We had the opportunity to take this course, put on by the Bluewater Cruising Association, this past weekend. What a wonderful course - it opened up a lot of talking points for Owen and I - everything from "we really need a lot more storage so that everything can be put away in a proper spot and Tara won't lose her marbles" to how to deal with stress, fear and being trapped together in a small space.

The group was small, the discussions lively and, if you have dreams of cruising long term, and have the opportunity to take this course, I would highly recommend it.

Thankfully nothing that came up this weekend gave us any pause about heading out on this adventure. If anything, I think it solidified the desire to go and took away a few reservations that we may have been harbouring.

A well spent weekend!

We picked up our shiny new Dickinson Caribbean stove on Saturday and yesterday we started the deconstruction of our current galley.

First out was the two burner cooktop and then the entire countertop, sink included was pulled out - the only thing that had been holding it down was the plumbing!! Yikes!

The rest of the cabinet was quickly pulled away and now we are left with a shockingly small space with a lot of wiring to tuck away more efficiently.

The next step will be to pull out the Dickinson Pacific stove that is in there (I am a bit worried about how much that might weigh!) and then we can start reconstruction.

There was quite a bit of conversation back and forth about how the construction will go to put the new stove in place but I think we have a working idea now - it is surprising how high and how far out the oven needs to be to allow for the gimble - looks like I will also be getting an unexpected cupboard behind the stove - not that I am complaining.

Anyway ... this is what we are dealing with right now... not too pretty!

The boat show hits again.... we went to the Vancouver Boat Show to browse, maybe get some ideas for storage - that sort of thing. We left with a new oven on order - so now the refit must begin.

We will be taking out our existing Dickinson diesel stove (gulp), ripping out the entire galley and re-configuring it to fit the new oven against the hull, flipping the sink from its current position to a mid-ships position. We will end up with an extra dry storage box (for the time being - which will hopefully ultimately become a deep freeze box), a new small cupboard above the sink and a flip up counter beside the sink. We will also get to add a Solar Fan into the deck hole that will be left when the chimney is removed.

Hopefully this can all happen in a very short period of time, so that we can get out to cruise and enjoy the new oven - I guess my collapsible camp oven can be permanently added to the camping gear!

This was the first big expense towards our big trip and it actually came in about a $1,000 less than we were expecting so we are happy about that!

We also priced out hydronic heaters while we were at the show - it is shocking how much they vary in price - from around a $1,000 to just shy of $7,000!!! Ummm - we will take 7 of the $1,000 models thank you! Seriously though - it seems that this is an example of paying for a name - because the one we are looking at (the $1,000 one obviously!) has great reviews - there does not seem to be a reason to go with a $7,000 model for our little boat - especially when we are planning to take her to places where heat will hopefully not be required!

And so it begins!!!

We have become "those people", as Owen would put it. We now have boat cards - and thankfully I only ordered 100 because as much as I love the look of them, I realized that I put the blog address on incorrectly - whoops!

When I handed one to my boss, he asked where I was heading to that I needed them... so apparently having a boat card is the indication that we are to be "long term" cruisers rather than local cruisers. I am okay with that!!

I think it is a fun idea to have them on-board - we have received them from other cruisers that we have met at marinas and anchorages and I was always sad not to be able to reciprocate - now I will be able to do so!

I will have to hand these ones out quickly though - so that I can justify ordering new ones - with the correct blog address - maybe by that time I will have actually gotten into the habit of writing this blog!

May 1, 2021 - seems like a good date. A couple of weeks ago I informed Owen that we must just "pick a date"! The next day I did just that - May 1, 2021 - hopefully by that date we will have completed all of the "must do" projects, rented out the house and we will be ready to leave.

Our first destination won't be too far flung - we are going to circumnavigate Vancouver Island, with detours through the Discovery Islands and the Broughtons. Owen did this trip in about 2010 - we have both made our way around the Island on the Vancouver Island 360 race - but that is a 14 day trip around the Island with not a whole lot of time to even notice your surroundings. In 2021 we will take our time, staying where we want to stay, detouring to see places that catch our interest and ending up in Victoria by the end of the summer, ready to head south.

The tentative (very tentative) plan is to head to San Francisco (I am soo going to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge!) and then on to San Diego to wait for the start of the Baha Haha - we will join the Haha and spend that first year in Mexico - after that.... who knows?!

The list of "must-do" items is long, and the list of "would like too" items is even longer - the must-do's will be set out in a later blog post - but I think with some planning, and a willingness to leave before the would like toos are dealt with, we will make our planned departure date.

The will to go is there - now we just have to figure out the way!

Happy sailing!