Mike and Beth's Adventures

Canada's first dragon boat festival was held in Vancouver after Expo '86, a very popular World's Fair located in the False Creek area of the city.  The dragon boats used in this initial race were gifted from the city of Hong Kong. The festival was repeated in '87 & "88 and was so popular that the Chinese community and other volunteers formed the Canadian International Dragon Boat Society and now sponsor multiple dragon boat events across Canada.  The 2024 Event consisted of over 200 teams and almost 5000 participants. As Vancouver is an international community and the event has strong cultural inclusiveness undertones, we were not surprised to see this dragon at the event.  In fact, 2024 is the Year of the Dragon! Yes!  The boats do have a dragon figurehead on the bow. Here is a race boat with its dragon figurehead, the drummer who sets the rowers cadence, and the rowers,   At the stern there is also a helmsman who uses a sweep, a long oar, to steer the...

Beth explores Peters Creek Exploring the Saint John’s River – Day 1 We began our exploration of the St. Johns River from Ortega River Marina in Jacksonville.   Our start was delayed as I needed to spend the morning installing a replacement inverter.   Ours had failed 2 weeks ago.   After talking with the very helpful Customer Support staff at ProMariner, I sent the failed unit in and they replaced it with a 2000 watt Pure Sine Wave unit.   The installation went well.   I only had to fabricate a part to hold the remote-control panel.   With a quick check out to ensure proper operation, we were on our way. Passing the Ortega River Bridge at the start of our voyage. With a noon departure, the winds had a chance to build.   Our run for the day, ~25 miles was very lumpy.   With a strong north wind, and us headed south, it guaranteed we would be surrounded by spray most of the way.   We were very happy to drop the hook in   Black Creek, ju...

November 15th, 16th, 17th, 2021 We arrived in Demopolis, excited to have reached this major checkpoint on our trip.   This is an inflection point, as it is the last river city before we reach Mobile, still 216 miles away.   So that fact makes Demopolis a major stop for groceries, topping off fuel and water tanks, and making sure the black water tank is empty on departure.   In the next stretch we will be exclusively anchoring out, no cushy marina nights which means  you have power, water, fuel, pump out, wifi, showers and access to shopping.   So the 4 or 5 days after we leave Demopolis we will need to be entirely self-sufficient.   As when skippering any decent pirate vessel, our first concern when we hit port is our wine supply.   How can pirates adventure without sufficient quantities of the fruit of the vine?   Thank goodness we were back in Alabama as, unlike Mississippi, we could again purchase wine at the groceries store.    ...