Return to Sea

Return to Sea is the continuing record of one veteran finding his way back to the water — from the search for the right boat through surveys, moorage, purchase, refit, life aboard and the voyages that follow.

“I was seventeen years old when I joined the Royal Canadian Navy. More than forty years later, I’m finding my way back to the water.

This time, I’m choosing the ship.”

This page is the permanent home for that story. It begins before there is a boat, because the search itself matters: the boats considered, the ones walked away from, the surveys, the hunt for liveaboard moorage on the British Columbia coast, the plans drawn before a hull is chosen, and eventually the moment one of those boats becomes home.

It will also follow the systems built around her — including Wren Station, the shipboard intelligence and watchkeeping project — and the practical work of learning, maintaining and improving the vessel after she joins the fleet.

Return to Sea Entries