Commander Gary Clow

2008-2009

I don't come from a long line of boaters. My father got seasick on anything except a ten foot car top boat. I was the same, so boating was not at the top of my priority list as a child or young adult. I enjoyed fishing in the little boat. I loved to waterski, but that was behind a boat, not in it. 

My involvement with boats really began as a scuba diver. I found myself spending a lot of time on boats of different sizes getting to and from dive sites. A little Graval kept me fairly healthy.  Gradually I got better on the water, and was able to weather most major storms, at least until the waves got to be a foot high.

When my father passed away I inherited the ten foot aluminum punt in which I had spent so much time fishing with my dad. I was living in Hamilton at the time, and in order to use it, I drove to a marina to get some 2 stroke oil for the 5 hp outboard that came with the ten foot boat. Before buying the oil I looked around and my eyes fell on a beautiful, new 24 foot Thundercraft Express Cruiser, what we call a sunbridge in BC. I had never before seen inside one so was surprised to find a small kitchen, head and sleeping space for four. The wheels in my head began to turn as the dealer told me I could get a used, older one, for about $10,000. I was hooked before leaving the store. It took a while to convince Sandra, but I played the “doing things together as a family” card.

Within 6 months Sandra and I had a used 30 foot Doral Prestancia express cruiser. It was a gift, a miracle, but it was ours. I took a five week boating course from the Hamilton Harbour Commission, got a VHF Restricted Operators license and we began boating at Long Point Bay on Lake Erie. Our first boat, 30 feet, two V-8 engines . . . you know what it is like. We named it Descanso which means “rest” in Spanish.

We had a huge learning curve. After the first summer both Sandra and I realized we needed more training and took the Canadian Power and Sail Squadron Boating Course through Hamilton Squadron. We learned an incredible amount, as does everyone who takes the Boating Course. But our real teachers were the other boaters at our marina, the people who had their boats tied up near ours. They were Power Squadron members and taught us much, much more about boating. We learned to appreciate every other boater as someone who could teach us something new, and we soaked up everything they could teach us.

If you’re a boater you know that it took a while before we could dock the boat without everyone around us diving for cover and getting out their boat hooks and extra fenders. We had a lot to learn, but slowly we put into practice all we had learned in the Boating Course and the things other Squadron members were teaching us.

The second summer that we had Descanso we made a 60 mile trip to Sherkston at the eastern end of Lake Erie. All went well. These were the earliest GPS days, when GPS was prohibitively expensive, so we had a LORAN system which gave us just latitude and longitude. A huge thunderstorm interfered with the LORAN on the way home so we had to navigate with our compass, chart and a watch, arriving within 350 yards of the buoy which led us through the sand bars into Long Island Bay. Navigation using time and distance formulas, the CPS plotter and a watch actually worked! Later that summer we took a 200 mile trip to Leamington at the west end of Lake Erie. Once again a horrible thunderstorm took out the LORAN reception so we had to navigate manually. Everything went perfectly and we arrived safely and easily at our day’s destination. These two trips gave me confidence that I could navigate by hand, without instruments other than a compass, plotter, watch and speedometer if I had to do so. And that’s a lot harder to do on Lake Erie than on the Pacific coast. Without mountains or hills, once we were six miles from shore we couldn’t see anything but water. The shore was no longer visible.

In 1997 we moved to Chilliwack and became involved with Valley Squadron. We first met Squadron members at Long Island Bay on Harrison Lake. Our first cruise with the Squadron was to Desolation Sound, led by Ken Becotte. That was followed by trips to the north end of Vancouver Island, the Broughton Archipelago, the Gulf Islands and of course more trips into Desolation Sound and of course Princess Louisa Inlet, our favourite place to spend a few days. Valley Squadron members taught us how to anchor in the ocean, how to stern tie and raft boats together, how to do so many things that are not in any book we had read. They taught me marine maintenance and which is the best wax for fibreglass boats. Everyone is still a teacher.

The best thing we did in boating was to join Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons through taking the Boating Course. Equally important was to get involved in our local squadron. We have put down roots in Valley Squadron and made life long friends. We have fun at social events and on the water. These wonderful friends continue to teach me and help me. And we always have a friend when we want to go boating. Long Island Bay is now our “home port,” but we love ocean cruises with friends from the Squadron.

Oh yes, that ten foot car top boat that started it all? We still have it, only now we use it as a tender when we go to the ocean and need something to get from our anchorage to shore. It fits nicely across the stern of Descanso.

Gary Clow

May, 2008

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