Wayne holds a B.A in Sociology & an M.A. in adult education and for the past 18 years has been a self-employed management consultant focusing on human resources and corporate training. As a child he spent summers at the family cottage on Lake Huron messing around with boats which, although unknown at the time, engrained in him a life-long passion for boating and the water. He has completed a wide range of both power squadron and Canadian Yachting Association courses and honed his skills cruising and racing on Lake Ontario.
Cindy is a graduate of the University of Waterloo and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and has been involved in economic development for over 20 years. She currently serves as the Director of Economic Development and Real Estate Services for a major city within the Greater Toronto Area. She didn't become involved in sailing until after joining forces with Wayne but since has completed a wide range of CPS, Canadian Yachting Association and other related courses in preparation for going cruising. She has become a skilled and confident sailor over the past 20 years.
Wayne & Cindy met in 1984 during volunteer community work, married in 1988 and together worked to help raise Wayne's two sons who have grown to become young men, husbands, and fathers that are a great source of pride. During our early years together we became involved in our local yacht club, bought our first keelboat and spent summers cruising Lake Ontario. We loved the cruising lifestyle and met some great people on those all-too-brief sojourns and slowly the idea of cruising full-time began to take hold. What started out as a "nice-to-do" idea quickly morphed into a "got-to-do" quest and our life began to revolve around, to the astonishment of family and friends, being able to go cruising as soon as possible.
We first struck upon the idea of taking a year or two off for a mid-life cruising sabbatical but just as that idea was taking shape Cindy was offered a major career advancement opportunity. The benefits were too good to turn down so we re-evaluated, dug deep and focused on the early retirement opportunity this career change offered us. We rewarded ourselves by taking as much time as we could to cruise our home waters; living onboard from May to November; and, immersing ourselves in learning as much as we could about sailing and cruising. During those years, we set a number of concrete goals to accomplish that would turn our dream into a reality including purchasing a blue water boat that would safely carry us where we wanted to go.
Now we're nearly there. Our family has grown to include 2 wonderful daughter-in-laws and 3 granddaughters Kyla, Naomi & Nikola who can melt your heart in an instant but both families are busy and independent. Our career paths are mature and slowing coming to their conclusions. We have the boat ready to go.
So, over the coming year we will be making decisions about how best to extricate ourselves from the trappings of this land-based, working world and launch our dream of cruising. It's going to be an interesting year. Stay tuned.