Switching Gears

On British Columbia's Desolation Sound, a renowned sailor takes the helm of a Grand Banks trawler-and makes a whole new kind of memories.

- Gary Jobson

We were cruising through one of Desolation Sound's towering fjords when the wind hit 35 knots. This type of a headwind is to be expected in this part of British Columbia, and it made me glad that I was for the first time in my life-exploring a region not aboard a sailboat but instead aboard a 53-foot Grand Banks trawler with twin 650 hp engines. The term "powering through" took on a whole new meaning.

I've enjoyed more than a few sailing adventures in my lifetime-not just racing America's Cup boats, but also on expeditions to remote places including Antarctica, Cape Horn, Sable Island (off Nova Scotia) and Norway's Svalbard. I've completed trans-Atlantic crossings on sailboats too. Now in my 70s, I decided to try a trawler charter with NW Explorations, which is based in Bellingham, Washington. Our crew included my wife, Janice, who has cruised extensively in Maine and on the Chesapeake; longtime friends David and Christy Elwell, from Florida, who had cruised this area twice before this trip; and Kitty Mountain, also from Florida, but a veteran Desolation Sound cruiser. We were all of similar age, and we all had experienced our share of health issues in recent years. Somehow, letting a reputable charter company do most of the planning and make sure the boat was in good working order seemed like a reasonable compromise this time around.