Patrick

PSCC’s March meeting on Zoom will be by Barbara + Jim Cole, PSCC members who are currently cruising the world and crossed the Red Sea last year.

The Red Sea Passage is the route from Southeast Asia to the Med that runs across the northern Indian Ocean and through the Red Sea. For years, the risk of Somali Piracy was so severe that most boats chose to go from Southeast Asia to South Africa. During the almost two-year refit of their boat in Malaysia, Jim and Barbara closely followed the experiences of boats crossing the Indian Ocean and laid in plans for both of the two major routes. The plan was to decide which route closer to departure time.

In the end they chose the Red Sea Passage because of a desire to cruise in the Mediterranean Sea. The presentation will be about SV Complexity’s 2020 Red Sea Passage including preparations and events along the way. It will include stops in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Djibouti and Egypt. Their passage was complicated by countries closing their borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic while Complexity was at sea. Jim and Barbara were “stranded at sea” for 78 days. They transited the Red Sea with friends on other boats who were for aboard 130 days due to the pandemic.

• When: March 19, 2021 06:00 PM Pacific Time
• Watch the Zoom Recording (passcode: jfV=68@O)

Tony Gibb and Connie McCann of Victoria, BC, circumnavigated the Pacific Ocean via the Aleutian Islands from 1983-1990 in a home built Vancouver 27, Hejira of Victoria, with a sextant, one battery, no refrigeration and no head. They departed again in 2010 in Sage, a Wauquiez 38, with a sextant, numerous GPS’, a Lavac head, refrigeration and no AIS.

The British sailor Pete Goss said Tony and Connie had bridged two different cruising worlds. The world of the Hiscock’s and sextants and the Delos social media world and AIS.

• When: February 19, 2021 06:00 PM Pacific Time
• Watch the Zoom recording here, passcode: %63@Q@Va