Road Trip... 6500 KM later

Every great journey needs a beginning. Ours starts with a road trip. I know it is odd to start a sailing blog with a road trip but for us it signifies the last of the road trips and the start of the boat trips. So for that reason it is very fitting that we begin a sailing adventure on the road again.

October 2nd, 2023 we said our final goodbyes to our friends Cindy and Robbie. They were kind enough to allow the two of us and Zorro to stay in their short-term rental suite for the last few weeks since we had rented our house in Squamish out. Life savers, thanks so much for the hospitality.

After we had put down the deposit on our new Leopard 42 we purchased a cargo trailer to haul a few things around town and to and from Chetwynd and Bella Coola. Now this little guy was packed full of all our remaining worldly belongings and we were off to Fort Lauderdale where we will pick up our new home on the water.

Here is the plan. Drive to Harbour Towne Marina and unload all of our gear and stuff onto the boat. Leopard will be doing the final touches to the boat and Just Catamarans will start all our aftermarket work including watermaker, solar arch, lithium batteries and much more. This should take about six weeks. As they are doing the work I will drive our truck and trailer up to my folks new home in New Brunswick and leave it there for Frank to sell. This is not what happened of course because life is a constantly evolving entity that likes to have twists and turns.

Our actual road trip went really well. We headed South with plans to visit friends along the way. The first stop was canceled due to a COVID positive test. The second stop was in Nevada to meet up with our good friends Dean, Wanda and their dog Hamish. Nikki and I stayed in Boulder City and Dean and Wanda had their trailer set up in a fantastic campground called Boulder Beach Campground on Lake Mead. We hiked the Historic Railway trail and did a tour of the Hoover Dam. I did not know what to expect here, but I can honestly say it was fantastic. I would highly recommend to anyone to do this tour. It is informative and the dam is an amazing feat of engineering.

After a couple of days it was time to hit the road again and get to Florida. As we were rolling into the sunshine state we received word that we would not be able to move onto the boat right away as they needed to finish a few things. This left us needing a place to stay for a week as we sort out the final details and arrange the transition of our new home. We got it all sorted and we managed to get set up and take possession. Yeah!!

All our stuff is unloaded and you would think I could hop into the truck and get it out of Florida. Two things happened. First a series of snow storms blanked the East Coast of Canada and the US and second we really needed the truck. We had no idea how much driving around purchasing gear and doing all of the boat provisioning would take. So the good news is we kept the truck and trailer and bad news we needed to store both when we sail to the Bahamas in December.

This is all ok as we came up with a brand new plan and we all know a good plan is a flexible one. This definitely was the case with our next truck and trailer saga. But for now we will enjoy our new boat and are sitting up on the roof lounge enjoying a G & T.