Another Year, Another Adventure

Trekker following her summer in Ft. Pierce

For those of you who have been faithful followers of our blog, we last left off with our deciding to sell Trekker, and our upcoming move to our new house in Midland.  The house was Ready for Takeover ahead of schedule and close to budget and we moved in September 18, 2019. Within a few  busy weeks Midland felt  like home.  We attended a few parties, welcomed 45 folks to our open house, joined Askennonia, A Centre for People 55+, (we call ourselves "Junior Seniors") and the Midland Curling Club. We've been curling a couple of times a week, I've  been taking Ukulele lessons and yoga and Hugh has been playing pickle ball occasionally and was acclaimed Vice-Commodore of the Midland Bay Sailing Club. We also volunteered at the local community theatre as ushers for their first play of the season. There's nothing like jumping into a community with both feet! And then there is the snow ... it was like a switch was turned on, and as of November 1st it has been pretty white up here!
So as time went by, and sailing friends started talking about heading south to their boats in warm places, we started thinking about what to do with Trekker.  She did not sell over the summer. Being located in Florida did not help. She is a Canadian registered boat, and can not be sold (or even shown) to an American resident without importing her into the States (at great cost, and time). Also, there are thousands of boats for sale down there, so our market was reduced to a Canadian or someone not from the States looking for a great cruising boat, ready to go.  Also, we starting doing some research into what we could  buy to replace her. Trekker is just a little too long and wide to dock at the Midland Bay Sailing Club.  The thought was to get  something a little smaller that we could keep at the club, since its only a four minute drive from our new house!  But we came to the conclusion that we have a great boat, upgraded the way we want. So ... after much thought we have taken her off the market and have decided to keep her. 
So, you ask, what now?  After much discussion we have decided that we would love to have her back in clean, fresh, wonderful Georgian Bay, especially now that we are living here and can go for a day or mid-week cruise without much effort or having to drive two and a half hours from Kitchener. 
We looked into trucking her back home, but that is super expensive.  The thought of bringing her back up the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) and trying to get under those bridges again  makes our hearts palpitate! And The Admiral (me) is not keen on sailing  her up the Atlantic coast for three to four days straight to avoid those bridges. 
So, we are now trying to find a trucking company that would truck just the mast north, and we will come home via the ICW, pretending to be a trawler! 
We have also decided to go across to the Bahamas one more time, since it is too soon (and cold) to start bringing her up the ICW in January. And this way we can avoid most of the Canadian winter!
We left on January 10th and drove down to the boat to get her ready for the season. We decided not to launch her until the end of January, so we spent a week getting the canvas on, sails on, and some provisions onboard.  We then drove back home. It sounds crazy, but we really didn't want the car to sit in Florida while we brought the boat back home,  then we would have to go back to get it at some point. So we are now home for a week, and are flying back down January 30th. The boat goes in the water on the 31st, and we will move on board.  
The plan right now is to sail over to the Bahamas for February and March, then head back to Florida at the beginning of April, take the mast down, and slowly head north.  We have wonderful memories of exploring the great little towns along the east coast during our trip down, so we plan to go to places we missed on the way down and do some more exploring. We will be re-tracing our voyage down, heading up the Hudson River and across the Erie Canal (and all those locks!) again. The Erie Canal does not open until mid May, so we hope to be back to Midland by mid-June. We will keep her at Hindsons Marina, where we docked her before we left, and even have the same slip we had three years ago! (its a ten minute drive to get there)
Crazy, I know, I really didn't think I would be doing this again, but hey, I'm always up for another adventure!
So we invite you to travel along with us, exploring new and old places ... one day at a time!