Any way, I grew up spending my summers going to the lake, mostly skiing, but sailing anything I could find when I got the chance. Add in my reading, both fiction and non-fiction, and I began to dream about a day when I would have a boat and begin my own adventures.
Life though, as it is wont to, put the dream not just on the back burner, but clear off the stove, and I eventually ended up in Alaska for 22 years. It wasn't until I came back to Indiana when my Mom's health began failing though, that the dream resurfaced. With her passing, I bought a small, inexpensive boat, a Mirage 5.5, to see if I still wanted to sail. By the end of that summer, I had moved up to a Hunter 26, to have a boat big enough to spend time on, yet small enough for the local lakes. From there, I spent the next 3 winters living on Yachtworld and sailing forums, as I began the search for my dreamboat.
By the time November of 2005 came, I had a
plan. I had set a date for taking early retirement, and had found the model
of boat I wanted. It wasn't my first choice, but it was the practical one.
Little did I know that life would once again throw a monkey wrench in the
spokes. At the beginning of the new year, I got involved in an e-mail
exchange with a lady sailor in Carolina. As it grew increasing more likely
that this would grow into something bigger, my practical boat was no longer
practical. In February, I went to Raleigh to meet her, and then to go to
Virginia to look at boats. Even before I went though, I sensed that this
train was coming off the tracks, and indeed it did. Four days after meeting,
I got the classic Dear John form letter. While I wasn't surprised, I had
expected something a bit more personal and honest.
I had turned all my attention though to finding a bigger boat, and by chance found the boat I had wanted all along, at a reasonable price. So in April, I headed to Texas. In a whirlwind of surveys, inspections and road trips, I became the owner of the Ontario 32 that would become Aria.
