We arrived home to Pachina Mia a little over a week ago, and spent the ensuing days getting her ready for launch. As most people in the yard noted (often in surly and grumpy tones), launch day seems way too early this year. Throughout the week winter kept trying to make a comeback as we worked to get the boat ready. So in between sub-zero temperatures, howling winds, and too many days of rain, we managed to get the cover off, get the bottom painted with new anti-foul, and get a seacock operating once more.

Living on a boat that is on land (on “the hard” as we sailors say) is, in the words of Ann’s favourite sailing bardess: “A hard hard life. Life hard, life on the hard.” But despite the challenges and cramped space we managed to sleep and eat some of our meals on board. And we found time to raise a glass or two (or three, or four… 😉 ) to our good fortune.

      

Timmies and then Panera Bread became our morning brecky ritual, with take-out deli or the occasional finer restaurant filling in the dinner menu. Not too hard I suppose. And of course there is always time to spend chatting with fellow boaters here in our little Stillwater home. In fact, someone claims that I spend more time chatting than working … harrumph I say. I can’t help it if everyone wants to talk to me … all the time 😉

 

[Ann here. Consider this. In the two pictures in the middle above, Mike was on his way to the bathroom on the other side of the marina. The time between the first picture and the second is 15 minutes, the distance is about 20 feet!]

Just over a week since we arrived back in Belleville, the day we worked for and utterly dreaded was upon us:

Launch Day!!

The morning started out beautiful, calm and cool; a perfect day for “drop down” as Donna put it — something we hoped wouldn’t happen 😉 . Last year we nearly had a ‘drop down’ when the crane started tipping over while lifting us. As it was coming to our turn I gently reminded the operator that we weigh 30,000 pounds.

Not only do we weigh in as one of the heaviest boats in the yard, we also had the added challenge of keeping our mast up over winter. To get the slings around our boat we had to remove the back-stay. No biggy … except this is the wire that keeps the mast from falling down . I managed to rig some temporary supports though, so we were pretty sure no one would have to yell: TIMBER!

Stillwater is more like a self-help yacht club than a normal marina. There is no staff, just the owner and fellow boaters to do all the work. So we all pitch in to help everyone. Since Pachina Mia was one of the last in line, Ann and I helped launch most of the other boats first. But it was finally our turn. Did I mention:  .

 

In the end it all worked beautifully. No problems at all. Pachina Mia is now happily floating back in her element, and Ann and I are breathing easy. Now the work begins to really get her, and us, ready for the big journey. We have a few projects to get done on the boat, and a lot of logistics to still work out, but it’s all coming together. Most importantly, it feels SOOO GOOOD to be floating once again.

After nearly five months of easy Okanagan livin’, our time in Penticton finally came to an end. House owners Leslie and Dave arrived back from their southern getaway in Arizona, and we said our final goodbyes to Maxi, and to the place that had been our temporary home through the long winter months. It was sad in departing, but the time was right for this couple of vagabonds to be movin’ on.

      

Thanks Dave & Leslie. We couldn’t have wished for a better home and better people for our first home-sit. And thanks to you too Maxi. You’re a weird cat, but we’re sure gonna miss you.

We finally hit the road and headed for Calgary. Although the legal requirement for snow tires expired that very day we were still wishing for them as we crested Roger’s Pass. The rain turned to sleet, snow and slush as we summited. Luckily the worst lasted only a short while, and the rest of the drive to Peggy’s was uneventful (except when Ann got lost in Midnapore trying to find Peggy’s place).

 

As with all things Phillipses, it had been decided that we needed to spend two nights at Sister #1’s place, and then two more nights with Sister #2. Since Sister #3 likes to keep everyone happy (as do I 😉 ), this is what we did. We arrived earlier than expected at Peggy’s place, and were greeted by Son #1 (Marc) who either just happened to be visiting his mom, or more likely, had heard there was pizza on the menu and wanted to get his slice of cheesy heaven. There’s a slim chance he wanted to hang out with his favouritest and coolest Aunt and Uncle … but I think it was the pizza 😉

 

While at Peggy’s place Phil came over and arranged a visit with his son’s family. We went over and were greeted by dad Dylan with daughter Vida and son Theo stomping around in the water puddles outside. The whole family, including mom Chantel, had visited us on our boat the previous summer. They are all sooo fun and cute, even the big ones.

 

After a couple of days at Peggy’s we made a quick visit with Marc before shifting over to Donna’s place. Marc has a new kitten, aptly named Hel, which is apparently Norse for a goddess who reigns in, well, Hel. She’s a sweetie, as kittens always are. Even with her cone on (she had just been spayed) she was funny and playful. She’s gonna be Hel once the cone is off 😉

It was great to spend more time with Donna. Unfortunately Sam was off in St. Albert, saving the world one anaesthetic patient at a time, but we had a great dinner with Monique and her squeeze Chris. We also got to FaceTime with Sam, which was fun. Unfortunatey our Calgary time came to an end, and we had to head east once again.

The next few days were spent driving (in a car … booooring), sleeping in cheap motels (can someone say Bed Bugs!), and eating at not so cheap restaurants. Regina, Kenora, Thunder Bay, Wawa, North Bay, Apsley (look it up) and finally Belleville. At least Ann found the beer (and wine) good along with way:

 

Of course in Thunder Bay we stopped our eastings to spend time with friends Ben, Sherilyn and their amazingly cute and smart little daughter Olivia. These wonderful friends are letting us keep our storage trailer on their land, which is a kindness we can’t repay. We had a great afternoon/evening with them, but were having such fun we didn’t take any pics. Hulp, hulp, hulp…

Of course Paul and Julie (and big kid Coralie) are our Thunder Bay anchors these days. We stayed at their place for three nights, and even got to visit their camp and watch Paul show of his new toy: a drone.

  

With the clock ticking down to our launch date we said our goodbyes to Thunder Bay folk and once more hit the open road. But we could not pass by Rossport without seeing our dear Rossport friends: Cathie and Joe (and Maggie Muffins). Time always melts away in their company, and I wish we could have stayed longer. Canada is too darn big 🙁

We did tee up with Paul in Wawa for dinner that night since he was there for work. But the next day we packed up and headed south along the spectacular eastern shore of Lake Superior. It had been a wondrous reminder to drive and visit the Big Lake these last few days. If it didn’t turn cold and snowy for 1/2 the year, we’d probably never have left. But just to remind us why we did leave, Michi Peshu slashed it’s mighty tail just to remind us how tenuous our control over Nature really is.

The roads went from clear and dry to driving wet snow with slippery slush in a matter of minutes. Much of our drive to the Sault was in 3rd gear, but we made it.

From there it was two more nights of cheap motels and good beer, with the occasional emergency pee stop thrown in for good measure.

We finally arrive back in Belleville and found our floating home still sitting where we’d left her. She hadn’t budged from her stands, and the winter tarp only has a few tears that need sewing.

Unfortunately because of the list to port, water did accumulate on the starboard side deck, and collected exactly in the location where we have some leaks. This resulted in water seeping down through our chart table and onto some cushions. All our charts got soaked, and we may have to do some surgery on a cushion.

All in all though, pretty minor stuff in the life of us vagabond sailors. We moved on board and are slowly bringing Pachina Mia back to bristol condtion … well, maybe not bristol, but good enough for us. The cover’s off, our backs are sore, so life is moving along as expected.

Now we’re into the final few days before launch. We’re going to paint the bottom and unseize a few seacocks that were stuck last year. Other than that it’s just a a matter of firing up the engine (hopefully she’ll run!), and then getting plopped in the water with the big crane. Last year the crane nearly tipped over as it was picking us up for launch, so hopefully we won’t see a repeat of that.