Finally, the adventure begins!

WELCOME TO MY BLOG! 

I am writing this blog for various reasons: to keep a record of the things we will be doing and to share it with my friends and family. Two years ago I wrote my first blog on a trip to Southern Africa, and it was very well received  (here is a link to my Southern Africa blog). So when people started to hear about this adventure, I was asked to write about it as well, so here it is. Please feel free to send comments and questions, it is nice to know that you are all "out" there and following along.


It is Friday, October 28th, the day we decided to start our adventure and leave Winnipeg for Florida. It is a very long awaited day, several years of planning and dreaming. So let me back up a bit and give you some background info....

We have a cottage at Betula Lake in the Whiteshell, and about 6 years ago we bought a small dinghy, a Laser 1. Warren took to sailing very quickly, and two years later we upgraded to a 16ft CL16. Things were going well, so we decided to take a proper sailing course down in Florida, and we both got our bareboat sailing certification. Bareboat means that you can charter a boat without a captain! We did do just that, first on Lake of the Woods and then, two years ago, in the Bahamas. 

This past January, things started to get a bit more intense. We had been looking at boats on the internet for some time, but really had no idea what they would look like in real life. So we went to Florida just to get an idea as to what we might like. We kept looking and around April, Crab Louie came up for sale. We hemmed and we hawed, but finally flew down  at the end of May to take a closer look. We quite liked what we saw, so we proceeded with the next step, survey and sea trial. For that we had to come back to Florida another time, so down we flew again. 


We bought Crab Louie, and she (boats are always female) is waiting for us at Regatta Point Marina. So here we are now, living on the boat and getting her ready for our cruising. More on that in my next post!

Two days before departure I decided to bake Christmas cookies, for Melanie and Justin (daughter and son-in-law), Kevin (son), and for ourselves to take along.... as if I wasn't busy enough with all the other stuff!!! 

All our stuff lined up in the fron hall, it's getting more real by the minute, will it all fit in the car?

Our adventure begins, October 27th, at 5:32 AM. We were so excited, we both slept lousy, so we got up and left earlier than planned...

....and three days later, we arrived at Regatta Point Marina. 

And this is the view out of my port "bedroom window". Not too shabby...