Summer and Sailing - Replaced with the Colours of Fall.

When I decided to abandon my Blog for the summer and go sailing I did not expect I would really do just that! But we did. Granted I stored my laptop on the boat just in case, but thank goodness it stayed tucked away and out of reach. Most of the summer 2011 was spent on our sailboat SQUALL. We visited Lake Ontario from the West end to the most easterly end where the magnificent 1000 Islands ("Les Milles Illes") once again introduced us  to the mighty Saint Lawrence River.



When we plan to go sailing for a long period of time we don't talk about going on a vacation. The fact is sailing is not so much a vacation, as it is a very different way of being in the world with the one you love. Someone recently defined vacation  as an extended trip away from home in search of inconvenient ways to connect to the Internet! Most people think of a vacation as travelling to another country, or laying back on the beach or in a hammock, reading a good book. But a sailing adventure often does not allow a lot of time just to "lay back and take it easy" unless you anchor for a few days. So it is not a vacation as much as a unique experience different from your everyday life and yet a simulacrum, a mirror if you will, of life itself.

There are exhilarating times, when the wind and sun are just perfect and under the power of sail alone, SQUALL glides exquisitely through the water. This is the stuff of dreams when the winter winds and swirling snow drift past our balcony. Drink in hand, logs crackling in the fireplace and marvelous remembrances of those peak experiences on the water. There are satisfying times as well. A calm lake, a cloud scudded sky, the Volvo Penta diesel propelling us safely towards our destination. There are difficult and annoying times when the winds are strong and the rain is cold and wet. And yes, there are often a few terrible (but exciting!) times when the crew has to deal with a formidable storm. So it is with life itself!

 Living on a small sailboat for weeks, sometimes not even being ashore for days at a time, enhances your aptitude to respect, acknowledge and love more fully the uniqueness of your partner. I confess that I do know that sailing excursions have actually destroyed partnerships! But in our case it deepens and nourishes our relationship. And that is one of the reasons I love it so much.

 Although called the 1000 Islands there are actually 1,865 of them according to the latest count. Granted some are quite small while others are huge. There are traces of native people going back 7000 years and the Iroquois called them the "Garden of the Great Spirit".




My Foot and Half Moon Bay



  For us they remain the Garden of the Great Spirit. It is there, anchored in a beautiful cove, surrounded by a green forest and resting quietly on sparkling clear water, that we can shed the shackles of our modern life, and breath in the fresh air and peace that this pristine environment bestows upon those who are lucky enough to be able to explore by boat.



 Because our dingy literally fell apart last summer, we were forced to live on board without visiting the islands beautiful trails. We ate on board, read on board, slept on board, and bathed in the clear clean water. We did not miss T.V or our computers, nor did we care what evil was happening around the world. Free of it all we simply melted into that beautiful landscape - well at least when we were not being besieged with winds, hail and rain!

Now that we are once again at home, we appreciate just how lucky we are to live in a country like Canada and we realize that this land, at least our tiny place in it, is as close to heaven as we can be, it's as good as it gets! For this we are most grateful.

And That's Dick's View of the World this Week