The matter of gratitude

Signalling our departure.

DAY 2: Cobourg Marina, Lake Ontario

Last few days in the home port and, of course, it's stinking hot here and has been for weeks and there's still a lot of jobs to do. But the forecast looks promising for Tuesday, the proposed departure date, and, while only a fool of a sailor hews to a schedule, it's not a Friday.

As we prepare to leave, it seems appropriate to express gratitude for all the people in our lives who helped us, either via encouragement or through very direct aid, to reach this point. No sailor is an island, after all, and while we have certainly done a lot on our our initiative to become sailors capable of sailing a good old boat, there have been some folk who've been constant sources of inspiration and sound advice. In alphabetical order...

Jonathan Bamberger: We met at a 2010 "Safety at Sea" course (at which I also met the renowned Herb Hilgenberg) and he was kind enough to let me on his crew for the 2010 Lake Ontario 300 race. It provided more than one teachable moment.

Andrew Barlow: Has seemingly fabricated half the stuff on our boat and is a hell of a nice guy, as well. No matter how odd the task, he has been able to turn my crude diagrams into reality. I hope to one day finally jam with him, seeing as he's building a studio.

Now, as intended, completely full.

Fred Blair: This pal of my father-in-law, Dave McMurray, from back in the '80s when both were in the boat building realm, really came through for us with a beautiful custom-made cabinet for our galley, which has solved a host of stowage issues and made our galley fully functional.

Paul Bond was one of the first guys I met at our boat club over 20 years ago and he and his wife Ruth-Ann were unstinting in their good advice and, later, when I stopped ignorantly damaging our first boat, were supportive when our plans for long-term cruising began to take shape.

Do not refrigerate this man's red wine.

John Cangardel has been so enthusiastic over the years on our behalf that his erudite and constructive advice has reignited our anticipation of actually doing this trip. More pertainently, he encouraged me to take two RYA courses aboard, one in Brittany, for which I was not entirely prepared, alas, but also another in Antigua, for which I was. Endlessly supportive, John will be our spirit guide as we go to places he's already been. And he also took the photo that is the background of the blog...our wake upon leaving Toronto Harbour.

Bruce Clark versus an Atlantic gale. Best to stay hydrated.

Bruce and June Clark: Gave me my first offshore crewing experience, and I must say, it was a doozy. Completed their own circ a few years back, and we still have the Portabote they sold us and it's not yet entirely shot. Were I to be deterred by the realities of offshore cruising, this trip might have done it...but I remained enthused.

Jeff Cooper: A consummate sailor in both racing and cruising modes, and a shrewd judge of the human condition, we shared the care and feeding and costs of my first boat, Valiente, and stayed friends despite that! Jeff is a brilliant bargain-finder, and aside from his considerable knowledge of good gear, he's been responsible for our acquisition of durable gear at reasonable prices, without which refitting would have taken longer and costs us more. He is so gracious, he never complained when I think he aggravated a hernia helping me bring an absurd number of large batteries aboard.

Dan Erlich: Another Viking 33 owner, Dan and I became acquainted via a mailing list back in the dark days of the internet concerning the repair and maintenance of the Atomic 4 gasoline inboard. Dan seems to know everything there is to know about this vintage motor, and was generous with his advice and guidance when I had to rebuild not one, but two of them, sourcing a block and parts that still run 15 years later for the new owner. Inventive and funny, Dan made motor mechanic skills acquisition easy.

Goshka Folda and Earl Bederman: Since 1996 (pre-boats!), Earl and Goshka were my primary clients for my freelancing efforts as an editor and graphic designer, Goshka, who now runs the firm Earl started, kept me working steadily and were very supportive of our goals to cut the dock lines.

Jay German and Rob Lamb: Fellow steel boat liveaboards and cat fanciers, Jay and Rob have been a source of friendship and sound steel boat advice for many years, and I expect them to get out of fresh water shortly after we do. Rob is particularly skilled at the art of winter battening-down, which helped us overwinter our boat last year.

Ken Goodings and Lynn Kaak: The couple with whom I took my Canadian Power Squadron Boating Course in 1999 as a know-nothing squib weren't a couple then, but they got married and sailed away on a Niagara 35 and have been taunting us ever since with tales of tropical paradises. Well, we're coming out shortly! Ken has given us excellent advice on the mysteries of the single-sideband radio (we are installing one this winter...finally) and is another marine bargain-hunter, as are all the best sailors.

Ian Grant works on his tan and his Zen-like calm.

Ian Grant: Antiguan-based, unflappable RYA instructor who managed to pack five days of instruction into a four-day week for my first step on the RYA ladder.

Tony Johnson is a boat repair guy so booked you might get him for 2021...but he has been very generous in giving me advice that allowed me to solve a difficult fuel supply problem satisfactorily. He is one of the few people in the boat trade local to Toronto I would recommend unreservedly....but be prepared to wait.

Mitch Kitz works for Genco Marine, as did my wife Rebecca for a few years when our favourite chandlery was on Queen's Quay West. Mitch's encyclopedic knowledge of boat gear, and his frankness in sharing his opinions, has served us enormously well in making the right decisions and using the right materials and techniques. If Mitch doesn't know the answer, you may be phrasing the question wrongly.

Alex baffled that Cabo S. Vicente was not "a washing machine" the day we rounded it.

Alexandre Mathias Kossack, whom I only knew from an internet comment site and a phone call, allowed me to visit him in 2007 and help him deliver his 12 metre raceboat Giulietta, which Alex, an engineer, had a large part in designing. He showed me, and later Rebecca on a later delivery, every courtesy. I didn't realize it when I met him, but he is one of the top amateur sailors in the world and competes now on a 53-footer at the ORC class level, and with a crew of Portugal's best young sailors. Boa sorte!

Suzanne Manvell has been "three-quarters" around the world by sailboat in her own right, and the love of boats brought her to us when we were attempting to sell our first boat, Valiente. While that didn't happen, we did become friends and Suzanne, a real estate agent par excellence (as well as a snappy dresser and a gifted dancer and party-thrower) ended up selling our Toronto home. When we missed our "departure window" in 2019, we decided to keep Alchemy afloat in a marina so as to make a quick exit in the spring. How that got sabotaged is still in the news, but, as we needed a place to stay, Suzanne unhesitatingly offered a flat in her house. This was after finding us a different flat post-house sale in 2018-19. Now I recommend her, again, unreservedly.

Dave McMurray is my wife's father, my son's grandfater, a former boat designer and builder and the man who didn't shoot me when, at age 31, I started dating his 19 year-old daughter. He has been unfailingly generous with his time and energy, including multiple trips shuttling possessions into storage, as has his wife Joan, and, despite knowing of our skills deficits, has been a great supporter of our efforts to get this old girl to the ocean.

Aubrey Millard, who, only coincidentally, was the husband of a dentist I had decades ago, owned Veleda IV, an Ontario 32 he and his wife Judy had sailed for many years. In 2010, Rebecca was given a chance to crew for him from the Bahamas back to Lake Ontario. Alas, mechanical and rig breakages put an end to that plan by South Carolina, but Rebecca learned a great deal on the voyage, which still informs us both today.

Matt Phillips is not only a friend since high school, a gifted director of photography, a B&B owner and a fellow steel boat owner, it's his influence I can credit, or blame, for getting me (and us) into sailing over 20 years ago. Constant as the northern star has been his friendship and his counsel.

Dave Rogers is a RYA instructor based out of Vaannes in Brittany and while I faffed my Yachtmaster course by forgetting the difference between IALA A and B, he still impressed me enough that I recommended Becky take her Day Skipper course with him, which she passed. I suspect we'll be sailing with him again on Tamara.

Andy Schell and Mia Karlsson are the couple behind 59° North, a charter outfit with a strong adventure and educational streak, and the people who gave a very informative day-long seminar I attended a couple of years ago. Andy was raised on a boat from childhood and is not only a person who sails expertly, but who also thinks about sailing constantly. His wife Mia, by contrast, didn't sail until she met Andy, but is now his equal. They are very positive people, and as an aspiring geezer, it's very heartening to see people 20 years my junior so deep into the adventure cruising lifestyle.

Paul and Sheryl Shard are probably the pre-eminent Canadian sailing couple. Via their Distant Shores media mini-empire, they've shot hundreds of hours of cruising lifestyle shows, given hundreds of seminars and presentations and worked probably more boat shows than they care to remember. Yet they remain very approachable and friendly, down-to-earth people whose love of sailing remains undimmed after three decades. I've learned a lot from that attitude.

And lastly, we've been members of National Yacht Club in Toronto for 21 years. Arriving first as crew and, four months later, as boat owners, we came there thanks to proximity to our house, but stayed because of the myriad kindnesses we were, and continue to be, shown by its members, some of who now are passed on. Particularly when we spent three years cradled in the parking lot, at various points minus diesel, roof and batteries, and were even more of a dusty, sweary, sweaty, annoyance than usual, we were shown near-infinite support, aid and good advice,including the teaching of sailing by patient instructors to our son, and that is why we eventually pulled this off. Thank you all so much.

So long for now! Photo (c) Shannon Greer