My first experience with boats of any kind was at Pioneer Camps near Port Sydney, ON where I was a camper, dishwasher (at a cost of $10 for two weeks I got to do all the camp activities but also wash dishes after meals) and counsellor for 9 years growing up. As counsellor, after years of taking canoe and archery lessons, I got to teach those activities to campers. Canoes also escorted us during my 10 mile swim from Girls Camp to Junior Camp and back when I was 16 and they were the mode of transportation – and shelter – during “out-trips. Imagine sleeping under a canoe raised on rocks in the heaving down rain, if you will!

My next experience with boats was when I was an exchange student in the Netherlands and, during the summer break, we attended a sailing camp at Enkhuizen on the Zuider Zee. We stayed at the Dromedaire – a 14th Century jail that had been converted to a youth hostel providing sailing lessons. It is now De Drom – as centre of Art, Theatre and Culture (https://drom.nl/). The dorms were in the top floor, under the roofs and access was through a stone circular staircase with a 2″ thick rope handrail. Miss your footing and you do what I did – tumble down umpteen stairs and sprain your ankle until it looks like a black and blue grapefruit. Having done this our last night there, our team leader, Andy, who was part of the “trainer” team for his university’s football team, expertly wrapped it in football tape and I happily walked through the Rijksmuseum the next day – seeing, amongst many famous paintings, Rembrandt’s Night Watch.

The final day of the sailing camp had a tradition – all the students got dumped in the water! Andy being an amateur photographer, caught a shot:

At one point, in about 1990, we borrowed my brother-law’s canoe for a camping holiday in Northern Ontario and had a near disaster on Windy Lake with our three daughters in the canoe with us. Having found the boat slip, we put the canoe in the water, then we all put on our life jackets and headed out on a calm lake under a sunny sky to take a look at the far shore. As we got there the sky turned black, the waves rose and the skies opened. Not being a large lake, we decided to stick close to the shore to paddle like mad around and back to the boat slip. Danger being a good motivator, we were making good progress through the reeds, the children were being quiet as mice and well behaved and we were half way back when we saw a motor boat headed our way! Someone had seen us from his cottage and, with better knowledge of the lake and seeing our struggle, come to our rescue. He pulled up beside us, took our bow line and pulled us slowly back to the slip. I don’t even remember, if I ever knew, the name of our Guardian Angel but we owe him a lot!

When Sahib and I started dating, I was actually saving money to go on a Caribbean cruise with a friend, Louise. That came to naught and probably just as well because I don’t really think I am a “cruiser” although I have been on one cruise that was spectacular – from Aswan to Luxor in Egypt with the friend I was visiting in Cairo. However, the boat was only about a quarter full – I arrived in Cairo shortly before the airspace over the North Atlantic and Europe closed due to a volcano eruption in Iceland – and most of the bookings had been cancelled. I was able to get back home as scheduled when things simmered down for a few days but then closed down with another eruption.

The cruise boat was like many one sees ads for in Europe – not huge, I think there were two decks plus a crew deck. En route we saw local falluccas on the water:

We got guided tours at Edfu, Karnak, Kom Ombo, Luxor and Valley of the Kings – an experience I would not have missed for anything!

My next real experience with boats was Jason’s Boat to Sabal Beach in 2014! Having shopped for groceries for two weeks in Placencia – I had a list and checked it twice! Jason picked us up at the dock to take us to everyone’s idea of a tropical paradise: Sabal Beach where it was completely off the grid – solar powered, not a grocery store in sight and no one on 7 miles of white sand beach! Travelling down, and back, that time the sea was calm as glass and unthreatening – later trips down and back on much rougher seas confirmed my first impression – Jason is a seafarer of high quality!

Although a small boat and open water, I have always felt safe with Jason – no matter how rough the sea – and have been back to Sabal Beach 5 more times! D, one of the owners of Sabal Beach, also had a boat and captain’s licence and on a couple trips to Placencia and Punta Gorda, from Sabal Beach, inspired the same confidence.

And now I am staying in a cabana on the canal on the way out of Placencia. When Jason left the main dock in Placencia (or, last year picked me up at the dock here) we went through the canal which is well posted with signs “NO WAKE” to keep traffic slow. He always slowed to a bare crawl to comply. Not so many of the boats I see travelling the canal from my deck. They go out to sea in the morning and back in the afternoon. Most are tour boats of just bigger than Jason’s boat but a number are huge – one a catamaran – and some are sailboats of varying sizes from small to large. Some go “dead slow” and pass quietly by. Others have a couple honkin’ big Evinrudes and you can hear them coming – slap, slap on the canal as they bounce through creating waves that jostle my tiny rowboat against the dock and throw waves up onto the shore. And then there are what I call the “party boats” coming through too fast with loud music blaring and drunken chatter no matter early morning or late evening. Quieter, though, are the few kayaks I see go past enjoying the canal.

While I am sure most have seen a photo of the rowboat I have to bail after the previous day’s rain, here is “my” boat headed for “my” dock!

Photo courtesy Wayne Church III