Venice

Time: 2021/07/18 02:38:49
Latitude: 45-51.92N
Longitude: 165-39.77E
Speed: 4.4
Course: 38T
Wind_Speed: 2.5
Wind_Dir: S
Barometer: 1032
Air_Temp: 12.5C
Wave_Ht: 0M
Swell_Ht: 0M
Comment: We are continuing to motor sail through another high pressure area. So far this has not been our best passage for sailing weather but we are still making progress to our goal so we'll take it. Flat calm seas with barely a ripple, the fog has lifted to become low clouds and it did not warm up much today. Winds should fill in overnight or tomorrow to allow us to sail properly towards Kodiak, even if we have to hoist the spinnaker again.


D and I love traveling. It is the main motivator for why we are out here. Neither of us have a passion for sailing, but love how sailing has enabled us to get out and explore the world.

My love for travel started in 1995 with a Grade 11 school trip to Italy. It was one of those typical whirlwind package bus tours where you move at a breakneck pace trying to squeeze in as much as possible. To put it in perspective over just 10 days, we traveled from Milan to Rome!!! Despite not getting a lot of time to really appreciate the country, Italy is by far one of my favourites, and as touristy as it is, Venice is my favourite city!! Even just the brief glimpse I got on this trip, I fell in love with it. I just loved the maze of pedestrian only streets. The bridges. The canals. The history. Everything. Even the wall to wall tourists. We all were in awe of this magnificent city.

In 2007, D and I traveled for six weeks through Italy with Ella at 6 months old. We started that trip in Venice and again it did not disappoint. I still felt such a love for that city and could not believe I had a second opportunity to visit. I even had enough time to start to feel like I would not get lost in the maze of streets.

Then unbelievably in 2015, 20 years after that first trip, less than two months after moving onto Maple, we sailed into Venice!!! We spent a month there and I have so much gratitude when I think of how amazing the experience was to be there for a third time. We were able to explore the canals in our own dinghy, we had such a blast, even when being yelled at by a gondolier. We were still very much in the honeymoon phase of our time on Maple, feeling more like just a vacation. The girls memories of Venice are gelato and mosquitos. It is where we started our first year of boat schooling. Wow, does that ever feel like a lifetime ago.

Anyway, this is a long segue to share that today marks a new milestone for Maple and her crew! Just took us an extra day than anticipated. Venice was the furthest north we ever sailed with Maple, until today. As Ella said this morning, this is a very different climate than Venice was very nearly six years ago, but still all part of this amazing adventure of countless firsts for our little crew of explorers.