My friend, Jim Sykes, died in Halifax a couple of weeks ago. He was 92.

Retired for years now as Dalhousie University’s resident architect, he was also a Great Lakes’ sailor.

Both our fathers were sailors as well. They came from towns on that southern Georgian Bay shore which for much of the last century produced so many such men.

Sykes’ father was from Victoria Harbour; mine from Midland. They became friends and ended up as captains of boats owned by the same company.

In the summer of 1957, I was on my usual two-week holiday with my father aboard the Algosteel. Sykes was wheeling for him, working his way through university. I spent a lot of time in the pilot house that trip, flattered that a university guy would seemingly pay attention to the nattering of a mere high school student.

We parted........

© Peterborough Examiner