t wait for Covid to be over so you can come and visit us!
Cheers Stay safe ! ❤️ Cam and Vikki
P.S. the aft cabin head is now up and running yay!!!

Hi again!! Thought I would do an update! We’ve been here about 6 weeks now, and, things are really getting done around here.

Cam has been working tirelessly everyday on many, many various issues . I had to drag him to the Beach for some true R&R, I don’t think he will truly relax until the sails are up and we are sliding along the water!
.
We are still in the Paradise Village Marina, a really good Marina to be in.We found out that we can order from Amazon and have it delivered to the office here. Seems really strange to be doing that in Mexico, but it has really helped us get some things we can’t find here.
We decided not to replace the washing machine and bought a small freezer. A freezer is so great to have and much more practical. The best thing is,we will always have ice 👏😃🍹.
We ended up getting all new house batteries, the ones we bought new in Italy were shot! Long story there, basically not done properly by the people in Sicily, very disappointing. We also have been able to get the shore power working, it never worked and it was a complicated fix, luckily John Pounder, an electrical engineer here solved the problem! Yay thanks John! We got a new battery and charger for the bow which runs the bow thruster and the windless anchor. The old one was totally corroded. Cam installed all that in an area that someone his height should not be in!! Crazy pretzel 🥨 positions.
Cam took the motor for the Air Conditioner out and sent it out to be fixed… we hope. The Bimini shade covers are all getting re-done by an company here. They were also ruined.
Cam fixed the crack in the bow which he found out had been done before and very poorly. Now it’s solid, waiting for paint for that to be finished. A few new bilge pumps went in.
We had good news from Ron in Vancouver who managed to get us a bunch of parts that you can only get from Holland(almost everything done on this boat is European) . Now the hatches will have new hinges and we won’t worry about water getting in.
Oh man and much more- but this could get boring !
We’ve met some wonderful fellow sailors many from Canada 🇨🇦. Fun to exchange our stories about how we ended up doing this.
We have full wifi here which has been great! Keeping up with Netflix! It’s all of 1.00 a day and it’s super good! Not exactly like the terrible Shaw service in BC.
Speaking of BC, oh how terrible the flooding has been! So sorry to all who are coping with such an upheaval of their lives. I mean,as if the fires and Covid weren’t enough.
Thanks for musty tips! I think after I cleaned and having the boat open was what it needed. Baking soda is the best.
Soon we will be heading to La Cruz and dropping the anchor there! We need to get our main sail and one other on yet. Sooooo, still a few things, to do. It’s a very nice place to be so I think we will manage lol.☺️
The weather has cooled a few degrees, evenings and mornings are perfect!
Whales are starting to arrive in the bay! Really looking forward to seeing them!
Hard to believe it’s Dec 1st what!
Stay safe and if you’re visiting around here please contact us!!
Cheers
Cam and Vikki

Well we made it to Mexico after 1.5 years! Getting out the door was completely crazy! We were waiting for our truck to be fixed and it wasn’t done until the day before we planned to leave for Parksville, where we were leaving the truck and camper.
We scrambled to get up to our container and drop things off and pick up our suitcases so we could pack.We loaded up the camper and somehow made the Ferry ( or maybe we missed it?? who knows it was a blur).
The camper was for sale but hadn’t sold before leaving. Well… wouldn’t you know it,a couple called when we got to Parksville and decided to buy it!We we’re there a couple of days before our flight- but, that happened the day before! Here we go again! Buying containers to get everything off the camper, ( I did some of it before thank goodness) . We did it ! We were leaving at the ungodly hour of 4:00am the next morning ( of course we were) Are you seeing a pattern here!!!
Oh yeah and meanwhile we bought our summer boat and needed to deal with the final sale stuff for that.
Arriving in Mexico felt so good 😊!
We got to the boat, we were so happy to see her again!
It’s been a week and can I say “holy hot” now I know, that’s not fair if your in the drizzle, but even the locals have commented on the humidity. It makes it very hard to get much done- oh and yes… there’s very much to be done.Some things we expected and knew we would have to fix them, then there’s all the other fixes. As far as the electrical and mechanical things that’s all Cam! ( sorry Cam) I’m working on the inside ( musty city!) . Well, everything smells like it’s been closed up in a damp boat for years.
We were so fortunate that our friend Andy lent us a portable air conditioner, our built in one was drowned in some water. Andy kindly has lent us a motor for the dingy as well, ours also sat in water in the float and is ruined totally corroded. We just bought it new, that was terribly disappointing.
We will make our way through it all, Cam will have the brunt of the work, I’ll be there to help. It will be slow going in the heat. Staying in a marina until we can get out to the anchorage.
We also need all new batteries- they were new in Sicily but not installed properly in the first place. Cam is coming across so many things that were not done properly- lot of short cuts which are now coming to haunt us.Without these things we can’t move the boat.
One day at a time! It’s not all roses in the cruising world, but there’s some fabulous times that make it all go away.Beer helps too lol!
A little bit about Covid here; people are very conscientious, everyone wears their masks, hand cleaning and temperatures are taken. It feels as safe as home.
That’s enough wining for now!! Truly we are fine!
Oh and if anyone has hints to get rid of musty smells let me know!!
Stay well and safe!!
Cam and Vikki

Wow, another year gone! And, what a year it was! Covid has changed everything for everyone. Consequently, it has been a year of living in limbo and wondering what the next steps will be. I know we are not alone !

We continued to live in our Camper on Salt Spring and try to carry on with some kind of a routine.
Cam had the other hip replaced and has recovered really well. He also had the liver surgery and that too went very well!
We knew we wouldn't be able to go to Mexico and be back on Koa e Kea so we settled into winter on the Island.
Then summer!! Cam got back to teaching Tai Chi, they managed to keep the class going outside until they were safe to go back to being inside.
I starting taking my Art card business to the local Saturday market, and decided to do some painting. I was thrilled that the Local Waterfront Gallery shop took my paintings and a few have sold! My first time selling an original painting. What??

Cam has been busy ordering parts to take to Mexico for when we finally will be back on the boat, after a year and a half. The boat was looked after and regularly cleaned. We will have a lot of work to do though. As all boat owners know, the maintenance never stops.
We plan to be there very soon !

In September we were asked if we wanted to join some friends in crewing a friend of theirs motor yacht from Hawaii to Victoria BC.
We decided to go,the boat is a Nordhavn 57, a beautiful solid boat.

The Trip went well, quite rough leaving Hawaii for the first 5 days or so. I've never seen waves that big!
We had some beautiful days with calm seas and hundreds of Dolphins that came to play. Wow! The moon was full and made night watches easier.
I write this now not really believing I did that trip because I wasn't sure if I could ( kind of a chicken). I imagined the small sailboats doing that crossing and don't know if I could.
The boat had some mechanical things go wrong but they managed to fix things along the way.
We had fantastic Tuna and Mahi- Mahi what a treat .
Mostly, you just carry on each day sleeping, being on watch, sleeping again eating and sleeping again lol
We ate most dinners together which was fun,we all worked well together.
I'm glad I went, yes at times I did feel nervous but we were lucky with weather and that makes a big difference.
Prior to leaving for Hawaii we had to follow their strict entry rules. We had to get a Covid test at an approved lab,at an approved Shoppers Drug Mart. That meant a trip to Victoria and $200 Each for the tests??? I mean really? $200? We are also double vaccinated.
So, upon arrival we filled out the "Arrive Can" form once we had cell service. The owner did speak to Canada Customs before we left, and according to that guy, our time at sea would be quarantine time. Oh, we left September 12th-arrived September 26th.
Well, that guy was wrong- the customs agents boarded the boat and they agreed we shouldn't have to do yet another test but said we did . Threatening to fine us or even go to jail if we dared leave the boat. Since this, we found out that if you are fully vaccinated you don't have to have a test, only random people are selected. We had such different information from many government sources.
Nevertheless, after a lot of wrangling around we are all tested again and surprise, surprise... negative.
We lost a lot of time waiting around for these tests so had to rebook our departure for Mexico.
Meanwhile back on Salt Spring.... we started to think about the idea of leaving our boat in Mexico for awhile instead of going back and forth up the coast ( actually thought about for a long time now). We really missed being in the water this past summer, so what else is one to do but... get another boat for the summer here!
Yes, we just bought a Motor Trawler. Or went over to the " Dark side" as some Sailors say lol. It's a 30' Trawler which is a great size. It's in great shape and with a little updating it will be perfect for cruising around the Gulf Islands.
Yes, quite a year we can only hope that Covid will be under control soon. It's been devastating to so many people.
I'll try to keep this updated while we cruise around in Mexico.
Stay safe
Cam and Vikki