When I was ten years old, my father decided to not renew his contract with the Grenfell Mission and we moved to Blyth, Ontario. This was a totally new experience for me. I saw my first sugar maple tree and I swam in Lake Huron every summer. However, four years after moving to Ontario, my father relocated back to Harrington where he remained as the doctor until he retired at age 72. I, however, was to leave for boarding school at the tender age of fourteen as there was only a primary school in Harrington. My teen-age summers were spent in Harrington, most of the time in boats and working summer jobs.

My next opportunity to be on the water didn’t come until I was well into my thirties, when I acquired a wonderful, twin keel, Westerley, Centaur. She was a great little boat that I bought in St. Anthony, Newfoundland one summer and sailed down the east coast of Newfoundland to St. Johns; with no more than a road map and a book of harbour information. The weather was wonderful and we - the previous owner, my son and myself – sometimes sailed at night. It took six days! When we crossed Conception Bay, the radio announced that Margaret Trudeau was pregnant for the first time - “a coincidence,” you say? From there I shipped her out to Lake Ontario where I spent seven years sailing around, with one memorable trip through the Thousand Islands.