Bella Blue heads for Sarnia - Port Dover to Long Point

I woke up at 6am anxious and hungry - anxious to get the final load of gear ready for the sailing trip and hungry for adventure.  Actually, I was hungry for Honey Nut Cheerios and a peanut butter toast.  I knew the adventure part would come later.

My father-in-law John arrived at 9 and Dad and I jammed our gear and selves into his pickup and headed for Port Dover.  Ana and the kids stayed home as they had to drive to London airport later in the day to pick up Marty and Curtis and then shuttle them to the boat.

We spent the first couple of hours doing maintenance tasks like replacing the cockpit speakers, cleaning the boat, inflating the dingy, filling the water tank and then packed all our gear into the boat nice and tight.  Sensing the presence of beer nearby, we broke out the sneakers and marched pedestrian style into downtown Dover, but before we could settle on a venue my phone rang – it was my uncles Mark and Michael calling from their El Camino looking to get a read on our current position.  Awesome!

They pulled up in what was not an El Camino, but at least they were both wearing really cool hats, clean shirts and Mark even sported a fine Hemingway beard.  Seems the Lumbersexual revolution is even catching on with the Boomer crowd.   We settled into Two Eleven Main – one of the newest additions to the Port Dover restaurant scene – and hit the brews and food.  Since Mark was driving he was taking it easy on the drinks, which was a bit of a problem as I had been planning on getting him drunk and sending him up Bella Blue’s 50 foot mast to replace the wind vane.

We drove back to the marina and were presented by Michael with four giant sealers that contained pickles, stewed tomatoes, hot peppers and blueberry sauce - yet another of his and Anna’s ongoing food experiments, and a most welcome addition to our store of provisions.  Missing from the payload was a giant slab of smoked bacon that somehow ended up in Mark’s fridge as he had assured Michael that we wouldn’t possibly have enough room for it on the boat.  He has always been a very thoughtful and selfless man.

We enjoyed a couple more drinks, and then shoved off for a creek cruise, which would eventually lead to the big marina where we could fill up with diesel and wait for the rest of the gang to arrive.  I pulled the boat up to the gas dock and was surprised to see our friends Tony and Angela standing there waving!  They helped us to dock the boat then we had a quick visit while the marina staff filled up the fuel tank.  Tony is an avid pilot and told us to watch for him the following day at noon as he was planning on bombing us with a bag of his dog Zoe’s poo.  But I’ve seen him play Bocce ball and his aim is terrible so I wasn’t overly worried.

With a tank full of diesel we motored over to an empty slip on dock one and were met by some of our old dock buddies who helped us tie up.  The beer drinking continued in the cockpit of Bella Blue, but it wasn’t long before the rest of the crew was walking up the dock with gear in hand and smiles on faces.  I first thought Curtis had brought along a block of parmesan cheese, as we all caught a whiff of it, but we soon learned that the lady seated beside him on the plan had puked and his jacket had caught some spray.  Marty smelled just fine.

After a short visit and a boat briefing for the crew (Ana gave them the low down on boat fender protocol) we said our goodbyes and were off.  The wind was quite strong, but at a nice angle so we pulled both the main and jib sails out, shut off the engine and were sailing!

A little background on the crew.  Dad is the most experienced sailor as he owned his own sailboat and did some pirating in Saskatchewan.  He mainly sacked villages on Lake Diefenbaker, but I think he also did some spring raiding on some of the feeder rivers and creeks.  He tired of that after a few years as the booty was limited to low value barley and wheat which was hardly worth the effort.  Sometimes he made off with a few used tractor parts, but it’s pretty tough to write good pirating ballads based on that.

Marty is the next most experienced.  He was in a sailboat once – with me actually, in my first sailboat which I owned in the Bahamas.  We did a day trip that started out pretty good, but by the end of that day we lost half our crew (Marty included) to a rogue dingy driver, crashed the sailboat into coral and had to be dragged off by shirtless Bahamians in a motorboat, smashed the keel into a giant rock, ran out of beer, experience total battery failure and couldn’t start the boat, got stuck on a sandbank, had to be rescued twice by Bahamas Air and Sea Rescue, and had the outboard motor fly off the dingy and sink to the bottom of the ocean.  Statistically speaking, I think somebody should have died so we actually made out pretty good.  I actually can’t believe Marty is going on a boat with me again.

As far as I know Curtis has never been on a sailboat, but has been on all other sorts of water vessels such as fishing boats, paddle boards, windsurfers, dingys, speedboats, pontoon boats, and I think he may have floated drunk on a tube down a raging river one time.  He’s a fast learner so he should be fine.

We sailed towards Long Point under a strong, but slowly weakening wind.  Ana, the kids and I have done a similar route many times in the past, and every time we’ve had our butts handed to us after rounding Long Point as this is where it opens up into the major expanse of the lake.  The normal conditions are swirling winds, four foot waves, chop, bluster, confusion and uncertainly.  So I started prepping the boys with statements like, “It’s going to get nasty soon”, “Enjoy this ride now because you won’t later”, “Anybody want a sea sickness pill” and “Tie yourselves to something if you need to lean over the boat to vomit”.  Imagine my surprise when we rounded Long Point and found unnaturally calm conditions and within a few miles the lake had turned to glass and the moon was full and lighting our way under a cloudless sky.  The scene before us was mind-bendingly beautiful and Bella Blue’s engine hummed hypnotically, gliding us through the still waters with nothing else in sight besides the synchronized blinking of the red lights coming from the hundreds of wind turbines on the Canadian shore.  By this time Dad and Marty had gone down for a sleep and it was just Curtis and I in the cockpit.

“I never imagined we would have lake conditions like this,“ I said to Curtis.  “I didn’t even know it was possible for this lake to get calm.

That’s funny,” Curt said, “this is exactly how I pictured the crossing!”

Bella Blue heads for Sarnia - Day 0

The time has come to part ways with Lake Erie and take on a new Great Lake. This weekend I will be joined by my two brothers and dad and together we will sail Bella Blue from Port Dover all the way to Sarnia, which is at the south end of the mighty Lake Huron.  It is a 260 mile passage and we are hoping to make it in five days.  Actually, we have to make it in five days as that’s when the boys fly out!

Lake Erie has been an incredible sailing ground for us and we have covered many parts of this fine body of water.  Though our favourite boating companion is now living in Kingston, Andrew and his awesome power boat “Endeavour” joined us on several of our epic summer boating vacations.  And trust me, we caused a fair bit of head turning and double-takes when people we met realized that a power boat and sailboat were travel partners.  It just doesn’t happen.  But it suited our contrarian nature just fine and we had a lovely system – the Olson family would glide out of guest marina at 4am and start our slow, steady course for the next destination, usually 30 or 40 miles, sometimes more, sometimes less.  At around 10am Andrew would come racing up behind us at top speed, then slow down just at the right time and pull up beside us so we could enjoy a coffee (okay, beer.) and a swim.  Then he would power on to the destination, get our slips organized and paid for, meet the locals, arrange dinner plans, but most importantly, get the AC pumping on his boat until there were icicles hanging off the ceiling.  We would arrive several hours later all hot, sweaty and exhausted, and he would be there to catch our lines and help us tie up.  After that, sweet AC and a couple of nice cold beers (okay, more like 10).  What a routine!

This season we will be taking on a whole new challenge in the form of Lake Huron.  Now this lake is massive, and much, much deeper and colder than Lake Erie so I expect we will miss the feeling of leaping off the cockpit arch of Bella Blue into gorgeous 30 degree water on those hot July days.  Yes, we will still be leaping off the boat into Lake Huron, but I expect there will be more icy screams of pain and less elapsed swim times.

The past couple weeks have been all about boat maintenance.  Since we didn’t put her in the water last year because of our big backpacking trip, she needed some extra TLC.  Cleaning, scrubbing, sanding, painting, waxing, buffing, repairing, restaining, refinishing, recalibrating are all words we have been using frequently.  We actually put her in the water last weekend and spent two nights there and it was awesome.  This boat looks even better than it did the day we bought it five years ago.  We take good care of her.

My dad arrives today and Marty and Curtis both arrive tomorrow and we plan to cast off around 8pm tomorrow night.  We have a few small jobs left to do tomorrow, such as putting up a radar reflector and new windex, which involves climbing the mast, something we have never done.  But I think my uncle Mark may be coming down to see us off so I’m going to pump him full of wine and see if he will do it – he becomes more susceptible to the power of suggestion under the influence.  But if he won’t do it I’m sure my dad will, he has even less regard for safety than Mark does.

During this trip we will also be celebrating my brother Marty’s 40^th birthday, which was actually in February, but he’s so lame he didn’t get around to planning a party.  So I gave him supreme crapola and vowed to do a proper birthday pageant for him during the sailing trip.  We’re planning on giving him the birthday bumps on the boat after ten shots of Akavit then tossing him into the lake, then maybe hanging him upside down from one of the spreaders and whacking him piñata style with colourful yet deadly pool noodles.  Don’t tell him, I want it to be a surprise.

This will be the first time the four of us have had a significant amount of time to hang out together for, I dunno, maybe ten years?  The last time was probably a spring fishing trip in Saskatchewan, which also involves boats, lakes, copious amounts of alcohol and danger at every turn.  It’s what men like to do.

Stay tuned, more to come…

The Food in Cuba

Canadians this winter are flocking to Cuba.  And it's not just the regular winter-haters, fleeing from the ass-sucking cold weather we've been enduring lately; this year it seems to be a lot of people who are experiencing Cuba for the first time.  I expect the driver for this is the recent normalization of US/Cuba relations with easing on the travel restrictions and the planned opening of embassies.  No, the long standing economic embargo has not yet been lifted, but all indications are that is where things are headed, which will be a welcome relief for both countries after so many decades of unnecessary mistrust.

Even though a million Canadians per year travel to Cuba, many of you first timers to Cuba will be anxious about your trip.  And the main source of anxiety is typically the food.  So I'm going to tell you a little bit about Cuban food.

Cuba has three major food groups.  They are Pigs, Beets and Melons.  The Cuban culinary tradition is unlike anything you are used to.  For example, in Canada we have access to hundreds, no, thousands of ingredients, and we combine these many ingredients into delicious meals using recipes found on the internet.  Most recipes call for at least thirty ingredients and we dutifully follow the directions exactly, even running out to Sobey's at 8pm to pick up 150 grams of arugula, even though you haven't got a clue what the hell kind of food that is or what it looks like.  But hey, the recipe calls for it so we fear the dish won't turn out right without it.

Cubans have found a much better approach to cooking.  You see, they have discovered that Pigs, Beets and Melons are much like the three primary colours - Red, Blue and Yellow.  Just as mixing these three colours together in different proportions can produce any colour in the rainbow, mixing together the three primary Cuban food groups in different combinations can produce pretty much any sort of meal.  For example, when the three primary colours are combined in subtractive colour mixing it produces black.  When the three primary Cuban food groups are combined in equal proportions, it produces Chicken Croquettes.  More on those later.

When you visit the buffet at a Cuban resort for the first time you will be amazed.  The enormous restaurants have buffets that stretch as far as the eye can see, and these buffets will be crowded with dishes of all colours, textures and smells.  There will be some recognizable items, such as Pork Chops, Beet Salad and Cantaloupe slices, but there will be many whose constituent parts will be a mystery.  Also, they don't always change the labels on the trays so you may look down at the Rice Pudding dish and find a black gravy filled tray with pieces of bone sticking out.  Or the one labelled Chicken Stew will look pretty much just like pasta with white cream sauce.  I even saw a tray of greasy hot dogs that was labelled Chicken Cordon Bleu.

In any case, you really don't have to worry because the ingredients in each dish will be the same, just mixed together in different proportions.  Though the Cubans keep their food alchemy secrets well guarded, I did manage to find a loose lipped server named Juan who explained the existence of all the fresh, delicious fish on the buffet.

"Looks like fish, but it's not," Juan told us secretly one day at the table as we were prodding him for information.  "Cook puts 2 parts Pig, 1 part Melon, and half a part of Beet, then it gets mixed up and put into the fish fillet press.  Que bueno!"

"And what about the amazing omelets?  You can't tell me those aren't eggs," I asked.

"Nope.  All the real eggs get sent to Venezuela.  Those eggs you see are actually half a part Pig and one part Melon.  That gets mixed up, put into the egg press and....Que Bueno!"

"And the phenomenal bread that is present at every meal.  You are telling me there is no flour in that bread?"

"Si senor.  No flour.  2 parts Melon, 1 part Beet, and a dash of Pig.  All Cuban flour gets sent to Venezuela."

"What does Venezuela send in exchange for all this food you send them?" I had to ask.

"They send gasoline.  Though us Cubans are very inventive, we have still not found a way to transform Pig, Beet and Melon into petroleum.  But we are working on it."

"OK, last question.  What the hell is a Chicken Croquette?"

"You've been eating Chicken Croquettes?" he asked with a worried look.

"I may have sampled," I admitted.

"Dios mio.  Well, we just take all the food people leave behind on their plates, mash it all up then squeeze the paste into Chicken Croquettes.  You have noticed they taste different every day, si?"

"Erp, I think we've heard enough, thanks for all the info Juan."


And with that I learned all about the magic of Cuban food!

 

Friday, August 29th – Paris, Ontario, Canada

We are back in Canada, safe and sound after a lovely flight home.  Cathay Pacific is now my favourite airline, every part of the flight experience was perfect.  We were picked up at the airport by my brother and sister-in-law and it was nonstop chatter the whole way back to Brantford, where we went over to my in-laws house for a visit.  They were so, so happy to see the kids!  It sounds like it was a very long and dull summer for them being without their grandchildren.  The kids were happy to see everybody and were feeling pretty good to be home.  After we had exited the plane and were walking up the ramp to the gate Magnus turned to me and said, “You were right Dad, I have to admit it – it feels nice to be back in Canada!”

We let the kids stay over at their grandparents for the first night and we were home shortly after midnight.  Yes, it would have been a great idea to go to bed but we weren’t tired so instead burst into a frenzy of unpacking, laundry and cleaning the house.  By about 4:30 or so we were finally getting tired so went to bed, but were back up at 7:30 so that we could go back over to the in-laws for breakfast.

We spend our first full day back in Canada shopping for school supplies for the kids, school clothes, getting groceries and taking care of a few administrative things.  We bumped into our friends Justin and Heather so asked them over for dinner, along with Ana’s folks.

After ten weeks of rice and noodles our first dinner back home was heavenly.  Grilled chicken and pork, with fresh garden potatoes, tomatoes, onion, basil and peppers.  Our guests brought dessert so we had an apple crumble, blueberry crumble, and a big ice cream cake for the kids birthdays!  Though I loved the food while we were away, the meal last night was simply amazing.  Man, it is nice to be home.

So, here I sit.  I was in bed by 10 pm but at 2am my eyes shot open and I was awake.  I laid in bed for at least half an hour trying to get back to sleep, but no luck.  So I admitted the Zombie Walk was upon me so I made a cup of peppermint tea then headed downstairs to the office and decided to put together a financial summary of our trip (it’s the Finance guy in me).

The trip of a lifetime cost us $218 per day.  That includes absolutely everything – all flights, visas, hotels, meals, transport, entrance fees, souvenirs, gifts, and even the extravagant catamaran trip.  If you exclude the catamaran then the daily cost is $198.  That works out to $50 per person per day.

Is this a lot of money?  Well, considering all the amazing things we did and saw, the special moments we shared as a family, and the amount of ground we covered, I would say it is quite reasonable.  With that budget we were able to stay in top quality hotels, do three internal flights on top of our main flight there, and really not have to scrimp too much along the way.  Our goal for this trip was to do all the things we wanted to do, as opposed to trying to cover as many miles and countries as cheaply as possible.  I consider every penny of it to be money well spent.

So after 70 days, 7 countries, 5 flights, dozens of bus, taxi and tuk-tuk rides, and countless miles by foot, there remains only one thing left to do to complete this epic journey...

Begin planning the next one!

Thursday, August 28th – Bangkok to Paris, Ontario, Canada

With our summer family adventure coming to a close, where does that leave us?  Within a week we will be back into the same routine, settled comfortably into our normal life.  But what is a normal life?  For some of the people we have seen on this trip, normal life is waking up on the street in pain, getting your begging bowl in front of you, and sitting at the steps of the subway station asking for money.  For others, it is waking up in a monastery, putting on your orange robe then spending your day in meditation.  Others yet will wake up, have breakfast, drive to their job in an office, work hard, then come home at the end of the day and spend time with their family.  The point is, a “normal life” is simply what you choose to do on a regular basis, and is the result of many past decisions you have made, your circumstances in life and, in no small part, some measure of luck or chance.

As an adult, I have tried to make my normal life as interesting and as varied as possible and strove to make decisions that would enable me to keep doing new and interesting things.  When I met Ana I realized she had many of the same values as me so we were able to partner up and continue on with living a varied and colourful life.  When the kids came along, we knew right away that we wanted to pass these values onto them, and that is what we have tried to do since they were infants, so this latest endeavor is just the latest (though probably grandest!) in a long series of smaller decisions we have made to pursue this goal.

When traveling through other countries, you get to see and experience so many things that force you to question and re-evaluate your own convictions.  There are things that are done better in Canada than in Asia, but the opposite also holds true.  In Canada, we over-regulate everything.  We allow and even encourage people to shirk personal responsibility and let them blame the “system” for all their problems.  We make concessions that give priority to personal beliefs instead of the common good.  Small interest groups drive public policy and politicians cave in instead of making the tough, right decisions and sticking up for Regular Joe who simply doesn’t want to cause any trouble.  We don’t just tolerate other cultures and religions – we often allow ourselves to be held hostage by them at the expense of the public..  And we tolerate so much stupidity and small mindedness instead of using common sense and simply saying “No” sometimes.

But we do get a lot of things right in Canada, and that is why Canada is where we choose to live, raise our children and call home.  But travel is a big part of our lives, and I expect that our “normal” will always include spending a significant part of our time exploring other places, learning from them, and bringing those lessons home to help make Canada a better place.  And other people should do that to – especially those in roles that determine public policy so that they can see there are many different ways of getting to the same end goal.

See you on the other side.

Wednesday, August 27th – Bangkok, Thailand

This was our last day in Bangkok, our last day of the trip, our last day spending 24 hours together as a family and our last day in this amazing part of the world.

We did practically nothing of interest, and I think that is the first time our whole trip I have been able to say that.  Though this was not news to me, our family is not good at down days and we tend to move through things at a fairly aggressive pace.  But this day we were truly trying to wind down from the trip so we had a nice breakfast then spend a couple leisurely hours at the hotel pool.  The kids swam, Ana and I read and sunbathed and hopped in the pool to play with kids when we were getting too hot.

We went out for lunch at a Japanese restaurant chain we had last visited back in Kuala Lumpur, and it was superb.  By now the kids are pretty versatile with their foods so have no problem with miso soup, sushi, salads and different sorts of sauces for the fried chicken and pork curries.  After this, we went to McDonalds for the final round of ice cream cones (they are 30 cents each so we have been visiting there frequently) then stood outside under the canopy to enjoy the “Daily Douche” - half an hour of intense rainfall during the mid-afternoon which we have enjoyed, and sometimes had to walk through, every day we have been here.  But with all the street food vendors, open sewers, and trash bags, if Bangkok did not get the Daily Douche I just can’t imagine how terrible it would smell.

We had some cash left over so walked through the market and Ana picked up some nail grooming equipment and the kids each got a set of super premium chopstick, so that they could continue their Asian eating tradition when we get back to Canada.

The rest of the day we lounged around the hotel room, I did some writing, we watched tv, Magnus practiced some moves with his new sword, Stella read, Ana creeped Facebook (and found a lot of people dumping buckets of ice water on their heads for ALS research!), we snacked, and so on.  Basically, it was pretty much like any Sunday afternoon in February back home at the Olson ranch.  We didn’t even leave for dinner, choosing instead to eat up the rest of the food we had in stock, making it the final backpacker dinner, and a very satisfying one at that.

Before bed, Magnus balked one more time at having to go back home, looking for any possible way to extend the trip.  He makes out like he just loves it here so much that he doesn’t want to go back to Canada, but I think the real reason is that he doesn’t want to go back to school!  It seems strange - his final report card was fantastic, and he enjoys school once he gets there, but like a true boy he would just rather be hanging around with no fixed agenda, which is pretty much what backpacking is all about so this lifestyle suits him perfectly.  Stella, on the other hand, is simply satisfied with everything.  She loves the traveling, but is also excited to get home to see her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and also to get back to school to reconnect with her friends.  About halfway through the trip, there was a bit of homesickness for both of them, which was short lived, but since then they have not once asked to go home.  I guess they realized that home is still there, and always will be, so instead they returned to enjoying each day and being constantly enthralled with all the new things they were seeing and doing.

Am I ready to go home?  I would say yes.  In fact, I think I am simply saturated with new experiences.  Seeing and doing so many different things every day does eventually wear you out and you reach a point where they start having much less of an impact than they did at the start.  This is a good signal that it’s time to go home.  I am looking forward to sitting in our familiar backyard, under the canopy, enjoying a fire and a glass of red wine.  Ana has also requested that we go to the local butcher and pick up a round of the biggest, best steaks they have for our first meal.  The beef in this part of the world simply isn’t very good (unless you go to a top class restaurant and drop some serious cash) so that is one thing we are really looking forward to.  But during this time away we have realized that we can happily live on a lot less meat than we normally eat at home, so we are going to try and adjust our diets a bit.  But nothing too drastic – after all, we are Canadian so meat and potatoes will always be there on the table!

I forgot one thing.  Since we were so bored today I thought it would be a good time to get a tattoo arm sleeve.  I thought it would be a nice way to commemorate our amazing adventure.  And, along with my overgrown facial hair, it makes me look real tough.

Tuesday, August 26th - Bangkok, Thailand

For our final days in Bangkok we decided to keep it simple.  So today we began with a long, long walk to and through Lumphini Park, which looks to be the largest park in the city.  We meandered through a couple markets, down a few busy streets, packed with traffic, across a footbridge, then hopped Frogger-style, across a crazy busy street and finally arrived to the green oasis.  The park itself had quite a few people there – many bikers, locals doing Tai Chi, backpackers strolling around, families having picnics and a lot of folks just sitting around, enjoying the sunny day.  There are several small lakes in this park, so we headed towards one of them, and as we approached saw something long swimming through the water.  As it came close we realized it was a monitor lizard!  And he wasn’t the only one, as we walked we saw dozens of them, some smaller ones who were on land, digging in the ground for worms, and some really big ones who stayed in the water and on the banks, and eyed us warily as we passed by.

We found a big playground so the kids played there while and Ana and I sat on one the benches, discussing our impressions of this city.  Bangkok is truly a world class city and really has something for everybody.  Besides the many rats Ana has seen lurking both day and night around the outside food vendors (she HATES rodents, like I mean she has a spaz attack when she sees one), she has really liked Bangkok.  It is quite clean, very cheap for a major city, has so much variety, great shopping, cheap markets, great food, and so much to see and do.  The air pollution is quite nasty, but that is probably unavoidable with all the two stroke motorbikes buzzing around and all the other millions of vehicles belching their exhaust into the air.  I think it’s a place we could easily live in for a while, perhaps a future contract here when the time is right?

After touring the park (and on the way out passing by an outdoor gym with the oldest and rattiest fitness equipment you could imagine) we walked back through the congested city, passing by Patpong road and an awesome open sewer river that smelled so bad it made my eyes water.  At the end of this long, sweaty walk was the Neilson Hays library, located right beside the British Club, and keepers of the largest English book collection available in Thailand.  Whenever we travel I like to visit libraries, and this one was especially fantastic as it was in the middle of a ferociously busy area, but was nestled away behind a barrier of beautiful trees and offered a peaceful, quiet refuge.  We each found a book to read and collapsed on the bean bag chairs and read for a couple hours.  They had an area with books for sale so we also picked up some reading material for the long plane ride home, which was fast approaching.

Beside the library was a café so we had lunch, then walked back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day and evening chilling out.  One day left…