This Pioneer Project Short Story was part of a lovely series of conversations I had with BCA Pioneers Barb Angel and Blake Williams. The text has been edited for clarity.
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Barrie: I’m here with Barb and Blake, and we’re going to talk a bit about the early days of Bluewater Cruising Association. We’re going to focus on some of the very interesting and famous people who came to speak in the early days. So take us through it. Just go for it.
Blake / Barb: Yeah, well I’m thinking of the numbers of great speakers that Bluewater has brought in. I think at one point we had a speaker at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, but most [of the presentations] were in the John Oliver High School.
[We had] Lin and Larry Pardey in person, with a presentation called Still Offshore Cruising. Of course, they built their own boat and off they went.
We had Tristan Jones in person at the John Oliver.
We had Thor Heyerdahl, the leader of the Kon Tiki, Ra, Ra II, and Tigris expeditions. That [presentation] was at the Queen Elizabeth [Theatre].
Dr. David Lewis, author of Iceberg, Polynesian navigator, and Antarctic explorer.
John Guzzwell and family, Shifting Winds, [who showed a] movie and slides [of their trip] to New Zealand and back.
Posters advertising the BCA Speaker Nights
Then there was the Ocean Cruising Series, organised by Liv Kennedy. $10.00 for the whole series. These included:
Cruising the Canals of Europe, by John Scott.
Ocean Cruising with Children, by Rob and Sally Holden. [They] described living aboard with young children, making a two-year voyage to New Zealand and back aboard their 47-foot ketch.
Ply and Sail the Oceans, by Carolyn Angus, a professional photographer. She share[ed] experiences sailing aboard charter vessels in the Seychelles and in Turkey.
Finland by Sea, a seven-leg cruise in the Baltic Sea on boats built in Finland plus a visit to the Baltic boatyards with Liv Kennedy – the famous Liv Kennedy.
Sailing the Atlantic Ocean on a Square-rigger. Stanley, Daphne, and Randy Burke describe their experiences on this adventure.
Hitchhiking the Oceans. Jackie James, [talking] about passages aboard other people’s boats.
South to Panama and Shipwrecked. Bill and Babs Knight, [speaking] about the joys of building a boat themselves and the tragedy of losing her on a reef.
Barrie: Excellent, excellent! Any names of the early Bluewater Cruising Member speakers?
Blake / Barb: Well, Ruth Clemens, Ted Long, Barbara Angel, Murray Napier, and Jackie and Fred Tremblay. Very early names in Bluewater’s membership.
Blake: An article that Sam Sydneysmith wrote, called “As I Recall,” should be a foundational document.
Barrie: Do you have that?
Blake: Yes, I do. In the Archives. Sam wanted to look at the beginnings of Bluewater. We’d had our 40th anniversary of Bluewater, and in three years we’ll have our 50th.
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