Odda Sea - Life Aboard An Allied Princess Sailing Yacht

I just had a chance to drop by and see the Spirit of Canada as Derek and his team were preparing for a training / practice run to the Azores. The Spirit of Canada is an ECO 60 Velux 5 Oceans solo race boat based out of Lunenburg and just through serendipity was it here when I was as I gather they spend a lot of time in other ports and training. Derek was there in person and we had a brief chat before he had to get back to work.

Needless to say the team were quite busy and not able to give me a tour, but allowed me to take a couple photos of this amazing boat in person. Click for a bigger version:




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After a relatively uneventful (by that I mean the mast stayed up and the water stayed outside the boat) 12-day passage offshore from Charleston, SC, Ed and I pulled into Nantucket Harbor for what we intended to be a brief stopover but due to weather ended up being a very enjoyable week in a great little town.

We chose to stay at the town dock as their transient rates were (for us, we got news that they quoted us the wrong rates in our favor) more affordable than the moorings and for us two guys with different schedules it was more convenient to coordinate comings and goings.

Nantucket is a neat town - obviously being both an island and a tourist destination it is not inexpensive but I found the prices quite commensurate with any larger city’s. While most of the people visiting were from the Boston area and still had a bit of the big city aloofness, we fell in with a couple locals who were incredibly friendly and showed us a great time around the island. We caught a couple local bands playing, saw a great theatre performance at the Theatre Works Nantucket, had dinner/drinks with the cast, and learned a lot about how the professional acting world works. We followed that up with trips to the beach / coastline, some inland tours to the local Cisco “brewery” (they actually make the bulk of their product in Boston now, but still serve custom and special taps at their old location on the island). All in all a very interesting trip, having met some great folks and shared some truly inspiring conversation.

But as it always happens on passage, the weather shifted, our departure window was nigh, and we said fond goodbyes to our many newfound friends and cast off the dock lines, northward bound.


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