After 9 years of planning, and 4 years of preparation, we are finally on the adventure of a lifetime... On July 1st 2014 we left Ontario Canada setting out on an adventure that might just take us around the world.... This blog is a chronical of not only our trip but the work that went into getting us and our Dufour 12000ct Ketch rigged sailboat ready.... Enjoy... We are happy to share our adventures...
Directions
Our latest entry always comes up first...
Click this link if you want to start at the beginning of our trip from South Carolina (where we bought the boat) to Lake Ontario Click this link:
Our latest entry always comes up first... Click this link if you want to start at the beginning: FIRST BLOG ENTRY
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This morning we awoke to yet another foot of snow... I am wondering if this is God just reminding us of what we will miss next year...
When we got to the place where we couldn't reach the top of the pile anymore, we called a great friend with a Bobcat who came over and cleared away a pile of the snow from our median...
With 145 days to go before we leave I hope we make it through the most brutal winter that we can remember.... Global warming is a bunch of .... HOOOOEY!!!
On a much happier note, we have begun the process of gathering all the things that we want to take on the boat with us in the spring... The pile may look high, but much of the stuff in it was on the boat last year and we took it off for the winter... We are trying to keep our stuff to less than 8,000 lbs... Wish us luck!
Lastly, It was a great Superbowl on Sunday even if I wanted Denver to win... Thanks to T.J. & Donna for putting in such a great party... Next year we plan to Skype our way to the party...
Our latest entry always comes up first... Click this link if you want to start at the beginning: FIRST BLOG ENTRY
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Groundhog Day: predictions mixed for early spring
Shubenacadie Sam and Fred la Marmotte deliver good news for the winter-weary, but not Wiarton Willie
It's Groundhog Day, and the long-range forecast is in from Canada's woodchuck "weathermen."
Punxsutawney Phil is held by Ron Ploucha after emerging from his burrow on Sunday. (Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)
Ontario's Wiarton Willie emerged from his cozy den this morning and immediately spotted his shadow, which according to groundhog folklore means Canadians can expect six more weeks of what has already been a long, cold, snowy winter.
A little earlier Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie Sam waddled out into the morning light, but unlike Willie, he did not see his shadow — indicating warmer days are just ahead.
Fred la Marmotte in Val d'Espoir, a town in Quebec Gaspésie region, wasn't deterred by falling snow. He rendered his early-spring verdict around 9:30 a.m. ET on Sunday.
As for America's rodent royalty, Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil — the most famous groundhog of them all — he did see his shadow this morning, heralding another month and a half of Old Man winter.
However, regardless of what the groundhogs may be trying to tell us, Environment Canada is predicting the frigid temperatures that have gripped much of the country for the past two months will likely persist right through February.
I am just not too sure how much more winter I can take! This is what our house looks like from the end of our driveway this morning:
In a few weeks we will be heading to our mailbox to pick up a bunch of parts to finish up the last few winter projects. When I get home I will be building a Steady Cam bracket for our Nikon and GoPro camera, A solar water heater and a few other odds and ends...
As soon as spring arrives we will be heading to Rochester to pick up the boat. Our hope is the Yacht Club in Hamilton will find some space for us for the few weeks we will need to get ready to leave...
Our latest entry always comes up first... Click this link if you want to start at the beginning: FIRST BLOG ENTRY
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This week we spent some time finding ways to live "off the grid". While the boat is fairly self sufficient already, we took on a couple of projects this week that we hope will make life cheaper and easier for us. Our first acquisition was a SOLAR oven. We found this oven on You Tube and realized that with very little effort we could cook all kinds of food using ONLY energy from the sun. the whole story about the oven is at a place called Emergency Essentials
They also have an neat You Tube Video:
This is about a 12 minute video which shows what this unit is capable of. We hope to use it to save as much propane as possible...
This oven lead me to invent one more item. This will be a SOLAR HOT WATER HEATER. On the boat we have a 12 gallon hot water tank that either heats water with shore power (110 volts AC) or the engine, which has coolant line going to and from the engine. Thus when the engine is running, the coolant travels through an element inside the hot water tank and makes hot water. If we are at anchor for any period of time we will not be hooked up to shore power and we would prefer not to run the engine just to make hot water. So the Solar Hot Water Heater should do the trick.
If you can see the terrible diagram I drew, you see that I will add a 3 way valve to the supply and return coolant lines which will take the engine in and out of the heating loop. With the valves in one direction, the engine will heat the water as it always has, however, when the valves are the other way, then with the help of a small 30 gallon per hour 12 volt pump, we will circulate coolant through 2 (or maybe 4) black tube coils inside a sealed black box with a clear Lexan lid. To power the motor I will use a small solar panel. Lastly the whole thing can be put in and taken out with 2 quick connect couplers. If it all works the way it should, whenever the sun is out I should be making hot water with NO draw on our existing electrical system. And when the sun goes down the solar panel will stop supplying the motor and the system will turn itself off until it next "sees" the sun. With all the bits and pieces I hope to make this for around $100... I have found the 2 valves for $20 each and the pump motor for $20. I'll post an update on this when I have these 2 solar appliances working.
Our latest entry always comes up first... Click this link if you want to start at the beginning: FIRST BLOG ENTRY
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This week started off with me getting some kind of 24 hour flu bug... Oh how I hate being sick! Fortunately, All seems well now and I still managed to get a few thing accomplished this week.
The big news is our decision to replace our 2hp Honda outboard for the dinghy with a NEW Tohatsu 3.5, 4 stroke engine.... The Boat Show price was $977 which given the state of the Canadian dollar this week, is a good price. It comes with a 5 year warranty and that engine is the SAME exact engine as the Mercury, Suzuki, Evenrude and a few others... We will pick up the Honda next time we go to check on the boat, then try to sell it for about half of what they want for a new one ($500). If we don't get what we want we will take it with us and use it as a spare....
I also had a few hours to go to a friends farm to build 2 of the last projects before we leave. The first are some Stainless Steel anti-theft covers for the thumb bolts that hold the outboard on the transom of the dinghy. We saw one of these at the show and they wanted $50... Too much so I bought 2 pieces of square tube SS from my metal guy for $10 (total) then found 2 receiver hitch locks for $20.
After about an hour I built 2 of these for at total cost of $15 ea.... Nice eh?
The last project was to almost finish a new screen hatch for the main hatchway. This is constructed with a piece of 5/8" marine plywood between 2 pieces of .30 gauge 316 SS. I under cut the plywood and filled all the edges with West System pre-thickened epoxy. I think it will look great after I finish it up today and give it a coat of paint next week. This will keep the boat VERY secure while letting air circulate while we sleep or when we go to shore. This wont replace the regular board, but will give us a few more options. We will install the same lock on this as we have on our regular hatch
Each week we seem to be knocking a few more jobs off the list...
For the first time EVER, we just created and posted our very first YouTube Video!
This was something that we have been struggling with for a very long time... I know if you ask a 10 year old, it's really easy, but in our world, this is a major accomplishment...
That said, we hope you will take a minute and check out our first effort...
This week we also took delivery of a new rubber boat/date stamp and an embosser with the boat name and number. We understand that checking in to countries sometimes goes easier when you have these things... We think they turned out pretty good...
The place that made them is called T.S.T Rubber stamp... Although they are an online company, they just happen to be located here in Cambridge, Ontario... If you find yourself needing good quality, fair prices, and GREAT service, check them out. They can be reached at:
1-877-717-1716 or Email: info@tstrubberstamp.com. Tell them Kyle sent you...
The last thing I want to say today is partly a rant and partly some kudos to a very nice person. The rant begins with the HORRIBLE customer service offered by the folk at Hewlard Packard (HP). A little over a year ago I bought a fairly expensive "all-in-one" printer/scanner/copier for the boat. It needed to be able to make nice photo prints and handle all the rest of our printing/scanning needs.
After some research, we settled on the HP Photosmart 5510. For the first few months all worked well. Then one day it quit, so I called their warranty service who quickly replaced the unit (almost too quickly in hindsight). All good so far. A few months later the replacement unit quits! Because it was around Christmas I waited until last week to call... After 1 1/2 HOURS on the phone the man who barely spoke english agreed to send me a replacement.... It was to arrive by Monday.
Monday came and went with real bad weather so I didn't think too much about it, but by Thursday, with no communication from them and no printer, I called them back again, only to find our after ANOTHER HOUR the replacement was not warranted and that here would be no replacement coming! Seriously, when were they going to tell me!
Now here is the problem. Replacing a printer is no big deal. You can buy a great one for around $100. However, like everything else, we have been stockpiling things we need for our trip and over the last year have acquired over $400 worth of INK. Unfortunately, the original packaging is long gone from the ink, so returning it is out of the question.
So here I am, not wanting to do business with HP and being stuck with a ton of ink, what do I do?
I searched around online and found a whole bunch of HP printers that use the same ink so I went to the FUTURE SHOP here in town and this is where the kudos comes in.
Frustrated and grumpy, I explained my predicament to the young lady (Hailey) who went far out of her way to make me feel like there was someone who actually cared in this world! I have VERY low expectations in retail stores in Canada, but this wonderful person just made a horrible day better, with her attentiveness, kindness, and knowledge.
In the end I did purchase a different HP model that uses the same ink,and hope this one lasts a little longer than the last ones...
After Record setting COLD temperatures someone sent this to Shelley's Facebook.... Somehow, it just says it all....
In the same day she found this:
So, my thought today is this....
God has given each of us a finite number of days to live. Some of us are blessed so extensively that we live in a part of the world where we have the prosperity and freedom to do almost anything we want and to never die with regrets. PLEASE, live, love and follow your dreams. The ONLY thing that holds us back is ourselves and our fears. With courage and some careful planning (or not) we can do ANYTHING....
A new day and a new opportunity.... Take it, and make the most of EVERY DAY...
Well, this is it. This is the year, after so many years of planning and preparing that we make the move to our adventure of a lifetime... In 180 days (ok, 6 months) from today, Shelley and I will be leaving from Hamilton Ontario.
When we leave we will cross Lake Ontario and make our way down the St. Lawrence Seaway to Nova Scotia where we then hope to head south along the eastern seaboard of the USA the try to end up in the Florida Keys by the beginning of November...
Fortunately, being Canadian, we can sail to Cuba and travel east along the north coast until we cross to Mexico.
Over Christmas we enjoyed time with our family realizing that for many, it will be our last Christmas together for some time. We really do hope as many of our friends and family will join us in Mexico next Christmas, but we will see who can actually make it...
Shelley and our granddaughter Mackenzie
DLink picture of main salon interior
Today, I checked the boat (via the inboard camera) and all looks great. We also packed up our Christmas decorations and stored them away for our youngest daughter to us when she gets a place of her own... While we were packing we took a small selection of decorations and a tiny artificial tree and put them aside for next Christmas on the boat....
In a few weeks we will be going to the Toronto Boat Show where Larry & Lin Pardey and John & Amanda Neal are presenting some seminars which we hope to check out... We hope to catch 3 or 4 on Monday the 13th. They are free with admission to the show... Which we won last year by filling out a survey....
I'll check in again after we have been to the show....
With less than 200 days to go before we leave, we are faced with many "lasts" in our life. As a pastor, Christmas Eve services have always been pretty special in my world. Unfortunately, mother nature, along with some questionable, politically motivated choices, leaves my churches without and power or running water or heat this Christmas Eve.
Here in southwestern Ontario we were hit with a CRAZY ice storm last weekend. trees were down and power was out in many places. 3 days later we discover that out in the country there is a noticeable shortage of HYDRO 1 trucks (the provincial utility). It turns out, that most (or maybe all) of their assets were sent to Toronto (our closest MAJOR city) to get folks there re-connected, leaving thousands of rural customers with no heat or power or water for days... A sad way to run things...
At the end of the day, for the first time in more than twenty years, I will not be leading Christmas Eve services...
That said, I hope that everyone has an awesome Christmas time with friends and family and we can't wait for next Christmas when we have promised our great friends, Mike & Margaret in Cozumel, Mexico that we will be with them!
Our plan is to leave home on July 1st and make our way slowly down the eastern seaboard until the end of hurricane season next November 1st. The first weather window after the end of hurricane season will hopefully get us to Cuba where we will make our way east along their north cast before we head to Cozumel in time for the beginning of December.
Sometime after Christmas we will head toward the windward islands and hopefully end up in Grenada in time for the 2015 hurricane season... Lets all hope things go as we plan...
On the one hand 200 days seems like a really long time, on the other hand, it is really just around the corner... As soon as Christmas is over we will get serious about getting the house sold and the rest of our stuff sold, stored or packed for the boat....
the boat seems to be holding up really well in storage... yesterday we checked the dLink camera and all looked well:
This year we are also looking forward to seeing our son and his wife and our granddaughter at Christmas.. Next year we hope our family will find the time and money to join us in Mexico. We promised our friends who we have taught diving for for many years that we would spend Christmas 2014 in Cozumel, Mexico...
Last week Shelley and I went to Rochester to check on the boat and found everything just as we left it... It is such good news to know that the folks that are storing it are keeping a good eye on things... Even the cover which we weren't too sure of is still in place. The most interesting thing is that we have left a DLink camera set up and running off the 12 volt house battery and the house batteries connected to the solar panels. When we checked the voltage was a steady 13 volts!
The solar panels are doing a great job even with the camera drawing a little current 24 hours a day....
On our way down we passed this guy who was having a REALLY BAD DAY!
We are busy at home getting the house ready to sell in the new year... We are also still busy selling and giving away SO MUCH! I have to say that as difficult as it is, there is something very liberating about divesting ourselves of STUFF that we have been accumulating over our lifetime... I am becoming aware of just how much we have and how little we really need to be happy... I am sure that will be some painful moments, but for now we are doing really well....
This month we bit the bullet and bought ourselves a Christmas present. With the hopes of doing some writing as we travel, (after some pretty extensive research) we have purchased a NIKON D3200 digital SLR camera and 2 zoom lenses that will give us everything form 18mm to 300mm. What an awesome piece of gear! When we submit a story for publication, we understand that photos need to be of the best possible quality, something you just can't get with a point & shoot camera... In a previous life, I did some professional photography and am really happy using this great new technology... I am pleasantly surprised that the cost of a decent SLR is roughly what it was 30 years ago when I was in the business... I guess that really means the cost of this equipment is much less than it used to be.... Given the value of the dollar today vs 30 years ago...
