Harbour Closings a.k.a. Land Ho!

10/30/2020

Over the last week, both Trident Yacht Club (where Wild Horses spends her summer) and Loyalist Cove Marina (where she spends her winter) have officially closed for the season. Another one in the books. Of course, this particular past boating season was extraordinary. 2020. That kind of says it all.

Boats "on the hard" at Trident Yacht Club

Empty docks at Trident Yacht Club

Lots of empty dock slips at Loyalist Cove Marina

A lone boat waits for haul out at Loyalist Cove Marina

Wild Horses is now winterized. Every tank, pump, drain, hose and seacock has been cleared of water and has had antifreeze run through its belly or veins. Oh, and all our seacocks are open 😊. I am making a special note about this in light of our “oops” last year. Remember that? It was the “oops” where one of our seacocks mistakenly stayed closed over the winter, then cracked and almost sank the boat. Mike and I love adventure but that is one heart-pounding event that we do not want to repeat.

It has been hard leaving Wild Horses and closing down the season but now that we are starting to see snow on the ground and negative temperatures over night, we are getting acclimatized to the idea. It really doesn’t feel “boaty” these days.

The boats are packed in tight at Loyalist Cove Marina

The cockpit of Wild Horses looks cold when peaking up from inside the boat on a foggy fall morning

The first snowfall!

How will we get our boating fix over the winter? Boat projects and Caribbean planning, of course!

Our winter boat projects:

Building shelves for our hanging lockers,
Resurfacing our wooden cockpit dining table,
Replacing our teak swim platform at the stern of our boat,
Re-engineering one of our aft cabins into storage space and,
Improving our boat energy inputs via a new higher-powered engine alternator, more solar panels and replacing our existing AGM batteries with lithium ion batteries.

The first draft of the first shelf for one of our three hanging lockers. Hanging lockers are basically closets without shelves. Not good for us - we fold everything!!

Our 2021 planning for the Caribbean:

Finish our boat projects 😉
Re-vamp our detailed route planning to the Caribbean to ensure that we spend very little time in congested or overly touristy areas along our route.
Re-open our research into Ex-patriot health insurance for the Caribbean as well as regular travel insurance for the time we will spend in the United States. Unfortunately, Canadian health coverage will only take us three months into our journey so we need these additional insurance coverages the rest of the time we are gone (note: we plan to be south for several years). We had already done this work for the pre-pandemic world but coverages and costs have likely changed (or will change) so we need to do new research on this.
Re-open our research into customs requirements for us and for our pup Ocean. Again, this work was done but COVID may have changed a few things.

On top of boating related stuff, we are helping my parents downsize for their move to their new retirement home in the Spring (lots of work but very rewarding) and we are enjoying time in our small COVID-19 bubble that includes my parents and Mike’s parents. This means spending time in both Trenton and Kingston over the winter months, with the occasional stop in Bath to check on Wild Horses. She is definitely in our bubble!

We are also hiking lots with Ocean, which helps satisfy our thirst for wandering and exploring. We are (safely) tackling paths all over Trenton, Belleville, Kingston, Napanee and Prince Edward County. Last week the highlight was Foley Mountain near Westport. Ah, there is nothing like trekking in the forest to soothe your soul. Well, I mean, if you can’t be on a sailboat 😉.

Happy Hallowe’en weekend!!! Stay Safe!!!