Thanks for the visit and the comment!

Anyway, I do agree that you do need to utilize some common sense in this regard. I have a wonderful story to that effect.

About 20 years ago my buddy had bought his first sailboat – San Juan 24. And while we had sailed off and on growing up, lazers, fireballs, etc. We had never done any “real” sailing. We certainly had don’t our costal navigation certification – which everyone sail or powerboater should do without excuse. So – living in Vancouver at the time – we thought what better thing than to sail across Georgia Strait over to the islands for a long weekend for her maiden voyage. Supplies laid aboard, and already half in the bag off we went at sunset…two guys who didn’t really know how to read charts or understand the tide tables…smart right? After all, how hard could it be?

About 2 hours and a lot more beer into the Strait, in full darkness now, I’m at the helm while my pal is below looking at the charts and trying to firgure out where we are when I see a big tug moving up in front of us several hundred yards. He’s heading NE, so I veer off a bit to the SW to go around behind him. All of a sudden I hear yelling from the tug and one of the guy scrambles up to its roof to whip around the spotlight because they’re towing 2 huge barges on a steel cable. I couldn’t see the cable but saw the barges so I understood immeditatly what was happening and came about hard. As we came around I finally saw the light on the cable which was a only about 25ft in front of us. Had we hit it, I shudder to think what would have happened. Crisis averted, on we go.

A few hours later, even more gassed at this point after our near accident. We make it to Polier Pass at Galiano. Now for those who don’t know, Polier is this very narrow, very treacherous pass which has claimed many a boat, power included because when the currents shift they do so very powerfully. It just so happened that we came in at slack tide and cruised on through. We didn’t think much of it untill the next day when all the other real sailors commented they were mind-blown that we had come in so late and what a daring feat it was. We admitted our ignorance and recieved many low-whistles and rolled eyes along with the admonisments of “God smiles on fools and little children”. They then went on to explain to us just how perilous the pass is and how lucky we were. Needless to say that shook us up conisderably and we stayed sober the whole trip back and immediately enrolled to acquire our coastal nav certification. In hindsight, we now realize really how lucky we were and now would never dream of sailing drunk.

We do still like to imbibe when we’re moored, but much more reasonably now. It seems that only the weekend sailors/powerboaters are the people who like to get stupidly drunk, because they reality of the dangers around them hasn’t fully set in. And unfortunately with this fellow, it seems more like he was just jazzed about this new lifestyle change and his landlubber pals didn’t know any better either and terrible tradgegy occurred. What a shame. Still he died starting out with something he loved and wanted, and it could be worse. Regardless, I think we can all agree that getting 3 sheets to the wind on the water is not what you want to be doing unless it’s actual sailing.

Thanks for the blog, guys. I really love it!
Cheers
Cutter

Anyway thaks for a great blog

Alcohol depresses the central nervous system, affects judgment, and slows physical reaction time. Most people become impaired after only one drink.

Alcohol makes it difficult for you to pay attention and perform multiple tasks. For example, it will be more difficult for you to keep track of two or more vessels operating in your area. This could become critical if you are placed in an emergency situation and must make a sudden decision.

Hello Strathy,

You have a very informative blog/website. Thank you for taking the time to
provide all the information and tips on your site, it’s very helpful to more
novice boaters like myself.

I just took the plunge and bought a larger boat which is currently sitting
at PCHM dry dock and will be docked at “P” dock next spring. I had the
pleasure of meeting and talking to Morris about 4 or 5 times during August
of 2008 while I was deciding on which dock for our boat in 2009.

Morris was always very helpful and gave me many good ideas and advice about
boating in general and which dock to choose amongst other things. I chose P
dock for the upcoming season because it’s quiet and has a nice view at the
end and look forward to many days just relaxing (and occasionally working!)
from the confines of our boat. Morris was on P dock before he traded up to
his larger live aboard that you have pictured on your blog. It is very sad
about what happened to him. Alcohol mixed with any motorized vehicle is
just looking for danger, but as you say, it’s especially a bad mix when
it’s with a boat. At least if you fall when you get out of your car, you
will land on something solid.

I appreciate your insights into Morris and his life and what happened on
his last night at A dock. He was a very nice person to talk to and seemed
very kind, generous and was always a giving person. He told me he was
looking forward to living aboard for the winter and even offered that I
come down in the winter to visit him and see what it was really like in the
winter. He knew how interested I was in learning about boating with our
larger cruiser and learning the ropes from a veteran boater. I will always
remember how nice he was to me and how helpful and patient he was with all
my questions.

I look forward to the upcoming season at PCHM and will look for you and
your boat and certainly say hello this summer!

Thank you again for your great blog. Boating is no doubt one of the best
pastimes that anyone can imagine. There is nothing like being on the
water. You take it even further by living year round. I don’t think I
could do it and certainly my wife could not do it, even if we had a larger
boat. It’s the space that would get to me most, but as you say in your
blog, “we’ve adjusted to our space” and the view is awesome! I think that
you have to be driven to experience life a little differently compared to
‘the norm’ to live on a boat in Mississauga all winter, but as I have
noticed at PCHM, you are hardly alone. You should write a book about
boating and year round live aboard.

I hope that the storm we are about the receive does not cause you too much
hardship tonight and tomorrow.

All the best,
Mark