Presentation

We did our first presentation last night on our trip to the Humber Sailing Club. We all had a lot of fun. Before we went I had to twist the kids arms to speak to a few things like provisioning and homeschooling but on the way home last night they were wanting to do another presentation with more speaking parts!!!

They really enjoyed themselves and so did Graham and I. I did the thing I always seem to do in front of a room full of people (those of you who work with me can confirm), I had that mini anxiety attack at the beginning but I let the room know that I was nervous and then it vanished. Thank god it always seems to go away once I have said it!

It was fun for us to reflect on the trip from start to finish. It seem to actually get us more excited for our next leg and everyone in the room looked like they enjoyed themselves to.

So cool to have the opportunity to inspire other people! We are hooked.

Back in Toronto

We are home in Toronto and feeling great. Today as we flew over Lake Ontario and the CN Tower came into sight the pride in what we had accomplished over the last year was overwhelming. I even got a spontaneous hug out of Alex! Unfortunately no one is much in the mood for reflecting because they are having to much fun living. Below is an ode that Cheryl and Dave from Aries wrote us right after we made the decision to "Turn this rig around" and head back towards Panama. It sums up our story so far and is a great place to leave off. I hope you all have enjoyed reading about our adventure this past year. Our flights are booked to head back down to Artemo the first week in January....stay tuned!

Ode to the Perry's Prairie Dream

A long time ago, on the vast prairie
This family was inspired to take to the sea.
Well sailing they had never done
But somehow they thought it might be fun!

So off to Toronto they went in a flash
Where in each of their courses they made a big "Splash"!
One course to learn the parts of a boat
Another to understand how to tie up a rope!

To fix anything, Graham had all the skills
And keeping the family together is Julie's will.
Alex knew how to steer with no rudder
And Amelia could cook like no other.

Oh yes....and we definitely need a boat!
There's nothing better on which to float.
So off to Antigua they did go,
To search for, and find, ol' "Artemo".

They surveyor came in and did his job?
Yah, right! He was such a sod!
He declared "Artemo" safe and sound
Oh no, not a bit of rot could be found!

So confidently they sailed away
Out of a safe harbour, out of the bay....
Down to Grenada and into a yard,
Where sadly soon "Artemo's" up on the Hard!

Well "Artemo" is a handsome French Ketch
But her rotten cabin really made them retch.
They didn't give up, they perservered
Working through many things they feared.

Twelve weeks of living in an airless hell
For their dreams t'was the death knoll!
Broke and sad they headed North
To find the surveyor and kill him off!

Three years to sail the world, they dreamed.
Now one year later, harder than it seemed!
So they nearly gave up and to TO returned.
Until St. Lucia, where having fun they relearned.

Now sailing the seas on "Artemo's" Keel
A Life of Adventure is for real.
It's not always easy but it sure is fun
"Come 'on, give us some weather we can't outrun".

"Yes we can!" comes their refrain
We've done it before, we'll do it again!
We'll rise up to each challenge sailing brings
Meeting good friends and learning new things.

Now it's back to the plan that they had before
And they're off on the sea to explore some more.
Knowing their boat from inside out
And trusting themselves now without any doubts!

("well maybe a few!")

Your crew is fit and your're in the flow.
Au revoir "Artemo", you're ready to GO!

Feelin' HOT HOT HOT

OMG Cartagena is HOT. Ok, so you know I have complained about the heat before but this is CRAZY heat. We look like we just stepped out of a shower, all the time. I have never sweated like this before, beads of water all over me. Let me ask you this.....When it is this hot what is the best thing to do???hmmmm.........Strenuous boat work! ha

Graham and I have managed to get Artemo all packed up and hauled out. We took down the sails, covered all the cushions in plastic, coiled all the lines, cleaned out all the cupboards, covered the boat with tarps and the list goes on. We would leave the kids at the marina and Graham and I would work on the boat in the blazing heat. I even managed to get a whistle the other day from some locals. I was stripped down to least amount of clothes possible and we were wrestling with the sails. We were dirty and sweaty and I got a whistle!!!! Ha, at this point, I will take what I can get :-).

We checked into a little bed & breakfast for our last few nights. It is a beautiful place. From the street it looks like just a big giant door. Then you knock on this giant size knocker and a little window opens and they check you out and then the little door within the big door opens and you are in an oasis! It is very cool. There is a nice little pool in the court yard and hammocks and parrots, so beautiful! and best of all AIR CONDITIONING! Unfortunately though, I had to break it to the kids that it is a "Bed AND Breakfast" place, NOT a "Breakfast IN Bed" place. Too funny. They both thought they would be getting breakfast in bed.

Cartagena is an awesome city. Taxi's are dirt cheap and eating out is super cheap, so we have basically been eating, eating, eating!! Feels like we are spoiling ourselves but it is cheaper to eat out then to make our own meals. The city is alot bigger than we thought it would be. Population is over a million and it has lots of modern facilities. It looked like what it would probably look like to sail into Miami. The old city has so much history in it to and we have spent many hours just walking the cobblestone streets. Everyone tries really hard to help our Spanish along. We all want to take a Spanish course when we get back to Toronto.

Our flights are booked to come home. We arrive in Toronto on Sunday! We have booked return flights to Cartagena, for the first week in January. I will get the kids and Graham to write a small paragraph each on their thoughts of this past year for our final blog. It has definitely been a year full of adventure!

Arrived in Cartagena!

Hi All, Thanks for all your nice birthday comments and emails. Made me feel good! We arrived today at 1:30pm in Cartagena. It is a HUGE city. Very cool. We are just getting settle in. The trip here was good and luckily uneventful. We are excited to get Artemo hauled out and book flights home. I had some time on the journey here to do a video of the kids getting their Open Water Dive Certification. Enjoy. Julie

Day Three at Sea

Well here we are, day 3, en route to Cartagena. I thought you might all like to hear our thoughts on various aspects of being on a boat for this long.....

The Ocean - Amelia

One thing about the ocean is that it can be really rough or really calm or just perfect. Today it was just perfect. I saw dolphins. There are many flying fish. The water is a beautiful blue color. I have never seen anything this amazing. The downside is that when you go to sleep at nighttime you go up to the high side and then you have a big wave and then you roll back down to the bottom, so you can never get a good position. It usually takes me 1/2 hour to fall asleep but last night I fell asleep in a jif, I was so tired. The thing I find the most strange, is that we are so far from everything and can't see land but we still see birds. It is hard to imagine how they get this far out.

Sea Sickness - Alex

Sea sickness is never fun. On this trip I had it the worst. Overtime sea sickness gets better but it always seems to linger in your stomach and it is never fun. Amelia is practically immune to it. She is always downstairs and watching tv and stuff. Mom and Dad don't seem to get it to bad either. I usually stare at the horizon so I don't feel as sick. It doesn't usually help very much. We also have ginger gum.

Hygiene - Julie

I am sick of feeling grungy. It seems that the grunge factor is multiplied on extended passages. At night everything seems to get a layer of salt on it and everything gets damp. I have taken to wearing socks and this seems to help a bit. We don't seem to change our clothes as often and unfortunately we aren't swimming! Yesterday we put a large bucket in the cockpit and took turns cleaning. Everything seems 100% better when you are clean.

Sleeping - Alex

Sleeping is hard because you have to go below to do it and that usually makes my sea sickness worse. Once you do get to sleep though you don't seem to get woken up by the rolling.

Sailing - Graham

Down wind sailing is great. You usually have a helpful current and Artemo likes to sail "wing on wing". We become a kite and fly up and down the waves. There is the roll that you have to deal with as Artemo pitches back and forth and rolls side to side. This action can become quite violent at times. Currently, we are not sailing, but are motoring. Flat seas with no wind down here equates to HOT. We knew this was coming and decided it was better to motor through this stretch than chance getting getting hammered by the almost constant high winds and seas that are the norm for this area.

Boredom - Amelia

Some people might think that living on a boat and sailing on blue waters and not seeing much land might be pretty exciting. A little scary but pretty exciting. Thats what I thought at first but NO it is the boringest thing you can ever do. Once in a while you can watch a tv show but you can't watch tv 24 hours a day. I have my mp3 but it also gets boring. If you run out of that stuff, you can write or do mazes but sometimes that makes you feel a little yucky inside. Fortunately on this trip I had stuff to think about, like going to Toronto and being able to shop, so I am spending hours at a time just thinking about Toronto and seeing my friends and family.

Here are our votes:

Could you see yourself doing this for 23 days at sea?

Amelia - YES
Julie - YES
Alex - YES
Graham - YES