SEA LEVEL II

Boat Type: Nordhavn 60
Skipper: Cameron Kemp
Club: Royal Vancouver YC
Home Port: Vancouver, BC
Built: 2009

Captain/Owner Bio
Cameron (captain) and Kim (admiral) hail from Vancouver British Columbia and have done all of their boating to date in the Pacific Northwest. In 2013 we circumnavigated Vancouver Island and in 2014 completed a portion of the Inside Passage up the BC Central Coast stopping just short of Prince Rupert.
Both these trips were good experience and confidence builders for our planned trip down the west coast of the US enroute to San Diego where we look forward to joining the CUBAR Rally later this fall.

As relatively recent converts to the cruising lifestyle we’ve been on a steep learning curve getting familiar with all aspects of cruising. Sea Level II is only our second boat which we’ve now had for approximately 3 1/2 years.

Favorite Cruising Destination
All of our boating to date has been in the Pacific Northwest. All of that has been very scenic but I would have to say that the west side of Vancouver Island was particularly stunning.

The coastline is particularly demanding with a myriad of reefs and open ocean conditions but the inlets down the coast are well protected with many gorgeous bays to anchor in. It’s very remote and rugged but very beautiful.

Favorite Boating Experience
I would have to say there is no one single experience that stands out as our favourite. Rather, our favourite boating experiences relate to the whole boating experience; magical places we have seen, unbelievable sunrises and sunsets, watching a mother and baby grey whale leave the harbour with us one morning, seeing hundreds of porpoises travel up Rivers Inlet, travelling for 12 hours in dense fog and just as we were arriving at our destination watching the sun come out and realizing we were exactly where we thought we were… yeah! This collection of individual experiences are what we have most enjoyed about boating.

About the Crew
Our crew for the CUBAR rally are our dear friends Ed and Christine Theobald. They have boated with us many times on Sea Level II and are very much looking forward to joining us for the rally. Ed and Christine have chartered boats a number of times and explored the Gulf/San Juan Islands as well as Desolation Sound and the Broughtons up the BC coast. This will be their first open ocean experience.

What’s in a Name
Not much of a story there. We are the boats second owners and she was already named Sea Level when we bought her. We added the Roman Numeral II to the name for two reasons; as our boat is registered in Canada we had to have a unique name that hasn’t been used anywhere else in Canada. As it turns out Sea Level was already registered as was Sea Level I. Sea Level II, however, was available and, as we are her second owners, adding the “II” to the end of her name seemed fitting.

Reason to Buy This Boat
We currently own a Nordhavn 60. Once we decided to pursue cruising as an activity leading to and during retirement we started to think about where we would want to go and quickly decided we would like to go further afield than our coastal cruising boat could safely take us. Given that we live in the Pacific Northwest this meant being able to manage open ocean conditions which got us looking at trawler style boats (having tried a sailing trip previously and deciding that wasn’t for us). Researching trawlers lead us to look at Nordhavn’s, Kadey Krogens, Flemings, Selenes, Grand Banks, Outer Reefs, etc… all the front-runners in the trawler category.

What kept bringing my focus back to the Nordhavns was their weight and their proven track record with many long ocean crossings. Further research indicated that they were very well built boats with well-engineered and robust systems. Our personal experience that shown this to be true. We started looking at the Nordhavn 55’s as they were large enough for us to have family or friends join us. At the Nordhavn offices in Dana Point we saw a 55 next to a 60 and the extra five feet dedicated to the cockpit area sold us on this model. We have been very happy with our choice.

Previous Boats Owned
Meridian 459. This was a great boat to start out on but we quickly realized that it was a coastal cruising boat and that we wanted to go further afield. We learned a lot on this boat.

Interest in CUBAR
Mexico, and in particular the Sea of Cortez, is a place we’ve set our sights on for a few years as our first big step in to cruising further afield from our home port of Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest. We are going to work our way down to San Diego together with another boat later in August and were referred to the CUBAR by a boating acquaintance as a good way to be introduced to other cruising boaters and as a fun way to get to the Sea of Cortez. Since that referral we have done some further homework and it does look like a great way to meet other people and do it in a safe and organized way.

Boating Story
Coming eastbound through the Strait of Juan de Fuca on our way home following our Vancouver Island circumnavigation in dense fog I got a radio call from a boat parallel to us and travelling in the same direction but hugging the coast. We could both see each other on AIS. When the other boat called me he asked if I had listened to the VHF radio weather report that morning. I said that I hadn’t and that I had pulled up the weather report on my computer. He went on to say that if I had I would’ve heard that there was a U.S. Navy live fire exercise scheduled for that day in an area denoted as Whiskey Hotel. I asked him where that was and his reply was “You’re smack in the middle of it. That’s why I’m running so close to the shore.”

Needless to say that got my attention. I asked my wife, Kim, took to stick her head out of the pilot house door to see if there were any noticeable holes in the boat or whether she could hear any military aircraft bearing down on us. Fortunately she said no to both. A quick check with both the Canadian Coast Guard and the Seattle Traffic controller confirmed that there was indeed a live fire exercise scheduled for that day but that it had been cancelled because of the dense fog. After a quick change of my underwear we carried on to Victoria without taking on any enemy fire. Whew!