freddyhutter

Port Alberni BC home phone:  778.421.0209

Deep Bay Harbour BC cell-phone:  519.535.4083

email me:  freddy@hutter.ca

this URL:  www.hutter.ca/yachting

mail:  #112 Deep Bay Marina, PO Box 191, Bowser BC V0R1G0

back to www.hutter.ca

Sept 13th:  Fran and Peter joined us for a cruise up our fjord (Barkley Sound) to the open waters of the Pacific.  Their sandwiches and cider and a bit of whale-watching made for a wonderful voyage.

Sept 12th:  Headed up to Stamp Falls with Peter & Fran.  After four months of clear blue skies we're finally getting some rain for the local creeks and rivers.  The sockeye, coho and chinook are real happy ... so are the black bear!

July 9th:  The Hawaii Martin Mars water bomber is stationed over the hill at Sproat Lake.  Quite a thrill when it buzzes our rooftops on practice water drops by the beach.

July 1st:  Surprised my Mom with a 4,000' glider ride.

We have found this part of Vancouver Island has been very rich in antique, classic and sports cars for over 50 years. There is a Show-n-Shine or race virtually every weekend. Folks here really love their cars. I'm enjoying the Island highways in my (4th) Firebird.

June 28th:  As this exciting day continued, Fred & Evalina then surprised me with my first glider ride - - started by a tow to 4,000' and a memorable peaceful float that seemed to last forever...

June 28th:  We all had an exciting day at the Alberni Valley Flying Club today. Enjoyed a Cessna tour of Sproat Lake, Port Alberni and even my subdivision (Cameron Heights) and Motion Drive.

March 4th:  What is more delicious than jumbo spotted prawns just two hours out-of-the-ocean? Thanks to our new fisherman friends, we have been feasting well - our fjord also has dungeness crab, halibut, rock fish, cod & four kinds of salmon. Further out they get Fanny Bay oysters & octopus for us.

Jan 1st 2015:  We zipped down to the beach to watch the brave ones in the local polar bear swim. 

Nov 23rd, 2014:  While the WeatherNetwork says this week there was lots of snow all across Canada and down to Texas and a big dump in Buffalo, we were raking leaves and cutting the grass. This morning the local peaks are white for the first time.

Oct 13th:  Three days of driving and we're finally in the Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island. The whole trip the trees have been getting bigger ... from 12" trunks in the Yukon to these in Cathedral Grove on Hwy #4.

Oct 12th:  Lots of excitement with a bison herd blocking the highway last night. Today we have beautiful blue skies and my Mom found the perfect place for a picnic just south of Fort Nelson BC.

Oct 11th:  There's been 8" of snow in the Yukon already but it's the last of the white stuff I'll be seeing for awhile. The U-Haul is packed and today we're heading down the Alaska Hwy back to Vancouver Island for the winter.

Sept 18th:  We're looking for a summer home in Port Alberni.

Sept 13th:  Sailing into the sunset with my mom, Theresa. We all flew to Vancouver and now we're on the ferry half-way to Vancouver Island. A reminder the 49th parallel is way nicer than the 60th!  Back home there's snow on the peaks and frost already.

Sept 8th:  A pleasant evening on "supermoon" nite with Frosty at our home in Judas Creek Marina.

Aug 20th:  A common guest to the Yukon's Conservative Party summer BBQ is Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen. My mom, Theresa, was so pleased to chat with them.

June 21st:  This is Marsh Lake at midnite on solstice.  Blue sky and not a single star up there.  Sunset was at 11:30pm and sunrise will come at 3:30am and the birds will start singing!

With these twilight conditions, we cannot see Northern Lights, planets or stars from May to August.

April 14th:  Finally a hint of Spring here at Marsh Lake marina - open water and the first swans, duckies and nesting bald eagles.

March 3rd, 2014:  Because there's been no insulating snow since New Years Day, there's four feet of ice out there.  Set in almost constant high pressure cells, wind is rare, temp's can drop to -47C and usually lots of blue sky. Daytime high is usually around -17C, there's rarely thaws and so snow that falls in November is still around by Easter - usually 4' accumulation - mostly powder - can't make snowballs or snowman.

Nov 10th, 2013:  With the approval of the Vancouver Olympics, our waterfront cabin on Howe Sound fell victim to required widening of the Sea-to-Sky Hwy. A coincident opportunity in 2004 at the BC-Yukon border led to our relocating to a marina on Marsh Lake, Yukon. Quite short boating season ... frozen from Remembrance Day to Victoria Day.  Our Kuvasz, Frosty, is discovering ice for the first time...

Evalina and I left Ontario in 1999 to start a new chapter on BC's Whistler Corridor.  Racing the VARC regattas is serious stuff and I am grateful to Bill Hall (Carrera, C&C 33), Dr David Frewin (American Eagle, Saturna 35) & Bruce Winfield (True Gritts, C&C 30) for sharing their crafts in competitions around Metro Vancouver, English Bay, Georgia Strait, Howe Sound & over to Silva Bay off Vancouver Island.

The highlight of my sailing experiences has to be my working vacations in the beatiful British Virgin Islands, sailing with my good friend Bill Oliver in his CSY-44.

My Dad and I got our start in sailboat racing in 1966 at Fanshawe Lake (London) in an exquisite molded mahogany Nordborg-15. We moved up to international racing in 1967 in the Snipe Class and founded the Oxford Sailing Club on Pittock Lake in Woodstock. Over the next two decades we attended regattas in Ontario, the NY Finger Lakes, Michigan, Ohio, Shediac NB & Cape Breton NS.