2/24/2009: Last week we sold our sailboat Nimda; named after a 2002 computer virus!

I’m perched next to Nimda after a swim in the St.Lawrence River… Thousand Islands, Ontario, Canada. In August of 2006, Steve and I sailed on one tack from Wolfe Island to Hill Island where Garth Gibson, the Best Man at our wedding, also has a cottage. It took us six hours to get there - it’s 35 miles between the two islands. I think we’ll always remember that trip! Even though a rainstorm chased us, we got back to the cottage, just a little wet. I also learned quite a bit about sailing, taking the rudder now & then.

Steven bought Nimda in 2002 when he was a bachelor and spending most of his summers on Wolfe Island where his grandmother was born. He first saw the hull, which I’ve learned is the boat without the rigging, sails etc, at a boat show. He fell in love with it. He was not planning on getting a sailboat that year, but this boat, a Creative Marine 'Skimmer 25' would not leave his thoughts! He purchased this one and named it Nimda. He calls Nimda a camping sailboat. The quarters are small, but nice! Here’s Nimda in full sail. Steven is taking his cousins out for a spin. So beautiful.

This is how I will always remember Nimda, at the dock, in front of the Big House (Steven's grandmother's house) on Wolfe Island, with the HUGE Canadian sky behind the boat and the small aluminum motor boat 'Buzzy' in front of her. I love the fact that Steven painted the Canadian Maple leaf on top of this boat, after it was damaged in a storm and then re-built. Buzzy is one of my favorite boats. Steven has been taking Buzzy out on the St. Lawrence River since he was a kid. Kingston, Ontario, is in the distance.

Unfortunately, we were not using Nimda enough to warrant the cost of storage and upkeep, not to mention getting her ship-shape each season to only use her two weeks a year.  Our friend Mike Corrigan who owned the Wolfe Island Boat Shop, sold the boat for us. Good bye to Nimda, a really great boat we so enjoyed!

These days, Steven prefers to borrow the 16 ft Melonseed sailboat that my father beautifully built with strips of wood. The Melonseed is named Wind Dancer . . . my Dad stretched the 15 ft plans a foot when he made it. This hand built boat is spectacularly beautiful and people always comment on it. Once we ended up in the tail end of a parade in Cape Vincent, NY on the way to the ferry to Wolfe Island. The Melonseed was on a trailer and another one of my dad's handmade canoes was strapped to the top of the car. People watching the parade were clapping & smiling as we drove by - they thought we were part of the parade!! Steve loves how the Melonseed handles, like all of my father's handmade boats. Below, a couple of photos of Steven & our pups sailing the melonseed on the St. Lawrence river in front of the cottage on Wolfe Island plus another picture of him taking the sails down in the rain after docking.

creatively yours, lenna