Laura was born in Halifax, NS and began to explore the vastness of the neighboring Atlantic at the age of 21 when she joined a 125-ft wooden sailing ship for her first sailing experience. Having completed a degree in Chemistry but lacking desire to explore the opportunities it presented, she set off in pursuit of what she had previously never imagined possible. A dozen ships, large and small, and thousands of sea-miles later she had found herself in Scotland. She joined a pipe band where she competed and performed throughout the country in the months that followed. Loving nature and independent travel, she cycled to the more remote corners of her ancestral home, including the islands of Mull, Iona, Shetland and Orkney. Almost 3 1/2 years after stepping aboard her first ship, she returned to Canada where she studied meteorology and became a marine forecaster. In the spring of 2006 she discovered a wooden boat in need of an owner and decided to take on the task. With one vague notion and few reasons to stay, she decided to ‘slip the lines’ that tied her to the city of her birth, and set sail on a voyage which took her to Cuba, Mexico, the Bahamas, and countless ports in between.
With Annie Laurie sold in the Spring of 2017 in Rockland, Maine, Laura turned her focus full-time to aviation, and in September of 2018 became a Commercial Pilot. The adventure continues...
Her book, Written in Water: An Uncharted Life Aboard A Wooden Boat, is available on Amazon and Kindle.