Here we go again!

It is hard to believe that we are on our way south to get back on Trekker and out sailing again. The summer started off pretty slowly ... "Boatless and Bored" we called ourselves. We did our best to bum off as many friends as we could, including racing 5.5 Metre keelboats in Midland and visiting cottages up in the French River, Georgian Bay and Haliburton. We became quite the cinema aficionados, frequenting our little indie theater and seeing many of the TIFF movies for a third of the price. One of our goals was to find as many local independent coffee shops as we could and the Kitchener Public Library coffee lounge become one of our favorites. We also joined the Conestoga Sailing Club and did a few races.

But most exciting was our decision to move from Kitchener to Midland. We have been talking about moving to Midland for many years, as we have spent many, many summers up there boating, and have made a great group of friends from the sailing community.  Friends showed us a vacant lot that was for sale by a custom home builder, and long story short, we are building a home we have designed and will be moving next fall. It will be very busy once we get home from this trip, picking everything out for the house!

As fall came we knew that we needed to start preparing for our trip on the boat, but somehow we managed to avoid most of the prepping until the last few weeks.  Of course preparing our home for Christmas took up time.... shopping, baking, decorating ... I was definitely going to make up for missing Christmas last year!  Both of the kids came home for Christmas, they really didn't have much of a choice in the matter!! It was a wonderful time with family and friends.

Hugh bought spares for the boat and painted the propeller. We have a cupboard in the basement that is designated "the boat cupboard", and anytime we buy something "for the boat" it gets shoved in there and forgotten about. So our first job was to go through the cupboard and see exactly what we had collected.  I made a list  of things I needed to take back when we left the boat last spring, and slowly the list was checked off.  Unfortunately the list wasn't as complete as I'd hoped!  Trying to remember what we had brought home and what we left was a bit of a challenge. Did we bring home the towels? Pillows? Napkins?  What clothes should we bring this time? Definitely not as many as last year, as we went through three seasons and had lots of clothes and coats for each season. This year will be mostly warm temperatures, but I do remember it being cooler in January. Shoes, sandals, hats, bathing suits, sweatshirts and jackets ... all very necessary wardrobe items. 

Following Christmas we started making piles in the den of boxes and bags. I collected a few food items from home, including spices and dry goods already in my tupperware containers. I also bought a few food items that we aren't able to get in the States.  Games, card sets, cookbooks, and items from the drugstore such as shampoo and soaps, toiletries and medications, all went into the pile. On January 1st Hugh began packing up the car so we would be ready to leave bright and early the next morning. Everything fit in very nicely, and we were quite proud of ourselves at our great packing job, until we started looking around, and checked lists, and realized we had forgotten a few things. I don't think we could have fit another thing into that poor car!!  

We left January 2nd and took a two night side trip to Amelia Island, which is located at the very top of Florida, then arrived in Fort Pierce on January 5th and gave Trekker a big hug. We have rented a condo for a week while we put her back together. Those that followed us last year will remember that we emptied her into a storage locker, since this was the first year we had left her in the hot, humid Florida summer and had no idea what to expect. So now we have to do the reverse. We may rethink that idea in the spring!

The distance that took us 5 months to sail last year took us two days of driving this year! It is so awesome to watch the countryside slowly turn from browns to greens, and to begin seeing flowers, and palm trees. Every time we stopped for gas or a pit stop it was warmer and warmer. So nice! It was also fun recalling our trip down the U.S. coast as we drove past towns and ports that we had visited or sailed by.

Before she goes back into the water we need to paint the bottom of the boat. Once she is in the water we can load her up. Another big job that needs to be done is provisioning. We will be shopping for four months worth of food, wine and beer. The challenge is finding where to put it all!!

This year we plan to sail down to Miami where we will hopefully meet up with our boat buddies from last year, Bob and Sheila, on Her Diamond, and head over to Bimini Island. We will then head over to the Exumas, which we loved. The hope is to visit anchorages and  islands along the way that we did not get to last year. We will make our way up to the Abacos before heading back to Florida where we will leave the boat again. 

So we hope that you will follow as we explore the Bahamas again. You never know what kind of adventure we will have!
Here we go again.....one day at a time!