Tomorrow morning we leave for Florida and the adventure begins. After a year of challenges - job changes, faltering economy, falling CDN dollar - we're finally ready to launch Drifter's Wind and sail away.

With the value of the CDN dollar eroding we're taking more than we originally planned and have had to buy a small trailer to accommodate it all. But our shopping list is near complete with new dinghy, outboard motor, generator, charts and books, and a myriad of personal and boat equipment accumulating in our family room.

Hopefully we will have a trouble - free border crossing and be south bound and looking at a 24 hour trip to warmer climes.

To family and friends - thanks for the help and encouragement. Over the next three months, we invite you to join us here for frequent updates.

It's official . . . the former Windwalker is now officially registered in Canada as Drifter's Wind.

Nothing about buying this boat , however has been easy and it's registration held true to course. After finally getting the bills of sale, we de - registered it with the USCG and got the confirmation back quickly in less than two weeks.

In June, Karen and I headed down to Florida to finish battening it down for the hurricane season and measure her for the tonnage calculation. Once Transport Canada received the tonnage calculation in mid June, we had the registration back within a week.

While in Florida, we had dinner twice with the former owners and spent a few hours each evening looking at pictures of previous cruises and going over charts of the Bahamas with comments and suggestions gleamed from 15 trips across the Gulf Stream. The evenings together reinforced our belief that sailing and cruising is a great way to meet great people.

We also took the opportunity to touch base with US border services about getting a cruise permit once we had the boat registered in Canada. After speaking to them on at least three occasions leading up to and after the purchase of Drifter's Wind, face to face we were presented with a totally different scenario that would see us having to leave US waters immediately upon launching in the fall and paying $74 per in and out movement. This would include going for an day sail and return to the same slip or anchorage. Looking for the definitive answer, we have written a port supervisor and asked for instructions in writing.

So the fun and games continue, but the excitement is also mounting. We bought a number of charts and cruising guides from Blue Water Book Shop in Fort Lauderdale and have begun reading them and started planning the "cruise" phase of this adventure.

It came today! We finally got the revised bills of sale for Windwalker exactly a month after we bought her. Part way home from Florida I noticed that there was an error in the original bills of sale (with the seller's name) so I called the broker. He had also noticed the error and had gone ahead and got corrected copies signed and made arrangements (we all thought) to send them to us. A week after we got home still no amended copies. Now I'm not going to go into all the details except to say that others had become involved, documents got misplaced and people take holidays and leave the country. A week ago last Tuesday, they were found and sent international "priority mail". Between USPS and Canada Post it took 10 days to be delivered. Phew . . . I'm sure glad they weren't sent regular mail.

As the one month anniversary approached, we were also anxiously waiting for our insurance policy to arrive. The sale of the boat had been delayed when we were unable to secure coverage through a Canadian broker. With the help of Joe Hamilton of Advantage Yachts, we were able to get coverage through Offshore Risk Management. With only a 30 binder in place, we ended up having to email them yesterday as the binder was set to expire. Couple of hours later, we received an email with the insurance certificate and policy number . . . we could breathe easier.

Bills in hand, insurance in place, we sent off notice to USCG vessel registration to get confirmation of Windwalker's de - registration in the US so that we can proceed with registering it in Canada. Once we have that in hand, it's back to Florida where US border services confirmed this week that we need a cruising permit once the Canadian registry has been finalized. Bureaucracy, slow mail, delays . . . it's all a good exercise in patience.