Getting started!!!!!

The Crew Dancer

Today we started our blog.  We will try to keep our activities posted as we prepare Dancing with the Wind for our journey to the U.S. and Bahamas. First I'd like to thank Doug Macdonald for giving us the info to access the start of this blog. 2nd I'll give you a little history on how we arrived at the opportunity to begin this journey.
    It was always in the back of our minds to travel by boat, and originally we planned on doing the Great Loop. For all those who don't know what the Great Loop is, it is starting anywhere along a water route, for example in our case Lake Ontario and through the Great Lake system or Trent Severn and then Georgian Bay, to arrive at Chicago down the canal system to the Mississippi River and out to the Gulf of Mexico around Florida and on up the Inter Coastal Waterway or off shore to New York City, up the Hudson River and the Erie Canal back to Oswego on Lake Ontario.
   This was before we thought about sailing, we were still the dreaded stink pot owners of a 36' Trojan Tri-cabin (Life's a Dance) back in 2007 and then at the 2008 Toronto boat show with friends Trevor and Nancy Annis, and the Admiral Karen, the Captain aka Gord, who with only a small amount of windsurfing and a small Styrofoam dinghy sail experience started thinking about the possibility of maybe looking at a sailboat to see what it was all about in a larger form,
    So after looking at a few of the larger sailboats they had there, the Captain found one that caught his eye a 45 foot center cockpit Hunter and convinced the Admiral to have a good look to which she said if we found a boat similar to this she might consider it. The fact that Hunter had a sign up form for a introductory to sailing day in the spring also would have a impact on our decision to make the change from power boat owners to sailors.
    Then in late April we were called to remind us about the sailing day and from that day forward we started thinking about changing to sail. We took a basic sailing course in Whitby our home Marina and we sold Life's a Dance in Sept. and started the process of looking for our new boat. Also we booked a intermediate level sailing course for January in St.Lucia. Which was an experience itself, but it got us sailing experience on  a 45' Jenneau sailboat and showed us we could handle a boat of this size and also gave us a brief experience on the ocean and some big water waves.
   During the time from Sept. 08 to Mar.09 Gord was watching the internet sailboat postings and had about 20 different Hunter 45' center cockpit boats and other makes as well on a short list. Well in Mar. he found Dancing with the Wind in South Carolina. We made a offer and went to where she was and had a survey done while we were there and two weeks later she was trucked to Whitby.
   Since then we have been preparing for a trip down the east coast on the Inter Coastal Waterway to Florida and then on to the Bahamas. In 2012 we took the summer to  check out the North Channel and Georgian Bay in Lake Huron via Lake Erie and the Detroit River. It also proved  that the Admiral and Captain could be on board with the Crew Dancer 24/7 and not have a mutiny. Anyone who has not done this trip would love it if they had the weather and heat we had last year. We also found out some of the issues we would need to repair and or replace  before heading south with Dancing with the Wind.
  

 Dancer and Karen on the beach at Port Dalhousie

My son Jason and I waiting to enter the first lock on the Welland Canal

Sailing on Lake Erie photo by Gary and Lydia Francis also from Port Whitby Marina

 

 

July 17th, 2013

 

Today we are installing our re-conditioned water maker.  It's been really hot here at Port Whitby Marina for the last couple of days.  Thank God for air conditioning.  Two weeks left until we shove off.  Lots of stuff to get done but the list is getting smaller.