Bonthorn: Living My Version of Life: You'll Never Walk Alone

Day 4, June 1, 2019.

What day is it!? The days are starting to blur and I don't know what day of the week or date it is!

Today was a city day. Got up and literally jumped into the car, barely remembering to brush teeth. Did a mandatory coffee drive thru at Timmy's and then onwards to the Armadale Yacht Club in Halifax to meet some friends of a friend who had just finished cruising down to the Bahamas and back.

They were a wealth of knowledge about the anchorages and must sees along the way. They took the ICW route, which is what we are likely going to do as well.

The ICW (intracoastal waterway) is a series of canals that start in Norfolk, Virginia. They weave their way down south, all along fairly protected waterways until Florida. This is the "safer" option rather than sailing south in one huge hop along the Atlantic coastline of the USA.

However doing the big offshore hop will get you directly to the Bahamas or Caribbean within a couple of weeks, instead of meandering your way down day by day on the ICW.

There are pros and cons for choosing both routes and we're not 100% what we'll do.

It was great meeting you both Betty Ann and Rob! Hope we didn't leave your heads spinning too much with all our questions!

We then headed to the North Sails Yacht Shop where we dropped off our rigging for inspection.

Over the winter they also inspected and restitched our sails but we said we'll pick those up another day since we don't need them yet, and there is not much room to store them on board currently.

One of our major boat jobs to do while in the marina and on the hard (out of the water) is to sand and strip the entire hull of all its paint. The reason for this is that there are some parts that are already coming off and the hull is not entirely smooth. Once we strip the hull down to the epoxy layer and sand it smooth again, we paint antifouling on. The antifoul is to prevent growth on the hull as you sail, like barnacles and the like. The less growth on your boat, the faster it can sail, saving you time and ultimately money.

Besides sanding the current layer of paint away, you can also apply this paint stripper onto the hull. Paint it on, let it sit and then go around scraping it off bit by bit. Unfortunately the shop didn't have any more paint stripper so we had to go elsewhere.

We then went to Telus where Matt inquired about getting a SIM card since his number, previously paid for by his company, stops working at midnight tonight. For those trying to reach him, you can call me. My number will stay active until further notice.

Then we went to the Binnacle yacht shop, another chandlery (marine store) in Halifax. There we bought some paint stripper. They had 12 cans left. It doesn't come cheap though. 12 cans were over $1200!!! We have a big long hull so took them all and I don't even know if that'll be enough! We shall see. Poison is costly.

We raced to Lee Valley and bought a couple of carbide scrapers, apparently very good quality tool to have when scraping the hull.

Finally we took a break and went to Durty Nelly's Irish pub in downtown Halifax to watch the big Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspurs.

The atmosphere was absolutely, incredibly, unbelievably INSANE!

Liverpool won and I can't even describe how ecstatic and ridiculously happy everyone was when that last whistle blew.

We ended our city tour with a trip to Rona to get some body suits to wear when we do the painting and sanding, some tarps to cover the ground with, a mask and goggles for protection and a long outdoor extension cord so we can hook up for some power in the marina.

On the drive back to Gold River Marina, about 50 minutes, we called the kids. They were so happy and excited to tell us about their days, insisting that we do a video call instead of just talking on the phone.

You have to understand, our kids HAtE speaking on the phone normally to people or will just answer in one word syllables. So to have them chatter away about their day with friends and at school was just awesome. At this very moment, I missed them so much and felt so guilty leaving them behind, and oh the tears! 😭

Me, not anyone else. 🙋🏻‍♀️

But I also felt a huge wave of gratitude for our friends Annie Plourde and Thierry Poiré for having the kids stay with them over the last few days.

Now the kids are with Kam Wong for the remainder of their Ottawa stay and there are some arranged play dates and birthdays with Paula TF and John Fand the Corkery's over the next couple of weekends.

It takes a village certainly and it's not only now that we have had to call upon our friends and family for help and support and childcare.

The lead-up to moving house, leaving our jobs, and getting our sail and safety training, etc, over the last year has taken many sacrifices and time away from our kids.

Right now I just feel so blessed Matt and I can do the initial legwork of all these boat jobs without distraction and having to worry about the kids' safety while we are sanding, painting, etc.

June 10th is when Tai and Aila will fly out to Halifax with my dad. This makes us more motivated to get as much done as possible before they arrive!

I think it is finally sinking in that this life and this world is our new reality, for the foreseeable future at least.

Getting boat jobs done that we have been talking about for months, visualizing our cruising route, gaining more knowledge and information everyday, and just meeting more people in the boatyard who are all so curious about us and our cruising plans.... All of it adds up and I find myself giddy being able to call ourselves 'liveaboards' now.

We still don't have water, heating, electricity or propane, but we are essentially living aboard. Good enough for me.

Tomorrow there is an extreme weather warning: extensive rain and wind. So indoor jobs it is!

Man, I've just written a thesis! 😛

Thanks for reading up until now.