Looking after four young children is never dull, especially if it includes a visit from CBC Radio’s Stu Mills. Stu contacted us yesterday to learn more about our upcoming liveaboard adventure. We were eating breakfast when he called, and within a couple of hours he was at our campsite, here in Ottawa.
The backstory is that Stu was alerted to our existence by someone who had forwarded him one of our online ads. We are selling our camping gear as a complete package. In the ad, my husband indicates that we are selling our gear because we are moving to a catamaran.
Stu saw this as a story idea. We were happy to have him visit. An online version of our interview appears in the article called, “Ottawa family donates belongings to sail Caribbean.” The audio version includes a clip from my daughter Betty and my son Paul. Stu didn’t include our four-year old son Henry who bit the end of the microphone.
The story segment aired this morning. Shortly after the story segment aired, I noticed a flurry of activity on my blog site. Watching my blog grow – in terms of the number of posts and visits – is like watching a well-loved plant develop. Patience grasshopper.
I worked as a technical writer for 10 years, where part of my job was to convince a handful of reviewers to look at my work on user guides. It can be a tough task to gather input for accuracy when people have competing priorities. A well-written user guide sings. A bad one reflects badly on the product itself. People sometimes forget that in the drive to meet deadlines of their own.
This blog provides a great creative outlet for me. I usually write twice as much as I actually end up publishing online. Practically speaking, this blog provides me with a record of our transition from land to sea.
Thanks so much for reading!
Becoming a Sailor 
After working a night shift I woke up late this morning wondering if I had heard a story on my bedside radio about a family sailing off in a catamaran, or if it was just me dreaming again. I just got home and spent some time to find your website and I am completely elated to do so. I can not tell you how exicted I am for you all, and for me to be able to follow you along.
It has been my dream and vision for over 10 years to sail with my family around the world, and just 5 months ago my wife gave birth to our 3rd crew member. I regularily spend time on line researching sailing boats and home schooling and other related ideas. With my daughter now here, the clock is ticking and I daily think about all the things we will need to do to make this happen. It will be a few years before it will be an option for us, but it will happen. I know that, and I also know that the amount of things to do to prepare is daunting.
Again, I am so happy for you all and I am sincerily looking forward to sharing in as much of your experience as your blog allows me and learning as much from your lessons as I possibly can and apply them to my own family sailing adventures.
I have too many questions for you, but I will just start by enjoying your great site and entries. Keep up the great blogging – I can not imagine how you have time with all that you have going on, but I am inspired by your time mangagement skills.
Peter
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Peter – thanks for your lovely note, and congratulations on baby 3.
Having twins has altered my sleep patterns and this is how I manage to blog at all hours.
Thanks for following my blog. I wish you all the best in your plans for adventure.
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Small world. I saw your post on galley refit somewhere (Twitter?) & signed up for your blog because I’d loved reading Diane Stuemer’s family’s adventures years ago. Later that same day I saw Stu Mills post something about you! I hadn’t realized you were near Ottawa until then. Good luck with the amazing adventure. Can’t wait to hear more
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Thanks for following me, Allison!
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Delighted to be reading! Though, as one who reads in fits and spurts… Do you know if there’s a setting or link or something where people can “read from the beginning?”
Hope you folks are enjoying the nicer weather… And PS if you’d like to visit the Aviation Museum at some point in July with the kids, just let me know when- I am allowed to bring friends and family in for free (so you’d only have to pay parking?) and I could leave your name at the desk 😀
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Hi Janice – when I have a free moment I’ll investigate a script that merges all of the content into a single PDF.
In the meantime, if you start at the bottom of each Month then you can read the entries in chronological order. You can read the categories as well. Each category contains unique blog posts – I never file a blog post in more than one category.
Thanks for reading – we’d love to go to the Aviation Museum sometime. I will follow-up with you later this summer!
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Hi Lorraine – this is Jonathan from Spirit of Juno (that has a ring to it). Just checked into your blog and it is great to see the progress. Looking forward to hearing of your on- water adventures.
As a footnote we had a reunion and have decided to go again – this time to the BVIs in March. Why not stop by in the ’50’ ? Take care..
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