The nautical theme has been part of my life since having attended Dalhousie Law School in 1970 in Halifax, Nova Scotia along the North Atlantic Ocean. My memories there are marked by images of Saturday mornings walking on Point Pleasant Park, clam digging in Peggy’s Cove, social outings to Hubbards and Chester, and spectacular ocean vistas from Lawrencetown outside Halifax and Melmerby Beach in Pictou County. The one opportunity I had to board a sailing ship for a late summer venture at sea was regrettably conflicted with and bypassed in preference for a week-long wedding convention which nonetheless invoked certain of the traditional sailors’ indulgences.
Since then – upon having reacquainted myself with the urbanity of Upper Canada (my last name didn’t begin with Mc) – my nautical aspirations have simmered on Key Largo and Clayton Lake where most recently we rented a motor boat for a rather unambitious venture on the not-so-high seas. It was there however that I learned to my astonishment that a licence was required to operate a boat on public waters. We had run clear of the licence by virtue only of having undertaken our episode before the season was fully underway. Yet in spite of our seeming fortune to escape the necessity I never completely abandoned my interest in qualifying myself. Finally – years afterwards – I found the time and occasion to learn and earn the required boating credentials. The efficacious bounty was rewarded through the National Boating Safety School.
In an era when overt national prejudice is purportedly de rigueur, the support of this, our Canadian source of boating intelligence, is especially noteworthy. Though I am tempted to expatiate the corporation, a succinct observation will suffice as this organization is in my opinion nonpareil. Granted I haven’t a history of direct involvement with boating education but I have certainly had my share of involvement with business on many levels. In short I can say without evasion or equivocation that National Boating Safety School is of the first order. It may perhaps amount to a more meaningful assessment to observe that everything about the organization is trustworthy – an achievement which in my opinion obviates so many others.
What has prompted this review is my receipt today of my Pleasure Craft Operator Card (evidence of having passed a Transport Canada accredited boating safety exam). Included with the accompanying literature was an invitation to a comprehensive 7-chapter boat training course. I have decided to pursue my education. Here however I am bound to confess the utter contradiction – and apparent superfluity – of my enterprise; that is, I don’t own a boat nor have I any intention of doing so; and, for the foreseeable future I am content to remain an unrepentant landlubber. I excuse the paradox by inviting you, dear Reader, to recollect those who have in the past devoted themselves to nautical projects without stepping so much as a toe into the water; viz., model ship building, canoe construction or merely watching a launch along the river. Mine is of the latter distinction. By contrast it was most recently only the benefit of Dramamine which preserved us from misfortune when wading across the Gulf of Mexico from Fort Myers to Key West (and I wouldn’t have been inclined to remark that it was a particularly robust crossing).