After nearly four years of traveling on our boat it is time to spill..

1996 to 1999

When Julie & I left Peterborough Ontario Canada, we didn't really have a clew about what the "Big Adventure" would be about. Somehow we figured out that it would be vaguely like our holidays in the Caribbean that we used to take once a year to escape the -30C winters of February at home. Hot climates and palm trees... that's for us! 

I had just turned 50 and Julie 44, and time seemed to be running out for us. I had been talking about sailing the Caribbean for 15 years. Each year I would tell Julie that we would be leaving in two years. A number of two year plans came and went until 12 years had gone by. Finally (under Julie's vigorous urging!!) it was time to put up or shut up.

We purchased our "Dream Boat" in the dead of winter February 1997 and moved the 44' cutter into our front yard where we worked on her for the next three years. I thought we could finish the work necessary to out fit Free Radical in a year, but the project expanded. During this time I was still working as president of "Shield Source Inc. " a small manufacturer in Peterborough and Julie was working as a computer consultant for "Cain & Associates", a software support group. Her consulting required her to fly to the U.S. every second week on consulting assignments. I would work like hell every night on the carpentry for the boat and when she would arrive home I would have a whole weeks finishing work ahead of her. Our home turned into an assembly line with project  in various stages of process.

We finally left October the 10th 1999 from Whitby Harbour in Lake Ontario. I remember that frost was on the dock as we cast our lines off.  A heavy fog was on the lake and it set in with a vengeance just as we were maneuvering through the buoys exiting the narrow harbour entrance. I fired up our trusty GPS which hadn't been used in four years, and it promptly  showed us up on land about 5 miles. We couldn't go back in the harbour because we couldn't see 20 feet in front of the boat. Besides I forgot to get a compass bearing on the way out. We decided to carry on ... our only real choice anyway. 

The rear cabin of the boat was stacked to the very top with projects that had never quite been finished. This included the doors to the heads ( bathrooms), radar, ham radio, running lights, main sheet system, autopilot and on and on. We had to leave when we did because the house was sold and the jobs were quit. We weren't ready but we never would have been either. Neither Julie or I wanted to get caught in that trap.

As we continued east along Lake Ontario we decided that it would be a prudent to spend the night in the Newcastle Marina (Bond Head) a few miles down the lake. It had been enough stress just getting out of our marina in Whitby. What we didn't count on was the water level in the lake had gone down so far we ran firmly aground in the middle of the channel on the way into the marina. We finally struggled off the bottom under our own power and returned to the lake, turning down offers from shore to pull us over the sand bar with a tractor and rope.

Back in the safety of the lake Julie & I discussed strategy. Port Hope was out as well because it was even shallower than Newcastle. Oshawa harbour was the only logical alternative. The only problem we would have was we couldn't get there before dark, and I had only docked Free Radical a few times in the best of conditions, not in the black of a cold windy fall day. We had only had time to motor the boat around for an hour since it had been launched... that was our experience with her. One hour on the brand new Volvo 50HP motor. Our previous boat had been 33 feet and this new one at 44 feet seemed huge. My anxiety level was up about mid way but I didn't say anything to Julie (no sense letting her no I was scared shitty, that may cause a confidence problem). The other problem of course was no running lights installed. As we motored down the Lake I was busy installing the lights, and Julie was steering and navigating the boat. The navigation lights were finally working and we were ready for our first ever entrance into a strange port at night. There were endless possibilities for disaster running through our minds. 

Oshawa Marina during the day is a great place to visit, but at night it can be scary unless you are a local. Fortunately all went well and easily as far as navigating in, but it was cold and windy and it was just Julie & I trying to park this monster boat at a finger dock without smashing our new home. Just about all the boats in the marina had been hauled for winter and only a few stragglers were left in the water. One of the boats had a young couple on board and when they saw us coming in the dark they ran to the end of the dock to catch our lines. Thank god!! They caught the lines and I managed to get the boat stopped without ramming anything. I jumped onto the dock to complete the tying up of the boat, and almost ended up flat on my butt. 

when the boats were pulled out of the water for winter the Canada Geese moved in in hordes. There greasy droppings combined with the persistent rain made a skating rink out of all the finger docks. 

With our boat firmly tied to our dock Julie & I congratulated ourselves on surviving our first day as live aboard cruisers with a couple of bottles of Coor's Lite beer.  

To be Continued.....