{"id":2232,"date":"2017-04-15T15:14:37","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T19:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/?p=2232"},"modified":"2017-04-15T15:28:28","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T19:28:28","slug":"endings-and-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/?p=2232","title":{"rendered":"Endings and beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_2172\"<\/a>After nearly five months of easy\u00a0Okanagan livin\u2019, our time in Penticton finally came to an end. House owners Leslie and Dave arrived back from their southern\u00a0getaway 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\u2019 on.<\/p>\n

\"20170401_070126\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"IMG_2171\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks Dave & Leslie. We couldn\u2019t have wished for a better home and better people\u00a0for our first home-sit. And thanks to you too Maxi. You\u2019re a weird cat, but we\u2019re sure gonna miss you.<\/p>\n

\"_IGP4397\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_1104\"<\/a>\"IMG_2177\"<\/a>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\u2019s 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\u2019s was uneventful (except when Ann got lost in Midnapore trying to find Peggy\u2019s place).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As with all things Phillipses<\/em>, it had been decided that we needed to spend two nights at Sister #1\u2019s<\/em> place, and then two more nights \"IMG_2179\"<\/a>with Sister #2<\/em>. Since Sister #3<\/em> likes to keep everyone happy (as do I \ud83d\ude09 ), this is what we did. We arrived earlier than expected at Peggy\u2019s place, and were greeted by Son #1<\/em> (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\u2019s a slim chance he wanted to hang out with his favouritest and coolest Aunt and Uncle \u2026 but I think it was the pizza \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_2178\"<\/a>\"Vida1\"<\/a>While at Peggy\u2019s place Phil came over and arranged a visit with his son\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"FullSizeRender-1\"<\/a>
Theo found my hat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"IMG_2185\"<\/a>After a couple of days at Peggy\u2019s we made a quick visit with Marc before shifting over to Donna\u2019s place. Marc has a new kitten, aptly named Hel, which is apparently Norse for a goddess who reigns in, well, Hel. She\u2019s a sweetie, as kittens always are. Even with her cone on (she had just been spayed) she was funny and playful. She\u2019s gonna be Hel once the cone is off \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0085\"<\/a>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.<\/p>\n

The next few days were spent driving (in a car \u2026 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:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1108\"<\/a>\u00a0\"IMG_1105\"<\/a> \"IMG_2070\"<\/a> \"IMG_1120\"<\/a> \"IMG_1132\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_1115\"<\/a>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\u00a0are letting us keep our storage trailer on their land, which is a kindness we can\u2019t repay. We had a great afternoon\/evening with them, but were having such fun we didn\u2019t take any pics. Hulp, hulp, hulp…<\/em><\/p>\n

\"IMG_2219\"<\/a>Of course Paul and Julie (and big kid Coralie) are our Thunder Bay anchors these days. We stayed at their place for three\u00a0nights, and even got to visit their camp and watch Paul show of his new toy: a drone.<\/p>\n

\"Bebop2_20170409142824-0400\"<\/a>\u00a0\"IMG_2209\"<\/a>\u00a0\"Bebop2_20170409203622-0400\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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 \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2222\"<\/a>\"IMG_2225\"<\/a>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\u2019t turn cold and snowy for 1\/2 the year, we\u2019d probably never have left. But just to remind us why we did leave,\u00a0Michi Peshu<\/a> slashed it\u2019s mighty tail just to remind us how tenuous our control over Nature really is.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2226\"<\/a>\"IMG_2205<\/a>From there it was two more nights of cheap motels and good beer, with the occasional emergency pee stop thrown in for good measure.<\/p>\n

We finally arrive back in Belleville and found our floating home still sitting where we\u2019d left her. She hadn\u2019t budged from her stands, and the winter tarp only has a few tears that need sewing.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1128\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Charts<\/a>
Charts hanging to dry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

All in all though, pretty minor stuff in the life of us vagabond sailors. We moved on board and are slowly bringing Pachina Mia<\/em> back to bristol condtion \u2026 well, maybe not bristol,\u00a0<\/em>but good enough for us. The cover\u2019s off, our backs are sore, so life is moving along as expected.<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re into the final few days before launch. We\u2019re going to paint the bottom and unseize a few seacocks that were stuck last year. Other than that it\u2019s just a a matter of firing up the engine (hopefully she\u2019ll 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\u2019t see a repeat of that.<\/p>\n

\"Mike\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"IMG_6781\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After nearly five months of easy\u00a0Okanagan livin\u2019, our time in Penticton finally came to an end. House owners Leslie and Dave arrived back from their southern\u00a0getaway 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2232"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2259,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2232\/revisions\/2259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helplink.com\/CLAFC\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}