Greetings! From Calgary

[boatman61]

Old Colonial India/Pakistan... they moved there about 15+yrs back when things started getting a bit too violent out there...
Seem to have settled in so it can't be that bad...

[Charlie2be]

Wow! I am impressed! That is quite the move and quite a temp difference! Are you still in India/Pakistan or have you relocated as well?

[Teknav]

This year, I will not be able to visit Canada, even though I'd have liked to visit a friend on here who lives by the "North Pole"; BC/AK area. I am thinking of one of two possible vacation destinations; St. Kitts, BWI or Lizard Island, AU (Great Barrier Reef). Either trip will include a combination of flying/sailing/SCUBA diving. Lizard Island - Queensland/AU and Rangiroa - French Polynesia/Tahiti are by far the best of the best in SCUBA diving waters. Sailing these waters require special seamanship skills, as one has to deal with the possibility of 3 tides per day. At very low tide, you can see shark fins protruding out of the water. Killer blue-ring octopi, scorpion fish and man-of-war jellyfish are plentiful and are to be avoided, when diving. On the other hand, friendly bottle nose dolphins poke you and beg you for a handout. The bottom line is to learn seamanship well and learn to adapt to your environment. In due time, exploration of beautiful destinations will be the frosting on your cake! Mauritz

[Charlie2be]

Ah and I see you are from Texas! Sorry for the redundant question; however, I am still getting use to the site! Those sound like some amazing places to travel to Teknav - I am pretty green with envy over here, I must admit! You paint a wonderful picture of the places I am dying to see and hope through sailing that I will be able to. I have done a lot of land-locked travel but have yet to really leave the shore for too long. Regrettably of course! SCUBA diving is also on the list of things I will be taking up this year as I have an almost obsessive want to go wreck-diving! (Bit of a history buff) I dunno so much about the killer-crawlies, but they come with the territory....*shivers*

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Charlie2be

Wow! I am impressed! That is quite the move and quite a temp difference! Are you still in India/Pakistan or have you relocated as well?

I'm clairvoyent... moved in '64...

[mischief]

How's it going eh!

I used to live in Canmore and Calgary even though my passion was alpine climbing I could not resist the draw of sailing. I now live in Australia have been through 4 sailboats and now on my fifth and hopefully last. We're setting up for liveaboard and are almost there ( in the scheme of things )
Follow the dream you won't regret it.
One other thing depending on what's your game sailing can be relaxing or exciting as you can imagine. Personally I thrive on heavy weather sailing and can tell you I've summited hardcore mountains from Yosemiti big wall to 6000m peaks in the Andes. 1000m waterfalls (polar circus up on the parkway near Athabasca) etc and I have just as many thrills in sailing. Okay we'll maybe not the same but what I'm getting at is I've had friends that say oh sailing is boring. Then I take them out when the weather is up a bit and they are hanging on for dear life! I bet working the fordeck on a maxi racer or a foil trihull racer would be a wild ride. On the flip side you can pick your weather and be a fair weather sailor sipping red wine between tacks. As a sailor you will learn to appreciate red wine even if your a beer drinker ;-)
Fair winds

[Lancerbye]

Welcome aboard "Cowboy". I have a son living and working in Calgary. I usually visit him once a year and he tries to come out to Vancouver Island for some sailing and fishing in the summer time. I too am landlocked at the present but when summer comes I will be cruising the BC coast. So many places to visit. Lot of Calgarians keep boats at marinas on Vancouver Island.