We are back onboard Octopus, for details check "Comings and Goings"
The idea:
This simple homepage intends to keep you (family, friends & interested parties) apprised of where we are and what we do. It is mostly in English, with a few snippets in German from time to time.
Gerry has been looking forward to sailing around the world for a good chunk of his life, Brigitte hopes to enjoy it as much as he does ;-) Gerry learned to sail in Holland, while Brigitte acquired her skills with Gerry on their first boat, a Tanzer 7.5 "Inukshuk" on Lac Deschenes in Ottawa as members of the Nepean Sailing Club. We'll do some coastwise cruising at first to get used to it again and then sail towards the eastern end of the Med to do some exploring. We'll take our time, stop and smell the (sea)roses, look and learn, meet interesting people and will lend a hand to alleviate misery where we can. We have no fixed schedule.
About us:
We are Brigitte and Gerry Stuurop. Brigitte (née Sterzl) was born in Zürich Switzerland, Gerry in the Netherlands. We met in Montreal, Canada after Gerry emigrated there at age twenty and Brigitte left Zürich to work near Montreal five years later as an au-pair. We married in 1973: the kids, Kim and Lars, arrived in 1977 and 1979. We worked in Montreal and later in Ottawa. Gerry lost his job as Treasurer of what was then Canadian Marconi (defense electronics, hereinafter referred to as Canadian Macaroni) after 17 years (so much for loyalty) at age 47, after peace broke out in Europe and defence contracts went south (literally). When it became apparent that Canadian employers discriminate against anyone over 40, we bought and successfully managed a coffee-shop franchise in Orlando, Fla. (hard work!!). Sold it two years later, after building up the business and got stiffed by the Canadian franchisors (they are now fınally being bankrupted by people with deeper pockets than ours). We subsequently ended up in Switzerland where one of the big banks was interested in Gerry's considerable tax experience. He was lately responsible, as Vice President, for the Swiss VAT interests of four banks on behalf of their parent, Credit-Suisse. Brigitte was PA to the chief of a large IT department of the other major Swiss bank, UBS. Kim spent two years working in Germany and is now back in Ottawa, working for the Metro Police on the 911-Team and on her Master's degree in Disaster Management, while Lars is an apprentice-carpenter, working in Victoria, Vancouver Island. Seb, Kim's husband since May '07, is working on his Engineering degree in Montreal.
About Octopus:
Octopus I is our second sailboat. We've sailed her on Lake Ontario, sailed her from Bath, ON, to North Sydney, NS, in 2002 and from there to El Puerto de Santa Maria, near Cadiz, Spain, in the summer of 2003, with, in various configurations, Lars, Kim, friend Richard, Lars' friend Jon, nephew Anne and Gerry.
Octopus is a Corbin 39 (hull Nr. 87) and is reasonably well equipped. She has a high freeboard and is a dry boat. She sails well in light winds and is an absolute rock in heavy weather. Displacement is 22'000 lbs, empty. The major shakedown cruise was the Atlantic crossing in 2003 (20 days net) by way of Faial. We're perhaps a little underequipped on the radio-side (just a VHF, we´re working on a ham rig) but do allright on the rest. Gear includes a watermaker (PUR 40E), Geonav plotter (w. built-in GPS), Furuno Navtex, below-deck autopilot (Autohelm "Otto" 6000), Cap Horn self-steerer, 2kW (24 mile) Raymarine radar (sure put our minds at ease in the fog on the Grand Banks), Rutland 913 wind generator (so,so), hand-held GPS', Espar diesel heater, sounder, log, Barient (!) selftailers, Arbour Cold Machine. Octopus is a cutter: we have a furler up front and a self-tending staysail on a boom, a gigantic main (which we reef quite early) and a cruising spinnaker. Three anchors, a Delta on a 300 ft chain, a 45 lb Bruce and a small flat stern anchor. We now cook on a 2-burner (& oven) non-pressure alcohol stove (after I finally lost patience with the 3-burner kerosene stove and Ken almost incinerated the boat, sorry Mike, but you did have the keys to Octopus...). The Corbin is not a party boat, has a smallish cockpit, pilot berth aft of the starboard charttable in the pilothouse, a double in the saloon and a V-berth for 2. Head and hanging lockers are just forward of the (deck-stepped) mast. No shower, no hot water, no pressure water (foot pumps prevent waste and suit us just fine, thank you). Battery charging of the two banks of two 220 Amp batteries each and the starter battery is done via a Heart charger and 2kW inverter, monitored by a Link 2000. A 150 amp alternator charges the batteries by way of the engine (Perkins 4.108M). Moving around in 220 V-land forced us to install a second charger/inverter (Mastervolt Dakar). We are finally installing an electric anchor winch (1500 Watt) much to Brigitte's delight.
Contact us by email gbstuurop@gmail.com Details of some of our experiences can be found under "Comings and Goings", weather and other links under "Useful Links".
