So this is the story of how it all began... 20 years ago my parents took myself and my brother on a year long sailing voyage from Brockville Ontario to the Bahamas. I was 3 turning 4 and my brother was 4 turning 5. When we got back, we never really had time to sail and when we moved away from the city, my parents ending up selling the boat. I unfortunately don't remember much about the trip but every so often I would look back at the photos or read my mom's log and just dream about doing a trip like that. I always had a love of sailing. When I was younger, we had a styrofoam boat that we would carry over to our neighbours pond and paddle around. In the summer we would take it to a nearby lake and have the most entertaining afternoons sailing around the beach. We would always end up spending more time in the water as the boat had no ballast, which seemed to be more fun to us. That boat didn't survive very long and one time the boat capsized too close to shore and the sail ripped when attempting to right it. A few years later my dad purchased an old laser and we would bring it down to the lake and sail around. This time our trips would be farther and farther from shore. It was fun, but unfortunately carrying it down to the beach and back up was not easy. When we had friends over we would all pile onto this one person sailboat and attempt to make it back dry. We could be heard giggling from miles away. I attending sailing school one summer at the Brockville Yacht Club, where I achieved my white sail 1,2 and 3. I had such a fun summer and it provided me with skills to get the boat to where I wanted it to go.
Every so often I would borrow a sailing book from my parents library and read stories of other people's adventures. I would daydream about having an adventure of my own...but how would I make this a reality? Things started to come together for me before my 21st birthday. My dad had asked me what I wanted...and at the time I was on another sailing kick, and I told him that what I wanted was a sailboat of my own. I said I wanted something small but big enough so I could liveaboard for a weekend. In other words the boat had to have room to sleep, cook and poop. My dad said that he would look around and we left it at that. About a month after this conversation (during that time I sent numerous posts to my dad about possible boats for sale in the area, with attached little comments on what I thought) He called and told me that he and a friend were driving down to Boston to look at a boat. He sent me the link and that was the last I had heard. I came home the following weekend and to my shock and surprise there was a boat in our yard! To me it was huge and beautiful. I immediately went aboard and looked though everything. The boat had not been used in a few years and had mold, mildew and mice living aboard. The teak was all weathered and it definitely needed some TLC but I was so excited to get started and make "Second Wind" my own. I was working in Ottawa with the reserves but came home every weekend to work on the boat with my dad. We took everything out, scrubbed, cleaned, polished, sanded, varnished and slowly but surely the boat started to take shape. I missed the launching because I was working, but she floated!! and my parents had fun sailing her on the lake for the day. My first voyage out was with my dad in July. We launched in Kingston, Ontario and sailed around the area for 5 days. That was it, I was hooked. I managed to group some time off again in the summer and before school started for some other short excursions. The following year I managed to get a few times out with my dad, my mom, a couple of my girlfriends and my boyfriend. Each time I learned more and felt more comfortable and confident.
So the idea to do a Bahamas voyage came one time sailing with my dad. We were talking about a book I had bought where a single hander had sailed the same boat around the Bahamas. The plans for my boyfriend and I to backpack around Europe was cancelled and a new plan began to emerge. My parents would take Second Wind out for short trips too when I was working and they also caught the bug again. I would discuss the idea with my parents and of course they thought it was another one of those ideas I got and was all gung-ho for a while and slowly fizzled out...but this one was here to stick. My parents didn't want me going off to the Bahamas by myself (with boyfriend) so they decided to buy a boat of their own and we could go down together. Sal and I in Second Wind and my parents in their boat.
In the fall my dad and I drove down to Long Island, NY and purchased a Mystic 30'. Another fixer-upper but a project for my dad (I helped most weekends). We were back again to the cleaning, polishing, sanding, cutting, fiberglassing, etc etc. We discussed all going down in the same boat, but decided that was definitely not a good idea. We love each other, but that might be a bit tight of quarters for four adults to live together.
So in about 2 weeks I will be completed University and moved back home to help my parents full time. We have a lot of work and planning left before September 1st - our planned departure date.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
SECOND WIND
Second Wind is a Rob Roy 23 Fiberglass canoe-yawl designed by Ted Brewer, and built by Marine Concepts. The Rob Roy 23 was designed as a pocket cruiser for two for coastal cruising. Approximately 90 were built between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Rob Roys have been sailed in the Great Lakes, the Northeast, Pacific Northwest, from Florida to the Bahamas and in UK waters.
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