Bay of Hope by David Ward

Author:David Ward
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2018-03-26T04:00:00+00:00

McCallum residents will soon be able to watch an intriguing international-adventure story unfold right in our own harbour, because McCallum is where you’ll eventually find the Evil-Lyn, a steel thirty-seven-foot sailboat named in honour of an animated actress by its builder Didi Franzmeyer and his partner Marion Jackson. German nationals, Didi and Marion have recently become McCallum’s only other come-from-aways. If you think it was hard for me to move here, imagine how difficult it is for those who come from another country. As different as my everyday life is, I’m still standing on Canadian soil. Didi and Marion, on the other hand, could be ordered to leave this country at any time.

“Yes, plans for the Evil-Lyn were bought in Holland, but Didi built her in our barn in Germany,” the spunky middle-aged Marion tells me, her multi-coloured mohawk haircut blowing in the wind. “And right now he has sailed the Evil-Lyn as far as the Netherlands.” Marion and I are standing in front of the McCallum house that the couple recently purchased as part of their plan to spend the remainder of their lives sailing this province’s gorgeous shores, if not from McCallum, which is at risk of resettling, then another cute community.

“I have come to Newfoundland by airplane with our two dogs, while Didi is in Rotterdam making plans to get our boat to North America, and that has not been easy. We are simply trying to get all of us and our boat here safely, without having to spend all our money doing it, but every day we get a new surprise. Hopefully he will be here soon,” she says again of her sailor husband, understandably unable to stop talking about him. “Because, right now, it is all very stressful.”

With neither member of this gutsy but inexperienced sailing couple feeling comfortable crossing the Atlantic on their own, they’ve hired a freighter to bring their boat to North America — a business deal that has brought with it some difficulties, including last-second news that the shady freighter hired to bring the Evil-Lyn to Rhode Island has suddenly changed their policy about allowing passengers. So Didi will need to temporarily part with the boat that he spent twelve years building and instead fly to Boston, bus to Newport, find ten days’ accommodation, and wait for his pride and joy to arrive.

The couple’s trust level is understandably low, but if all goes according to plan, Didi and the Evil-Lyn will be back on the water shortly, travelling past Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia before crossing the Gulf of St. Lawrence. “At which point I will be very happy to see him,” Marion reminds me.

“I worry about him, because he never gets a chance to sleep, sailing alone. And, while some couples find it difficult to live together on a small boat, that is not the way it is with Didi and me — we are finding it hard to be separated. We’re very unhappy to be without each other. So when I see him come sailing into McCallum, I will be the happiest person in the world.

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