Comic Books

 Coming back to Grenada has surfaced a bit of PTSD for us. Not sure if folks remember that this was where we came with Artemo (our first boat) and did a major overhaul to her. We moved into a fourplex in what felt to us like the middle of the jungle, way out in the middle of nowhere. We had no car, no AC, no fan (we did end up borrowing one). The trek to the boat yard was a challenge. It involved a

walk to the main road and if it had rained there was often a river flowing over this road to our home. It then involved hailing a bus to the top of the marina road and then hiking 1.5kms to the yard. Getting to town to grocery shop was even worse. Graham and I reflect often on these 5 months of our life, and we ask ourselves “What the heck were we thinking?”. I think this was when we coined the phrase “Perry Style”. Basically, on the cheap 😉 and the hard way.  A boat reno is stressful enough and we had totally removed our coach roof but then to couple this with no comfy retreat to relax at after a long hot day was totally crazy. Also, isolating us in the middle of nowhere homeschooling was a recipe for mental breakdown. Don’t get me wrong, we have lots of good memories from this time and overcoming all these hardships definitely brought us very close together but if I could go back and talk to Past Julie….I’d have a lot to say!

Given this learning, we may have now swung to far to the other side of the pendulum. When we arrived in Grenada this time, we had booked into a resort to spend our week of quarantine and it was glorious. So glorious in fact that we ended up moving in and spending our first two months in Grenada as we worked through the purchase of Ailsa, living at the RESORT! I felt like Richie Rich – remember that
comic?  Once we were the official owners of Ailsa and had made our project’s list and I retired from work (gulp), we moved into a more modest apartment, but it had AC! We also rented a car and being able to go where we wanted, when we wanted allowed us to explore this (what we now realize) beautiful island.

We balanced our days with boat work, exploring and time with new friends. Over the course of three months, we completely gutted our anchor locker removed any traces of rotted wood and refilled with coosaboard which is a heavy duty fiberglass composite and replaced our corroded windlass. This project slowly grew in size and complexity but luckily our expectations were set with past experiences, and we rolled with the punches and were prepared for the flow of money from our wallet. We also decided that now was the time to replace the tiny solar arch on the back deck with a new one that spans the entire width and allows

for more solar panels across it. In amongst these two big projects, we did a lot of smaller items as well, getting to know Ailsa and making her feel like ours in the process.  (see before and after pics here)

It wasn’t to long before we realized the work would take us until the beginning of hurricane season, so it was best not to launch Ailsa until the fall and use the summer to fly home and spend time with family and pack up our belongings that we want to ship to the boat. It is a bit disheartening, but it is going to be oh so sweet in November when we returned to our newly reno’d boat and sail away. 

Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will

 As I get older I find I question my decisions more than when I was young. It's like my knowledge and experience are a set of handcuffs. I envy my youth and naivety. Decision making was so much easier then without any doubt.

Graham and I managed to jump through all the covid travel hoops and the "pack up our lives in 13 days" hoops and now here we are out of our 10 day quarantine and climbing up the ladder of Ailsa. A 46 foot, 2008 Island Packet sailboat in Grenada, out of the water and in the marina's yard. 

As we stepped into the cockpit it was a bit overwhelming. We put an offer on this vessel sight unseen and had moved mountains to get here.  This time it feels like we are buying a home not just a sailboat and for some reason I feel a heavy pressure to make the right decision. We put conditions on the offer, so now was our time to be sure.

Graham immediately started going over everything outside and I headed down below. The yacht broker followed me. Ailsa had been tidied down below but you could tell the previous owners had left her in a hurry once covid had started. Things were a bit messy and given it had been awhile surfaces, cupboards and storage areas

were dirty. It wasn't the grand reveal I was hoping for. I felt a bit of a "gulp" in my throat as the broker watched my face and tried to get me talking. I felt stunned to silence and I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts as I inspected every inch and began to wonder "are we making the right decision". He wasn't having any of that and began to ask me questions. I was getting irritated. He wanted to go over systems with me and I was thinking "Hold on Nelly, I haven't signed anything yet".

I kept trying to see past the mess to the bones but my expectations were so high it was hard. I was wishing Graham would return from up top and save me from being rude to our very kind broker. I finally had to join him on deck and I could see he had found his own surprises. He let us know that when he opened the anchor locker at the bow of the boat he saw a very rusted and corroded windlass which is used to raise the anchor. The state of the locker also caused him to pause for a moment and adjust his expectations. 

Needless to say, we returned back to our resort that night with a lot to think about. For those of you who followed our adventures on Artemo you know we may have jumped too quickly into a full on "project" boat. We didn't want to make the same mistake here. 

Over the next month we had Ailsa surveyed and took her for a sea trial sail. We also carefully examined every inch of her and her equipment. We priced out replacing the windlass, cleaning up the anchor locker and a few other odds and ends we found. We considered time and effort required and finally after probably way too much deliberation and negotiation we successfully purchased our new floating home. We are excited to fix the things we found, add some new things we want and give her a good cleaning to make her our own. This will also give us an opportunity to learn a lot about Ailsa in the process. 

The bones of this boat are stellar. She has a full keel, a center cockpit and a huge 11 by 7 foot aft deck. The boat is built to take care of us in a storm and is rock solid at 34,500 lbs! Down below there is 7 feet of headroom with raised windows surrounding the saloon. The navigation station has a comfy captain chair and there are two separate accommodations at either end of the boat both with a bathroom and seated shower. The galley kitchen is spacious with a huge fridge and separate freezer and even a separate drink fridge drawer. The saloon is big enough for a few of us to do yoga in.....which I am always planning to begin doing....tomorrow ;-).

The other pluses are that the previous owners believed in redundancy and there seems to be a second of everything, including auto pilot, alternators, pumps, etc. The cupboards are full!

We did good with this boat. I feel good saying this now but man decisions are hard as you get older. I'm looking forward to sharing our adventures and renovations with you all! 

Wild Fire

Here we were as COVID-19 continued to rage during the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 in our 6-month townhouse rental in a suburb of Calgary, working from home. The space was cozy enough but we had stripped any remaining normalcy from our lives by selling our home in Toronto, packing up and driving across the country to this new temporary home. It didn’t help that we couldn’t visit with family and friends, that there was 16 hours of darkness a day or the weird Alberta fluctuations in weather with -30 without the wind chill and hard packed snow- and ice-covered streets being very normal. We resigned ourselves to the situation and focused on the good stuff like Christmas planning with the kids, skiing and of course on-line sailboat shopping!!

We both had notifications from the major websites letting us know when a boat with our desired specs would come available and we were also scouring the internet for any yachts for sale via other methods. Over the course of 3 months, we had found so many “perfect for us” boats and had gotten totally invested in owning them. We would have virtual tours, begin the planning process and could see ourselves as owners. Then when we would hear that an offer was pending and then eventually the boat would be sold. We had never seen boats selling so quickly ever before. It was definitely disheartening.

Come early January, I was done riding the “Get our hopes up excitement train” and just wanted to wait until we were actually ready to jump on a plane and put our money where our mouth was. Graham continued his search without me. Our intention was to stay at the rental until the end of March and then to put our belongings into storage and figure our next steps towards full time sailing.

Well, as is the case with all of our past adventures, a tiny spark builds to a raging Wild Fire in a matter of moments 😉. It was Monday, January 18^th and I was madly cleaning because the landlords had decided to list the home for sale just to make things more interesting during Covid. The videographer was coming that afternoon to take the pictures and videos for the brochure and website. I was in a full on sweat with mop in hand, my ear phones on and talking to a colleague from work when Graham comes into the kitchen and wants to chat. He proceeds to remind me about a boat we had looked at online awhile ago in Grenada which was everything we wanted but that we had dismissed because the price was a bit out of reach. We agree the boat was awesome but the price didn’t work. He suggests that we put in an offer for $30,000 USD less than they were asking and obviously on condition of survey and sea trial. We very briefly discuss what we would do if they accept the offer, such as “how the heck are we going to get to Grenada during Covid?”. We decide there is no way they will accept and then off he goes and I continue cleaning.

Well, I am sure you can imagine how the rest of this story goes. While we are out of the house for the photos, we receive a text from the broker that they have accepted the offer!! OMG, OMG, OMG. We are both in the car and are like…” Now what?”. That evening we have decided to completely pack our house and give the landlord our notice for the end of January. I remember calling my mom and she said, “how could I have kept all of this a secret?”. She really couldn’t believe we had decided to do all of this in one day 😉. Either could I!!

Now the hard part began, figuring out how to get from Calgary, Alberta to Grenada during Covid and while following the ever-changing Covid protocols. I am not going to lie to you this was a moving target that was very difficult to navigate. We booked and rebooked a number of flights and took way too many Covid tests. We needed to ensure that we had the Covid results in hand prior to departure in Calgary and that the results were less than 3 days old when we arrived in Grenada. There were also no direct flights to sunshine destinations so we had multiple flights and an overnight stay in the US prior to getting to Grenada, so you can imagine the difficulty in all of this. We also had to work out all the quarantine rules and paperwork in Grenada. The regular insane stuff like packing our house, renting a storage container, sorting out storage for our car, insurance and logistics of the move during Covid while still working (albeit part time for me but full time for Graham) seemed like a cake walk.

The other difficult stressful part was finding a new wonderful home for Aiden. I have known for the past couple years as we have talked about this next chapter of our lives that this would need to happen but it didn’t make it any easier. My sister agreed to take him while we figured out a long-term solution. Aiden loves it at their house but unfortunately, they just weren’t set up to keep him permanently.  Shockingly everything came together though, my Dad reached out to friends of theirs (Randy and Aleitha) who use to own a sheltie and asked if they would be interested. We set up a video chat and within moments they told us how excited they would be to be Aiden’s new parents. After getting off the call we both knew that Aiden was going to be loved and treasured by them. I took time to write them a short novel all about Aiden – from how to care for him to all his personality quirks 😉. Aleitha send me a response that read, “…Wish we could prepare him for us by letter!” I know he will love the attention and new love, and it won’t take him long to adjust. We got very lucky finding these two awesome parents!

So now here we are, the night before our one-way flight from Calgary to Dallas to Miami to Grenada, all alone at my brothers’ home as they are away, organizing our carry ons and 1 checked piece of luggage. There are so many unknowns ahead of us. My stomach is churning with a cocktail of fear and excitement. I have missed this feeling. I have craved this feeling.

Friday the 13th - The Finish Line

My final evening watch was everything I could of hoped for as I said my goodbyes to Mother Ocean. The moon was full. There were no clouds and a perfect sprinkling of stars across the sky. The air was warm and the wind was enough to push us along at a reasonable speed and so smoothly. I remember wishing for just a couple more days but alas everyone had been in “race” mode for a few days now. Ps. Final results for who won aren’t in yet since they need to calculate how many engine hours and different handicaps for boat size. We are thinking we are in the top four though :-). 

It is pretty apparent I am not the person you want on board if you want to be continuously tuning the rig for optimum performance. I prefer to set the sails for comfort and gaze off into the endless blue remarking on nature’s beauty and beginning my journey of self reflection. Lol. 

I did my best to step up and be ready and willing for changing out sails, shaking out reefs, playing with the Genoa, experimenting with different sail configurations for speed but my heart wasn’t in it. I wanted to spend my three hour watches studying how the squalls moved across the water and the changes of the ocean, watching for dolphins, pondering how humongous the waves were, feeling the exhilaration of surfing down them, and don’t get me started again on the sun and the moon. I paired all this with a music playlist that filled me with joy. Soooo ya...I wanted a few more days out there. ;-)

There was one little pesky jester though who was determined to jolt me from my joyful bliss. On that last watch as I sat with face to wind and eyes on the moon a black sharp beaked bird came right at me out of nowhere. I screamed and grabbed the sleeping bag we had in the cockpit all rolled up and began flailing it around. Graham thinks I’m nuts at this point. I'm screaming bird, and terrified it’s going to come into our enclosed area which only has one open side where I am sitting. Graham hasn’t seen the bird at this point and is laughing hysterically and then all of a sudden it comes straight at me again. I continue flailing and quickly zip up the door so he can’t get in and I am totally on edge. I realize there is still one spot he come come in through so I’m agitated and looking everywhere for him. That’s when I turn around and would you believe that little bugger was sitting right behind me on the solar panel. This was my queue to head to bed and close my door. 

Hours later we were pulling into St Lucia in the dark and rain. For the journey across we stayed on Canary Island time so now it was four hours earlier in St Lucia, in the early morning hours. As we made our way through the channel and onto the dock I looked to my teams faces and I could see happiness, excitement, relief, pride, and strength. We all brought to this experience a unique aspect. People bring color to your life and enrich your experiences. You learn new things, they inspire and they provide opportunity for self reflection. I am very grateful for my time on Mareas and to have been a part of their first journey across the sea. 

Here is a link to a photo album from some pics from our crossing. Enjoy! 

Pss. Odd fact is that 7 years ago to the day on Friday the 13th of 2012 we completed our first Atlantic Ocean crossing and arrived in the Caribbean on Salty Ginger. 

It’s not all popcorn and Jimmy Buffet

The last two days we have had huge swell and erratic wind waves in varied directions with white tops. In addition, the wind has been gusting constantly from about 18 to upwards to 30 knots. Huge spread in speed making for all sorts of crazy. Often a very large rogue wave will be accompanied by a huge blast of wind which takes you careening sideways down into the crevasse of the wave. The auto pilot then tries to correct your course and sometimes in these corrections it takes the boat to a point of sail that could lead to an "accidental gybe". This basically takes the loaded up main sail which is leaned way out to one side of the boat and even tied off with something called a "preventor" and with a tremendous amount of force it swings hard to the other side of the boat. The preventor should basically prevent these accidents but if the wind gets on the other side of the sail and you don't catch in time there is no stopping it.

Unfortunately this happened to us and the force was enough to snap the preventive line in two. The noise sends chills through you and the boat bucks in all the wrong ways. It's very hard to stay calm and level headed in these circumstances but we did all manage and after only about 30 minutes a new line was on and we were back on course. Luckily the preventor did ease the force of the gybe even though the line broke.

A catamaran doesn't heel over but it does buck and bounce and rock side to side. In these two days it was very difficult to walk about. My outer thighs have bruises on them from knocking into things. You can't count on the motion like you can on a monohull and I seem to guess wrong often. It basically feels like you are in a washing machine. The motion feels so wrong that the first night of these conditions I kept getting up and checking on the other crew thinking we were in dire straights. Graham in his exhaustion, as we had just come off our shifts barked out, "if you are going to keep getting up and checking than sleep in the cockpit"!

Surprisingly we all manage to mostly keep our wits and humour. You can imagine the challenge in having 5 people on the boat with varied opinions on tactics and changing opinions based on how much sleep we have had and if we have read the latest ARC boats position reports. Even given all this we have all gotta along surprisingly well. We really lucked out with both boat and team.

We are now about 1-2 days away from arrival. The seas have eased way back and the wind is down. It's 1am and Graham's watch. I'm up with him in the cockpit and we just finished a bunch of popcorn and are listening to Jimmy Buffet sing Mother Ocean. It's a full moon tonight so really light out and the air is warm and the breeze is beautifully filling our light wind sail.

Seems everyone is itching to arrive but I'm sadly realizing tonight that I only have two more sunrises and one more sunset over this big beautiful sea. Man I'm going to miss this.