Covid plan B for Canada staying closed

[Tessellate]

Originally Posted by NaClyDog

The part where you downsized everything just to cruise in BC for 6 months a year.

Oh, yeah, certainly that's not essential. But we wanted to try the full-time cruising lifestyle. It provides the same benefits as people who do it while sailing further abroad - simplicity, flexibility, lower costs (not maintaining two homes and lot of possessions).

And while 6 months is BC (when open), the other 6 months is still part-time cruising and/or breaks from cruising (ex, travel when possible). It's a pretty great model, but the pandemic certainly threw a wrench in it. It's messed with everyone's plans, but when you've gone all-in on cruising, all your eggs are in one basket. Cruisers who didn't go all-in - keeping houses, jobs, cars, RVs, etc - are looking pretty smart right now. Having more options has proven valuable.

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by Tessellate

Oh, yeah, certainly that's not essential. But we wanted to try the full-time cruising lifestyle. It provides the same benefits as people who do it while sailing further abroad - simplicity, flexibility, lower costs (not maintaining two homes and lot of possessions).

And while 6 months is BC (when open), the other 6 months is still part-time cruising and/or breaks from cruising (ex, travel when possible). It's a pretty great model, but the pandemic certainly threw a wrench in it. It's messed with everyone's plans, but when you've gone all-in on cruising, all your eggs are in one basket. Cruisers who didn't go all-in - keeping houses, jobs, cars, RVs, etc - are looking pretty smart right now. Having more options has proven valuable.

You have my sympathies.


We are in the "lucked out" category I guess. We still have pretty much everything as we were about the pull the proverbial trigger when everything went bananas in March. My spouse has gone back to work full time because the epidemic so her "real" retirement is now on hold until things are back under control on that front.


Learning to roll with the punches in important in life (and cruising it seems)!

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Tessellate

...And while 6 months is BC (when open), the other 6 months is still part-time cruising and/or breaks from cruising (ex, travel when possible). It's a pretty great model, but the pandemic certainly threw a wrench in it. It's messed with everyone's plans, but when you've gone all-in on cruising, all your eggs are in one basket. Cruisers who didn't go all-in - keeping houses, jobs, cars, RVs, etc - are looking pretty smart right now. Having more options has proven valuable.

We've been seasonal cruising since 2015; approximately 1/2 the year on the boat, and 1/2 doing other stuff. So far we've stuck to Canada (GL & east coast), so we cruise during the warmer months and do land stuff during the colder.

So far, the land stuff has involved visiting friends, family and (mostly) house sitting through the winters. We don't have a land house, but we do have a small car (Honda Fit), and two small motorcycles. This allows us the freedom to travel where we want and need to be, again at a fairly low cost.

I just offer this as another option.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Tessellate

If you reread my post you'll see that's not what I said. I said we do (and have) sailed 70-90% of the time/distance there. Yes it's not easy, but it's honestly a ton of fun. Over the course of 12 months in 2 years (2018--2019). I understand it's not the norm, but our experience is contrary to most others. There's fantastic sailing in BC and the inside passage is one of the best places in the world for sailing, as long as you have a purpose built boat (not a heavy one, and set up for light wind sailing).

We've sailed through Seymour narrows and many of the other rapids, but yes you can't always do that - that's where the 10-30% motoring comes from. My experience is the wind usually doesn't bounce off the mountains from both sides of the channel, it usually aligns with the channel. Sometimes we have to do 20-30 tacks but that's not really a big deal. If you have time and patience, we usually sail downwind the length of Johnstone Strait both northbound and southbound.

Oh... that's who you are

You've likely read Andy's blog posts about sailing direct Alaska to San Fran. But that's going the other way.

Honestly, my feeling is that a 2021 border opening is going to be pretty iffy for the Canadian psyche—unfortunately a lot of it depends on the general trust levels for the current US government, so that may change. It also depend on our minority federal gov't we now have. A snap election here might change the official stance regardless of the inclination of the populace.

Be that as it may it might be worth parking the boat for another year and exploring other options. But I still vote for Sweden. It's been on my mind most of the summer as I miss my boat.

—s/v Never for Ever

[yesthatsue]

Originally Posted by Tessellate

A BC replacement would have:

• lots of trees and mountains
• at least 500 miles of coastline
• hundreds to thousands of anchorages
• not too hot (40F to 70F most of the time)
• short distances between anchorages (20-40nm) in most places

If you're flexible about those mountains, the Great Lakes have some really wonderful cruising: the Thousand Islands, the North Channel of Lake Huron, the Apostle Islands, and countless bays and nooks and crannies, among other things. There's always a port you can get to that day, and the water is even fresh. You've missed this sailing season, though -- services are shutting down, boats are hauling out for the winter, and the gales are about to start.

If mountains are a must, Norway looks awesome, but it's far from you. Sweden looks awesome as well, but minus the mountains. We have an Atlantic Canada-Greenland-Iceland-Faeroes-Norway cruise planned for some post-COVID year, but who knows when that will be?

[Scout 30]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

I agree with everything you say - but US infection rates are STILL ten times ours and we just don't want to take the chance. Original spread WAS via travel. It didn't just erupt and appear spontaneously and simultaneously in every country in the world: it traveled there and here.

We're doing the very best we can to protect our citizens and the travel ban is one of the weapons in the arsenal. It certainly makes contact tracing easier. We know from experience that not everyone coming into the country self-isolates for the required two weeks - and we can't afford to lock them up to make sure they do.

No, not every American is an idiot - but Trump's approval ratings are still in the mid 40s.

Good point.

[kelpline]

The Canada/US marine border will be closed for another year as the coastal First Nations are strongly asserting their ownership of their territories under the guiss of "Close for covid".

[gagrant]

I live in Vancouver and have family in the US so I am keeping up with regs. I would be delighted to chat off line if there is that is possible.
Cheers Greg

[Toaster]

Originally Posted by Tessellate

If you reread my post you'll see that's not what I said. I said we do (and have) sailed 70-90% of the time/distance there. Yes it's not easy, but it's honestly a ton of fun. Over the course of 12 months in 2 years (2018--2019). I understand it's not the norm, but our experience is contrary to most others. There's fantastic sailing in BC and the inside passage is one of the best places in the world for sailing, as long as you have a purpose built boat (not a heavy one, and set up for light wind sailing).

We've sailed through Seymour narrows and many of the other rapids, but yes you can't always do that - that's where the 10-30% motoring comes from. My experience is the wind usually doesn't bounce off the mountains from both sides of the channel, it usually aligns with the channel. Sometimes we have to do 20-30 tacks but that's not really a big deal. If you have time and patience, we usually sail downwind the length of Johnstone Strait both northbound and southbound.

Yes! We sailed the BC coast for several years, and actually sailed about 2/3ds of the time, and it is a ton of fun. We too have sailed many narrows, including Seymour Narrows. You learn to read the weather, the tides, and the local winds, and ride them to your advantage. And yes, 20-30 tacks is just fine when you know a fine anchorage awaits! North of Cape Caution, we keep to the outer islands, and avoid the "Inside Passage" where all the commercial traffic goes. Much more wind out there.

It's discouraging to see so many sail boats motoring, mostly because it seems they think they "have to". Maybe they do. Shameless plug: Before we left, my wife wrote a book about how to sail rather than motor in the area. It's called "Taken by the Wind: The Northwest Coast", self-published on Amazon. She also had an article in May 2020 in Sail Magazine about sailing in the area.

Now, we are in the same "boat" as you - though in our case we are in Hawaii. Our grand plans of taking off this year for Kiribati, Micronesia and other Pacific cruising grounds like NZ are gone, probably for good. We are contemplating sailing from here to Alaska next spring, and returning to our old cruising grounds of SE AK, BC and Puget Sound.

[edlepera]

I think it’s ridiculous Of all these border closures to cruisers who can self isolate.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Toaster

It's discouraging to see so many sail boats motoring, mostly because it seems they think they "have to". Maybe they do. Shameless plug: Before we left, my wife wrote a book about how to sail rather than motor in the area. It's called "Taken by the Wind: The Northwest Coast", self-published on Amazon. She also had an article in May 2020 in Sail Magazine about sailing in the area.

Hey, I have that book!

But I admit to motoring way too much...

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by edlepera

I think it’s ridiculous Of all these border closures to cruisers who can self isolate.

Unfortunately, experience this past Summer is that many cruisers/drivers (using the "Alaska loophole") did NOT self isolate.

The vast majority of Canadians support the border closure:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/can...rump-1.5722974

[SalingSue]

Alaska

It’s not similar, it’s better, it looks like how nature was intended to look, people are salt of the earth too, sense of community, common sense, and value of individual liberty is very refreshing.

It’s like a nice cold glass of water on a hot day for your soul.

[David Mathis]

Try the Great Lakes but if you need mountains, try Lake Champlain. It's 120 miles long and located between the Adirondack Mountains of New York and the Green Mountains of Vermont. It has numerous anchorages and marinas. However, it freezes over in the winter (no all year boating in the far north east) and occasionally gets into tropical temperatures in the summer.

[Lost Horizons]

Originally Posted by Tessellate

(currently in WA)

AK meets that but I'm not sure how feasible chartering there is given the shorter season.

Is there anything particular that prevents you from sailing from WA to AK?
Sorry if it was already discussed, I just read the original post only.
I am sailing to AK from Anacortes next May.