It was all very surreal. There we were, a mere two weeks ago, driving away from Wild Horses as we started our trek north in our rental car. We had only spent a handful of nights away from our boat, our home, in the last two years. Now we were embarking on a four-month trip back to Canada that would have us living fully on land. No more slight swaying of the hull as it rolls against the waves. No dinghy rides to shore. No more making our own water from the salty seas. Weather watching becomes more about staying dry than about staying safe.

A new, but familiar, adventure awaited us in Canada.
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The drive north was easy and, before we knew it, we were at the Canadian border at Kingston. It was a fun conversation with the border guard as we explained our South Carolina license plates and our two-year absence. He briefly eyed the very full car trunk, and our little Ocean in the back seat, surrounded by even more gear, and waved us through with a shake of his head. I am sure he was thinking “these two cannot be making this story up!”

​We were dizzy with excitement in reuniting with Mike’s parents that same day, Sunday June 9th, and then with my parents the very next day. All the extra work, costs, sweating (38 degrees Celsius in Florida!!!), worry and travel to get to this point was worth it. We knew immediately it was the right decision for us to point our boat’s hull north for hurricane season and not back south to Grenada. We needed to come home.

It is now two weeks after we crossed back into Canada and we are very much settled into our temporary land life. We are staying at my brother’s beautiful country home just north of Belleville. It is a Smart-enabled home so lights turn on as we walk into a room, and off again when we leave. Same thing for door locks. The temperature is custom-regulated and we make demands to Google for everything that we need.
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It is a bit of a culture shock for our little crew!

We even have wheels to get around to visit family and friends. My mom offered her car to us for as long as we need it. Amazing! We are visiting my parents quite often and getting to Kingston once a week to visit Mike’s parents. Every moment is a joy and it is just going to increase throughout the summer.

After so much time in third world countries, we had a long list of things to buy, most of which either wasn’t available in the Caribbean or was astronomically priced. Back in Canada, and a purchasing system we are familiar with, we have found great deals on cell phones and a new laptop (which has been limping along since Grenada), boat spares and new clothes. We have also taken care of most of our “necessary” appointments (covid shots, new health cards, dentist cleanings).

Soon, we will be extra flush with time and will start to arrange visits with more family and also with our friends. 

This blog will take a short hiatus while we have our summer in Canada, but when it starts back up in October, we will be taking you along as we go aboard Wild Horses after her first long, hot summer in Florida. Did our mould prevention efforts do the trick? Despite our efforts to seal off the boat’s thruhulls, have any pests made Wild Horses their home? Did any of the heavy rains or lightening strikes cause any damage? And then there is our poor, disabled engine. Our mechanic will be hard at work to get it back into shape and ready for another winter in the Bahamas, an effort he estimates may take up to six weeks.

We are unsure how all of this will unfold, but we will take on that part of our adventure as we have all the others. We are now well-versed in finding workable solutions for puzzling problems, diving into tasks or journeys that seem a bit daunting, and taking real time to share stories and the beauty of life with those around us that really matter. We have learned the art of standing still to appreciate the good moments. Like these days 😊.
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See you in October!

Want to see where we have been over the last two years? Click on the button below!

When we first arrived at Green Cove Springs Marina, we anchored in the Marina’s harbour with the plan of getting ourselves oriented and ready for Wild Horses to be hauled out of the water. You see, none of this was in our original plan for our first five years living aboard. No, the plan was to stay in the Caribbean for several years. We thought that any trips back home would be done by either Mike or myself, never together, so that we wouldn’t have to figure out the logistics of getting Ocean on a plane or finding a pet sitter. What we didn’t realize back then was how much we prefer to stick together, all three of us, as a family. Hence, the new plan of coming back to North America after only two years.

But we were unprepared for this decision so there has been a bit of scrambling to figure it all out. We don’t have a home marina to go back to, we don’t have a car, we don’t have a land house. We loosely tied some ideas together before finalizing our decision but we knew we would have to figure out a lot of things in the moment.

And we have.
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We figured out the ins and outs of our new marina (who to talk to, where to get things, etc), got our rental car, secured our storage unit, and explored the town. We felt fairly comfortable after a few days and knew pretty much how we were going to move forward.

TOn Tuesday May 28, we asked the marina to move up our haul out day from Saturday June 1 to Wednesday May 29. They could easily accommodate us and asked that we immediately move Wild Horses to the wall in front of the “Haul Out Well” so that we could be the first boat hauled the next morning. No problem!
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Except, there was a problem.

We weighed anchored as we normally do and Mike steered Wild Horses into the boat basin through the maze of moored boats. It all seemed so delightfully easy.

Then our high-water temperature alarm began screaming. Huh? We were almost docked at the wall so continued the docking maneuver, even with the intense blaring of the alarm. Once docked, the engine was shut down. We secured the boat on the dock wall for the night and then checked for issues around the engine. There was no smoke and no burning smell. All engine parts looked normal. Oh, wait, except our coolant overflow bucket was completely empty. What? It was full before we weighed anchor. A quick look in the mixing elbow and, yikes, there was barely any coolant there. Somehow our engine lost all its coolant in a matter of minutes.

Thankfully, one of the tasks we completed while anchored was to hire an engine mechanic. We thought he would be just giving the engine a once over but now realize there will be far more work required. He is a well-recommended marine mechanic and immediately he went to work diagnosing our alarm issue. The prognosis? Our heat exchanger has given up the ghost. This will be a big fix but the good news is that it is fixable. We have scheduled the mechanic to do the work in October, when we return to the boat. We will likely need to stay at Green Cove Springs for six weeks (four weeks longer than our original plan) in order to get the engine ship shape. Then we will, once again, set off for the Bahamas.

​In the meantime, Wild Horses will remain safely on land. We have spent the last week getting her ready to spend her summer stored in “Canada Yard” baking under the hot Florida sun. She has been cleaned and waxed, the insides coated with mildew preventer, and roach traps set about the floor. All our stuff is in a climate controlled offsite storage unit to keep it all safe from mildew and boat smells. Our dinghy was cleaned spotless (this was no small feat for Mike!) as was our anchor. We also ran a “salt away” treatment through the engines for both Wild Horses and for our dinghy “Ocean Transport”. This was tough work with the days hitting 35 degrees and the overnight low never going below 22 degrees. And, yes, we lived on the boat while we worked on it in the boatyard.

We are now done all our work and are very tired. At 6pm yesterday, the crew of Wild Horses squeezed into our packed rental car and drove 2 hours north to Georgia to the hotel we reserved for the night.
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In three days, we will be back home in Canada. We are three very happy and excited sailors 😊.

What is next for us? Click the button below to see where we plan on sailing next.