Seabbatical Adventures: Day 1 and 2, Goodbye Goderich

Goodbye Goderich

For those that have been attempting to follow our blog, we have been on a 2 month blog seabattical while we were getting the boat purchase completed. So a bit of an overview of our last 2 months.

After returning from Peru on April 19^th we headed to Sarnia to crash with Roma, Julie’s mom while we closed the purchase of the boat which was situated in Goderich. We spent that time learning about and shopping for some new equipment, such as an AIS, which transmits and receives signals from boats and plots them on a chart, getting the ipad set up for navionics etc. Our new boat also has a wind generator, watermaker and radar which we have not used/worked with before so lots of manuals to read. The spring weather did not cooperate so our surveyor was behind schedule. The tarp came off the boat early May but it was not until May 14^th we could get Fraser, our surveyor, up to check out the boat on the hard. The cost of the survey seemed high but he did identify a rudder issue which Glenn the owner had fixed (basically rebuilt) so he earned his fee. The boat got the thumbs up, but the rudder repair took 18 days which delayed the launch into June. We got the hull cleaned and waxed and the bottom coat painted in anticipation of new ownership. Finally launch day Thursday June 13th, and then Saturday June 15th the mast went up. Once the mast is up, we were able to put on sails, tune the rigging, put up antennas (Dawson got hoisted to the top of the mast), install radar and wind generator, hook up and test electronics etc. The hot water tank needed a new circuit, the microwave is not working, but otherwise we were ready for the sea trial. The sea trial took place on Wed. June 19th with Ed Breen and proved successful. Ed had a few best practice hints, a few minor replacements, but otherwise it got the clean bill of health. Dawson headed to Toronto to get the oil, transmission and rad fluids analyzed and we were off. While Toronto way Dawson had a good visit with Ross prior to him heading off to Nationals in Moncton where he advanced to the finals and got 7^th overall. A proud finish. Ross has been named to team Canada for the World University Games and heads off to Russia at the end of June.

This now brings us up to date. We closed the deal on Friday June 21^st, however are now driving back and forth to Sarnia for 2 days to bring up all our worldly goods that have been filling Roma’s house. About 30% of the stuff had to go back as we had no room for it all. There will be room once we figure out all the hiding spots, but for now we have plenty of CRAP.

Our last night at Roma’s is Saturday June 22^nd and that brings us up to…..

Day 1- It is official move on to boat day. It is Sunday June 23^rd(Alicia Fay’s birthday) and Roma gives us a ride up to the boat where we will now sail off into the sunset, well….. the north Channel of Lake Huron for a month anyways.

After an emotional goodbye to Roma and Cassie, we are left carless in Goderich with our new home. We worked through the afternoon, and were too exhausted to even eat dinner. We had our first celebratory Gin and Tonics with a dinner of grapes and trail mix. Not our finest cooking.

Our first night on the boat, after an exhausting 7 days of 3 hours driving everyday, moving stuff, building stuff, and learning stuff we had a restless night as our lines were clanging and we were too tired to secure them better. I am sure our neighbours weren’t thrilled. They probably have been clanging all week.

Day 2 We did not get started as early as anticipated. Our planned 06:00 departure ended up being a 09:30 departure. Our neighbor helped with our dock lines as we cast off. This is the first time Julie operated the helm and engine. A bit nervous but it is an easy spot to get off the dock. Worked fine, all was well with the world.

The winds are kind to us. Southerlys so we can sail flat. We are planning to make it to Port Elgin, but Kindcardine may be more reasonable. It took a while to get the sails trimmed effectively so we lost a bit of time. One item that has changed in the 3 years since we have been sailing is that reading glasses are now part of the essential equipment list. As we sailed along, numerous biting flies became freeloaders. They drove Julie crazy (Dawson is more tolerant). Head count after about 5 hours of hunting was well over 100 fly corpses thrown overboard. YUK!

Once we reach the turning point into Kincardine it was around 16:00 and we decided to keep heading to Port Elgin another 4 hours away. We are using these long sunlit days to our advantage. To make sure we have some wiggle room we add the iron genny for an hour or so to our sail speed and get into port for about 19:15. The office is closed so no one to help grab our lines or let us know where to park. Julie is at the helm and chooses the closest easiest spot to get into. Starboard tie up which is where the lines are normally on and therefore don’t need changing. We get in without a hitch. We are hoping the owners of the slip are not out for a joy ride and will want us to move. We were in luck. Turns out the neighbour pays for both slips so they can be power hogs and use all the electrical facilities. Works for me. They aren’t there anyways, and doubtful the office will be open to pay them for the night so only fair we don’t use their facilities (except for the safe tie up).

We went for an evening stroll and watched the sunset. Not an amazing one, but pretty enough. Our biggest concern was whether we would be able to get back in the locked gate area. We were in luck, for some reason the locking mechanism isn’t turned on and the door opened freely. Now to concoct our first hot meal on the boat. Simple fare as we are exhausted. A quick shrimp stir fry with Chinese noodles. Yummy! Could have been hotter but the green curry flavor was great. We had enough propane luckily (forgot to top up cylinders).

Cheers Julie and Dawson