S/V Barrel Rider

10/01/2023

What a lovely weekend, watching the fall leaves change - cool nights, warm days, perfect wind for sailing! Sailed onto the anchor, and sailed off the anchor. A first for us!

10/01/2023

Nothing quite like a strong cup of coffee in the morning to cut through the chill air!

09/30/2023

Fantastic sail onto anchor for (likely) the last family overnight of the season. So why not anchor under sail? Smoked chicken reheated on the BBQ, the motor thrumming to top off the battery, and a warm cuppa is keeping the fires warm as the temp drops tonight, and everyone is tucked into bed already but me!

09/28/2023

Yesterday was the last race of 2023, and conditions were so calm yesterday, this could be a video or a picture... despite a rough start, we were able to real in the fleet of 8 boats and finish 3rd over the line and the same on corrected, which brought us back up to 4th in the fall series overall.

Ended the evening with some great live music, nachos, and beer with friends next to the club, and sad the season has to end! But... potential for another offshore passage this winter has me still buzzing, even as we plan to make this upcoming weekend likely our last family overnight of the 2023 sailing season.

New headsail shipped yesterday... just in time to use it for the 2024 race season!

09/14/2023

6th... hmmm... I'd give the excuse that we didn't have a single downwind leg... but I'm not sure we would have scored any differently if we had our non-spin rating! Ha ha!

The race last night was... skill building! We were down a couple crew, and tried some things we've not attempted previously. Clearly, they didn't work, and now we know!

We did what any responsible sailing crew does following a less than ideal race... we hove to and disected every second of the race while muti tasking with some quality control checks on our ice boxes temperature settings for the post-race libations.

In other words... we sat around telling inflated stories of sailing over craft beer and cider while floating slowly down east bay!

2 more races left... hard to believe!

Here are the results from last nights fall series !

09/11/2023

Fantastic weekend that left us "pass out on the floor" exhausted! Wonderful weather, unseasonably warm, so there's no way we could skip getting out to enjoy the weekend... even with the looming first birthday and inspection from the inlaws on their grandkids living conditions later this week 😉!

Finally got a break from the summer pattern of either too much wind or not enough yesterday, and enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous off-the-beam sail back to the marina mid afternoon.

Those fancy wifi connected heat pumps had the house a comfy temperature when we finally made it home, and a lasagna I had the foresight to make and stick in the fridge before we left last week to refill the tanks!

09/09/2023

What a morning for mid Sept! The sun is trying to burn away a lovely layer of fog off the lake, just enough breeze to dry out the dew from the boat, and warm enough still for shorts and t's, while not so warm we can't enjoy a strong cup (or 3) of coffee!

Appreciating the quiet beauty of our inland ocean on this incredible island, had to pick up the guitar to sing "Saltwater Joy's", a little tune I learned when I spent 2 years living in the Annapolis Valley when I was Carmans age. How fitting the lyrics are for this morning, as we Bob gently on anchor with the 2 kiddos playing in the background, appreciating the saltwater joys in each moment with our little family in our home-away-from-home.

09/07/2023

Last night was a short race - just 3.7NM long, taking about an hour for us - but it was incredible! We were first over the start (yup, that photo shows how far the rest of the fleet was behind us at the start!), and second across the finish! We were chasing puffs to keep moving in a very confused breeze...or no breeze... and in true BEYC racing fashion we didn't have any true windward or leeward legs... all reaching, which really doesn't favour our boats newer-ish European design after the Figaro 1 hull compared to the North American designed and built C&C's and Paceships in the predominantly PHRF-rated world. Nor did our Spin declaration amount for any tangible benefit to us (actually, we took a hit loosing an additional 12 points over non-spin against the majority of the rest of the fleet) with no downwind legs... and that makes our skippers incredible steering over the course, and crews reaction to the shifty conditions to come in at an astonishing 3rd place, all the more sweet!

The only female skip out last night, Kelsey earned the title "Kelsey the Breadless, Viking Princess of the Bras D'or!" for her outstanding performance at the helm, in an homage to her heritage, position on the crew, and current stomping...er... sailing grounds!

It was amazing to see some of the bigger boats with more experienced crew to our stern the entire race, including the 2 C&C 34's who were still trailing by quite a distance as we started the second lap. Kelsey pulled some fun maneuvers to keep them from trying to sneak past... which of course leaves me a bit sore after hauling on the spinnaker sheet harder than I would have liked to... Our crew seems to be "clicking" the last few races, as we keep up in real time with the same sized boats lately (C&C 30, etc.) and are doing a bit better on corrected!

All in all, feeling quite proud heading into the fall series after a great race, and hoping we can carry a similar performance through to the final few races!

09/01/2023

Great spin run out of east bay (only the second time I've done that!) But this north wind is chilly.... found a good spot to call home for tonight. Late night for the kids with some cedar planked salmon just getting on the BBQ now. Sweaters already... where's summer gone!?!?

08/24/2023

Now THAT was a great start! Wicked helming by our Lady skip, Kelsey! One of 2 full time ladies that Skipper during our weekly races! 2nd across the line and she steered an amazing course, start to finish!

Finally got a downwind leg for the first time this summer, and the spinnaker went to work! Fun night! Wonderful company!

08/17/2023

Almost close enough to pass craft dinner between the boats! Best start we've had to date yesterday - thanks skip Kelsey! Unfortunately, the deck candy are all beauty, no brains, and we royaly flopped the first spin set. Middle of the pack finish for us, thanks to my epic and quite visible fumble!

08/03/2023

What a beautiful night to race last night at Ben Eoin Yacht Club & Marina! Steady wind, sun shine, warm air!

We had a near perfect start! So perfect, in fact, we got to do it twice. Others believe this was because we went across the line early... I think they were threatened. Rightfully so! We got the second highest number of points in the race! (Alas... sailing, like golf, shouldn't work this way - but I'm sticking with my rose colored glasses!).

Quick upwind, and rounding the pin it was pretty near a perfect beam reach. Despite being 3 crew short, and there being the odd gust, we flew the spinnaker (we were being corrected for it, may as well use it!). We made fantastic headway with it, and caught back up to the pack after our double start - so close, in fact, we could see that Jonathan and crew on Island Time were crushing it along with Sandra and crew on Que Te Via Bien.

Side note - 3 boats skippered by Woman on Water yesterday, including one with an all female team! Amazing to see this diversity!

The final upwind was a close reach to a reach, and taught us we do not, in fact, know sail trim on our boat too well yet. We lost the fleet again, Kinship came roaring past despite me trying to get Kelsey to push them up out of spite and competition... but figured it out in the final moments and caught back up to them for a photo finish side by each! While a good feeling, we owe them 40 points on corrected time... ah well!

Coming second last in a yacht race is still better than not being in a yacht race! Thank God Dutchess brought her BBQ and holy-headsail, else wise we may have been further down the list!

Now time to convert our sleigh back to a family cruiser for the long weekend!