We nervously approached the automatic double doors to the U.S. Customs office and a strange thing happened.  They didn't open.  We knocked on the glass - no one was there.  Matt phoned their number and was instructed to pry open the doors.  "They're broken, try forcing them," an official said.  It was a peculiar feeling, forcing our way into customs when all we waned to do was get out.........

At first things were pretty tense, I got the same feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had when we'd gone through customs in Toronto.  The officer stoically went through a round of questions and paused for a long time in silence as he looked at our passports and into our files.  "What did you tell the customs officials when you were going to Ft. Lauderdale?" he asked.  We told him what our plans had been and that they suspected we were going to try to work in the states.  Two other officers joined him and Matt and I exchanged nervous glances.  And then, something even stranger happened.  They all turned AWESOME.  

No joke.  I don't know how we lucked out, but these were the three nicest border guards that I have ever come across.  Not only were they making the process of clearing out of the states remarkably painless, but they were cracking jokes and offering advice about what to do on our return from the Bahamas, to make it easier to come back to Florida.  They gave us some safety tips, asked us if we had any questions, and sent us on our way with stunned and elated expressions on our faces.  

Ahhhhhhhhhh.  Do you hear that?  That's six weeks of tension melting away.  I mean we still have to actually GET to the Bahamas, and I realize that the crossing won't necessarily be an easy one, but by golly, it sure feels nice to have this hurdle out of the way.  Now we can start focusing on charting our course without the wonder of whether or not we will actually be able to sail it.

I'm not sure when the next time we will have internet will be, so I have to take this chance to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has offered advice, encouragement and support this far.  You have no idea how much you've helped us.  There have definitely been moments where Matt and I have felt absolutely insane, spending all our money on a boat and getting permits to take our 10 month old puppy to other countries.  Plan?  What plan?  But like my mom says, for all the things that have gone wrong on this trip, there have been a whole lot of things that have gone right.  Amen to that.

Matt and I seem to do a lot of underestimating.  

Our most recent underestimation, was how long it would take to provision. We guessed we could get it done in T minus 3 hours.  It took all day.  We've heard horror stories about the cost of certain things in the Bahamas, so we decided to try to save ourselves some money and stock the boat here in Marathon.

I've never bought so many groceries in my life! In fact, I've probably never bought so many groceries on all previous trips combined!  No, that's a lie.  Anyways, finding storage spaces on the boat will be our next hurdle. The last thing you want in heavy winds is to have a mountain of cans tumbling down on your crackers.  Or worse-your noggin, so we will have to do some serious rearranging of the aft berth.  (Which is where you will be sleeping if you ever decide to come down to visit us :)

On another note, tomorrow's the big day!  No, Matt and I aren't getting married.........yet.  But, we are going to clear customs.  We are driving down to Key West to declare that we are leaving the country and to ask for our 48 hour weather window.  That way, we will have time to get to Rodriguez Key to wait for fair weather to cross the gulf stream before our visas run out.  Wish us luck!

Oh yeah, and today I saw a huge spider.  Please don't decide to live on my boat sir spider.

Sweet dreams!  Or good morning!  (Whatever the case may be)  Looking forward to posting after our brush with customs tomorrow.  We have been dreading it and feeling like fugitives for so long that it will just be nice to get it over with and get out of the country.  PEACE!

We bought a boat!  Again!  Only this time, it's a dinghy.  It's name is DEATHSTAR.

A Message to our friend's and fam…………

We think about you often and know that some of you are putting up with far less desirable weather than here.  We also know that seeing our bright, stupid faces smiling in the sunshine might be pretty annoying.  

Here are some reasons that you should not be jealous and should enjoy being safe and sound in great ol' Canadia……

1.) When we get back to Canada we are going to be broke, possibly jobless, apartment-less, and probably screwed

2.) We have to deal with emptying our porta-potty ourselves.  Did we mention that we don't have a proper head? (head means toilet)

3.) We haven't had any beach time- because every single day we have been trying to get closer to leaving so that we don't get arrested for staying in the states after our visa runs out.  It says NO EXTENSIONS right on it.  Hmmm, maybe they will give us an extension…….

4.) Nobody does yoga here.  Every time I find a spot that I think is remote enough to practice in, I end up awkwardly avoiding eye contact with an audience.  Last time when I got up after I was finished meditating people clapped.  Uhhhhh…..

5.)  Between the mosquitos and the noseeums, I currently have hundreds of itchy bites all over my body.

And the BIGGEST reason is below:

6.) We miss YOU.  It is starting to get a little lonely.  Don't get me wrong, Matt and Wookie are amazing, but………

I know what you're thinking.  We aren't going to feel sympathy for you - you're living on a boat in the sunshine!!!!  Well, you're right.  And it's awesome.  And we are meeting some cool people and enjoying our time here.  But I'll tell you one thing, it's made us feel so fortunate to have amazing friends like you.  And maybe, just maybe that will make it a little easier to come home to go back to work ;)

Boats are constantly breaking down.  Salt water is the culprit, finding it's way into this crevasse or that seal and wreaking havoc with every unseen drop. So if the ocean isn't kind to our boat, we have to pick up the slack. Our pal Bruce hooked us up with his boat mechanic. He came aboard and gave the boat a once over and quickly found a number of things that were missed in the original boat survey.  "Jeff" is like a marine Macgyver. Not only did he fix up our boat at a reasonable cost but he took the time to teach us along the way.  We told him we owe him our first born, but he respectfully declined.  Another friend in Marathon, thanks Jeff!

 Matt climbs up the mast to fix our light.  Hero!

The Marathon to Marathon….

7 long days and 200 miles after we left Apollo Beach with Maranatha, we arrived in Marathon.  We're back in Keys Fisheries where we had left only two weeks before.  It feels SO good to be back here.

Wookie bounded off the boat and went crazy.  Can you blame him?  I was going crazy too, and I wasn't the one forced to pee on astro turf all week!

Now we've got some final prep to do before we can go to customs.  After a week of sailing, we discovered a few things that we'd be wise to replace, before we cross the gulf stream.  We've been told that things are really hard to get in the Bahamas, and we don't want to have to be scrounging for parts when we get there.

To do:

Provision the boat (TP in the Bahamas is CRAZY expensive)

Get Wookie's Health Certificate no sooner than 7 days before we reach the Bahamas

Replace a light on the mast

Replace the boat batteries
Get a spare alternator
Find out why our motor only revs to 1800rpm

Get an additional anchor and more chain

Fuel up and fill the three water tanks

Get a new seal for the water pump
Un-document the boat with the U.S. Coast Guard

Register the boat in Florida, pay the sales tax and get the title

Get insurance

Buy charts and cruising guide for the Bahamas

Plan our route

Get yellow quarantine flag for the boat

Find a dinghy

Tighten the shrouds and the backstay

We can do all this in 7 days……..I think……….

I MISS YOGA, AND I MISS MY YOGA PEEPS!

                                                                                
                                                                               BOAT POSE. ON A BOAT!  HAHA!

                                                WOAH WOAH WOAH!  DOLPHINS!!!!!!

The alarm went off this morning at 2:05 a.m.  After struggling with finding our way into strange harbours, anchorages and marinas well after the sun had set (on more than one occasion) we finally learned our lesson.  We decided to leave as early as we needed to, to make sure that we would arrive at our destination during daylight hours.  Today this meant a departure time of no later than 2:45 a.m.

No wind meant that we would hear the motor's incessant ERRRRRRRRRRRR for the next 13.5 hours.  But WE SAW DOLPHINS!!!!! Swimming off our bow! My head exploded, they were so beautiful!

We made it to the entrance of Little Shark River.  I had no idea it would be so peaceful.  We dropped our anchor and turned off the motor and I realized I had been yelling back to Matt ( at what felt like the top of my lungs) in a quiet sanctuary where the only sound was the odd splash of a manatee or a sea turtle popping it's head out of the water. I felt lucky to have landed in a place so serene.

And just when we thought it couldn't get any better……………………………

WE SAW YOUNG PEOPLE!

This may not be as exciting to you as it is to us, but after you've spent a month in Florida without conversing with anyone in their 20's or 30's a little social interaction with generation X and Y is just what the doctor ordered.  

A little rowboat approached our boat with a couple from Oregon and two beers in their hands.  I could barely contain my enthusiasm.  (We have no dinghy, so we couldn't have rowed over to meet people, well, without getting very wet- and it IS called little shark river.)  

We had dinner, exchanged favourite music and made a whole bottle of rum disappear.  MAGIC!  (Thank you Amanda and Chris for a night that was such a blast :) 

Needless to say, our start tomorrow morning will not be so early. 

The last few days have been all about the miles.  We've had two 50 mile days. That may not sound like much, but when you're going 4 to 5 knots an hour it makes for a looooong day.  On the second day a cold front moved in (did you know it could be 2 degrees celsius in Florida?) and we got caught in a lightning storm after dark.  Sitting on the water with a giant metal pole standing 50 feet in the air.... sucks.  The swells were ten feet and the wind was blowing 25 knots.  Matt took the helm, Wookie went in his crate, and I was ordered to stand on the bow with a spotlight looking for obstructions such as markers and crab pots.  Let me take a minute to express my disdain for crab pots.  I mean, I love crab as much as the next pescatarian, but when a line from a crab trap catches on your propeller and you are trying to cut it loose with a steak knife - you're hooped!

So, I kept my post.  That is until it started raining more heavily, and then I called veto and asked Matt to trade places.  That's when it really poured.  Poor Matt.

Our spotlight was running out of power just as we were approaching the shore.  We tied up to the fuel dock, and after twelve cold and wet hours on the water we decided to stay put the next day, go over our charts and to try to plan a more manageable course for the next leg.

And we rode bikes!

BOAT!

The next morning we went to see a Catalina 30 in Apollo Beach, FL.  We had pretty much written it off and were killing time until we got to go and see the Allied Seawind.  

We started to walk down the dock towards the boat, and then……. something happened.  Something happened that we were warned about and warned never to do…… we fell in love with the boat (and the owners.)

In front of us was a beautiful Cat 30 that had been immaculately taken care of and loved.  We tried not to show how smitten we were with the boat at first sight and walked away after telling the owners that we would contact them later.  

We didn't get very far.

5 minutes down the road Matt stopped the car and we decided to make an offer.

We raced back to meet the owners and made an offer that was swiftly declined.  Obviously.  We got their bottom line and Matt and I looked at each other and decided with that look, that we were going to make it work.  This was going to be our boat!

The following three days were an absolute frenzy.  Now that we had found our boat, we had to find a surveyor, get it surveyed, access our Canadian funds and transfer the title over with a Notary from the bank.  Stress!

Thankfully, we were dealing with the nicest boat owners you could possibly imagine.  Any fears we previously had about getting ripped offed or taken advantage of, diminished the second we had a conversation with Walt and Barbara.  I felt like they were my friend's parents and that I had known them for years.  Turns out Barb is a yoga teacher too!  And Walt and Barb are vegans!  What are the chances?  We met the co-owners, Bill and Toni a day later.  They were wonderful and eager to help as well!

For all the things that have gone wrong on our trip, we really hit the jackpot on this one.  

When we brought our stuff to move into the boat, a bottle of wine and some embroidered "Maranatha" towels were on the counter waiting for us.  Immediately Maranatha felt like home.  And home felt GREAT!

5 boats later and nothing to show.  We're starting to wonder if this trip is a bust.  Every boat so far has been a disappointment.  It seems neglect is the curse of old boats.  This was confirmed earlier today when I tested the sink pump on a 1989 Catalina and it broke off in my hands and started shooting salt water into the boat.  The yacht broker scolded me and said if I break anything else we'd have to buy it.  Good thing he was kidding, but I made sure not to touch anything else.  Marianne cried on the way back to our motel.  Hate to say it, but today is a low point.  We're both well aware that the bottom line is that we need to find a boat in the next 5 days or suck it up and go home.  Bogus journey?  Perhaps, but in the meantime, stay positive, stay positive!!!

We have a few more potential boats lined up.  One in particular, is a 1979 Allied Seawind 32.  I'm excited about this boat because it's outfitted for the type of trip we're planning.  Unfortunately, we have to wait a couple days to see it.  In the meantime, we're planning to look at a couple more Catalina 30's.  Let's roll?

I saw 67 alligators on the way to Ft. Myers.

Enter Bruce, and Florida Keys Sailing School.  When he asked us how we decided to take sailing lessons with them, our honest answer was that he didn't ask us to call him Captain over the telephone.  I mean honestly, how can you take sailing seriously when images of Captain Crunch and Peter Pan keep popping into your head?  Ok, ok, on the boat is one thing, but on dry land?  Come on.

Matt practices the "Clove Hitch"

Seriously though, sailing with Bruce and Edgar will remain one of the highlights of our trip.  They were  AWESOME.  We spent 7 days living on a Catalina 30 named Selena in a marina called the Keys Fisheries (with the best stone crab claws you've ever tasted).  Each day we would venture out on the water, only to discover how little we knew. At night we would study for our exams.  I was not happy about this - see below.  We had two great days with 25 knots of wind, which were absolutely exhausting, but we were happy to experience those conditions with an instructor, rather than at some point in the future on our own.  Not only were B & E knowledgable, funny, and over all total characters- but they were great teachers too.  Oh- and patient!  We bombarded them with questions not only about sailing, but about buying a boat, provisioning and EVERYTHING else we could think of. (Sorry about that guys.)

We're leaving the Keys Fishery's 8 days later, tired, sunburnt and whole lot saltier.

When we told them our plan to purchase a boat with our current time constraints they thought we were a little nuts.  This was discouraging, coming from two sailors who have bought and repaired their fair share of boats.  We've come this far!  We're not giving up yet! They wished us luck ( a lot of luck) and advised us to try the West coast of Florida (in and around Ft. Myers) to look for a boat.  And since they are our new sailing gurus - off we go!

The next week consisted of eating pickle sandwiches to save money and walking aimlessly around Ft Lauderdale for hours and hours at a time, before realizing that we would accomplish NOTHING without a vehicle.  So, off we went to rent a car, unaware that on the next leg of our journey Matt would lose his bank card, two rental cars would break down on us and we would get kicked out of a motel (we'll tell you that story another time.)  The long and short of it all, is that we basically got our asses kicked all the way to the Florida Keys.  

And thank heavens for that.