ABOUT US

In the Bounty Bar in Neiafu, Vava'u,
Kingdom of Tonga


Vince and I have approached living together much in the same way as an author would go about writing a book. Every chapter must be different, with a very definite beginning, ending and lots of interesting things happening in between.
We first met at a university dance in the summer of ’66. Three years later we were married and, like many other “boomers” of our generation, set off for Europe to discover the world and “find ourselves”. During two years in England, Vince completed a graduate degree in Aeronautical Engineering and I attempted to teach fine art to and unruly bunch of schoolgirls. Summers and holidays were magical. We purchased a small Lambretta motorscooter—the only mode of transport we could afford—and set off to explore the countryside and quaint villages of England, Scotland and Ireland. At Christmas we skied the alps of Switzerland and Austria. It was a wonderful way to start a life together. Having only each other, we forged a bond that has survived almost 40 years of marriage.
We returned to Canada ready to put down roots and start a family. But, having experienced an alternate lifestyle abroad were unwilling to settle for 9-5 jobs and life in suburbia. Yes, we wanted security but more importantly we needed the freedom to experience life on our own terms. We decided that teaching careers could offer us everything we were looking for—a meaningful existence, time, mobility and money. We accepted positions at two excellent Halton high schools as teachers of physics and art and spent the next 5 “Foundation Years” establishing careers, saving money and looking for the perfect place to live and raise children. In 1977 we found it—a farm with 75 acres of woods, meadows and stream in the tiny village of Troy—about 30 minutes west of Burlington, On.
The next 25 years of our lives were idyllic. We redesigned and rebuilt the existing farmhouse doing most of the work ourselves, erected a new barn and filled it with an assortment of farm animals. Our two small children, Julie and Trevor, enjoyed a delightful childhood here. They rode our horses, helped with the cattle, and played with the rabbits, kittens and chickens that inhabited the barn. During this time our teaching careers were equally fulfilling. We had the privilege of having hundreds of fascinating young people touch our lives and were able to reciprocate by inviting groups out for weekends in the country and for trips away to the Arctic (where we slept in igloos) and to Nepal (where we built schools).
When our children left for university and eventually settled into lives of their own, we began to feel that once again it was time for us to move on. Retirement was only a few years away and, at the age of 50, with any luck we could possibly still have half of our lives ahead of us! A few years earlier we had bought a small boat, taken up sailing and explored much of the Great Lakes. We loved it. With a bigger more sea-worthy vessel we could sail the world. And so this became the next big thing: Vince would build a boat that we could sail away on. In order to finance this venture we would need more money. I turned our house into a “bed and breakfast” and, over the next 7 years welcomed thousands of interesting people from all over the world and every walk of life to come and stay with us and share a few days of their lives. To “keep our hand in” sailing and add adventure to our lives, we spent a few weeks of every winter chartering boats south. In this way we managed to explore the British Virgin Islands, the Kingdom of Tonga, Tahiti and Belize. By the summer of 2006 our own boat was launched in Lake Erie at Port Dover. We would still need another year to “fine-tune” it and tie up the loose ends of our lives on land before we could finally head off. It is now July 2007 and we should be ready to leave in a few weeks. Our first voyage will take us through the Erie Canal, down the Hudson River, along the inter-coastal waterway to Miami and across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas where we hope to spend the winter.