Another Step - We can Sail!!

Well, another day in paradise, although by the way some of the people looked as Cheryl this morning, dressed in her shorts and tank top, it was obvious some of the indigents thought this was bad weather and she was crazy to be out in the cold (about 26 C at 8:00 am) dressed like that. "They" say that eventually people become so acclimatized to the warm that 26 C does feel cold. Maybe - but it may take me 10-20 years!
Today was exciting. First of all, the bilge was still nearly dry after we worked on it yesterday. Laugh if you will but different things are important at different times. It's funny but talking to Cheryl today, I mentioned that when I first moved to the acreage, I practically prayed that nothing go wrong with the sump or the pump or the furnace etc etc because who would I call and how would I fix it? After being on the boat for a week (oh yeah, it's an anniversary day), I could manage a string of acreages. Well, some exaggeration but still, the attitude change is tremendous.

So, on to our day. We got our main sail up and our sailpack on. The guy who we got to do it was great. I said to him at the start - we would like this process to be as much about education as it is about getting the sails up and he was so patient and informative, without being condescending, that it was a wonderful experience.



What isn't obvious in the pictures is the fact that the wind today chose not to cooperate. Or maybe we did bring some Fort Macleod wind with us. It was coming across our port front quarter and was not too troublesome until we had to put the mainsail completely up. A couple of times I thought we were going to bring our dock up out of the water (we are secured on the port side).





And of course when it was up, Kevin had to go back to his shop to get a couple of things so it was exciting. We retied our bow line and our forward spring line and managed to live through it though.



Due to the weather and a possible problem with our genoa furling apparatus, we did not get our foresails up but they should be in place by Saturday. And then Monday we sail

(A Day Later!)

Well, the old salts here told us to "be prepared" and "nothing is done until it is done" and sure enough, while we were getting everything ready to put up the foresail and staysail we discovered that the foresail work that was supposed to have been done was not. I spoke to the boss of the shop about it and he told me that it could not be done while it was on the hard (in dry dock for non-enthusiasts) but that Steve, who was/is supposed to be our work coordinator, had not told him we are in the water. This is not the first time this gentleman has been remiss in his duties. I sincerely hope he does not want a glowing recommendation.

Anyway, that is my snit for the day. No trouble in Paradise!! What is means is we go out next week without a foresail/genoa but the nice thing about a cutter rig is that we still have the staysail to use. We are just not as quick in the water and we won't get the supervised practice with everything up. We also definitely have the spinnaker which is the "cool sail!!!"

When we get back, El has promised us he will do the forestay right away so we should still be able to get away from here more or less permanently a couple of days after we are back. Aside from Steve, people here have been very helpful and actually I just think that he has taken on a bit more than he can handle and doesn't know how to handle it.

Stay Tuned

Inside Our New Home

We've been telling you about everything we've been doing to turn Mystic Journey into our own home. We thought you might like to see what the inside of our home is like now. A few more personal touches and it should be great.

The Salon
The Dining Area
The 'Nav' Table

The Guest Room

Our Bedroom

Still Here and Working Away At It

Well, here we are again from Mystic Journey. We decided that since we are kind of in wait mode as far as sailing is concerned and Nanny Cay has been explored out, we would talk a little about what all this might mean to us. I can only speak for myself because although Cheryl and I are truly soulmates, we do look at some things differently and feel different things about them.

So, speaking for me - it's funny when I realize, in thinking about what I have been doing since we moved onto the boat, how much of my time has been spent in cramped quarters (replaced the seawater foot pump under the galley sink) or smelly places (took both heads apart to rebuild). What is even funnier (as in strange, not ha ha) is that I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, maybe enjoyed is a bit too strong a word but I am certainly getting a sense of satisfaction out of realizing that although this is all strange, it is doable and it is doable by US.

The first two nights we were aboard, I did not sleep well and part of the reason is - I was scared. We had taken on this tremendous task involving things I had never even considered doing and immediately there were challenges. And we hadn't moved out of the marina yet. Heck, we don't even have our sails on the boat and I had to start figuring what draining hoses went to where, is the water supposed to come in or go out, what switches powered what, why was there water in the bilge, how embarassing would it be for the boat to sink before ever leaving the dock!!

But you know what - like that really old song says - "there's nothing to it but to do it". I am beginning to live in the reality that all things are possible when I stop to be grateful. It is not about the "can'ts and don'ts" it's about how absolutely fortunate I am to be here at all, with my love, mental status somewhat intact and of fairly healthy body. Not to say that I can do all things, but that I can do all I am capable of if I choose to. What more is there!!!!

Reading what Griff has written makes me realize how much living on the boat is becoming like home. There are tasks for Griff to do, like pulling apart the heads and pump and some for me, like cleaning all of the wood with lemon oil. However, there is also the opportunity to work together to accomplish those tasks. It also makes me realize I missed a few photo opportunities that I could have added to this blog. You will have to visualize Griff with his head in the cupboard fixing the pump or me rubbing the walls with lemon oil.

Sitting on the deck or on the beach like we did yesterday I can't help but think how lucky, no how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to live this fantastic adventure With the person that means alot to me. Although there are times when I feel scared and totally incompetent, I know that the two of us will be up to any challenges that come our way.

Reading the comments from people at home helps. I feel that we have the love and support from those who we left behind (in the freezing cold) as well as the love we share with each other. We have met some interesting people here and most of them are amazed at what we are setting out to do, but they all have positive comments and suggestions for how we can make our voyage easier. Some we will act on - others we will ignore.

We Are On the Water

Sorry for the delay in updates but it seems to be as busy here as it was getting ready to come here. No excuse, I know, but it is all I have. First the physical part of the last few days. Originally we were going to get here Monday, put the boat in on Tuesday, sails and bimini/dodger on by Wednesday and ship-shape by Thursday (I'm lying about that last one). We also mentioned that we were getting the boat polished.

In addition we had the waterline stripe re-done and the transom re-painted in prep for the new name. As a result of all of this, the launch was re-scheduled for Thursday afternoon - AND IT HAPPENED!!!

I cannot begin to describe the feelings we experienced through all of this but particularly when the big lift came along and we knew it was for OUR boat. They put the two straps underneath and lifted it and my heart was in my throat. As it trundled towards the water, all the positives I had about what we were doing were conflicted by the enormity of it all finally coming together. The little voice was saying "When the boat touches the water, you are committed", even though I knew the committment had started long before that.

As Mystic Journey was slowly lowered into the water, the closest I can come to describing it so you could relate is, for those of you who were at our wedding in July, if you remember how I struggled with getting my vows out past my emotions - that is close. (Although of course,nothing will ever by as memorable as that!!

So - are you all caught up in the emotions - down to earth time. We went to take her out of the launch area to the assigned slip and She Would not Start. Anticlimax or what. I like to think it is because we were having Steve take it over for us and it wasn't one of us doing it. I felt good about the fact I was able to direct him to the successful "fix" even though he wanted to get complicated. He finally went to the battery banks and touched one, found out that loose connections get hot (he burned his finger) and we were away.

Cheryl actually went with Steve on the ride to the slip while I walked over and prepared. I must say that at this point in time, I likely could not have backed the boat into the slip. Between the length of the boat, the full keel and a nasty breeze coming from a nasty angle, it took some real skill to bring it in.

So, since then - last night was a discovery night. Lots of things required some coaxing after sitting for nearly 5 months, chief among them the heads. But we were aboard and we slept aboard and the only thing that stopped it from being absolutely perfect was that we were in a marina and not anchored off a beach (soon to be remedied) and the rain that started coming in the open hatches at 5 am.

Today, Friday, we went shopping for things we couldn't bring because of weight - towels, tools, pots etc etc and we also picked up some groceries. Funny, we went to a store in Road Town that delivers the groceries, if you ask, even to Nanny Cay, which is about 15 minutes away. Nice thing about it, they delivered us with our groceries, free, which was great because of the other shopping we had done.

Tonight, first cooked meal on our boat. Everything is exciting and lots of firsts - most of our life now will consist of firsts. Imagine that at 65 yrs and ?? yrs old.

The pictures you are seeing were inserted by Cheryl and I apologize for not putting in a video of the launch. We have them but found out last night that using the SD slot to download pictures from my camera puts them in a .mov format that requires Apple Quicktime to see and the video Cheryl took is out of focus. We are working on it and promise that you will get to see them. Of course I didn't bring the disc to download through the cable so.

Anyway, more tomorrow. We will try to keep away from "we did this and we did that" and focus on what it meant to do these things

We have arrived

We have had a busy month since our last entry. Christmas came and went. My kids and family visited for Christmas itself and Griff's kids and grandkids arrived after Boxing Day. Everyone was gone by December 29th and then the work began - packing up the house and getting everything either put into storage or given away. We also were challenged to pack everything we needed to bring with us and still manage to stay within the weight and bag limits for our flight down. During this we were also fitting in visits with friends and family who wanted to say Bon Voyage!!

Finally on January 8th we were finished.

The first leg of our journey was spent in Calgary saying goodbye to our kids there and friends. Then we headed to Ottawa/Hamilton to visit with Griff's sisters for a few days. Finally on January 12th we ended up in Toronto where we spent an enjoyable weeksattending the musical show "We Will Rock You", a Raptors basketball game and the Toronto Boat Show with visits with the rest of Griff's kids and grandkids worked in.
January 20th arrived and we were ready to head off to BVI. After some misdirection of our bags in Toronto and almost missing that flight, we arrived in San Juan 5 minutes after our flight started to board and ended up missing that flight and being put on standby for the next flight. That worked and we arrived in BVI at about 3:30 pm only to discover that one of our bags would not arrive until the next flight. Fortunately that flight landed shortly after we had cleared customs. We were ready to get to the hotel and put up our feet for awhile - which we did.

Then we took a walk to the boatyard and looked at the boat.

She is still called the Lily Mae according to the back of the boat, but the bottom is painted except for the patches where the supports are located.

Today we made contact with everyone who has been working on the boat and went on board. (Griff writing now)There are still a couple of minor things to be done inside so it was a bit of a mess but still felt like a good place to spend the next while. We decided that since removing the old name would still leave it in a white profile, we would have the transom repainted and while they are at it, paint the waterline stripe. We are also having the white paint polished - no particular reason except for pride and vanity!!!
We have had lots of running around to do - changing launch date by a day, arranging for the name painter etc etc, so the blog this day is somewhat "we did this, we did that". We are also unable to add any pictures right now as the wifi system we are using is quite slow for some reason today. We have access to a direct plug-in in the office area and we will use that to upload pictures but we are both feeling quite lazy so you will have to wait with bated breath. Actually, there is a front moving through here so it is wet and cloudy, although WARM, so the pictures are somewhat "wet and cloudy" but we will send them anyway.
So, there we are, about to start, have started, will be starting, which is a totally appropriate phrase to use because each day is a journey and an adventure and exciting and rewarding and we are trying to live each one to the fullest