Canadian Yachting May 2022 - 41

To give you a preview, here are some passages taken at random
from the book. Be advised: K.M. Wells writes with more
than a smidgeon of attitude. Among his other peeves, the
thoughtless behaviour of observed " boat slobs " occasionally
draws his ire.
'To say Georgian is to say enough. Never mind the word
bay. To say Georgian is to bring to mind great walls and
ridges of naked granite, the gnomish dance of twisted
pines, the ever-lonely cry of distant gulls. To say Georgian
is to dream a dream of islands, tens upon tens of thousands
of islands, with quiet channels winding between. It's
to dream of white and yellow waterlilies, of the sudden
fighting jump of a tiger-jawed pike, of great seas crashing
on an off-shore reef.'
'A yacht does not have to be big to be seaworthy and fit.
Within limits, the smaller the better. But bring into the
Georgian no roaring skimming dish that was meant to do
forty-five miles an hour on a mill pond. Such contraptions
are usually pups in a seaway. They are about as seaworthy
as a gaff-rigged spittoon and on the Georgian about as
useful. On the Georgian speed is not only silly; it is positively
dangerous. The channels twist. The rocks crowd in. To
speed here is to court disaster, and to court disaster on the
Georgian is to have it laid suddenly and savagely in one's
sea-going lap, a full measure of it pressed down and running
over. To take one's time is to see beauty unadorned,
new loveliness at every channel turn, a different paradise
in every cove. Georgian shoals are granite. They don't dent
worth a damn.'
'[Georgian Bay's] storms, especially those carrying much
wind, usually take an arched shape and come out of the
west. They are, while they last, quite spectacular, and quite
worth seeing. Thunder booms like cannon in hell. The lightning
can, on occasion, be smelled. I have smelled it. The
raindrops strike like buckshot, sometimes are buckshot, if
hail may be so called. They do, at times, so fill the air as
to make breathing difficult for a man and swimming past
the top mast easy for a fish. So says a fisherman friend of
mine. I, having weathered a few of these storms, almost
believe him.'
The following verse is prefatory to the first chapter. It is Wells'
elegiac ode for himself and could serve for just about all the
seasoned sailors who have cruised Georgian Bay.
Gawd almighty, when I am dead,
Don't take it into yer wise old head
To be kind to me.
Don't gimme a harp with golden strings,
An' a golden house an' all those things.
That's hell to me.
Jest gimme a boat with a rag of sail
An' a pair of jeans to cover my tail.
That's plenty fer me.
Jest gimme these an' I'll sail away
An' be a ghost on the Georgian Bay.
That's heaven to me.
If you are sailing the North Channel, you will find Wells'
Cruising The North Channel (1960) just as entertaining and
informative about that body of water as his book about Georgian
Bay. In this book, Wells is effusive in acknowledging the
pioneering work of members of the Great Lakes Cruising Club,
particularly in its Log Book and Harbor Reports, for the enjoyment
of Bay and North Channel cruisers alike: " Here is wealth.
Here is wisdom. Here is lore. " ■
IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN! SEVEN NATIONAL AWARDS
UP FOR GRABS! - by Lynda Bennett-Retei, NS, CPS-ECP National Secretary
Volunteers are the heart and soul of CPS-ECP and, as such, the
Board thanks and recognizes all of our volunteers.
This year, each winner of seven National Awards and their
guest will have their transportation and two nights' hotel accommodation
paid by National so they can receive their awards
in person at the 2022 AGM and National Conference in Toronto.
We've arranged to have that done in a special ceremony on
the Friday night. The winners will have the spotlight without
having to compete with the rest of the conference.
The awards are Volunteer of the Year, Officer of the Year,
Instructor of the Year, Electronic Course Instructor of the Year,
Environmental Award, Squadron of the Year, and District of
the Year. Note the submission deadline is June 30, 2022.
We are also continuing the Squadron Star Trophy for new
memberships and the District Bell Award for membership renewals.
And, as with the National Awards, the Membership
Officer of the winning Squadron of the Star trophy will be
able to travel to and stay at the national conference at no
cost to him or her.
Nomination forms can be found on the CPS-ECP website at
https://www.cps-ecp.ca/ under My Member's Area, 02. Click
through Our Organization, Awards and CPS-ECP Awards:
Description and Applications. Nominations must be submitted
to the National Secretary by email to ns@cps-ecp.org no later
than the end of day June 30, 2022. ■
CANADIANYACHTING.CA
41
https://www.cps-ecp.ca/ http://www.CANADIANYACHTING.CA
Canadian Yachting May 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Yachting May 2022
