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***Balvenie squeezed into Paphos Harbour, we are the shortest mast right in the middle***Very much enjoying Diane and Clives home and pool set high in the hills overlooking the med ***Traditional Dinner out at their local taverna set down a real goat track*** 
hoping to find room in Paphos harbour on the Southwest corner of Cyprus. We motored along the south coast enjoying the spectacular scenery of the steep cliffs dropping straight in the Med. Because of this there are few natural bays or harbours to anchor so cruising Southern Cyprus is limited to the couple of marinas and fishing harbours. Paphos was very full but we were lucky enough to squeeze in as one of the police boats was away being serviced. After some time we even managed to get Hai Mei Gui secure as well, check in procedures went well, we had finally, officially arrived in the Med.
who retired to Paphos 5 years ago. Diane and Clive extended us excellent hospitality, took us to their local taverna for dinner, entertained us in their beautiful home set high in the hills overlooking the med, where we very much enjoyed cooling in the swimming pool and drove us to some spots we would otherwise have missed.
and local culture. We even fitted in a dip in the Med at Pissouri where the local hilltop village road was barely wide enough for us to fit our little Micra through.
A little history. This is the 31st Warroad race. The first trip was in Dominion Day 1977. There were three boats. George Kent, Jim Kern, and Lyle Little and their wives. I think that there may have been a few others on board. They were all three sailing brand new O’Day 27 footers. They cruised down from Kenora to
Although that was no race any time that two sailboats are in sight of each other that is a race. However with the three new boats chasing our old charter boat Paceship we had to keep doubling back to them so that they would not lose sight of us.
In 1978 there were eleven boats (some reports claim twelve) and they cruised to
Also the in 1978 we set up another race which we called the KWIT race. Kenora to Warroad International team race. Here we combined the time of the first boat with that of the last and so on down the line. The best overall time of the two boats won. There was a Mayor's trophy and several others.
For the KWIT race I made arrangements with US Customs that I would check in all of the boats at my dock and call in the numbers to the Warroad port. On the third day the
Of course at some point the government officials caught on to what we were up to and stopped that so that was the only straight through race we could have. That race was on Labor Day week end of 1978. There were I think 23 sail boats in that race and they were accompanied by several powerboats.
From 1979 on the race was always on Dominion Day. 1979 I think that we had 44 boats in all but there were a number of power boats which accompanied.
After several years the Golfers started to dominate the fleet and the 27 mile lay day race was changed to an Olympic race just off shore at Warroad. It got down to only two boats for that race and we then started just having the Golf day.
There have been some really drifters through the years with shortened courses and there have been come real howling gales. Some years there was damage to several boats and ripped sails from the heavy weather but they still just keep on coming.
Now it is sort of settled down to just about the same boats and crews every year and most are golfers. Great bunch and great event and Ginny and I have enjoyed the whole thirty one years of hosting such a great bunch of people. As long as we can we will be here to help out. We have recruited and trained Stuart Michelson and he is doing a good job on it. Unfortunately his job has him scheduled out of town this year but he still got things all organized including the coast guard auxiliary will be out there in case of need. Stuart has taught them how to recover grounded keel boats.
There are a lot of stories about this event.
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At this weekends Pizza night we held a raffle in support of LOWISA. Many thanks to Bob Webb who donated the prize and organized the raffle. Doug Skoog was the lucky winner of a Texas Mickey of Appleton’s Rum.
For those new boaters at the harbour LOWISA is an annual week long sailing regatta held on the
The Lake of the Woods International Sailing Association invites you to expand your sailing horizons on one of the most astounding sailing adventure vacations available. Come alive to the appeal of sailing through the amazingly breathtaking waters of
The week long regatta is staged by an association of Canadian and American sailors on beautiful
When you attend LOWISA, you will join a fraternity of participants from various states and provinces who have enjoyed and contributed to what has now become an unparalleled annual sailing event.
LOWISA is what you want it to be. There are classes for virtually every type of sailing craft and level of ability. There are divisions for competitive racers on state of the art boats. There is also provision for those who sail on modest less competitive designs who desire only an initiation to racing. LOWISA even allows sailors to opt for a division with pursuit style starts in order to avoid the stress of Olympic style starts.
For those who don't wish to race at all, there is a cruising fleet to allow for sailors who want only the beauty of the lake and camaraderie of other sailors. This provides an avenue for family cruisers to participate in a non threatening atmosphere.
Visit www.lowisa.org for information on this year’s event.
how to get to the Pyramids by local transport sounded way too hard from where we were and flagged down a cab, but he wouldn’t take us, Mark tried another one, same thing. Maybe it was a language thing but surely they know what the Pyramids are, so on our 3rd attempt we show the cover of the Lonely Planet with the Pyramids on it, we are in business. We also show EGP30 (EGP25 was the suggested price by the hotel) and it would appear we are in business and on our way. It’s actually quite a way into the suburbs to Giza Plateau where the Pyramids are so we had a good look around Cairo’s outskirts before finally arriving around 3.30pm. The last half mile is somewhat interesting, the touts for the camel/horse trips through the plateau actually block the road to get business, it’s a little intimidating but our taxidriver did a good job of getting us through without running anyone over. But then ofcourse it comes time to pay, and now the EGP30 agreed upon is not nearly enough, and EGP50 is required. After much to-ing and fro-ing we pay EGP40 and Egypt wins yet again.
interesting “extra” and although expensive we enjoyed it (plus its air-conditioned!!!) Then back out into the heat of the dropping sun and we spent the next couple of hours wandering around Giza plateau admiring these wonders of the world. We didn’t go inside them as that is only available at certain times of the day but we certainly inspected all nooks and crannies on the outside and again because of being late in the day shared these historical marvels with just a handful of others. We were last to leave as the guards locked up behind us, and had planned to stay for the evening sound and light show but it was cancelled due to a concert by a Lebanese singer being held instead.
unfortunately I cannot add anything positive. Our pilots boat handling skills were poor, manners appalling, he smoked nonstop in our cockpit when we asked him not to, he constantly complained about the speed we were achieving when we had adverse current and headwinds, demanded extra baksheesh over the USD25 offered then had the nerve to want the USD5 bill changed as he had ripped it when opening the envelope! Of the 15 boats we knew that transited the week we did everyone had similar stories to tell - Suez Port Authority it is seriously time you looked at your staff who we understand are paid quite well by Egyptian standards. 
by Jim Schmicker, Vice President & Senior Naval Architect
