Growing up in Newfoundland meant that you spent a good portion of your childhood in a boat. A career with the Water Survey of Canada meant that you also spent a significant amount of time in a boat. In the 1990s, we sometimes sailed with friends who had sailboats. In those days we were busy with jobs and playing golf, but by the mid-1990s our interest in sailing and sailboats reached a new high. We started taking boating courses and looking at the listings of “boats for sale”.
In the fall of 1998, we became the proud owners of a C&C 27, a 27 foot sloop named Déjà vu. For the next few years we sailed Déjà vu on Lake Ontario and thoroughly enjoyed it.
In the spring of 2002, “Deja vu” sailed down the St. Lawrence River, visiting Montreal, Quebec City, the Gaspé, the Magdalen Islands, Cape Breton Island and the west coast of Newfoundland.
In September of 2002, “Deja vu” returned to Lake Ontario via the St. Lawrence River.
In 2004, we upsized to a Niagara 35, a 35 foot sloop built by Hinterhoeller Yachts of St. Catharines, Ontario, which would become the sailing vessel “Gallivanting”.
By the spring of 2007, the wonderful memories of that most excellent summer of cruising had produced the urge to do it again.
During the winter of 2007/2008, plans were made to again cruise down the St. Lawrence in the springtime.
In the summer of 2008, we visited; the Saguenay Fiord, the Gaspé, Prince Edward Island, the Bras d’Or Lakes and the west Coast of Newfoundland. A log/blog of the summer of 2008 can be found at: Gallivanting 2008.
Based on our visit to Western Newfoundland in the summer of 2008, a piece was put together for an issue of The Port Hole, which is the official publication of the Canadian Power and Sail Squadron and is published quarterly as an insert in Canadian Yachting Magazine.
The piece, entitled “Sailing along the French Shore” was published in the 2009 Fall issue of Canadian Yachting Magazine.
The original, unedited version can be found at: Sailing along the French Shore.
Gallivanting was hauled out for the winter in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Following launch in the spring of 2009, Gallivanting cruised down the Southern shore of Nova Scotia and crossed the Gulf of Maine to the United States. The summer of 2009 was spent cruising down the coast of New England to New York City.
In September of 2009, we returned to Lake Ontario via the Hudson River and the New York Canal System.
