YEAR END 2016 NEWS LETTER

          Aloha everyone, hope all is well, I will try to be polite and politically correct, but unfortunately, knowing myself and my current state of mind, I fear that this newsletter’s theme will feel more like a big complaint about the society we live in.
          But let’s start by the beginning… pain….joints, muscle, knee, wrists, neck, feet, head, butt, just pick and choose, I think you all heard it before, the warranty runs out at 50 and it’s all downhill from there on. Some say it occurs at 40, but I don’t believe in this statement, so yeah.. it’s wearing out, but somehow the grey cells are acting differently, somehow we discover that we can analyze a situation and immediately foresee the possible outcome, that we can quantify the risks and development that can potentially be associated to any action we take, some call it maturity or experience, I think of it as the precursor of some sort of incipient dementia or the sine qua non of aging.
           One more time, we can say that we had an exciting year, so exciting that we wish it’s already over by now, feel the irony? You have surely heard it from the media, we all wish that the door shuts hard on the butt of 2016 and kicks it out of the picture, and it has been the same for us, be it at Café Campagne or at Polarpak,  I am sadly discovering the perks of working for a publicly traded company, squeeze the juice until it starts bleeding, yep, that’s how it feels like.  The quarterly budget, the Ebitda, gross margin, contribution, shortfalls, earning, payback, capital expenditures, acquisition, mergers, consolidation, growth, sweet words, all related to sweet numbers that make or break your day. But hey, this is the capitalism we all chose to embrace, so now let’s live with its pitfalls and succumb to its pressure and stress .
          But, regardless, we are still alive and well, not necessarily 100% mentally or physically well, this year has taken its toll on us, we simply cannot wait for Jan.08^th where we will leave for our annual vacation, upper management ironically calls it my sabbatical, three well deserved weeks down south where there will be nothing but sand, sun, surf, wind, waves and saltwater, three weeks where the ubiquity of capitalism will be none existent, so I wish.




Berchtesgaden national park-Austria

             We had it easy all these years until we discovered how vicious a neighbor can be and how cruel the corporate world can be. About the former, well we now have a new neighbor at Café Campagne, the type that will force its way through a crowd, sticking its elbows out to make way. The belligerent, pugnacious, hostile, confrontational and hypocritical type of neighbor and she also happens to be a Biatch, and I am being polite. But strangely, I strongly believe that nature has its ways of balancing things out, not that I wish anyone harm but it is inevitable, things will balance out. What goes up has to come down, spit in the air it will fall back on you, action-reaction, Newton’s 3^rd law of motion, oh I love it!!
            As for the latter, well the freaking north American dream, oh yes, lies, words, brainwashing, the corporate world has its ways of making us all believe that all is well and pristine, they use professionals to create videos, training, brochures, newsletters that all repeat the same things over and over and over again until you buy into it, repeat the same thing ad nauseam until you believe, but if you step back and take the time to look at the big picture, you suddenly discover that what was being preached is the opposite of what is being practiced, you discover that what was imparted and expressed was simply a smoke screen, you suddenly wake up and discover that you are in the middle of this huge ocean and have no choice but continue to sail until you reach a certain destination. Hollywood…  the 7^th art, they are proficient at it and now they have social media to indoctrinate us all to surmise that it’s all legal.   

Streets of Salzburg

           In fact, it’s all legal, a legal type of Mafia, the control on the market, the financials, the oil and in my field of expertise, the plastic resin market which is basically a derivative of oil. But I will leave this discussion for another time or for another exchange when we meet head to head.  So yes, it can drive you sick or insane, some of my colleagues succumbed to depression, some younger potentials left the company, but not necessarily for greener grass as some would believe. And now they have Donald!! Ha! Ha!! Live by the sword, die by the sword. Anyhow…enough of my rant against this capitalist society, I have substantially digressed from the subject of this narrative, sorry.     

Mother's day at Café Campagne

            The summer has been very busy at the Café, we were also very busy finding an alternative for our parking areas since the new Biatch wanted us to pay an arm and a leg to rent her parking, but we now have a new parking lot that we have constructed from scratch, it is conveniently located  on the opposite of the Café, it was not an easy task because of the fact that we had to deal with two levels of government for permissions, license, rules and regulations. You think red tape? Well we went through hell trying to decipher how to tackle the municipal by laws and the rules of the ministry of transportation!! And the battle is not over yet.  Did I mention the incompetence of a civil engineering firm whose services we had to hire to design an engineering plan for the parking lot, full of errors and mistakes, there were numerous discussions and email exchanges that tested our patience.  This basically reinforced my belief that it’s like anything else in this life, there are good mechanics and bad mechanics, good cooks, bad cooks, good doctors, bad doctors, good architects and bad architects, good lawyers and really bad ones, good engineers and BAD engineers!!! For the latter two, I can proudly say that I have experienced it live and in person. But we can proudly say that we came out of this battle educated and in awe,  these encounters have essentially enhanced our maturity.
                  We also had a decent summer sailing OneEye, she is swift and fast, unfortunately, because of the headaches with the neighbor and the parking lot, we started our season later that what we had expected, we did not put as much hours as we intended to on OneEye . Caroline also had summer school so we felt the absence of our primary sail trimmer for the first part of the season.
  

Hudson J24 Regatta

         I also had the opportunity to crew as the bow man on Premature grey for the J24 Quebec district championship. We did well, very well, 2^nd in the September regatta and First for the Quebec District championship. 
Follow the link below for some more info and pictures. https://j24quebec.wordpress.com/
           

          Caroline is reaching the end of her studies, but she intends to spend another year at HEC (http://www.hec.ca/en/) for another program of some sort, sounds like “Certificate in organizational leadership”, or it also sounds like Mum and Dad , I will keep spending your money until you retire.
           Peenut is getting old and grumpy, just like his master, his senses are not as sharp as it used to be, barking at every shadow or rustle, but he is still healthy for an 9-year-old dog, running around in the yard all summer, chasing ghosts, I guess this is what actually keeps him in shape, the running I mean.



Catch of the day

         Late September, a week before bow hunting season, I escaped for  4 days for a fishing trip with my best buddy, Bern, Ronald and Dad, we went somewhere remote to fish for Rainbow and Lake trout. It was Sunny and hot, the worst condition ever for trout fishing, but thanks to the expertise of my friends, we caught our fair share of fish, Dad as you can see enjoyed his days waiting for the ultimate bite, it happened the day before the last. I presume he is hooked, since he intends to be with us the next time out.



Rainbow



One of those priceless mornings , alone on a lake.

            So there again, another year went by and we made it without losing our sanity, we simply hope 2017 will be easier, will it be downhill from here on? Well that's what it looks like contemplating from up here, only time will tell. Meanwhile, keep safe and keep going, life is full of surprises, enjoy the most of it, the jar of life, stick to the golf balls and ignore the sand and always take time for a beer or two. If you are wondering what the jar of life is, follow this link: https://youtu.be/SqGRnlXplx0

             In regards to the legal mafia that was aforementioned , well I hope this will make you think, or are we so indoctrinated that we will simply shrug it off and revert back to our old routines a few minutes after having visualized it , Scientist and Doctors in the family, sorry ,  but they are stronger than us, they have control of the $$, control over the government, control over the FDA and directly or indirectly control of the whole society , they have infiltrated every organization that can benefit their bottom line, their quarterly budget, this the American dream, the ethos of the US of A. Follow the link below and be your own judge.   https://youtu.be/2xWzHiaYRok
     Again, the opinions expressed above are a derivative of my current state of mind, but I am convinced there are a lot of truth to it, if not then let's pretend that it's my way of keeping my sanity in check, anyhow, when you are around in the boonies, just drop by , we can discuss for hours on end.. over a beer or two.

      Aloha and Mahalo,  from the Wan’s in the boonies and a grumpier old man , AKA OldBwan Knobie

 

YEAR END 2015

Hi everyone,

      There we are once again, 12 months later, feels like yesterday. Again another exciting year and I just wish I can keep making this same statement over and over again till my brain or something shuts down on me one day, let’s face it we will all go through it at some point or another.

        So we are all still sane and healthy, same goes for our four legged son, no broken bones, no disease but plenty of happy, anxious and sad moments, spicy events or my personal rendition on how life should unfold. Café Campagne is still flourishing, we won the Tripadvisor certificate of excellence, what a feat and what an honour, seems like the patrons are still enjoying the good food that is being served, thanks to Iron Chef Pinpin and her team, did I ever mention that we have reached 12 years of existence,  a dozen years of hard labor, ups and downs, challenge over challenge, but I believe the worst is behind us and that we have reached cruising speed, but other projects are cooking, that if all the puzzles falls into place, will keep you posted. Caro is doing well at University, still searching for "what else", seems to be the challenge of generation X and Y, but at least she's having good notes. As for I, still working for the same pollution contributor as some would define it, plastic is evil, apparently, but no one dare say that it's the hands that discard them in a non responsible way that are the actual culprit, falls in the same category as guns.. but this is a different debate I will not start here.
         I on the other hand  I am now working for a public company, since very recently, Jarden corporation is the parent company, but as any public company, it has been acquired by another bigger shark, Rubbermaid, and that was three months after we were acquired by Jarden, Sharks swallow sharks. But I must admit, things have been exciting, large investments are being made in Quebec and I cannot dare say more, being bound by company policy, new jobs will be created, some of which falls directly under my wings, really proud to contribute in some sort to this society.

        January 2015 took us to Barbados for ten days, nice little island, cheap if you know how to get around but lots of poor people if compared to our north American standards, a Mauritius look alike, sugar cane fields, nice beaches and rough seas on the east coast. Lots of Marijuana if you wish, Bajans or Barbadians are predominantly of African origins, there is also a mixed bag of Hindus, Chinese (very few) and lots of English settlers.  Very small island but calm and Irie, also another island where I can easily grow my roots if need be. Barbados is the also the home of Brian Talma Da action man, for those who happen to know him.

DeAction surf shop and beach culture

       We did meet with Da Man , cool guy and he is still as fresh as the pictures I have seen of him during my teenage years, amazing how some do not age, I presume the combination of seawater, iodine, Rhum and coconut water is beneficial to the health.

10 days later we took a flight to the Grenadines, a tiny island called Union island which is located about 200 kilometers south west of Barbados. We flew out on a twin otter and the flight lasted about 45 minutes. Union island is a tiny spec of island located among the multitude of islands that is scattered around St-Vincent and the Grenadines, Union holds a population of 3000 souls. It is so small that once you set foot on the island, everyone and their mother knows where you sleep, dine, when you sneeze or when you fart, more so when you are among the visible minority such as us. And as usual people are poor, my familiar phrase, they have nothing, worry about nothing but they have everything else, no stress, no rush, no traffic and no crime. Everything takes time, everything is at a very slooooooooowwww pace on Union.

        Union island is also very well known as an anchorage point for 

Captain Black Sparrow

sailboats and yachts cruising the waters of  the Caribbean, they all stop to replenish water, food and fuel. So the economy of the island relies mostly on tourism as you may have guessed. Tobago Cays and mostly Petit Tabac is the most famous island in and around Union, Petit Tabac is the island where Captain Jack Sparrow was marooned in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

Union is an “all right” island, nothing that really impressed us, but the Tobago Keys marine park which consist of many smaller islands such as, Petit Rameau, Jamesby, Petit Tabac, Baradal is a wonder to visit, we went on several occasions to dive with sea turtles, water is crystal clear and sand is pristine, and there is of course numerous sailboats that would anchor in the Cays for the night or more. Which revived that wish from our bucket list, charter a sailboat and sail from Florida down through the numerous Caribbean islands, anchor wherever the boat will take us to, captain ObWan at the helm, this dream it will definitely in the works.



Richmond bay Union Island

People travel from island to island on Taxi boats, simple life but they make a living and survive. We rented a small room by the sea and slept with the windows open to the sound of the waves, we had our dream room for 10 days, but Union will not be a place I would call or make home, a tad too slow to my taste, although if someone would like to be far and away from human life forms, well Union island is the ideal place to be.

        Spring and summer was as exciting as could be, you all know us, nothing flies by without us taking up a challenge, remember last year’s flirt on Pina 4? Well we now have our own vessel, OneEye is her name, it took a while to find her a good name, naming a boat is quite a tradition and not to be taken lightly, some say that it can bring bad luck if not performed properly and superstition often roam around this tradition.  But those who know me well, superstition is definitely not in my vocabulary. We had thoughts such as St-Geran, Veronique, WanEye , but finally ended up with OneEye which in essence is more appropriate, my daughter said that WanEye would have been too “cocky”.A boat’s name has to be symbolic, original and somewhat, related to the sea or to the owner. And no champagne bottle was broken against her hull, she`s too fragile for this kind of treatment.

The regular crew

I presume some explanation regarding the choice of name is now due, OneEye as we can all guess relates to a Pirate, and OneEye for those who know, is one of the most legendary-mischievous left in the world located in the home country at Le Morne –Mauritius , left wave that I had the chance to ride back in the days when brother Ber got married, One also phonetically sounds like Wan, hope this explains it all… deep and that’s how it’s supposed to be.

 

       Previously known as Gusto, OneEye is 33 years old, serial number 3424 and is a Tillotson Pearson one design  sailboat from the J24 fleet. OneEye is apparently a very fast boat and won many races, but as you all know you can own the fastest car in the world but the driver, and the crew, also needs to be up to speed.

So the first order of the day was to get OneEye optimised, fine tune the equipment, the crew and the skipper, we did many club races, searching ourselves and searching for additional crew members, the latter being the hardest of all, it’s like adopting a child that will live in the family, there has to be compatibility, the skill factor is one of the top criteria, willingness to be competitive and hungry to win regattas has to be embedded in the candidate`s DNA. Let’s say we did not qualify anyone so far, and yes we are tough on our selection criteria, we do not want any freeloaders on our team.

           During the summer, we found ourselves in all kinds of rankings, made numerous mistakes in both tuning and tactical decisions , discovered her weaknesses as well as our shortcomings and gradually applied corrections which eventually improved our rankings, let‘s say we did very well for being a first time owner of a boat, sailing a boat is similar to getting married, you have to feel and keep listening to the other half, don’t yell at her since it’s counterproductive, she can be very capricious on days,  the good thing is that she never answers back, but she can put you at the end of the class in a heartbeat if you don’t pay attention to her needs and demands.

By the end of summer, I believe I was very getting very close to understanding her needs, not 100% but we were in the high nineties. The proof is that we were surprised to receive an email from the club administration at the end of the season stating that we have been qualified for the club championship!! Oh what a surprise!!

OneEye on Lake St-Louis

So I had to do the club championship race, which consisted of 3 regattas back to back, the race involved 5 competitive boats, all helmed by Veterans from PCYC and we were the only rookie, second year at the club and first year on OneEye…who would bet on us you think? It reminded me of the bookmaking days of Dad, he could have taken bets and sell OneEye at 40:1 and make a fortune. Let's spice things up a bit, my regular crew, both had to work on race day, what's a captian without crew? Luckily I was able to circle back to my old crew Yuwei, Mimi and Thomas, they don’t know OneEye as much as my regular crew, but they are highly proficient on a J24. The first gun was at 10.30am, we did a very bad start, correction, I did a bad start, mistimed the speed and we ended up way behind everyone. There !! Mistake #1 by the rookie, but we worked hard and caught up with everyone except the first boat, “Barnacle”, haunts my nightmares!! So we were the runner up in the first race, which I will take anytime considering that my start was calamitous. And for the two other races, we ranked....hold on to your seats…. First and First, One and One or OneEye and OneEye, admit it, isn’t this a gorgeous game of words, won a trophy but did not have a chance to retrieve it. Props to the Yang family for helping me steer OneEye and gain some respect from the club members, suddenly we are becoming the One to beat.

TGIF for most competitive crew

Overall we won second place in the PCYC 2015 club championship, somehow because our handicap is unfavourable, go figure? Knowing me, I called back the club’s fleet captain to try understand the maths, and she has yet to get back to me on this. Many thanks to the crew who made this dream happen and needless to say we were all ecstatic and we can’t wait for the next sailing season.

            My newsletter always refers back to the people that left us during the year, but this time I believe that we are  entitled to say that we have celebrated a great life and a great man. Around end of July we got news that the Father in law was not doing very well, he basically was reaching his last legs, his body was not responding very well, I presume at 92 years of age, anybody would show signs of wear. There were multiple visits to Toronto from most if not all the immediate members of the family, I believe everyone got to see him before he actually decided it was time to leave behind almost a century of existence on this old world. There were multiple attempts from the physicians to help him with his troubles, but any solution was short lived and lasted only a few days, his body was simply not getting any better, wear and tear, Ah Chan decided it was enough, he held on for a while but he knew it was enough, enough suffering for him and for the family.
   There were hundreds of people at his funeral, testimony of a great man who was known and liked by many, I heard many stories about a man who loved life, who loved the outdoors and who loved fishing, I remember those afternoon fishing trips back in the days when I was courting Pinpin, we used to jam his Morris maxi bearing license plate number Y951 with close to a dozen people to go fishing and I kid you not. I drove that car many times, he took care of him car, always clean, always shiny, gas tank always full to the brim. Ah Chan had that belief that if the tank is full of gas, rust can’t settle inside the tank, he filled up my ears with this belief since we used to bring back the car on an empty tank every time we borrowed it, During one of our fishing trip returning to St-Paul from the south, I recall him falling asleep while driving, we almost hit the sugarcane fields, the car was swerving to the left but thanks to the quick hands of Willy who grabbed the steering wheel, the Maxi was saved and so was its dozen occupants , it was time to change the designated driver. 

Yowchan Sin Chan 1924-2015

I still have that clear picture of Ah Chan when I first met him, he was standing there behind the bar at St-Paul with his cigarette in his mouth, that cigarette burned for ever without him taking a single puff, the ash of the cigarette curling downwards and was still attached since he first lit it up, he would never flick the ashes off, he never liked to make eye contact with me whenever I would walk into the bar, always tending his regular customers,  once in a while he would lift his head and yell out to the cook “MADAME”!, that would be my mother in law he was addressing to, that simple word would mean that he is out of the most famous chicken wings for the customers!! I have wonderful memories of that bar at St-Paul, no one would ever leave unfed and the mother in law always made sure she had enough food for everyone who would be visiting, whether it be family members or friends. It was the good days.
      Today AhChan is resting in his new condo at the columbarium, he has all his comfort and amenities I hear,  I am pretty certain he still has that grin on his face, grin of a man who has lived a great and fulfilling life, we will miss you Yow Chan.
       All, it`s time for me to quit typing, I have been developing a tendinitis in my left wrist, not from typing this blog, but from the whole year`s of typing reports, emails, technical reports, budget reports, in one simple word.. overworked. I once again hope that I was entertaining and did not make you fall asleep, but if it did, then it actually served a good purpose.
         Be safe, keep healthy and don't quit, life is really too short to procrastinate.And try something new for the coming year, dare take a calculated chance since, yes I already  said and will say it again  ..there are or will be less years in front of us than behind us...well it applies for those who are over 40.  Oh and you can drop by anytime next summer for a ride on CAN3424 ... to try something new... @ Pointe Claire yacht club
Aloha from the boonies..
**** Peenot, Caro, Pinpin and.. Captain ObWan onboard OneEye.
  

Year end 2014

Aloha,

           it is getting harder for me to find that inspiration, that flare that I used to have for this blog, this is the time of the year where I feel like doing nothing, but nothing, the days are short , the sun shy, the cold bites down to the bones. Here is a short summary of my day , wake up at 5.25 am, cold and dark like hell, kick the dog out of the house to do his number one or two, start the car remote to let it warm up and thaw, yes I finally got lazy enough to  have a remote car starter installed!! If there is a foot of snow on the car, then I know it will be a hectic drive. No snow.. Well it generally means that it’s either windy or extremely cold. Brush teeth, wash up, check the exterior thermometer to decide how to dress up, dog scratching at door, he’s cold and in a hurry to get back inside the house, if I linger a bit too much, louder and more frequent scratch at the front door, run down the stairs to let the dog in, he is either full of snow or shaking, either way he is in a hurry to go back upstairs to his warm cot, finish getting ready, grab lunch bag and head out, dark and cold, deal with the stupid drivers on the roads, arrive at office,  work like a madman, leave office around 4pm or later, already dark outside , start the car to allow it to warm up, a foot of snow on the car, the drive home can take an hour or more, arrive home, dog all excited, kick him out for his number one or two, bring in some firewood, start the fireplace, dog scratching at the door, let him in, he runs to the front of the fireplace to warm up, prepare dinner, feed dog,  wife arrives home around 6-7pm, eat supper, dog wants out for his number one or two, chat, dog scratching at door, let him in, he runs to the fireplace to warm up, relax in front of fireplace, shower, time to sleep.

Who the hell invented this country, who the hell invented this lifestyle?!?  I am really fed up…

Buuutt…as you surely know us by now, there is no single year that goes by without some excitement and you were bluffed into believing that our life was that dull, what’s a year without excitement, risk and events for the Wan’s in the boonies? I have a feeling this newsletter will be an exhaustive one.
We had a greeaaaaaat summer and during summer time, the opposite is true, such as wake up to the rising sun and my neighbor’s rooster, check temperature to decide how thin to dress up, dog is already out and does not want to come back home, yell at him to come back home since I have to leave for work. Make sure all my gear is in my truck for the afternoon race or kitesurfing session, work till 3pm unless it is really windy, kitesurf until 5.30pm, pack up my gear, rush to the club to race the regatta, get back home around 8.30pm, eat whatever we can throw on the grill, go out to shoot some arrows, go to check the employees at the store, fix some equipment,  back home to check the wind conditions for the next day then back to sleep dreaming of the next sailing session.

              So let’s follow the chronology, back to January, our annual vacation, this year started with excitement and stress.  It was January 7^th, extremely cold morning, in the – 25 degrees Celsius, well the usual for Montrealers, but the Polar vortex as they call it in the weather network mumbo jumbo, caused havoc all across North America. We woke up at 4.30am to go catch our flight for Toronto and from there on to St-Marteen and ferry up to Anguilla which was our final destination. We locked up the house, lowered the thermostat, shut off the water system, set the alarm and drove up to the airport, unloaded tons of equipment and as you know we never travel light.

              The excitement started when we walked up to the counter, the screens showed all red..cancelled, cancelled, cancelled. Most flights to Toronto were cancelled due to extreme weather conditions, -50 degrees Celsius in Toronto, Pearson international had over 30 planes waiting on the tarmac for a gate, many were stuck on a plane since the previous evening and the last thing they wanted is another aircraft landing in Toronto and waiting in line for a gate, we heard some cargo doors would not open because of the extreme cold.

           Picture this, Montreal Trudeau, full of passengers with cancelled flights all trying to find another flight option to get out!! I tried lining up at two different airline counters but then gave up, woke up my travel agent at 6am and had him start working on our options, that’s when we appreciate having a good travel agent. And our vacation started back at home , in front of our fireplace with no food in our fridge, no dog, not daughter…no flights options until two days later, luckily, our wonderful travel agent found two last seats for us on Sunwing, direct flight to St Marteen.

        Our vacation was cut short by two days, bummer, but the remainder was nineteen days in paradise, I can call Anguilla home anytime, there is nothing on Anguilla, everything takes time on Anguilla as the locals would put it, you live at your own pace, time don’t fly but crawls almost to a stop on Anguilla, but somehow those nineteen days were over before we even realised and we were back home to our good old routine.

             February took me back to mainland china, but this time I made plans to stay a day in Hong Kong to spend time with the cousins, Uncle and Aunt Valerie. For those who have been in Hongkong, what a lively city, I was staying in the heart of Tsim sha tsui, problem is, people don’t really sleep in the middle of town. 

Many thanks to the family for the wonderful supper and many thanks to Cousin Christophe for being my guide during that short lived evening, you are the best. One thing I noticed while we were wandering around town, people eat at any time of the night, there is a restaurant every fifty feet apart and they are all busy! I have to go back to HK; there are some unfinished business and precious time we need to catch up on, but it was really pleasant to reconnect.               
                 Summer was exciting to say the least, exciting,eventful, stressful, competitive and fruitful towards the end, let me explain. As aforementioned, what is a year without excitement, life would simply be bleak and gimpy, I got a call from my buddy Yuwei asking if I would like to be part of his crew on Tuesday afternoon, “crew for what?” I said and he responded “Crew on my sailboat for regattas at the club”, I first thought, what harrowing ordeal is he trying to put me through, I then said “let me think about it”, which really meant that I am totally unsure.

             Then he added, “I need a skipper and a trimmer”, “Ok” I said, “So what are you thinking?” “Well I thought of you skipping my twenty four feet sailboat and Pinpin trimming the Genoa”
My first reaction was “Hell no! I have never skipped a sailboat that big! Let alone in Regattas!” “I skipped small catamarans but never a sailboat that big!!”

Then after a long discussion with the party involved (Pinpin), we decided to give it a try, what’s life without some spice! Let’s do it and if we crash the boat, well we can always say “Wazznt me!”, Yeah, just do it!! Remember that old adage, just do it!

It took me weeks of research on the web and Youtube, to find out how to tune and sail a J24 one design sailboat competitively, the boat’s name is Pina4 . And by the end of the summer, I realised that I have learned more and am possibly more informed than many of my seasoned competitors, one thing I will always stress out, don’t ever let anyone impress you, they may have the newest, the biggest, the nastiest looking equipment in the world or they may look like professionals,  don’t let the “looks” of your competitors impress you, it’s deceitful, “l’habit ne fait vraiment pas le moine”  holds true, but if you do your homework and put enough time to it, you can surprise your own self. When people who you compete against, starts to come to talk to you, asking about your name and start questioning  about your past experience, you know they are starting to raise eyebrows, you know you are on to something.

              Some common questions, by the end of summer:-

“Where or what did you sail before joining our club?”
“Nowhere..Youtube..” “ Nahhhh”  is the general reaction.
“Well we have been windsurfing for twenty five years and kitesurfing for the last ten”
“Ahha! I knew it!! You understand the wind!!”
“Yeah”, is my response, “it blows, I can feel it on my cheeks!
           So yes I feel the wind, but racing in a regatta can be intimidating, more so when you see a quarter million dollar boat barging you for a spot on the starting line and trying to cut you off at the starting gun.
          And we did the first race on a Tuesday afternoon, huge adrenaline rush, we ranked among the last but were never last and that was our sole motivation, never be last. Then after a few races, we became hungry, we decided to run Thursday’s race, TGIF race and all the races we could attend, it is more addiction than any drug, but competitive racing simply lights up the fire within. 
       I even dared to do the Maud cup, which in essence is a single handed race, in laymen’s terms it’ a race without a crew, skipper only, very challenging indeed. The skipper has to do the job of four crew members, I did not have a single clue how to do it alone, daunting task to say the least,  how am I going to handle the Genoa, trim the main sail, trim the boom, adjust the Cunningham, the vang, halyards, downhaul, traveller and rudder all by myself, solitary sailing...
         I ran quite a few mental practice on how to launch the boat, motor it out of the harbor, haul up the sails without losing control of the boat etc.. You basically have to run back and forth on the boat and avoid falling over board either, that would have been catastrophic, that would have been le St-Gérant in the making. But luckily the wind was light which rendered my tasks so much easier.
         And as the season advanced, we found ourselves in the middle of the fleet, gradually moving up every race until the fall series. The fall series was a series of six races, the worst result out of the six races is scratched out, it is the last series of race and then the season is over and believe it or not, we made the podium! We were ecstatic , do you believe now Trinity? Yes we now believe we can be competitive, with a well-trained crew and a perfectly tuned boat. Pina4 is not tuned for racing, it is needs work to get it to race level, but we tuned it to the best of our knowledge and were quite impressed with the results. And the crew! What is a boat without a crew, our crew consisted of mostly…Chinese.. All yellow skin or almost, starting by Yuwei (owner of the boat) the Taiwanese born Argentinian/Canadian, his wife Mimi Italian/Canadian born, Thomas, Juliana siblings of Yuwei and Mimi, Caroline , Pinpin and Myself. Skin tone is predominantly Banana, you know yellow on the outside and white on the inside, we almost changed the boat’s name to “The boat people”, get it? The “Boat people”? Immigrants arriving on a boat , fact is , we are the visible minority in the club and on the starting line, if there is a protest against Pina4, all you have to say to identify the boat at fault is the “Chinese boat”.
Click here for the fall series results, scroll down to "White sail fleet"
           I cannot but point out a few incidents, such as when we discovered what someone looks like when he or she does not have “Le pied marin”.. Have you ever seen a turtle tipped over on its back and shaking its legs to try to make something happen, but nothing actually happens!! That’s my brother in law on the deck on the boat during a change of tack, so we were tacking from Port to starboard and I called the tack…"Ready about!!", I followed with a swift pull on the rudder after having made eye contact with the crew just to make sure everyone has acknowledged ,I then noticed the brother in law (will not give out any name to avoid embarrassment), crawl belly down on the deck, under the boom, do a twist to bring his leg forward, somehow did a trick rotation with his trunk and ended up on his back, legs and arms up, kicking around to get back to his feet but nothing happens, kept kicking still nothing happens!! Picture this, meanwhile the boat was already on the other tack and leaning to leeward, so imagine this turtle on its back with its head facing the lower side of the boat, gripping to nothing but thin air and kicking to get back to belly side or on its feet!! We almost had a MOB or TOB, situation, MOB stands for Man over board; I will let you decipher TOB.

            In an MOB situation, the priority shifts to recue mode, one of the crew member’s task shifts to spotter, he or she keeps constant eye contact with the MOB and also keeps pointing to the person in the water, another member has prepare the rescue line, the person standing in the companion way readies the ladder to haul the person out of harm’s way and the skipper relies to the spotter to manoeuver the boat towards the MOB. Seems easy but in strong winds and waves, this scenario can turn quite stressful.

             And there was that other time where the wind was gale force, twenty knots and gusting we almost lost two kids in the water and had to call it quits because of technical difficulties, the reality is, the boat was out of control or to be honest, I could not control the boat, tried reefing the sail, never practiced reefing, it was total havoc on deck and a disaster waiting to happen, the skipper in a sense is responsible for its crew so we decided to play it safe and go back to harbour, let’s say that the skipper and the tactician did not necessarily  see eye to eye on the situation.
          Our interest and competitiveness grew tenfold; we are so into it that we are already contemplating to acquire our own vessel. Some days we were over crew, which kind of justifies the decision to purchase our own boat, but the addiction is more than troubling, it can be so intense on board during a race that losing a position because of miscommunication or under achievement of a crew member breaks the mood and the backbone of the whole team. It is pure team spirit and team work, timing and synchronicity must be polished from start to finish, it pushes anyone’s boundary and each crew member has to bring his or her “A” game when stepping on board, I for one never thought I could be such a team player and be able to regroup and motivate a team to perform.
           We already have a potential name for our future boat, which I will reveal in due time, I learned there is quite a tradition in renaming a boat, but for now it’s only a matter of finding the right compatibility.
           August was a festive month, our residence was again selected for a huge garden party to celebrate the father in law’s 90^th, he is getting older and slower,  he has a hard time to walk, to go up and down the stairs, very slow. But somehow, he loves living in our studio downstairs; he loves his machine and the new machine! Let me explain, like any Canadian household, we purchased a stationary bike and other machines to work out at home. Who does not have a machine at home? But like any Canadian household, we purchased the best and the most appealing machine to create a “home gym” and after a few months going at it while staring at the Arnold Schwarzenegger poster on the wall, we all give up and allow those machines to be the perfect residence for spiders and their webs…does this ring a bell anyone?
            Well my father in law had something else in mind,  last summer I purchased a weight lifting apparatus, something that is worth over $2000, this should give you a hint about the sheer size of that gizmo, but I for one will never spend $2000 on a machine that does not have a sail or a motor attached to it, simply ridiculous, I got this deal off a couple, who as I mentioned above have purchased the best and the most appealing at one point in time, one fine day, I got news that they were fed up with the machine and with their married  life, divorce followed and  this is where you get the best deals! $200 for a brand spanking new machine with no wear at all!! And the wife came with it.. well not. So I had this machine installed in the studio and when my father in law first saw it, he dropped his walking cane and jumped on it instantly, as if he saw Shania "en chair et en os" !
           Get this; I hear he has been working out before breakfast, after breakfast, during the day while watching his favorite “the price is right” TV show, before supper, after supper and right before he goes to bed!! Suddenly his pace started to be brisk, no more need for the walking cane to go up or down the stairs, his legs were no longer hurting and did I mention the stationary bike? He does a few sessions on the stationary bike in between the weight machine exercise!! Ah Chan, alias Arnold in the basement pumping iron day in day out, the machine is already paid back .
           So Ahnold was in top shape when we celebrated his birthday in the garden, we were again blessed with nice warm weather, had tons, I mean tons of food to feed the whole neighborhood, a roasted pig, aphrodisiac oysters supplied by my brother in law’s special source from china town, apparently the oysters have been fed with some blend of Viagra. The usual majong addicts were going at it, until one of them was too drunk and fell off her chair. I guess I can say that everyone had a good time, including stinky Charlie in his new found Chinese extended family, Charlie is a pug we adopted for 2 months, he is the most excited, stinky, stubborn ugly creature we baby sat for 2 months, sorry let me rephrase, Caroline was supposed to babysit Charlie, but she gave up two days into her contract because of Charlie’s stink and stubborn character. Somehow, I kind of miss his mischief after he left.


Stinky Charlie

           The day after the party, my two brother in law, one of them being the ninja turtle mentioned above, the Frenchman and nephew Dennis Rod(fisher)man, planned to go on a fishing trip, not any kind of fishing trip, it was a once in a lifetime kind of fishing trip where you would hire a bush pilot on a float plane , fly out for two hours towards the great Canadian north where no soul would dare to live except for the Atikamekew tribe from the  Obedjiwan reserve, aborigines as we call them, 2031 Atikamekew living in the reserve  according to the last census, ObedjiWan..sounds like family to me. When I called Mireille at air Mont-laurier to book our Trip, I told her that we had 2 ½ days fishing and had to be back on Tuesday afternoon since my brother in-law to catch his flight for Paris the following day, Mireille asked:-  “are you sure Mr. Wan?”, “well yes I am sure”, she then added, “well Mr Wan, we cannot guaranteed we can fly you back the day you want back”

Hunnn?? What do you mean you cannot guarantee flying us back? She then gently explained to the tourists that everything will depend on the weather, if there is bad weather, storms or if it’s too windy, the pilot may not be able to take off or land, his aircraft is not a modern jumbo jet. Cool! This is the excitement I always crave for! But we could not take no for an answer, risk is my middle name.

        Sunday morning, we reached Mont-Laurier after two and half hours’ drive from Vaudreuil, walked into the outfitters office and the first bad news came about, airplane cannot take off! Why? Well look on the lake, tourist! Completely fog covered, ah!

So we had to wait for another hour and finally the sun started to peek through the clouds and the fog slowly dissipated, the lake gradually presented its beauty, the valley and the mountains on both sides…now we understood. These plane fly by wire and fly by vision, in other words can’t fly if the pilot can’t see the lake or the mountains. You sure guessed that we did not wait for instructions and we were already loading our luggage and gear on the aircraft.

Inside the belly of the Otter

           1962 DHC2 De Havilland Beaver,  52 year old aircraft, when the pilot started the engine, it misfired quite a few times before some black smoke started spitting out of the exhaust pipes , pif, paf, pouf, pet,pet pet! My lawn mower engine runs smoother I must say. Okeuhhhh, this machine is supposed to take us for a two hours flight into the wilderness, once we crawled into the belly of the aircraft, more doubts started blooming within our minds, we searched for the exit doors and any parachute lying around. The instruments were quite old, antique to be more precise, most of them don’t work properly except for the altimeter and the fuel gauge, well I guess they were working, since it showed full. The most modern electronics on the aircraft was a GPS and the pilot’scellular phone, ouf!

The rest is “fly by wire”, which means every rudder, flaps and ailerons were controlled by wire cables connected to a manual crank or wheel located in the cockpit, the beaver, built the year I was born, the year of the tiger, must be strong, apparently if I can still outperform many of my younger counterparts, well this aircraft should still be reliable. And perform it did! The engine, a 450HP Pratt&Whitney,  is pulled out every 12,000 hours and sent shipped to Winnipeg to be completely rebuilt , the Pilots from the Ouellette family, father and sons  make their living out of these aircrafts, so I was betting that  they don’t take chances and that we should make the trip without incident.
          Our instructions to the pilot were that if ever the weatherman predicts bad weather, fly the plane in earlier on the departure date. If the weather is good then come and get us at dusk.
            The fishing trip went well, but not without any incidents, such as hitting a big rock in the middle of the lake and cracking the foot of a brand new outboard motor, losing an anchor and so on. We had nice weather except for the last day where the morning was sunny with some patches of clouds, dark patches of clouds far on the horizon, some breeze, we took the boats to a far out fruitful spot we discovered the previous evening, it took us a good thirty minutes boat ride across the big lake and around a multitude of islands, thanks to having marked waypoints on my GPS, we got there quick and without hitting any obstacles. If you don’t have a GPS, you will get lost, so it does take some outdoor wilderness experience to find your way around. As soon as we reached our destination and dropped our fishing line in the water, the fish started biting, an hour later the wind started picking up, white caps on the lake, rain clouds approaching, the fishing got even better, but then the waves got bigger and higher. The fishing was excellent and time was flying by and we were very successful catching more walleyes, somewhere after noon, we heard a buzzing sound of an engine and it got louder as it approached, then we noticed a spot in the sky, it looked like an aircraft, it flew over us and was losing altitude as it approached, strange, I then told my fellow fisherman that I think it’s our outbound flight. Then it hit me, the weather is changing, it must be our plane, I then told my partners that I think it’s about time to pack up and leave, the wind was getting stronger, the cold front has definitely moved in. We had to go, we still have the main lake to cross, so we pulled up the anchor and started to leave,  two minutes after we left,  we noticed that the other boat with Ninja Turtle and Nephew Rodman was not following us, where are they? So we turned around and then found them still anchored, what the heck? Their anchor were caught in a log of some sort, they fought back and forth but to no avail, we lost fifteen minutes and the winds were getting stronger and the waves higher, darn… I was getting ready to dive for it, not that I was tempted, the water was cold and murky.
           Finally after a last attempt, they got free.. We hurried to leave, meandering around the islands and finally found the passage to cross the main lake..which litterally looked like cape horn on a stormy day,  white caps and huge waves was on the menu, the wind was blowing sideways, brace for the roller coaster, the boats were sixteen feet aluminum boats, fast and light on flat water, but in windy conditions and on a wavy lake, it was not necessarily the perfect vessel. I almost lost the brother in law twice when we hit a few waves and I had no choice but to slow down, after some twenty minutes crossing the lake, I started seeing the float plane tied up at base camp and it was definitely waiting for us. When we reached the floating decks, the camp manager came to greet us with, “the Pilot said to hurry up” “there is bad weather coming our way, down below, they are already losing sight of the lake” How exciting, bush weather!!


1958 Otter

           We grabbed and packed as fast as lightning, did I mention that we had a cooler full of fish that we caught since that morning; the aircraft that came to fly us out was a 1958 Otter, older and larger than the Beaver. When it took off on the main lake, we were expecting lots of shake and bake, but to our surprise the airplane behaved very well, after twenty minutes flight, I then understood the meaning of flying as a bush pilot. We hit rain clouds and instantly, all we could see was a white smoke screen, except that it was no smoke but clouds. Complete white out with no contrast, Zero visibility and remember, the aircraft has almost no instruments; well it has no radar either.
             Because visibility was close to nil, the pilot had no choice but to drop to a lower altitude,  3500 feet down to 2500 feet , hoping to see something, I was sitting in the cockpit with the pilot btw and I was ready to take the commands if ever he had a heart attack or any ailment that would render him useless, not that I know how to fly, but remember Youtube, learned a lot on Youtube, at one point in time I was contemplating my Icarus dream, yes, yes to be a pilot, this should not surprise you coming from me,  well at least I know how to read the instruments but if push comes to shove, I would grab the stick in a heartbeat.
The visibility was still zero, so the pilot then decided to drop some more, 2000 feet, we then barely started seeing the mountain tops and the wind was gusty so the plane was being pushed around sideways. We stayed at this altitude, flying between the mountain tops and in the valleys all along, after two and half hours flight, we finally saw the lake and the Mont Laurier base camp, fog was already settling in and we made in just on time.

             September is usually hunting season opener, but somehow work took me to see the romans, I was Milan bound on a flight to spend a week in spaghetti land, Novara was my final destination and to my amazement, all I saw was rice fields instead of spaghetti fields and needless to say Risotto was the speciality of the area. The food in Italy is out of this world, from their fresh seafood to the excellent wine and their famous Gorgonzola, the best well-seasoned prosciutto and extra virgin olive oil, the tasty espresso, somehow everything is tastier in Italy. I presume it’s because they take time to grow their crops and allow them to mature naturally combined with their patience in food preparation and cooking.

         Italians takes time to live, dine and relax, no hurry, la vita bella,  it kind of explains the manufacturing delay of the machine I went to purchase , they are nowhere near the North American pace where everything is mass produced in record time at any cost or has to be ready for yesterday, very contrasting indeed. But I will keep repeating that their wine and food are made with love, truly amazing and inexpensive if you ask me, clothing is expensive.

        Last event of the year will be Xmas at my place, la “Grande familia” will again be present, seems like they were all at my place not long ago, anyhow we will again indulge in fine foods and wines, not to forget that some dishes will consist of venison I succeeded in harvesting this past November.
            To all, be safe, drop by or call us if you want to take a ride on our future sailboat no appointment necessary, bring sunscreen, sunglasses, a swimsuit, gravol for some , a lunch and drinks if you wish, life vest supplied and Canadian coast guard’s number is on my quick dial, not to worry, we are covered.

Happy holidays, be active and safe!
From the Wan’s in the boonies and Captain ObWan Kenobi.

CAN 3424/J24 – Boat name TBD.