Another Canadian Family Sails Away

by Monica Wolfson, The Windsor Star on 14 Jan 2008 In Windsor, Ontario, it averages 0°C during the winter months, but Windsor native Bruce Paton claims he's not having a mid-life crisis. While he's not bought a red sports car, he and his wife Angel did sell their businesses (snow removal and cleaning), home, cars and purchased a 50-foot sailboat to cruise around the world -- forever.

And why? 'It's a kind of neat way to see the world and it doesn't cost a fortune after you initially start,' he said Saturday. 'The big thing for us is my dad passed away a few months ago and I don't want to be on my death bed saying, I wish I had done that. We were at a good place in our lives and we were debt free.'

Bruce and Angel Paton are on course to live out their dream with their two sons and possibly sail around the world. Back home from a career in Alberta, Windsor-born Bruce Paton purchased a 50-foot Canter sailboat with a 62-foot mast. Both novice sailors, Bruce and Angel will be busy over the next few months studying and preparing the boat for the big trip.

The Paton family had been living in an upper middle class subdivision of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., which is about 15 km outside Edmonton, when they decided to shed everything. Bruce Paton, a 42-year-old Herman high school graduate, sold his landscaping, backhoe and snow removal business, while 37-year-old Angel Paton parted with her commercial cleaning business.

Before setting sail, the family, which included 15-year-old Spencer and 13-year-old Donavan, set off last fall in a travel trailer to find a boat. They first looked at a sailboat in San Diego, but it wasn't in as good a condition as advertised on the Internet. Then they traveled across the southern United States until they got to Key West, Fla. where they got certified to scuba dive.

Bruce Paton, who had been watching the price of a boat docked in LaSalle on the Internet, suggested going north for the winter, which wasn't quite what the family had in mind.

Now they are going to spend the next four months prepping the yacht for a life time voyage. The boat is docked at the St. Clair Marine and needs an electrical upgrade and a new wooden deck. The family is going to the boat show in Toronto next weekend to see what modern gadgets they need for cross Atlantic travel.

Angel Paton said they are traveling the world partly so that two of their three sons can learn how other people live.

'We made a point of driving through New Orleans on the way to Florida to show the boys how other people live and that life isn't all about laptops and cell phones,' Angel Paton said. 'We drove into condemned areas filled with garbage. We've always made our boys pay for things, but they've never done without.'

The boys are being home schooled and will be allowed to leave the boat once they finish Grade 12, if they choose.