Dropping the mast

So, the day came to remove the mast and lay it down deck top. Our first big hurtle to get us on our way.
We were very stressed about it. Thanks to Dad with his engineering brain and sense of construction along with Al's decision to give up control we started to see the vision. Thank you to Adrian who took the day out of his limited time from work to come and help out too! Everything went off so smoothly and without issue. It was hard to think back to all worries. It is absolutely perfect and feels so secure. I think we should patent Dad's design!! Thanks Dad, our 36ft SV now became a 52ft motor vessel!

Catching up

Well it's been a whirl wind of excitement and loads of work these last few months.
Sold the house, and went through a significant downsizing process. Made the move to relocate our furniture and effects to the west coast. Skye and Paige were thrilled to have the remainder of our belongings divided between the two of them and a huge Thank you to Fred and Amy who have generously stored all that is dear to us in their basement!!

this is picture of Fred and Amy's boat "Dolphin Striker" (foreground) and another friends boat "Solskin". We had a wonderful day trip out on BC waters while we were in Comox for a visit.

Jazz and Bumble ( the last of my 4 legged babies) have settled into my mom's house very nicely, I'm not sure if they really miss me at all!! I sure miss them but know that mom's loving them up like crazy and I know they  much prefer her small house that doesn't move over our very small home that does! 

We spent some good quality time with the girls, Skye and Megan in Vancouver and Paige and Blake in Victoria.

We left the coast, heading for Edmonton to visit Al's sister Lynda and Dwight and the entire family then to Sudbury with the rest of the gang, Angela and Claudio, Andrew and Sierra and Geoff, kim and Alexander and Samantha. We also met the newest addition to the family Jessica and Ron's little guy, Mathieu!

Awesome visit with everyone, just too short!!

Now back home again and the work begins...

Emptied the storage locker and was able to find places for the remainder of our things. Either on the boat, gave away or went to the dump.

A big thank you to mom for the huge effort in time and energy to recover our settee cushions for us while we were away.  I think it was a much bigger task than anticipated and we very much appreciate all the effort that was made. They turned out perfect. Thanks mom! I can't find a picture, but I'll post one soon.

We spent a fabulous weekend in the 1000 Islands with my sister, Jen  and her family. One small hiccup where I ended up slipping off the rocks without my shoes on ( I know better!!) putting a huge hole in the bottom of my foot. Not to worry, I was able to put my extensive first aid kit to good use placing 9 sutures in myself with the help of my amazing assistant, Jen...

Back to land now where we sold my car, tried to finish the remainder of the paper work and final details that will tie up all the loose ends, health and boat insurance, vaccines, boat registration etc.

Our families threw a  fabulous going away party!! Thank you to everyone that came to see us off. A special thank you to Dad and Barb for hosting and to Al's family that made the trip down from Sudbury. It was an

 amazing party!!

THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE