Sometime during the wee hours of this morning I crossed the finishing buoy in the fourth leg of the Clipper around the World Virtual race. I sailed 5,100 nautical miles in 22 days, 23 hours and 18 minutes from Cape Town, South Africa to Geraldton, Western Australia, finishing 8,454 out of almost 70,000 virtual racers. Not bad for a beginner. There are 11 legs left to race in this one and I an in the last quater of the Jules Verne record attempt. Considering it is a record attempt I could use a l…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on December 15, 2009 at 4:56pm —
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I have just come back in from meteor watching. Last evening around 10 ET the Gemined shower was peaking and there was a chance of seeing 140 meteors per hour. Minus 30+C is a little colder for such a stationary activity and I got out late but managed to see 6 shooting stars. First day of winter is approaching fast considering we have been at almost -40 C for the last three or four days. This means boating season here is about 4/5 months away yet but that is much better than 6/7 months away. Look…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on December 14, 2009 at 9:00am —
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Virtual racing around the globe in open 60/70's is a great way to while the winter months away. I am however glad that leg 2 of the Clipper is over as it was beginninhg to drag.Wwith the loss of the trades due to a tropical derpession and 4/5 days of struggling just to hold your place (I failed and lost12,000) and then the headwinds for the last 30 hours really sucked. I did however mangae to sail back all my lost positions and finished very close to my beat position during the race. I came in 8…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on October 20, 2009 at 8:01am —
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Sailing in my third virtual around the globe race and doing well. I have place in the top 10 or better precent in the previous races and am doing well in the third. At the moment I am 212 nautical miles from Rio De Janeiro our next port of call. I seem to be doing very well in the last half day and will stay at it to see how far up I can get in the fleet.
Not as nice as paddling but alot warmer. Cheers, Greg
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on October 18, 2009 at 9:29am —
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I walk around the Frame lake trail every day and was surprised yesterday when I saw Frame lake. The day before she was open water and yesterday afternoon a sheet of (very thin) ice. Now the small lakes will freeze quickly as the temperature dips but the ice will not be safe of people for awhile yet. The weather is cold enough to freeze but not cold enough for building good ice. Like fine wine, good ice takes time. Time to start packing the throw bag and ice picks on my daily walks. |some folks j…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on October 11, 2009 at 10:44am —
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Yes there were not a lot of us there at any one point but the weather was dry and warm and we had fun. Most of the food was eaten (I'll finish the rest) and we had half the boats in the water at any given time. The bonfire was great and we left a large supply of wood for the next group of folks. Lorna took her first kayak ride and by the end of the day had paddle two boats for a total of 8 trips and about 2 hours of solid paddling. She also had a hoot attempting the slack line. Many thanks to Tr…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on September 28, 2009 at 9:30pm —
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This time tomorrow should find us at the Yellowknife River bridge and celebrating World Rivers day at one of our favourite spots. The rain we are getting now promisies to be snow tomorrow and that is bringing our paddling season to a halt pretty fast. Today we are a whopping +7C and tomorrows high is predicted at +2C which is fine as long as it isn't raining. I will wait until later to decide about buying the grub as poor weather will mean a poor turnout and I hate to see the food wasted.
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on September 26, 2009 at 5:58pm —
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That time of year again and world rivers day is rolling up pretty fast. This will be the second year that the Paddlers for Parts Association will be hosting a small but we hope interesting Sociable Affair. We will take to the fire pits and river at the YK river bridge around noonish and fire up some tunes,grub and rope games,a little slack- lining and whatever seems to be fun at the time. There will of course be some boats for folks to play with. The way things are cooling off cross country skis…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on September 17, 2009 at 5:00am —
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Summer in Yelllowknife didn't really arrive until July ans it seemd it has decided to disappear around now. You can see the leaves are starting to turn and fall and there is that chill in the night air. I was testing the lake water the other day and it seems to be losing the little bit of warmth that it had collected over our summer.
World River day is September 27th; this year a day earlier than last. Last year we had about 35 people show up which considering how chilly it was I was suprized wi…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on August 15, 2009 at 8:04am —
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Paddlers and river folks and those that sail should learn as many knots as possible as they all have a use that could very well save your life.
There are four basic groups to be considered 1) Knots these are tied within the rope itself such as the bowline, figure 8 stopper, 2) Bends This group is used to join two ropes together such as the double Fishermans, Sheet bend etc. Hitches 3) These refer to a rope being tied around something and if the something were removed the hitch would fall apart u…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on August 2, 2009 at 3:00am —
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I have been busy experimenting with the Windpaddle sails I am now selling. I am so far impressed with the ease of attachment to my seakayaks, just clip onto the life lines and your ready to play. At first I thought that folding the sail while in the boat would be difficult but it actually collapses very well on deck. I managed to sail very well down wind and even got broad and beam reaches with the sail and that ain't half bad.
I have been sailing Pacific action sails on my kayak for five years…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on July 27, 2009 at 10:06pm —
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Jay arrved yesterday but I saw him today for the first time. He had a very nice trip and was pleased with the boat. He spend a week on the lake and swam everyday. Hoping that he signs onto the page and you can here all this straight from Jay himself. Cheers, Greg
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on July 25, 2009 at 3:30am —
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Jay should by this toime be sound asleep after his first real days paddle in a while. He is planning on a slow trip and the winds were with him today so he should be heading the right way When he took off he planned to paddle for a couple of hours and then camp. That would make passing Old Ft. Rae the next day an easy paddle and he would probably put it ten klicks or so behind him. I will see if any of my friends are flying that way and if they are we can get them to buzz over and wiggle their w…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on July 19, 2009 at 11:48am —
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Today I decided to clean the pot box as I had been putting it off. On the return trip home a bottle of kerosene spilled in the box and it is a bit of a mess to clean up. First I unload and pile the stuff up and attack the box. This done the box is airing out nicely and I little tackle the pots and pans shortly. Not as bad as one things once you actually get going.
Yesterday my neighbours daughter got married and they required an emergency weed wacking of their yard to back things look good for t…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on July 13, 2009 at 5:11am —
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Yes even with the lousy weather we held the Sociable anyway. Between squalls we had a much larger turnout than expected and it was great fun for everyone. We kept the boats full for two days and everyone was very pleased overall. This was our sixth Sociable and we considered it a great success. Next event for us will be World Rivers Day, September 28th. /09 unless we come up with something in the meantime.
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on July 7, 2009 at 9:39am —
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As promised the sun is breaking through the clouds now and things are looking up. We will go ahead with the Sociable as planned and live with what ever the weather throws at us. Clear and sunny weather has been predicted for the week-end all through the week and I hope they are right.
Patrick is on his way and we are off to collect firewood and set up base camp tonight.
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on July 3, 2009 at 2:30am —
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Racing down the Bay of Finland bound for St Petersberg . I ran agriund while sleeping and it will cost me some positions getting off and around the point. Less than 140 miles to the finish and it is slow going into the wind with numerous tacks required. A narrow channel with little wind and lots of places to run aground. This is the most demanding leg yet and I am glad it is short. This will finish my second virtual circumnavigation of the world since November 08.
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on June 26, 2009 at 9:06pm —
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The weather was great the rain stopped and the sun actually broke through. I managed to weed wack most of the nieghbourhood today and fixed Cynthias bicycle . Another day. another flat tire.
I have been busy making posters and getting things in place for the Paddlers Sociable. Been a small group means lots of stuff for everyone to do. Tonight I will post the announcements on various local web sites and contact folks that can help with flyerrs etc.
Hard to get everything done and still maintain y…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on June 25, 2009 at 4:31am —
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We leave stockholm bound for St.Petersberg, Thursday morning sometime which means about 04:00hours for me local time. This is a short leg a straight dash east to the end of the bay. Should be interesting as some of my fellow sailors I have now raced with twice around the world and until we cross wakes again viturally I will miss their company. I have contacted some through regular e-mail and some through facebook and it would be nice to see these sailing friendships last past the last gust of ra…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on June 24, 2009 at 8:30am —
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I was the founding member of Paddlers for Parts and we have been active since 2001. We are a group of concerned paddlers, hikers and cyclist that promote Organ and Tissue Donation and the paddling sports as a means to an active and healthy lifestyle.
Each year for the past 5 years we have hosted a 3 day pininic at the Yellowknife River bridge. We supply as many canoes, kayaks, rafts and things that float as we can and we invite Yellowknife to come out and play. Each year we have a selection of g…
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Added by Greg Loftus ( Cominco) on June 24, 2009 at 3:34am —
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