The Currents editorial team is pleased to announce “Currently Cruising Updates“, a new news feature that will highlight and provide brief updates from BCA’s currently cruising fleet. At any time, approximately 15% of our membership can be found on the water, cruising the oceans and islands of the world. Often, communications is challenging due to limited or no WiFi or connectivity, so the idea behind the Currently Cruising Updates is not lengthy articles about the cruising experience or cultures and peoples encountered along the way (although those contributions are eagerly awaited and enjoyed – please don’t stop sending them!); instead, this is more of a quick check-in, perhaps with an accompanying photo, to let the membership at home know how things are going and where you are.
Some members will recall that BCA used to publish a world map in Currents that identified a cruiser’s location; while our existing website doesn’t allow for that (although the idea of a similar map remains on the wish list), the editorial team hopes that this will provide an alternate way for cruisers to stay in touch and for the rest of us to vicariously follow their journey.
If you are one of our Currently Cruising members who would like to send us a quick update (where you are, your next destination, plans for this year’s cruising season, etc), we would love to hear from you. Your email and photo(s) (high res, landscape orientation, please) can be sent to Rosario, Currents Managing Editor.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Currents PDFs
Excellent idea – from a historical perspective this probably replaces “Postcards from Offshore” which originally was an actual blue post card that we provided in members’ offshore packages when they departed. They’d hand write a message on it, put a stamp on and mail it back to BCA in Vancouver. Then we’d publish them in Currents, often with photos of the stamps because they came from so many different countries. However, with the advent of email, most of the postcards started to come in by email. So many innovative ways to keep updated as technology changes. I sure would like to see a real map though!
Great idea – thanks Jennifer! It is often difficult to do a full article for Currents while travelling. We will start you off with our news.
Pam and Ted Simoer on Roundabout II (Moody 40) arrived safely in Bundaberg, Australia on October 26th. This season we sailed from Whangarei, New Zealand to Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and now Australia – five countries and five good passages. Either we were lucky or (hopefully) we are finally learning something about the weather down here. Many thanks to Patricia and David on Gulf Harbour Radio who track the yachts in transit and David provides great weather information and shares his knowledge with the fleet. We participated in the Go West Down Under Rally from Noumea to Bundaberg, as the discounts associated with the rally, both in Noumea and Bundaberg were worthwhile. The Rally festivities begin on Monday with 40 boats participating.
We will leave the boat up on the hard here in Bundaberg and fly home in mid-November for several months before returning to Australia for more adventures.
Cheers
Pam and Ted Simper
Thanks for the brief update and the immediate response – watch for a follow-up email from me! Also hoping to see you at the Christmas Awards Night and Social in Calgary this year…
Another great idea to keep in touch with our cruising pals.
Good idea…Jim and Kathy Matusiak on Solar Flair are back at Shelter Bay Marina ,colon ,Panama and are planning to head north this season to Cuba and Florida with stops in between.
Thanks, Jim and Kathy; sounds like a great plan. Watch for a follow-up email from me!
Steve and Linda Warren on our 37 Tayana – “Warren Peace”. After 11 years of cruising we are now in Shelter Bay Marina in Colon Panama doing a major refit. Hope to be completed in early 2018 and then will either head up to the Rio Dulce in Guatemala or go out to the San Blas Islands for the rest of the season.
We are currently considering selling Warren Peace and doing a few years of land travel. If you are interested in a great offshore boat keep us in mind.
Steve Warren
Ernie on his great little HR Monsun 31 – PATIENCE has been meandering down from Cortes Island all the way to Banderas Bay and is just applying a few last upgrades and modifications to PATIENCE with a plan to head out for the Puddle Jump end of March to the Marquesas, Tuamotos, Societies and will then decide if the winter will be spend in NZ, OZ, or further north. The future is wide open as we say.
La Cruz is a great place to prep for the puddle jump with pretty good resources for MX. Hauled out in San Blas two weeks ago to do the bottom.
Its been a wonderful trip from BC and I learned a lot these 5000 kms. Especially that I like it better on the water than on anchor or in a marina so I am really chomping at the bit to head out west soon for my first really long passage.