The Alchemy of Sailing

09/30/2024

Please sign this petition from STAND against cruise ships dumping s**t in the Sea. How is this still a thing??
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-5144

"Pollution caused by Alaska’s cruise ship industry threatens the health of our communities and the food chains that coastal species — like critically endangered orcas — rely upon. Mega-Cruise ships are able to dump industrial amounts of waste directly into the ocean due to Canada's lax rules."

07/02/2024

New Blog Post on "A View From the Water"

It’s turning out to be more difficult to write at the intersection of external and internal perspectives than I had anticipated.  I’ve been on the Ocean for over three weeks now and my world i…

05/30/2024

The crew. Cold and cranky but still amazing!!

05/30/2024

Gunnar doing what he does best. Still rockin’ it at 81. Gunnar Jonsson

05/30/2024

Swiftsure Report. Wow - was that ever fun, except when it wasn't. Big wind, false starts, big waves, no wind, rain, tons of commercial traffic. We had a decent start and a good first half. Reepicheep was going fast upwind in the 20-30 knots and the team was doing great. We missed the last shift and took the circle route to the Neah Bay mark where the wind died and we festered for hours. Once we broke out, we had a good spinnaker run across the shipping lanes, had some nice conversations with some captains and landed safely on the Canadian side to NO WIND. We hung in until the math said we couldn't possibly make it before the deadline when we retired. We did our best and feel good about the effort. It was such a treat to have much of the Old Salient crew on Board. Renee had an injury and couldn't make it but sent us some much loved food. Thanks Renee Duprat. Naz Savuran stepped up and was a fantastic addition to the team along with Andy, not my brother Cu***ng from Ontario.

05/09/2024

I'm back. Sorry for the absence. Life got in the way.

Updates: I sold Alchemist to Andy Cu***ng (not my brother) in Ontario. There is likely another race boat in my future.

Reepicheep is all fixed up and ready to go racing and cruising.

I have a very special team for Swiftsure. We all raced the Vic Maui together in 2018 and thought a reunion would be in order. I am stoked to reconnect with Gunnar Jonsson and Renee Duprat. We have a "get the boat race ready and practice weekend" this weekend and I couldn't be more excited.

AND, I plan to cruise and live aboard Reepicheep for June, July and August. I've ordered Starlink and all the parts to supposedly make it work - man, it's complicated. I'm going to play around with a blog idea I've had percolating for decades. I first registerd the URL aviewfromthewater.com in 2004 when I planned to sail the high seas with a BF (and Ali) from Toronto. Well that obviously didn't work out but the idea of writing from the perspective on the water has stayed with me. When you arrive in a place from the water, the place is different. We are different.

Thanks for your patience.

01/19/2024

Snowy boats.

11/19/2023

I wanted to thank my team for an outstanding year on Alchemist. Alex Fox Matthew Fair Carl Blouw Adam Serediuk . It takes a village and I love my community. Thank you for bringing your best game. We are an intergenerational team and I can't tell you how much joy it brings me to sail with this amazing mixed bag of awesome people. Missing from last nights awards ceremony was Cam Wallace Tubbs Sarah-Anne Brault Haley Macintosh. Ben Stevens

09/30/2023

Massive thank you to the Vanisle 360 team for this beautiful gift. They had this original water colour made for me and prints for each team member. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for this gift and for the effort, commitment, passion and just darn hard work we all did to get Reepicheep around the rock fast.

Best experience yet!

David McCallum Renee Dupree Becky KellyAlex Fox Adam Serediuk David Vogelaar