Living the Dream

During most gathering of boaters it seems the topic of taking off down south aboard a boat seems to arise in the conversation at some point. We all dream of this but most of us will never accomplish this adventure. I guess it might just be a bucket list addition. Well here is a story of a new to boating couple that has already accomplished this bucket list task in their first year as boaters.

Over the Easter weekend Susanne and I went with our grandchildren for the annual Easter egg hunt on Boler Mountain in London, Ont. Another set of grandparents stood next to us with a great tan. I asked if they had just come back from down south. The lady answered, we just came back from our boat in the Bahamas. I mentioned I also had a boat, a sailboat which I kept in Grand Bend. The lady then said excitedly, we live in Grand Bend and bought our first power boat, a used 26 footer last summer at Southwest Marine. We spent our first boating season in Bayfield. The gentleman then added that they had such a great first season on the water they decided to trailer the boat south to Florida and ferry it to the Bahamas trailer and all for the winter.

Well this story was really getting interesting to me. I think I may have missed my grand kids going up the mountain picking Easter eggs by this point of the conversation. You could tell quickly how enthusiastic they were about boating. After a short time in the Bahamas they decided they wanted to do all their boating there and purchased a 40 foot plus trawler in the Georgetown area. They now have the 26 footer for sale trailer and all in the Bahamas if anyone is interested. I don’t recall their names but the gentleman started working part time this spring launching boats for Southwest if you want to hear his follow-up stories. It appears that they fly back and forth regularly, spending time in both Grand Bend and the Bahamas year round. What a great life!...George Dutka