It’s a dream many have, but very few actually do it;. That is, sailing around the world.
A couple from Calgary Alberta, have arrived back at their home port just north of Victoria on Vancouver Island after an epic five year sailing adventure of circumnavigation.
The couple’s boat the SV Terrwyn is a 25-year-old fiberglass 11.3 metre double-ender,
Bill Norrie was an experienced sailor heading out in 2011 and for him it was the realization of a 30-year dream, but for wife Cathy, it was her first time sailing off-shore.
Quoted by CHEK news, she said “I have to admit for the first ten days I thought what am I doing out here? It’s crazy, the big waves, everything was big and loud”.
Still she says the dream soon became hers as well.
You tube video of cooking, and radio communicating aboard
With plenty of wonderful memories there were also some tense moments including an 18-hour gale that was worse than predicted: 50 knots and “vertical walls” of swell as Bill described .
Then there was the very close call with a giant freighter.
In their blog for the black moonless night of 26 November off the coast of Nambia, Africa they write where after watching the lights from an ocean tug that had presented some concern another unexpected ship…
Poppy repeats ” He’s very close and there’s another light behind it. Starboard.”.. Really close? Another light? Off our other beam (side)?. There it was, aft of Terrwyn’s starboard beam. Another white light “way up there” followed by a roaring wall of steel towering over our entire starboard. The sound, roaring and metallic, growling displacing the storm’s sea waves and wind in the rigging. Reflexively Scups released Monti, tiller hard over to starboard (the new “stick” held) and Terrwyn spun up into the breeze as this other vessel literally roared by Terrwyn’s bow. How close? 20-50 metres, perhaps. 50 nm off Africa’s western shore. Rather like meeting the middle of a freight train in the night at an uncontrolled crossing Ð dark and deadly.Neither of us remember the wake, TG it was not a tug. Downwind sails suddenly upwind. More chaos. Now trivia as we watched in awe the big ship’s disappearing stern off our starboard stern. Did he see us? He would never have felt us tumble along his waterline. There was no time for anything. There would have been some floating wreckage only.
Terrwyn’s crew did lots right and did lots wrong.. We learned a life’s lesson without paying the ultimate price. We were lucky. We worked together, stayed calm and survived. We will never forget hearing and seeing that metallic wall roaring by high overhead and dead ahead”.
They also spotted a lot of garbage in the middle of the ocean as well “flotsam and jetsam”, but fortunately did not encounter a semi-sunk sea-container as in the film “All is Lost”. As mentioned all turned out well, and the adventure continued until their landfall in Canada this week.
Is that enough? Apparently not, “We’re not swallowing the anchor” said Bill, meaning they have not given up sailing.
In fact they are already planning their next excursion.
additional information -sources
- Sailblogs-william norrie
- The voyage of Catherine and William (Blogspot
- CBC-Matt Meuse
- CHEK news (with video of arrival)
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