I was sitting one day contemplating a very senior birthday and retirement and started to worry, “Is this it? Is this all there is?” It was a horrible minute. 

Then I realized that I had at least one more wild ride in me and I felt that heavy weight lift off me.

I had sailed Sharks for 30 years. Sharks are a 24 foot sailboat that races mainly in Ontario, Quebec and Europe. They have been extensively cruised across the Atlantic and at least once, cruised from Lake Ontario to Australia. 

I had lots of sailing experience, some of it adventures and much of it a pleasure. Where could I sail? I loved vacationing in the Caribbean. I loved visiting places around the world, like Moscow, Britain, Istanbul, and even the USA. It was the people I met that thrilled me more than the monuments. In Istanbul I walked right past the Blue Mosque to visit vendors I had built a relationship with in the Grand Bazaar. Lunch with them as new comrades was a thrill. So my next big ride should marry two passions; sailing and travel. 

The Shark is a lake boat that goes like hell when the wind blows, but I’m of a certain age and want something more substantial. 

So I went shopping for a Niagara 35, a solid boat built by friends of mine.  I don’t know where the transition was but on December 12 I found myself sitting in a Cheoy Lee Pedrick 41 while a snowstorm raged outside.  I recall the moment, sitting on the starboard settee, that I said, “I love this boat”.  

The offer was accepted. It stipulated that closing date would be early May after the boat was in the water and after a sea trial. Between December and May I made 2 more visits and in each one the boat promised me adventure. This boat was ready to go South. The owner had done a great job of maintaining her. Cambio.

It was a winter of study. I bought a lot of expensive sailing books and devoured them. I binge watched YouTube sailing channels. I hung out in coffee shops with sailors. I was a sponge.  

The Captain’s Log begins in early May and this story continues there. The first squall, the big storm, and then the recovery from that storm all prove that Lake Ontario can rattle your bones and that my choice of boat and my 30 years on a Shark in all kinds of weather made me a sailor. 

If I had left on September 1, 2022 I would have run right into Hurricanes Fiona and Ian somewhere between New York and Carolina and that would have been bad.  So I think we should leave earlier in fall of 2023. I’ve got some research to do and advice to get. 

So I am going to sail Lake Ontario aggressively through summer of 2023 and prove the crew and the boat, and leave perhaps August 1, 2023. Same plan, which is to go south slowly and arrive after hurricane season at the end of November in or BVI.  

Then spend six months in the Caribbean again proving the boat in salt water and different waters, countries, cultures and weather. And a host of other experiences. 

Around about May-June Cambio we’ll have to escape hurricane season. Will we head to the Azores, then Africa, Gibraltar, and perhaps winter in Malta or Southern Turkey or head to the Amazon, 1500 miles south?

Along the way we’ll maintain a multimedia story of our adventures.  Stay tuned for those details.  

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Then what?