We (and Trekker) are home!

Karen said in the last post that it felt right to ship Trekker, and to hasten our return home.  Having finished our 14 day quarantine now, during which we have been saturated with COVID 19 news, including terrible news of the virus' spread in the US, and elsewhere, it feels, more than ever, like we made the right decision.

The mast came down without any issues, and I got some help from the riggers to remove all the shrouds and spreaders, which turned out to be a good idea because Karen and I would never have got the spreaders off by ourselves.  

Thursday March 26 Trekker was hauled out and we went to work finishing preparations for her shipping.  The only issue we had on that front was removing the arch on which the solar panels are mounted, and which includes our dinghy lift. The arch needed to come off because it would make the load too tall to fit under bridges on the highway.  Karen and I were able to remove most of the bolts although it did cost us a rechargeable drill that we donated to Neptune.  Unfortunately one nut was determined to "spin", and in spite of my conquering my claustrophobia and wriggling from the aft cabin into the extreme back of the boat, I couldn't reach it.  We got some help from a younger more flexible helper from Whiticar (the marina's on site service folks), but he couldn't get at it either, so the final decision was to just drill off the head of the bolt to get the arch off and worry about putting it back in Midland.

Trekker waiting to have the arch removed, but otherwise ready to ship

By the end of the day Thursday the boat, mast, boom, dinghy and arch were ready to be picked up, the car was packed, we were very hot, sweaty, tired and faced with the prospect of the trip home.  We couldn't face the idea of just driving straight through so we booked a room in Fort Pierce for Thursday night and decided to get an early start Friday and take two days to get home.

Friday morning about 5 am Karen and I each rolled over and asked the other if we were sleeping.  With two negatives we decided to get on our way!  Friday we made it to Beckley WV, and stayed in a Marriott with about 5 other guests. The clerk at the front desk was very careful, wearing gloves and disinfecting my drivers license and credit card before returning them.  We crossed our fingers that they practiced the same attention to cleanliness in the room! 

Saturday we were on the road about 6 am and headed for Buffalo.  We had originally planned to take the rental car home and then drive in convoy with our own car back to Buffalo to drop off the rental, but we couldn't get a clear answer from the US CBP as to whether or not they would let us back in to drop off the rental.  Apparently it would have been at the discretion of the border agent.  So instead our son Trevor and partner Kate came up with a plan to drive to Midland to pick up our car and convoy to Niagara Falls, ON where they would leave the car in a motel parking lot. We dropped off the rental and picked up a taxi at the Buffalo airport and drove across the border to the motel.  Trevor arrived just after us, wiped down the surfaces he had touched and left the car for us to load up. We waved our thanks, blew kisses and said goodbye.  It worked great!  Crossing the border we were informed that we were quarantined under the Quarantine Act, and that we would have to stay at home, no exceptions, for 14 days. They might be checking on us to be sure we were home.  If not we would face fines up to $750,000! The very pleasant border agent asked us if we had friends or family that would bring us food etc. and when she heard we did, bid us safe travels.

We arrived home with fumes left in the tank, and were so thankful for our move to Midland when we opened the fridge to a couple of beers and turkey soup dropped off by our friends Diane and Mac! Since then we have had numerous folks bring us food and booze. Thanks Ben, Victoria, Ken and Grace, Andrew and Rene!

During our quarantine Karen has done lots of knitting and baking, I have raked the lawn and done some figuring for how to frame the basement interior partitions and we have done one and a half jigsaw puzzles.  We have had a few online Zoom swizzles and in general enjoyed being home!

We finished our quarantine yesterday and headed over to the boat to pick up food and other essentials we had left aboard.  Unfortunately we forgot to check a couple of lockers so we went back today, moved the dinghy under Trekker, flipped it over and recovered the last of the food, including two bags of trail mix!    Karen made a few face masks the other day and plans to brave the grocery store tomorrow.

We're hopeful we will be joining friends and family again soon and sailing this summer, but for now it's one day at a time  ... stay apart, stay healthy!