I can honestly say that the last week has been the toughest week of my life. I am not trying to be dramatic but it has been so challenging on both my body and spirit. As you know from what I have written up to now, this trip has been a long time in the making. After three years of serious preparations and planning, there have been many discouraging moments these past two weeks. Just imagine trying to take all of your possessions and shrink that all down to fit onto 38 foot boat (approx. 240 square feet). We have all suffered with minor injuries and the stress of not enough hours in the day to get essential work done. I had envisioned a minimalist life yet I feel the complete opposite – I am constantly surrounded by clutter on the boat and it’s driving me nuts! Why is there so much stuff?  Why did I feel the need to bring so many clothes? Add to that all the upgrades we have been doing to the boat and unfortunately finding issues every step of the way. This has absolutely been an exercise in patience. We all have been tucking in at night exhausted but somehow still feeling optimistic – that combination has not been easy and I am very proud of the four of us! Trying to take all of our plans and dreams and have them line up with the initial realities of this massive life shift has been hard to swallow. All we can do is keep our eyes set forward and, fortunately, we finally now seeing the payoff of all our hard work.

The mast is up, rigging issues sorted, both sails are on, propane and water systems are hooked up, arch is on and the solar panels are attached (way to go Alex!), fridge, freezer and pantry are filled with food and we have a new sail plan…the original plan to sail straight to Sault Ste. Marie is now just not going to work for us.

Our new sail plan…

One of the many things we have learned from our experiences sailing Lake Winnipeg, the Florida Keys, Bahamas and Haiti was to never sail to a tight schedule and here we were right out of the gate, trying to sail to a tight schedule to get Alex to Sault Ste. Marie by July 25. We all sat up late last night and came up with a new plan. We now will be setting sail tomorrow morning and spending a week sailng Isle Royale (approximately 30 nautical miles from Thunder Bay). We are doing our research and seeing that there are many anchorages, docks, hiking trails, beaches and sights to see! There are also shipwrecks that Jason, Alex and Dylan plan to snorkel or dive. The water is very cold so they will decide that when we get there! We will spend a week sailing and will be bringing Alex back here to Thunder Bay so he can fly to Winnipeg on July 23. That takes the pressure off of us! At the same time I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed to not have him with us to cross the lake and do some night passages as planned but this new plan makes sense.

Did we under estimate the amount of work we’d need to do these first few weeks a liveaboard family? Yes, we did! Do we regret what we are doing? Not for a minute.

Tomorrow is a big day! We finally push off the dock and are going to go have some fun together for a week with our two boys. We have certainly earned it!