Pushing off the dock

We finally cast off the lines this weekend and left our home port.

We arrived in Hamilton for a couple of days to hang out with friends, swim and rest a bit before completing the last few details and pushing off for good.

The past two weeks were filled with long days of preparations that seemed unending.

In one of the hottest weeks, John was contorted for days in the engine room and putting the final touches on several other boat systems.

 Reassembling that tricky water pump

It's about 40 deg C in here

I unpacked, stowed, reorganized and returned items to the house that would just not fit. The mountain in the cockpit slowly melted into the lockers of the boat. Our water line rose significantly after I managed to cram eight boxes of books and home school materials aboard.

Functioning galley

The stacks of books

During all of this, the kids completed two weeks of sailing school and came back tanned, blonder, and more confident in their swimming and sailing skills. They enjoyed a few extra visits with their friends and chilled in their new hammocks.

Hanging out with Noah after sailing school

More to come....

Getting Ready: Aboard!

After seven years of planning we are finally living onboard Nahanni V.

We left our landlife over this glorious July long weekend. After weeks of sorting, purging and packing we climbed aboard, both exhausted and thrilled. 

The long weekend started with moving all our heavy things down from our second and third floor home. My brother (Saint Richard) came to the rescue with his endurance, strength and Litke-packing skills.

Once the big stuff was gone, we began the tortuous task of packing all the little icky things. You know, the items you wished you had thrown out, but simply can't make a decision about as you're packing. Our abilities were further diminished after an all-nighter of packing where we wandered from room to room like zombies. 

While we were schlepping boxes at 3 am, we heard a strange sound and saw Wavey running out of her room.  Her hand was clamped over her mouth in a valiant attempt to hold back what seemed to be a need to puke. Unfortunately she didn't make it. Her hand only pressurized the vomit sending pink streams out both sides as she ran down the hall. The hallway had been lined with stacks of boxes and bags ready to go to the boat or storage, and amazingly not a single one missed being decorated with the former contents of Wavey's stomach. (Too many Canada Day cupcakes we think.) She and John spent the next two hours sleeping on the bathroom floor in between bouts of barf while I mopped and scraped pink goo off our mountain of boxes. (Did I also happened to mention that this was on my birthday?)

The following day was more of the same packing. John's sister (Saint Liane) arrived to help pack the kids' room after our pleas to box up their treasures were met with glazed looks. In two hours she had their room as ship-shape as it was going to get. Soon after, John's Dad and Stepmother (Saints Bob and Carol) arrived to rescue the kids from us and take them home to cosier beds.

We continued through night #2 and by 0800 Saturday morning, we carried the last box out, loaded up the van, and transported the mountain to the boat. Whew.


                              

Cockpit mountain

Galley chaos

I reckon this moving experience has been good for us; a sailing boot camp, if you like. This week has been a little like an ocean passage: hours of activity with slow progress, all-night shifts, wacky meals eaten in odd positions, and at least one good barf story. We just hope we won't need to be rescued as much.

In all of this chaos, we had joyful visits from dear friends and family to say goodbye and celebrate friendship. We are grateful for the many acts of kindness and support of others through this process. We are very blessed.

Now, we must get ready to sail!