SWMBO's New Ride

   


      "Gonna ride like the wind, before I get old..."
                                            -Christopher Cross


       
      Lemme tell you a  little backstory, to explain how we got from where we was to where we is:

      Faithful Readers may know that SWMBO is not a lifelong sailor.  In fact, she had never set foot on a sailboat until February 2008, when she sailed for the first time, aboard a 16 footish dinghy, in San Diego's Mission Bay, as part of a work-related team building exercise.

      She was hooked.

      Bad.

      Her enthusiasm got me back into the sailing game, after a 2 decade detour into the masochistic world of wooden powerboats.  By the time her return flight hit the tarmac at YYZ, I had lined up a half dozen boats for us to look at. 6 weeks after SWMBO's homecoming we signed a contract on the perfect boat for us, the Georgian 23 named Whiskeyjack.

      What was perfect for us was not necessarily, nor entirely, perfect for SWMBO.

      See, Whiskeyjack and her successor, Karma, are big little boats- lots of accommodation in a smallish LOA.

     What they aren't, is that 16 footish dinghy that hooked SWMBO.

     They also aren't a Bluenose.

      Enter Jack.

      SWMBO had admired Jack's ever-changing collection of daysailers since we first set foot on the Dock: Tempests and Nordica 16s and Hughes 24s and Minuets, oh, my!

      But Bluenoses were Jack's favourites. At any given time, he owned a handful of the sleek full- keeled belles of Mahone Bay.

      SWMBOs fate was sealed when she first laid eyes on Carpe Diem, the other Bluenose on the Dock, owned by Carpe Diem Jim

      A half decade ago, SWMBO declared, "I want one."

      Alas, although her fate was sealed , the fates conspired against us...

      ..... until last winter.

      December rolls around and I get an email from Jack. He has decided he needs to thin his fleet, so enquires if SWMBO might be interested in a Bluenose.

    I ask.

    "Uh, yeah!  Duh." was her response.

    I email a reply to Jack's email, he replies back, SWMBO and I count our shekels, and the deal is done.

     SWMBO now owns a Bluenose.

     So does Jordan.

     Jack released two Bluenoses from his fleet, one going to Jordan, one to SWMBO.
 
     Last weekend, SWMBOs Bluenose hit the water.

      Sunday,  we got a call from jack that he could drop SWMBOs new old boat into the water that afternoon... if that was okay with us.

      I asked.

     "Uh, yeah!  Duh." was her response.

      An hour later, loyal Docksters Lorraine and Frank and John had gathered at the ramp to help Jack launch ....

   

Then Thelma, er, Lorraine and Louise set off with Jack for the short motor transit from the ramp to the Dock.
      

 ....arriving uneventfully at her new slip:

  By sunset, with the help of fellow Docksters and my last-minute-visiting 'rents, we had the mast up and the deck and topsides kinda gleaming:

This season, the Bluenose fleet on the Dock has doubled in size.

Oh, and that "thinning the fleet" idea of Jack's?   Not so much.  The day he dropped off SWMBOs boat, he headed to London to pick up two more.

  SWMBO is still grinning

    It's gonna be a great summer.