WE MADE IT!

Our wonderful daughter-in-law and granddaughter

That's right... after NINE years of planning, and 4 crazy years of preparation, we are no longer dirt dwellers! We departed yesterday, July 1st 2014 from Hamilton Ontario on what we hope is an adventure of a lifetime....  We left the Burlington Bay at the 09:00 bridge and had AWESOME winds out of the south west ALL DAY...

We made it to Youngstown NY last evening and after a delicious meal at a family run diner we layed in bed and watched a few episodes of Criminal Minds until we sat out in our cockpit to watch the Canada Day fireworks across the river in Niagara-on-the Lake... When we checked in to the USA  we learned that we need a cruising permit to travel through the US...  We will be getting that in Oswego NY when we get there in a few days... Who Knew?

Shelley and I want to thank all the people who dropped by over our last few days to see us off...  We will miss our friends and family so much and seeing you before we left means so much to us...

As far as the boat goes, we tore the painter cleat off the dinghy as we pulled away, so I will be fixing that tomorrow, and today we set our drifter sail for the first time this year and we blew it out!  That either means that is is worn out and needs replacing or I did something  horribly wrong...  but I can't thing of what I might have done wrong, so we are going with "the sail must be worn out"....

We had intended to spend our second night in Oak Orchard NY, but the wind picked up just before we arrived and we decided to sail on to Rochester NY.  What a great decision, the sailing was even better than yesterday and we arrived just before 7pm with a sun tan and an appetite...

We think we may stay in Rochester to help our American friends celebrate their 4th of July...  We heard the fireworks are great here in Rochester...  We will see how we feel in the morning...  So far, LIFE IS GREAT!!!!

Cheers,
Kyle & Shelley