Summer 2018 – Family Sail!

We met back up with Leah, Charlie and Willy in Bowser on Vancouver Island after their trip through Desolation Sound. We loved that they were able to take Leela and show Willy some of the beauty of B.C. from a different viewpoint, and at the helm! Along for our sail back to Vancouver was my dad Doug, who has joined us on Leela before, and my brother Skylar. 

We spent the night at a mooring in Bowser and lifted sail the next morning back to Hornby Island, one of the most spectacular beaches and delightful island communities in B.C.. After a cheeky short sail, we dropped anchor in Tribune Bay, with just two feet of clear water under the keel. We spent the day on the beach with a few beers and a frisbee. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves and as soon as we landed on the beach and set up our blanket we cracked a beer, clinked them together with a big “CHEERS!!!”, to see cops walking up four feet behind us laughing at how oblivious we were. After pouring out our freshly opened beer in the sand, the cops informed us that most people on the beach drink “coffee” all day long…out of their “COFFEE CUPS” we laughed and zipped back to the boat for a few travel mugs. Doh.

The trip turned into one of those magic ones, where everyone is in top form, the wind is nice, and beer is cold and the jokes are many. Looking up at the stars we had a collective moment of ‘we’re insignificant over here!’. We had a freaking blast.

What’s that in your “coffee cup” Sky?!

The next day we sailed from Hornby Island on a beautiful beam reach to the Sunshine Coast and anchored in Smugglers Cove. The following morning we lifted anchor and had one of our best gennaker sails of all time down Georgia Straight. Sky took the helm and sailed us most of the way and we spotted some humpback whales to round out one of the best weekends on Leela. Sunshine, family, gut-wrenching laughter, wonderful food and sailing. We’re lucky to live where we do, and I feel even luckier to have family that I love, and genuinely want to spend time with. 

The motley crew
4 Responses
  1. Jason Maennling

    Oh man, that looks like such an awesome day or two. Sure great to see the love of sailing flow through the generations. XO

  2. Peter Green

    Happy Easter Saxony and Emmanuel……..
    wonderful to hear from you, are you back in New Zealand getting your new boat ready to ‘take-off’ or has the world CoronoVirus situation delayed your plans for some months?

    best…..
    Wendy and Peter

  3. Margot Brown Auerman

    Wow what an awesome adventure!!!!! So great to see the pics of everyone loving the great outdoors and sharing the laughter.

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