The Reluctant First Mate

Description

Joanne was born in Toronto and at an early age sang and danced on the stage. The family spent a year in England before settling in Ottawa where Joanne would graduate from Lisgar Collegiate. She attended Business College and became an Executive Secretary at Treasury Board in the Dept. of Finance. Joanne continued with her vocal lessons and in the coming years sang with the Ottawa Women’s Junior Choir and the Orpheus Operatic Society.

Andy was born in Westmount, P.Q. and joined the R.C.A.F. in 1942. He and Joanne met after he won his “Wings” and they married in 1947. In the coming years they would have three children who would produce three grandchildren. They would buy their first sailboat in 1966. Joanne would sail with Andy for fifteen years on the Ottawa River, Lake Ontario and in the Thousand Islands.

In 1976 they had Alicia III, an Alberg 37 Yawl, built and commissioned at Whitby, Ontario. In 1981 Andy retired from the Ottawa Carleton School board where he had been Principal at Merivale High School for ten years and at J.S. Woodsworth High School for two years. Now was the time for his dream to come true. He would sail his own yacht in southern waters, with his wife of thirty-five years beside him! But it was with reluctance that Joanne agreed to take on the position of First Mate.

Joanne had always liked to write, and on this journey she would keep a detailed daily journal. Some articles have been published in Cruising World and Sailing Canada. This story is a comprehensive, informative and observant account of what life is like living aboard a sailboat and sailing on the ocean. It graphically describes the pleasures as well as the hazards they personally overcame, and the tragedies that befell others.

They logged over 22,000 nautical miles on their journey. Find out how she and Andy coped with rogue winds, monstrous waves, water siphoning into their bilges, an engine that blew up, and the nefarious Siren of the Sea!