FOUR IN

The four of us have made a pretty big decision about a week or so ago but before we get there I need to share a few details that I haven't mentioned. When Artemo left Grenada and we watched as we left what we thought was our black cloud behind and we headed to Carriacou, we thought it was smooth sailing ahead. We were exhausted both physically and mentally at that point. When we found more problems on that first leg of the trip after the reno, it was more than a little devastating. We really felt defeated. All four of us. We began to talk about what the trip was suppose to be and were we all happy. We told the kids flat out that it was "Four in or Four out"! They said they wanted out and Graham and I were easily convinced. We were done. We all started to fantasize about our new life in Toronto. A new place near the kids friends, with all our things from Alberta. We even talked about getting a dog. Amelia started thinking about how she would design her new room and Alex was wondering about Jr High with his friends. Graham and I thought about life minus the stress and continuous problems. We thought about how great it would be to start fresh in TO.

We decided that we would sail to Antigua and haul Artemo out and put her up for sale. We decided that we would start enjoying the days more, even though there was still much work to do. Introduce a bit more balance. We also decided to try and just let the idea sit with us for a few months and "Decide not to decide". We realized how easy it is to change our mind and we wanted to wait til we were sure that we were done with this chapter of our life before we said it was so.

Turned out that this was the best thing we could of done. The pressure of "around the world" was gone and we also thought that we might only have a few more months of this life left, so we tried to soak it in. Then the strangest thing happened. Alex and Amelia were gone for the night to our friends Cheryl and Dave's boat and Graham and I had a chance to talk alone. Graham finally said it out loud that he thought we were heading in the wrong direction. Even if we decided not to decide, we could turn around and start heading in the right direction of the Panama Canal. As soon as he said it, I was excited. It totally seemed like the right thing to do. Over the past few months when times were good we would joke about who wanted to stay and who wanted to go. Amelia was pretty much up for anything. She seemed to sway whatever way the wind was blowing. Alex wasn't so easily convinced. He had already picked out his type of dog and was wanting off the crazy Perry roller coaster. Graham and I realized that if Alex wanted didn't want to continue then we wouldn't be.

Well the next morning Alex and Amelia came home. Graham and I were working on the floors and we didn't say a word to the kids about our discussion and out of the blue Alex says, "You know I could see myself sailing around the world." Graham and I stopped working and my mouth dropped. We told Alex and Amelia about our discussion the night previous. All of sudden our faces were all smiles and we were all saying, "Four IN"!!! So exciting, so very exciting. We had decided to turn around and begin to head towards PANAMA! We spent that night reviewing all of our options as a family and making sure that we really were all good with this new turn of events.

So here is the gist of what we have decided so far but please keep in mind that as with any plan, things change. Today (in like 20 minutes) we are leaving beautiful St Lucia and going for a 20 to 24 hour overnight sail to Grenada. We are going to sail down the windward side of the islands, to try and flex our sailing skills. We have had our life raft serviced and watched how it inflated and saw what provisions were inside it. We bought flares that weren't expired. We have our EPIRB. Amelia and I packed our ditch bag. We hooked up our hydrovane. We are deflating our dinghy and we are ready.

The plan is to stay in Grenada for a bit, then sail 3 nights to Los Roches and then to Curasco and then to Cartenga, Columbia!!! We hope to haul Artemo out in Cartenga and be home the first week in June for about 6 months. The kids want to go to school in our old neighborhood, so we will need to find a place from September to December in the district. There it is, our plan on paper! So are we all a little nervous about the sail tomorrow??? YES!! Alex said he wished he could just snap his fingers and we would arrive at the next destination. Wouldn't that be nice. The kids are hoping their friend Adam is still at the marina in Grenada. I will try and post a note enroute through the SSB. Who knows after 24 hours of sailing the plan might change :-)! Life is funny that way but for now it is "FOUR IN"!