I moved to Toronto 35 years ago with the intention of buying a boat and going on an

ocean sailing adventure. In 1989 after a holiday in the Virgin Islands I bought an Alberg

37 which was a very suitable boat for the undertaking but it was not to be.

After four years of living aboard Itraded that dream for another: marriage,

kids and a big old house in PEI. That dream ran it's course, the kids grew up the

marriage didn't and now it's back to the Sailing Dream! I was very fortunate to have

met David and Georgina Good and their 44' Cutter the Emma Nuestra which David

had spent 10 years building and then they sailed for 35 years including three five year

trips to the Carribean. They've been back in Toronto for ten years with Emma being regularily

maintained but lightly used. She is indeed a marvellous creation with top quality workmanship

and equipment, designed and built to be capable of forty days without touching land . When

I met them a few years back and admired the boat David told me that they would be selling it

in a couple of years as he was advancing in age and it was a lot of work to keep up. He as well

told me that they wanted to find a good home to pass it on to as this was their 'baby' and a major

part of their lives for 45 years. Well last summer I got a call out of the blue from David saying

the time had come. We discussed a price and he explained that this wasn't bout the money as

much as it was about a good home for the old girl! We agreed on a price and then I had to figure

out how the hell I was going to come up with the cash to buy, keep and maintain a BIG old sailboat!

After the call I went back to the condo and was sitting looking at pictures of Emma when my

roomate Ken walked in fresh back from Vancouver with a headfull of 'get a boat and get away'!

We have talked boats and sailing for the 25 years I've known him. We've both lived aboard and done a

fair bit of sailing in a limited context and shared the dream. Well the bottom line is, I told him about

the call and without batting an eye he said yup, we got the boat and got it together to head out for

the East Coast with the intention of leaving the boat in Nova Scotia this year, getting an epoxy job on

it in the spring and heading to Newfoundland next summer. We will be filming this and taking

plenty of pictures with the intention of doing some short and longer duration video for the Internet

when we are back in TO for the winter. I am writing this in a coffee shop in Longueuil PQ, directly

across the river from Montreal. It's week 2 of living aboard. We did a week of familiarization and

fixing around Toronto and have mostly motored up Lake Ontario, through the Thousand Islands and

the St Lawrence Seaway to Montreal. We'll stay here for a day to recoup and then in a couple of days

it's Quebec Cite and salt water, tides and currents! It's been a rightous experience so far and I have

no doubt it will continue to be a never ending learning experience and look forward both to doing it

but as well sharing it through social media and this Blog sight so if you have any interest please

continue to tune in. I've been posting to FaceBook as Internet access permits and will be updated as

I go along when I can. Join me for the trip! You can always get the best of East Coast music at

www.radioatlantic.ca and I am in the process of updating that as well. Take care!

!