Return to Hulett Bay: A Sailor's Journal

Sometimes a place can generate a spiritual-like presence when linked with people who have come before, those we have lost. Hulett Bay, a wilderness retreat in the backwaters of Canada's vast Georgian Bay, had welcomed generations of my family for well over a century. Last there as a boy, I was returning following a thirty-year absence, but this time aboard Paragon, my best friend's sailing vessel, having traversed the breadth of the Great Lake Huron from the Straights of Mackinac in northern Michigan. The voyage, however, hosted a parallel journey for me, a journey back in time that rekindled memories I found to be not only precious, but cathartic.Decades later, that profound experience created the basis for an important follow-up mission to Hulett Bay; a mission to help resolve a tragic loss. I also journaled the progress of this second voyage but found my account naturally expanding into a memoir framed through ship's logs, diaries maintained at sea, and enhanced with tender poetic passages.With the nautical settings and a lifetime of sailing experience, I found it impossible to not recount select adventures I've experienced cruising the Great Lakes, many aboard the Lauren C, the 10-ton, double-ended classic cutter I lovingly restored and sail today. Logging these has provided me the opportunity to capture and relive them again and again and, selfishly, that brings me joy. I strive to describe sailing operations in a way fellow-sailors will appreciate, but in terms non-sailors will understand. All will embrace anecdotes about the history and wonder of our Great Lakes region.Hulett Bay is a common crossing point for many in my family and, like most, our clan has colorful, interesting characters, some even playing important and historic roles in the birth of our nation. Through his stories and remembrances, Grampa, Judge Max Hulett, taught me the importance of learning and passing our knowledge about those who preceded us and without saying, conveyed that responsibility and honor to me. It was a pleasure weaving in so many I have loved or learned to love from tales heard as a boy and I'm pleased to share some of our interesting family history and something of mine. I believe thinking, reading, or talking about our ancestors honors them, expresses our appreciation and love, and provides them a kind of afterlife. I like to think it's a form of heaven.Please enjoy Return to Hulett Bay. My words are only an attempt to capture something wonderful that happened to me.. Read more