Long Overdue - and the Last One

Well, as said, this is long overdue and probably the only one to read it will be me/Cheryl and likely Jason as he has it tagged. Thanks Jason.

I will try to make this short. It has been a struggle since I came home, a struggle I am dealing with by recognizing how grateful I am and trying to convince myself that it is what we did and not what we didn't do that is the important thing. After all, how many people would find much sympathy if I said that I only sailed for 2 years in the Caribbean and never got to the South Pacific. I hope no one!!! But enough of that. It is what it is, I am who I am - and I realize how blessed I am - most of the time.

I came home to wind. I at first thought that my idea that is was windier this year than when we lived here before was just senile memory lapse but after checking things out I am not crazy. the first 5 weeks I was home, the wind blew steadily and usually 50-70 kph. The rest of the weather was great though, with pretty fair temperatures and good sun (to charge my batteries).

Shortly after I got home we acquired another dog. We had not intended to get one so quick but Ryan's (Leila's Ryan) parents had a dog that they couldn't give a lot of time to that kept running home to the farm it was born on so they had to keep it tied up outside. She is a chocolate Lab over a year old so I thought that she would almost be into her adulthood. Found out after that Lab's don't stop growing until they are 2 (No Leila - she wasn't smaller than Katie when we got her!!!) She is a lot of fun though. First dog I have seen who watches TV and checks out the animals when they appear - particularly dogs, cats and rabbits. She also is quite interested in Hershey Chocolate commercials. This happens whether there is sound or not so she definitely sees things on the screen!

Our gazebo, which had started to lean due to the big snow year they had while we were gone, finally succumbed to the heavy snow we had in April and the roof dropped down on one side. We ended up using the truck to pull it down so it was flat on the ground and we then disassembled it, piece by piece. Dusty (our dog) helped!! Of course this took place after I went in for surgery to remove my gall bladder - kind of a surprise thing but it was only a week from onset to removal so it was quick. Of course this idea of only lifting 10 lbs or less for 4-6 weeks is silly. Isn't it???

Yes, that's Dusty up on the gazebo roof with us!!!

We of course visited with people once we were back but it took us a lot of time to get the inside of the house finished from the move back in and the house also had to recover from the surgery of replacing the carpet with laminate so there are still lots of people to see. We were all set to start working on the outside stuff and here we are - May 5 with 6 inches of snow on the ground, our basement flooded because of the big storm last week when we lost power and thus our weeping tile sump pumps. We seem to be starting from square one in having the house livable.

It really isn't that bad though - again, I am grateful:

we have a basement to flood in the first place:

the insurance is covering the redoing:

we have found someone (we hope) to improve our drainage system so it won't happen again:

we are both healthy (although the wealthy and wise are still pending!):

we have people who we love dearly and we have people who love us: and

oh yes, we were also able to sell the boat, which in these economic times is a feat in itself. Although we didn't get what we wanted (do we ever?), we got more than we paid for it. It is still a tender spot for me though, as I would still love to get into the South Pacific. Oh well, maybe by airplane will have to do.

So, this will likely be the last blog on the Adventures of Mystic Journey. We are going to put all our blogs into a book format and have it printed so if you ever decide to visit, you can see it on our coffee table!!

Thanks to all of you who supported us on this fantastic adventure by visiting us, commenting on our blogs or just cheering us on.

Fairs Winds and Smooth Seas

Griff's Home - by Griff

I thought I would give you what is essentially my last post about our 2 year adventure (although my mind has not totally given the journey up). My last post was from East End Bay (part of Fat Hog Bay - I love that name) where I was waiting for Mystic Journey to either be sold or, as it turned out, to take her to Nanny Cay and put her on the hard.

Cheryl was a bit concerned about me getting the anchor up, sailing down to Nanny Cay and then putting MJ into a marina slip, all singlehanded. I must admit that with the way the wind had been shifting so it was coming from a different direction every day and add in the fact that it varied from 0 to 35/40 knots, the anchor raising had been on my mind too. Also, I had requested a slip at the marina situated so that I could go straight in from the entrance rather than maneuver between two rows of boats via a narrow channel but they said they had to give me what was available on the day I was coming in so I knew I would likely be into tight quarters.

To make a long story as short as I am able (being longwinded), the anchor came up with no problems and I was able to move to a mooring ball in East End Bay and hook up with no stress. I had done this (gone on the ball) because I wanted to weigh anchor early in case I had problems and I also wanted to secure the anchoring system while on a ball since it is much simpler than while sailing. I couldn't get into the marina until after 1:00 PM - thus the need to wait.

Leaving East End/Fat Hog Bay

Got to the marina with no problems, about a 6 nm trip and, as Murphy supports, the slip was in a narrow channel with boats on both sides. I asked the marina by radio which side I would be putting to the finger dock and of course the side they gave me was if I backed into the slip - which they didn't tell me. We have mentioned before that MJ does not back up well so when I went into the slip channel and found out, I had to back out, change all my fenders and lines to the other side and go back in.

At the Dock in Nanny Cay Marina

The next couple of days was busy taking down sails, cleaning the dinghy bottom and putting the dinghy on the deck (for on the hard), tying down lines and cleaning. I also took my baggage over to the hotel - lots easier to do when you only have to lift the 3 - 50 lb bags onto the dock, not carry then down a ladder after she is on land. Incidentally, the weight was also a big deal. Fifty pounds is the maximum without paying overweight and since I didn't have a place to take them to weigh, I had to borrow a scale and weigh all my bags on the boat to estimate the weight. Not fun.

Friday morning I contacted the haul-out crew and got a man to come aboard so that I would have someone to handle the lines once I backed (again the backing!!!) into the haulout slip. It all went well though - well, as well as can be expected when I was looking at MJ through pretty misty eyes. It took about 3 hours to get her settled and I spent the rest of the day and most of Saturday cleaning, covering windows and portholes from the inside and removing lines.

My Last View of Mystic Journey

Oops!!! This is actually my last view of Mystic Journey

Saturday evening was an early to bed since I had to get up at 4:00 AM to get the airport for 5:00. I had asked the Liat desk if I really had to be there that early since it was a Sunday morning and it was the only flight out and they insisted I had to. In actual fact I guess that only applied to passengers since none of the staff got there before 5:30. It gave me a chance to weigh all my luggage, however, and re-arrange a bit so that even though I was overweight, it was distributed through the bags and it worked because they didn't charge me any extra for that. I suppose the fact they charged me $120 US for having extra bags (Liat allows only one) may have influenced them.

I had to fly to St Maarten via Antigua/St Kitts - and my reservations were another story. Originally when I had checked availability and cost of Liat to St Maarten and Westjet from there to Calgary via Toronto, the cost had been $64 for the first flight and $304 for the second. As well, the flight from Tortola to St Maarten was direct and left at noon. Pretty good eh?? Well, I didn't book that day because I had to confirm my haulout dates. When I went back to book 2 days later - and keep in mind this was 6 weeks before my flights - the costs were $118 for the first (via Antigua/St Kitts leaving at 7:00 AM) and the second flight was $540. Poor me - poor, poor me!!!

Made it to Antigua, where I spent an hour or so, and then on to St Kitts (didn't get off) and finally to St Maarten where about 12 of us were informed that not all our luggage came with us because the plane was too full. We had to do paperwork and the lady assured me that if the luggage got there before my Westjet plane left, it would be loaded directly and if not they would forward it to any address I wanted. Funny, there are always jerks and in this case there were 2 - one Brit and one snotty young islander lady who were totally off the wall with this poor lady who had nothing to do with the luggage being late. I finally told the guy to go somewhere else and complain to someone who could do something about it. The rest of us didn't want to hear it. Well, I had gotten up early!!!! And he did!!

Nice flight from St Maarten to Toronto although the TVs were not working. The book I had lost in Tortola (forgot to mention that) had been replaced in St Maarten so I read and played DS.

Rob very kindly met me at the airport and we went to his place for the evening. Since Cheryl and I had left a bag at Robs the last time we went through I was back to 3 bags but we had made arrangements for Jason to pick up the extra one when he visits later this spring. I took one of the bags upstairs so I could take the one that had been at Rob's home, since I had no winter clothes to wear. Of course the bag I left at Rob's had stuff I needed so that didn't work out well but again Rob came through and later in the month shipped it via Greyhound. The other bag was sent by Liat but as Cheryl already mentioned, they only sent it as far as Calgary, where Leila and Ryan came to the rescue.

Well, I had intended this blog to be mostly about getting home but as I said - longwinded!! so I will start another blog about that shortly, since you are likely mostly asleep now. Sorry about that!!

Cheryl here - I arrived at the Calgary airport not knowing any of the above. I waited at the door I knew Griff would be coming through. It was amazing to watch him come down the escalator and see his face break into a grin when he spotted me. What a homecoming!!!!!