Our Journey Ends

West End to Fort Pierce

The saying "time flies when you are having fun" couldn't be more true as we end this amazing journey that we embarked on almost 10 months ago!
Our final leg was from West End, Old Bahama Bay Marina, across the gulf stream, to Fort Pierce. It's always a challenge to get the right weather window to cross the stream. All indications, including our free Weather Routing information, our own assessment, and other boaters in the marina pointed to crossing Friday. With the distance being 85 nm, about a 14 hour sail, we decided to leave at 4 am to ensure that we arrived during daylight, which is very important when making landfall at a new inlet and marina.
We had a couple of great relaxing days in West End, however, we never did donate our extra canned food to the church. It turned out to be too complicated to arrange customs approval.

Old Bahama Bay Marina and Resort

Friday morning arrived early, with the alarm going off at 3:15 am. Dressed, tea made, and lines removed, we were off the dock at 3:59 am! It was pretty dark, but the marina had good navigation lights to guide us out of the basin, and once out it was basically point the boat towards Fort Pierce and go! Which is what we did. The sail started off great, however the wind (but not the waves) slowly died, so it ended up being a  pretty sloppy ride over. We arrived at Harbortown Marina at about 5 pm, and were quite happy to be tied up to the dock. We had  a beer and dinner at the marina restaurant to celebrate successful completion of our last leg!

Back in Florida!

Saturday was organization day. After Hugh picked up the rental van (yup ... a minivan!) we started loading it up with some of the food and clothes we had packed up, then checked into the condo that we rented for the week while we put the boat away. Next we found a storage unit for all the contents of the boat. We also visited Customs and Border Patrol for a "face-to-face" interview, as directed when we reported our arrival.
Sunday we started clearing out the boat and "summerizing" her for staying in hot, humid Florida for eight months. I will not bore you with all the details, but I will tell you that we have worked our butts off  for the last week, transferring the boat's contents to the van and then to the storage room, cleaning, purging, and doing maintenance on the engine, generator, outboard motor and dinghy. Removing all the sails and canvas was also a big job which needed to be done with little wind so we could fold everything up.

Naked Trekker without her sails and canvas

The boat was scheduled to haul out on Thursday at noon, and with minutes to spare, we were ready!
She came out without a hitch, with the able marina crew deftly manovering her into the slings and then slowly moving her over to the spot where she will sit until our return.

Trekker moving to her summer spot

It feels very surreal to be off the boat and have her packed away. The last ten months have been an amazing time, and we are both very proud of how much we have accomplished. According to Hugh's brother Adrian, who was our "go-to adviser and all around wealth of boating knowledge", we are now officially "seasoned cruisers"!

Here are a few of my observations from the trip:

I am braver than I thought I would be. This trip challenged me, and at times I wasn't sure if I would be able to continue.  Ultimately I was determined to finish what I had started. I'm so glad I did!

Boaters are amazing people. Friendly, helpful and always willing to share stories and information. We have learned a lot from other boaters. In particular we were very fortunate to meet Bob and Sheila on Her Diamond and Bill and Michael on Aquila and develop lasting friendships!

Trekker is an amazing boat. She sailed like a dream and never let us down. I guess that is one of the advantages of having a newer boat. She also has an amazing Captain!

We are so glad that we took our time and did not go with a "schedule". We saw so many interesting places along the U.S. coastline, and in the Bahamas. It is a big world with so much to discover!

Life is really nice when you slow down and enjoy it. The Bahamas had such a laid back feeling that is was hard not to "go with the flow".  

For almost ten months we barely saw, read or heard about current events. You'd be surprised how that reduces your stress level!!   

We live in a truly amazing world. With internet, data and cell phones I rarely felt far from home. Thank you to our family and friends for keeping in touch throughout our trip.

We would like to thank all our blog followers for coming along with us on our journey. Your words of encouragement and advice were always gratefully accepted. We hope you enjoyed the ride!!

We're looking forward to enjoying all that Ontario has to offer in the summer and fall, without a boat. We will be back to enjoy next winter on Trekker ... one day at a time.

It's been a blast!