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Into the heart of America

The motorcycle trip across america was almost perfect.  No mechanical failure or driving mistake at all, and unbeleivable sceneries all along the way.  The only negative aspects were that I kept sneezing in my helmets (allergies), and I didn’t ride as much trails as I intended to do.  In the first 300 miles of dirt, I encoutered some challenging (exciting) sections in Nevada that made me feel a little unconfortable to be alone.  I was literally days away of every human life if something would happen.  I guess my mental was not as strong as I thought.  At the end, I took easier roads to put the chances on my side to complete the trip in time.  But such behavior makes travelling a little more boring too… well… I’m getting older…

 

Riding across the entire country was interesting as you can see the landsape evolving from one coast to the other.  Eastern Oregon was beautiful with its rolling yellow hills and twisty woody canyons.  Riding the dirt in Nevada put me in contact with amazing sceneries and interesting wild life.  I saw many beautiful horses, Antelopes, Coyotes, Deers, and the feeling of immensity is hard to describe.  Then came the great salt lakes and canyon lands of Utah.  Again, the immensity of those spaces is unique.  I finally got out of desert lands while crossing the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico.  It was not as spectacular as in Colorado, but I was interested in seeing what it’s like down south.  Especially the Mexican influence, which can be seen even in the McDonalds architecture ;o) Great motorcycle riding, and great weather, so good choice!  To my surprise, eastern Colorado was scatered with old volcanos.  I didn’t know that there was such activity in that part of the country.  After the mountains came the great prairies.  So much space again!!!  Where are the millions of inhabitants!!!  I even saw several gost towns.  Really, not a spirit around!  Finally, I hit the highways to go through the mid west and its big cities (Kansas City, St-Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Colombus, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Syracuse…).  Not much pictures of that because I tried to by-pass them and I was riding all day.  I was planning to ride in the Adirondacs to resume on the country side roads, but the weather was not cooperative, so I headed straight to Montreal.

 

The life on the road was interesting as the evenings came on.  I met great people in campings all along the way.  It is great to see that people are most of the time very nice and generous.  It makes me wanting to make more efforts to be nice to people around me.  One night in Kansas I got caught in a storm and had to pull over as soon as I could.  I ended up in a beautiful bed and breakfast, but the price was not affordable to me.  After a short talk on what I was doing, Tom offered me to eat with their family and spend the night there for free.  I could not beleive the hospitality.  We had such a great time talking!  They have a beautiful peaceful place that you can find at:  www.thebarnbb.com

 

And now I’m back home!  Re-connecting with friends and family, and getting back to work with Liebherr in Montreal, after a well appreciated break of 5 months around the world!!

 

Life is good ;o)

 

Daniel

Back to Montreal!

After I came back from the sailing trip, I took a look at the job market to see if there would be opportunities for me.   If not, then I would keep traveling, and if yes, then I would not push my luck and get back to work.  It ended up being very active forcing me to take a difficult decision on my future.  For multiple reasons, and some gut feeling, I decided to come back to Liebherr Canada in Montreal.  To make the transition interesting, I went to Seattle to say goodbye to good friends, pick up my motorcycle, and drive the Trans Amercian Trail.  This is mainly a dirt road crossing the entire country!!  I’m a little nervous getting into this by myself, but at the end, it will be another great adventure ;o)  The SPOT is ON!!!

Talk to you later

Dan the rider man!

Scotland

Sailing in the Celtic and Irish Seas was quite different than what I have seen so far.  A melting pot of clouds, fog, tides, and currents.  Our time in Ireland was longer than expected due to a transmission leaking excessively.  After consulting a mechanic, we ended up having to replace the transmission.  THe good side of this misfortune was that it allowed me to meet up with a good friend of mine in Belfast.

 

The Caledonian Canal was another geat experience.  It felt good to be in land and watch something else than an endless sea.  The sceneries of old castles in this remote and rugged environment were astonishing.  We finally reached Inverness on August 8th, and I decided that it would be my last port.  I started on the Panama Canal, and I finish on the Caledonian Canal!!

 

What a great experience all that was.  Not only on the sailing perspective, but also on the human relationship aspect.  My next destinations will by Edinburgh and London, before going back to America.  The rest of the team is continuing the journey to Oslo, Norway, to terminate the mission the family together.

 

I hope you enjoyed following us ;o)

 

Dan

Ireland

Here we are! I crossed the Atlantic Ocean! This has been such a great experience so far. Going from the Azores to Ireland was a little scarry as the north Atlantic can be very unhospitable. As expected, we left the Azores in the clouds, strong wind, and a sea expressing herself. The rough conditions made the life of 2 crew members miserable for 4 days. Luckily , I have good sea legs!! This section was punctuated with weather fronts passing above us one after the others all the way to Ireland. We have had strong winds and rough seas, but thank god, no storm.

The wild life continued to be fascinating. We have seen sharks, Pilot whales, Cachalots, and obviously, many Dolphins. We reached Fastnet rock in 9 days of great sailing again. It was magic to see the old continent after so many days of travel. To me, that is what life is all about. Experiences. We arrived in a little town called Crosshaven, and obviously had a pint of Guinness at the first opportunity, in a typical Irish Pub ambiance.

We then raised the sail again and left to Belfast in the fog. Not so great sailing in this section with currents and low visibility. We didn’t plan to stay for a long time in Belfast, but a serious leak in the transmission forced us to spend a complete week there. We should be able to resume the trip on August 1st.

See you in Scottland

Dan the sailor man

The Azores

The Bermuda – Azores leg started on a very calm and sunny day, where the wild life was abundant. A Ray Manta went flying right by the boat, and we caught a yellow fins Tuna and a Mai-Mai. These fishes are so beautiful that I will have to apologize to the god of fishes every time I will eat one. For the following days, we navigated south of the strong wind belt on the upper edge of two strong high pressure zones. This gave us clear weather with light breeze. We pulled out the spinaker and off we went. 16 days of great sailing along with the rich life of the Atlantic. Huge yellow fish tunas (5′), Cachalots (30′), Sea Turtles, and our most reliable companion, the dolphins (Common, Stripped, Bottlenose, Bridled, Spotted, Rosso).

We have had a special encounter half way through the passage. What we first taught of being a Drakkar, not really seriously, ended up being a replica of a phenician trading boat! The boat was superb and put us few hundred years back in time. We got in touch with them and exchanged olive oil, cookies, and coffee, for a bottle of South African wine! The were at sea for 72 days and were circon-navigating the african continent.

But life is not always nice and smooth!! We did break the spinaker hauliard, tear the jib sheet, the autopilot worked sporadicaly, the engine output shaft came off again, and other minor things…

The life on the boat is great, and my teammate have a good time laughing at the way I express myself in english. For instance, I just learned that "pretty good" is not so good!! The fair weather also allowed me to learn how to navigate with the sun, moon and stars. This kept me busy for a while, but we now have an alternative in case we loose our GPS.

The Azores are beautiful! Really, I would love to live in such place. It feels very peaceful and the sceneries are spectacular. We decided to stop at Flores, which is the most occidental island. The small portugues villages are perched in the mountains and very charismatic. The ambiance in the port is also great as we meet sailors from everywhere. All with interesting diaries of their trips around the world.

The next leg will mark the end of the vacation… We now have to head north where strong cyclones are likely, and colder temperature foreseen. I will tie up my hat, as we say in french, and go for a 10-12 days of action.

Take care and talk to you from Ireland

Dan

The Bermudas

Leaving the paradise of the Turks and Caicos islands was brutal! Strong winds and rough seas for 2 days was quite sporty. I enjoyed it, but it did not give a chance for the two new crew members to adapt. Consequently, Jim and Conny looked green for two days, and had the stomach upside down. Even Karl threw up overboard! The rest of the trip was fabulous, as the sea calmed down, the sun came up, and the wind staid strong. The only down side was that we didn’t catch any fish, so Rachel could not cook its delicious sushi. An other high light was the visit of dolphins. I never get tired of seeing those amazing animals.

We spent more time in the Bermuda because everybody, except me, returned to the home base in Seattle. Rachel had her graduation celebration that she could not miss. It worked out well for me as it gave me a little break to play some guitar on the deck, without the pressure of getting things done ;o) I went for great snorkeling, enjoyed beautiful beaches, and of course, worked on the boat a little. Projects never end ;o) The anecdote of this leg was my experience of getting sting by a Portugues Man of War. I went snorkeling with some friends (Seth and Ellen) on a beautiful spot with high hope of discovering new reef fishes. Suddently, Seth alarmed us about something I thought was not to be missed. It turned out to other way! He was alarming us of something to avoid! I swam right into the poisonous tentacules of the creature! My left forearm and waist were wrapped up and it burnt like hell. Fortunately, it was much better a few hours later…

The team is back to St-George, Bermuda, and we are ready to leave for the big crossing on the 20th. The next rendez-vous will be in the Azores in about 20 days.

Take care

Dan