Continued from July 31

The original premise of sailing from eastern Canada to the west as a direct coastal passage via Panama, was becoming something completely different. Sailing directly to B.C. up the west coast, from Panama, would be an extremely difficult voyage, as the prevailing winds and Pacific currents are in the opposite direction. So the idea to include Hawaii was added. The Atlantic's hurricane season (June to November) meant a voyage across the Atlantic was appropriate to staying out of harm's way.

England became one of the first interests and my love had family roots in England. The concept of visiting relatives added new objectives and incentives, since crossing the Atlantic had never been an objective on its own. If you were going to sail across the Atlantic, you may as well touch on the Mediterranean, at minimum to Gibraltar, the gateway to the Mediterranean.

Then the idea of exploring and traveling though Europe by land also added to the whole idea.

Everything was in order, and then, so to speak, the wheels fell off.

Our lives went from the well-ordered purpose of a practical dream to me being somewhat of a solo misplaced dreamer, Lost at Sea.

A temporary ocean excursion from eastern Canada to the West was not about sailing around the world, or establishing any sort of permanent solo residency on the oceans! But that's effectively what seems to have happened.

I got swept up in the mountain of details to create a Practical Dream and I guess somewhere down the line my projected wife to be was more at the level of digesting romantic ideas as opposed to living the story. What seems like pie in the sky to one person might strictly be the other person being several chapters ahead.

Instead of a couple setting off on an incredible voyage, my future partner waved goodbye at Halifax airport, wished me well and said she would not be coming to Europe following my crossing.

Simple as that, a honeymoon, exploration, semi retirement voyage was set adrift. There is no question that life is slightly more involved and complex.

Somehow, a wonderful love got too complicated. Instead of a wonderful shared adventure of new discoveries and accumulating a new life's early history, the practical dream was turning into a solo journey of introspection.

The sailing voyage and exploration of a lifetime began on July 22. What I have learned and experienced from sailing eastern Canadian waters, crossing the Atlantic, sailing to Gibraltar and on into my present location in the Mediterranean is a book on its own.

The past year has been a much different new beginning than I anticipated. And not without a huge hole where the person I wished to share the road with just went missing.

But for an Orangeville resident, with temporarily no fixed address, there has already been a rich experience of people, places, world history and ocean discovery.

There are quite a few interesting and unusual stories to tell already. A prime example has been my stop in Spanish island port city Palma/Mallorca, in the Mediterranean. My temporary crew John Worman spent a day washing sand off the deck and everywhere else. Sand storms from the Sahara Desert seeded the rainclouds. The winds from the south carry the rain to the middle of the Mediterranean and surprisingly rain a huge amount of sand. Hmmm! Sand storms in the Mediterranean, who would have thought?

But I am getting way ahead of myself. That's the problem with telling an ongoing story that began several years ago. I will attempt to bring my journal up to date and gradually shift from a historic description to current events.

Second of a series