"Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process; a new factor enters and takes over.  A trip, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys.  It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness.  A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike.  And all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless.  We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.  Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality the trip.  Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-glass bum relax and go along with it.  Only then do the frustrations fall away.  In this a journey is like a marriage.  The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.  I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand. " John Steinbeck Travels with Charley.

Alaska in a sailboat? Who would have thought?  

Having traveled much of this planet, yet much more to go, I agree with John Steinbeck.  

Author and photographer, Cynthia Montagne

Tim's Birthday......July 23rd

Captain Tim at the helm took Allusion through Blow Hole Channel , with a minimum of 1 foot clearance beneath.  Yikes! NOT a piece of cake but having accomplished that, the rest of the day continued to throw challenges in order to get from Lagoon Cove to Blind Channel.  Chatham Channel was timed perfectly to get us into Johnstone Straits with 20 knot winds on our stern.  Allusion surfed 8 foot waves, then had to handle whirlpools and tide rips.  Mainsail up, speed though water  up to 14 knots.

Looking back at Blow Hole Channel.

Ocean beach in northern Canada

This adventure soon ends; was it comedy, tragedy, romance, mystery, metafiction or realism?  Did the narrator create scene, crises, plot and anticipation or just boredom for the reader?  Maybe a bit of each.  For certain, the protagonist took a journey and many strangers came to town, the two universal basic plots of all story.

Venturing home slowly and in joyful sun worship, already the woes, work and responsibilities that await have needled their way back into my psyche.  I continue to breathe and force awareness of each glorious moment, not “what’s next?” but “what’s now!”.  

A pretentious, yet truthful quote from Michael Ondaatje's, The Cat's Table: "There is a story, always ahead of you.  Barely existing.  Only gradually do you attach yourself to it and feed it.  You discover the carapace that will contain and test your character.  You find in this way the path of your life."  

Marinas

All tied up in a row, safe harbor is welcome after harrowing or long days.  Marina scenes tend to be very social!

Challenges can be looked at as evil, negative events, with a mind full of fear or as obstacles worth celebrating, especially when conducted with complete success.  Such was this day, all of Tim's planning executed with perfection, took us through many troubled waters with stomach-clenching fear but excitement and relief as the passages were left behind.  It took two but truly Tim was my hero again, Allusion too, as we pause  in Comox for a day of rest.

Stormy weather provisions, good with butter and honey when the seas are wild.

Orcas Warning

Warning us to keep our distance

There were two small Orcas between the adults

One last warning!