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29 November 2015
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The Transition and 'Then It Happened'

29 November 2015
The Transition

I thought I'd just end the blog upon returning home....sort of write a good-bye and move along with land life. When I mentioned this to a friend, she said no way. She said she wanted to hear updates about our transition to land life.

So, in September, I began to put together a blog post with pictures telling and showing how things were going. And things were going well, and fast! We were so busy that we, sadly, didn't think a lot about Gromit. Unfortunately, those pictures cannot ever be posted and the emotion of those first days and months are now too far back for me to express them the way I had them written at the time. So much has happened.
So in a nut shell, as best as I can remember.......

August was really busy with unpacking and reorganizing and going through many, many boxes of stuff we had stored away in the house before we left. The girls were studying hard to get ready to write their exams. Liam was enjoying his last days of 'freedom'. Michael started work with his former company and I had an interview scheduled for September to get on the supply teacher list of my former school board. Things were moving in a good direction with the expected ups and downs.

September had us feeling more settled in our house, but there was then the adjustment of going to school. It was a time of tiredness and overwhelm, but as the weeks progressed, things began to settle. I was preparing for my job interview and feeling very stressed. The interview went well and I was offered a job as a supply teacher. Yeah! My orientation for starting work was until early October, which gave me more time to get us more settled in. It felt like everything was falling into place and we hadn't really had much time to think too much about Gromit and missing him or our former life. We were all just too busy and tired to think about anything but our day to day.

And then it happened......

......our house caught on fire.

Fortunately, we are all safe and well. Fortunately, our house was insured. There is so much, too much going on now for me to be able to, even in a nutshell, write about it. Lucky for us, we have had practice with crisis and do fairly well in high stress situations. Zoe made a beautiful comment one day, that we were a tight group already, but now we've become even closer. We've had to.

We lived with our wonderful friends two doors over for the first couple of weeks and are now renting a house. The day we moved into our rental, I was picking up a few things so that we could make pasta for dinner, when the enormity of it all hit me. It wasn't just noodles and tomato sauce that I needed to buy, it was everything. We have to replace everything. I just stood there paralyzed and befuddled.

So, needless to say, we have had to go on 'shopping marathons'
to get clothes, shoes, mattresses, kitchen stuff and on and on and on. Many of our family, friends and neighbours have offered help to get us re- established. Thank you so very much everyone for your love and support!

Comments
Vessel Name: Gromit
Vessel Make/Model: Olympic Adventure
Hailing Port: Toronto
Crew: Michael, Cornelia, Zoe, Maia, Liam. Photo: At Tilloo Bank, Elbow Cay, Bahamas (photo by Frank Taylor)
About: Michael: The technical/mechanical/all about the boat and systems guy. Cornelia: The lists/house and land details gal. Zoe, Maia and Liam: Gromit's Skippers in Training!
Extra: Departure date: Summer 2008 email us at: sailinggromit@gmail.com
Gromit's Photos - Main
31 Photos
Created 5 June 2015
40 Photos
Created 30 May 2015
Fishing, fishing lures; Disco Boy, Disco Man and Sargasso Weeds
15 Photos
Created 4 May 2015
Southern most point on the continent of Africa
19 Photos
Created 9 February 2015
27 Photos
Created 14 December 2014
57 Photos
Created 11 December 2014
120 Photos
Created 9 December 2014
16 Photos
Created 26 October 2014
18 Photos
Created 26 October 2014
37 Photos
Created 11 September 2014
9 Photos
Created 7 September 2014
39 Photos
Created 28 August 2014
15 Photos
Created 28 August 2014
21 Photos
Created 26 August 2014
63 Photos
Created 21 July 2014
Tea Paradise
34 Photos
Created 19 April 2014
50 Photos
Created 19 December 2013
Three days, two nights in the Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India.
90 Photos
Created 20 November 2013
50 Photos
Created 20 November 2013
35 Photos
Created 8 November 2013
20 Photos
Created 28 October 2013
14 Photos
Created 28 October 2013
17 Photos
Created 25 October 2013
15 Photos
Created 20 October 2013
No Photos
Created 11 April 2013
36 Photos
Created 12 March 2013
27 Photos
Created 7 March 2013
67 Photos
Created 11 February 2013
51 Photos
Created 29 December 2012
55 Photos
Created 25 October 2012
47 Photos
Created 25 September 2012
81 Photos
Created 9 September 2012
18 Photos
Created 29 August 2012
26 Photos
Created 24 July 2012
39 Photos
Created 4 March 2012
Opua, Auckland and Whangateau
51 Photos
Created 12 January 2012
51 Photos
Created 12 January 2012
Going back in time! Here are some pictures of our time in American Samoa from the end of August to the end of September.
69 Photos
Created 10 January 2012
Great Barrier Island, New Zealand
29 Photos
Created 8 January 2012
88 Photos
Created 4 November 2011
33 Photos
Created 26 October 2011
88 Photos
Created 17 September 2011
16 Photos
Created 2 September 2011
26 Photos
Created 6 July 2011
7 Photos
Created 5 July 2011
20 Photos
Created 4 July 2011
9 Photos
Created 1 July 2011
17 Photos
Created 27 June 2011
No Photos
Created 27 June 2011
Gromit snags a big one!
5 Photos
Created 26 June 2011
33 Photos
Created 26 June 2011
43 Photos
Created 14 June 2011
60 Photos
Created 13 April 2011
24 Photos
Created 4 April 2011
9 Photos
Created 17 March 2011
18 Photos
Created 22 February 2011
31 Photos
Created 31 January 2011
31 Photos
Created 12 January 2011
21 Photos
Created 24 December 2010
14 Photos
Created 12 December 2010
8 Photos
Created 4 December 2010
33 Photos
Created 3 December 2010
What we've been doing in the last weeks in Huahine.
34 Photos
Created 20 November 2010
This is for you, Eric and Jan!
28 Photos
Created 30 October 2010
17 Photos
Created 8 October 2010
17 Photos
Created 8 October 2010
13 Photos
Created 31 August 2010
24 Photos
Created 30 August 2010
11 Photos
Created 30 August 2010
53 Photos
Created 30 August 2010
10 Photos
Created 6 August 2010
10 Photos
Created 6 August 2010
15 Photos
Created 30 May 2010
29 Photos
Created 12 May 2010
12 Photos
Created 8 May 2010
A 10 pound tuna caught in the Perlas Islands, Panama.
7 Photos
Created 7 May 2010
10 Photos
Created 16 April 2010

Sailinggromit

Who: Michael, Cornelia, Zoe, Maia, Liam. Photo: At Tilloo Bank, Elbow Cay, Bahamas (photo by Frank Taylor)
Port: Toronto