Jay and Alana have become our Christopher Columbus; and we are their crew.  In keeping with that metaphorical link the expedition which they have undertaken (with us in tow) is enormous by any standard.  For starters, they are Northern Ontario people who have picked up and moved to the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Just to be clear, to drive non-stop from Kenora, Ontario to Lunnenburg, Nova Scotia via Trans-Canada Highway E would take about 35 hours over about 3,500 Kms.  It is roughly the same distance from Ottawa, Ontario to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina there and back again!

I mention Hilton Head Island because serendipitously it is where – about 12 years ago –  we all met; literally on the expansive beach overlooking the North Atlantic Ocean (where by further coincidence their new property in Nova Scotia is located). By further chance we were until recently both resident in rural areas nearby Ottawa which enabled us annually to reconnect (pointedly at Pelican Seafood Market & Grill in central Ottawa or the Mississippi Golf Club in the Village of Appleton). As fate would also have it, I am a graduate of Dalhousie University where 50 years ago I studied law alongside the same incredible North Atlantic Ocean. And while we are now parallel the Mississippi River in Almonte, Ontario (just down river from the golf club) we have vicariously attached ourselves to the evolving exploration of Alana and Jay partly out of curiosity and partly as an exemplification of a deep-seated yearning approaching that prompted by John Masefield’s poem “Sea Fever”:

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

While it is very unlikely that Denis and I shall ever disrupt the splendour of the roost we now have in this exceedingly accommodating country town called Almonte, we are nonetheless riveted to the outcome of Jay and Alana’s odyssey. We have for example already begun filtering information on the internet regarding choice venues for summer vacations in Nova Scotia. The primary objective of our projected sojourn to Nova Scotia is to witness the building of Jay and Alana’s new Ocean home. Jay is a professional contractor.  He has already aligned himself to a highly reputed local architect; and, Denis and I know from personal acquaintance with other projects of his, that Jay is an accomplished artist in the execution of his construction.

If this weren’t already enough to catalyze our maritime relationship, I believe I can safely say that we all enjoy a lobster roll.  Oh, and dogs, too!