With less than three weeks between cruises, including Christmas and New Year’s, I’ve been busy, and more than a little stressed.  When everything came together, and it was still 2025, I started sleeping well again.  This morning I got up, had a leisurely Jacuzzi, spent a half hour stretching with Miranda Esmonde-White, made my last call to a supplier, called a taxi and went to the airport.  Everything is easy when you have a partner, and mine was meeting me there.  Meet Joanne Sidorchuk

Joanne is my cousin by marriage, one of those nice people I spend my holidays with, and whatever summer days I can.  She and her husband John, who was my dentist before he retired this year, live just west of Cornwall, on Moulinette Island, with boats and water toys, like a SeaDoo, at their dock.  Joanne used to be in charge of personnel, at the hospital in Brockville, so she knows how to herd cats, a key requirement for this job. We’ve been working together for a couple of months now, and it’s going great.  Now we’re going away together on our first hosting job.  Nothing like diving right in.  It’s going to be 135 days. 

And, yes, what you see there is ALL of our luggage.