Bay of Spirits: A Love Story-Fast Shipping

Description

In 1957, Farley Mowat shipped out aboard one of Newfoundland’s famous coastal steamers,tramping from outport to outport along the southwest coast. The indomitable spiritof the people and the bleak beauty of the landscape would lure him back again andagain over theyears. In the process of falling in love with a people and a place,Mowat also met the woman who would be the great love of his life.

A stunninglybeautiful and talented young artist, Claire Wheeler insouciantly climbed aboard Farley’s beloved but jinxed schooner as it lay on the St. Pierre docks, once again in acradle for repairs, and changed both their lives forever. This is the story of thatlove affair, of summers spent sailing the Newfoundland coast, and of their decisionto start their life together in Burgeo, one of the province’s last remaining is also an unforgettable portrait of the last of the outport people and a wayof life that had survived for centuries but was now passing forever.

Affectionate,unsentimental, this is a burnished gem from an undiminished talent.

I was insidemy vessel painting the cabin when I heard the sounds of a scuffle nearby. I pokedmy head out the companionway in time to see a lithesome young woman swarming up theladder which leaned against Happy Adventure’s flank. Whining expectantly, the shipyarddog was endeavouring to follow this attractive stranger. I could see why. As slimand graceful as a ballet dancer (which, I would later learn, was one of her avocations),she appeared to be wearing a gleaming golden helmet (her own smoothly bobbed headof hair) and was as radiantly lovely as any Saxon goddess. I invited her aboard,while pushing the dog down the ladder.

“That’s nice to know,” shesaid sweetly. Then she smiled . . . and I was lost.
—From Bay of Spirits