MARVELOUS
LADY: An Island Journal
David
P. Stephens
Cape Breton
Island
Welcome aboard the
Marvelous Lady. Sit back and relax. You are about to embark
on a unique salt water adventure - a nautical story which I hope
can serve as a metaphor for the ups and downs encountered as we
chart our course through the wonderous and unpredictable sea of
life.
The story is unpretentious
- the central character being a humble wooden boat, the setting,
Cape Breton Island. Often referred to as "Nova Scotia's Masterpiece",
the true Cape Breton Island is a rather unassuming "rock
in a stream". To those who know and love her she is referred
to simply as "home".
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island
or Isle Royale is set in the Gulf Stream, reaching out towards
the North Atlantic. The large water mass in the centre of the
island is known as the Bras d'Or Lakes, Canada's Inland Sea.
The communities highlighted
with red dots are central to the story:
Sydney is the industrial centre of
the island and the city of my birth. I presently live here with
my life partner Cathy and our cat Chicklet.
Isle Madame, located at lower left of the
map, is an Acadian community with a strong seafaring heritage.
It is in the village of Petit de Grat, Isle Madame, where
the Marvelous Lady was built more than twenty-five years
ago, and it was here she spent most of her working life.
Dundee Marina is the Marvelous Lady's
current home port, a warm and friendly, rather casual boating
centre located in the southernmost corner of the Bras d'Or.
The red dot located
to the right of Louisbourg refers to the picturesque and
rugged fishing hamlet of Little Lorraine, and it is here,
at Vince Kennedy's beach where our story unfolds.