-
Waiting on a transmission
Well, another week has gone by and we are getting closer to sailing away from here. We are just waiting on parts for our port engine transmission. Once we have that, then we can get going. Our window of sticky notes/tasks is all being shifted to the right, or the completed column. We will have a shiny new boat by the time we leave! Luckily, there were a few exciting things that happened this week to help pass the time. First, the kids started school! And, not sure if this is a sign of how exciting this trip is so far, but they were all excited to get back to…
-
Doing boatwork in exotic places. . .
Another week done and although it is exciting to be in the water, we still are not ready to set sail. We are so eager, it is hard to wait. There is a saying, “Cruising is doing boatwork in exotic places”. A somewhat pessimistic saying. Once you are at the point of maintaining your boat it is probably not completely true because you can spend more time exploring the places you visit rather than doing boatwork. However, for us, right now, it feels very true. We decided this probably means we need to spend a little more time enjoying the place we are in and take a break from our…
-
Splash!
Quick post to say that – the boat is in the water! It was a long day and we had to wait till the end of the day for our turn with the Lift and Travel. It is a different feeling being on the water already. We were rocked to sleep and the wind is slightly stronger and more cooling right on the dock. Plus we see water through our escape hatches. The little kids have new risks – no more ladders to fall down, but now there is water to fall in. Simon and Norah have to wear a lifevest whenever they are out on deck, especially if we…
-
The big move
Well, another step closer. We moved to the boat today. We have enough of the place set up to at least sleep on the boat and cook on the boat. We still haven’t gotten in the water though. That is planned for Monday. This is in part because Kevin was still fixing the rudder but also because the Travel Lift, or the big boat crane, was fully booked for Friday and they weren’t able to do us anyway. We have it booked for Monday though. It will be great to be in the water because then we can use the fridge. We are using an electric cooler right now, but…
-
First week
We made it! We arrived in Grenada and at the boat on the small island of Carriacou on Friday morning. It was a few long days of travel but things actually went quite smoothly. All 17 (turns out I was counted wrong the first time) made it without too much trouble. We had planned to overnight in Toronto to break up the trip for the young kids. So, we expected to have to pick up our baggage in Toronto and store it at the airport with a service that will hold bags for you. However, turns out that when your flights are less than 24 hours apart, they automatically tag…
-
Chaos to Clean Slate
Well, we are officially on our way! It has been a touch slog for the last few weeks of organizing all our stuff and packing. We had to put stuff in storage, pack to take things with us on the plane to go directly to the boat and then put things in our truck to be brought down to Florida by Kevin’s parents. It was such a process and it seemed that we would never get it all done. At times, it all looked like chaos! We are so lucky to have Kevin’s parents willing to make a road trip out of bring us some stuff for when we reach…
-
Other considerations
So, now I have outlined the major steps we have taken to get to where we are – just under a month from leaving. What I didn’t talk about was all the other little things that we have had to think about and organize. Those are the things that have taken up much of Kevin’s evenings and a little of my days off. These things include: How to make the necessary repairs to the boat. This has been tricky primarily because we have to get all the necessary tools to the boat when it is located on an island that has minimal resources. It has required several trips by Kevin…
-
Getting ready to leave
We truly started this journey more than 9 months ago. Once we had secured a locum to cover my work, we set to work getting ready to go. Our first major step was selling our home so we could buy the boat. Not a financially sound choice; I can almost hear what my accountant father would have said, but there you have it. On the positive side, we were outgrowing the house we were in anyway, and were selling when the market wasn’t far off it’s peak and about to take a down turn. To sell our house we had to spruce up the kitchen a little and finish off…
-
Welcome Aboard!
This website is our chance to share with friends, family, acquaintances, classmates, colleagues and others that are interested, our experience as we pack up our family of 6 and sail around the Atlantic and Mediterranean for a year. We hope we can give each of you a chance to share in our adventure. There will undoubtedly be many trials and tribulations along the way but also amazing things to be seen. I am by no means a linguist and just starting to figure out website development, so bare with me! Feel free to send me comments or questions about things you want to see more of or want to learn…
