Where are you going ?

Where are you going ? The most popular question after you tell people you are going sailing. If my husband answers it is simple, South Pacific to dive. If I answer the newfie in me just has to give a longer explanation. When we leave my daughter, Kelly, will be in University. Not to mention our other kids, granddaughter and family are all still here. The distance from them will certainly be hard for me at first. So I have asked that we spend the first couple years in the Caribbean. I know that any day of the week I can jump on any island and fly back to Toronto if there is an emergency with the kids or other family. Or if Kelly decides to come sail with us for awhile she can do the same. As well family and friends can easily fly down and spend a week here or there with us.
We have been lots of places already, however there are still a lot more we have not experienced yet. Our first year we will plan to be in Cozumel for Christmas and New Years. Kelly and Ally (another daughter currently in University) are going to fly down and spend that time with us. After that we will slowly head to Grenada where we will probably hang out for hurricane season. Once we have explored the Caribbean we will head to the Panama Canal, maybe head to the Galapagos islands, Hawaii, Easter Island ?? Once we get across the Pacific we will probably apply to get a visa to work in Australia and replenish our traveling kitty a little before heading out to the south pacific islands. We know many other Canadians who have easily been granted permission to work in Aussie. As dive instructors we are hoping we can get a little work around the reef.

Where have I been ?

I am often asked by students learning to scuba or fellow sailors "Where have you been ?". To answer this question honestly requires some time. Last July was our tenth wedding anniversary so I made an album in my facebook with the "where have we been together" theme. It took some good memory skills ( well I cheated and looked thru my photo albums) to place everything in chronological order and try not to miss anything. I realized that in my life before and with Kyle almost all our travelling had been in North America. Thus the answer to "where are we going ?" is usually easy to answer..South Pacific..ultimately. It seems the perfect place for a couple of avid scuba diving sailors.
We both traveled quite alot before we were together. Kyle for work and me to try to cure my wunderlust..that is not possible I discovered. I had been from coast to coast in Canada as my family is from Newfoundland and I had friends working in British Columbia on the ski hills. And as a good Canadian I had been to NewYork, Florida, Vegas, New Orleans, Los Angelos and many other tourist spots in the USA.
Once together much of our travel has been to places we can scuba. The list seems long until I add up how many times we have been to Cozumel Mexico. The answer to that 13. Yes 13 times we have been to Cozumel together. And some of these times we were there for 5 or 6 weeks. The diving there is awesome and we have met some of our best lifelong friends there.

Cozumel trip dates :


Feb 2001
Feb & July 2002
Feb 2003
Feb, April & Dec 2004
July & Aug 2005
July, Aug & Nov 2006
July & Aug 2007
Nov 2008
July 2009





Other than Cozumel we made many other memories over the past 13 yrs together. We have traveled to :

 Cancun July 2003
Key Largo & South Beach FL Oct 2003
Georgia, Nashville, Ohio, Indianna, Kentucky & Alabama in July 2004
St Lucia Aug 2004
San Andres Columbia Feb 2005
Ottawa Canada March 2005
Philadelphia May 2005
Cayo Largo Cuba Nov 2005
Havana Cuba Nov 2005

Fort Lauderdale FL Nov 2006
Ocho Rios Jamaica Feb 2007
London England April 2007
Paris France April 2007
Connecticut, New Jersey, and MA in May 2007
Florida Keys Feb 2008
Circunavigating Lake Ontario July & August 2008
Cancun MX Feb 2009
Thousand Islands/ Lake Ontario Aug 2009
Panama Nov 2009

Cayo Coco Cuba Feb 2010
Washington DC March 2010
South Carolina, North Carolina, NJ, NY and Virginia July & Aug 2010
Bonaire Feb 2011
Connecticut, Boston MA, Newport RI July 2011
California - Napa, San Fransico, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe Nov 2011
Varadero Cuba Jan  2012
New Orleans LA July 2012
Santiago de Cuba Jan 2013

You can see why we need to live on a boat to be able to complete our world travels. Besides our 13 Cozumel trips we have taken 31 other trips. Some of them stopping at multiple places. Thus 9-5 life is not really our thing. Life is short and you need to live it in a manner that makes you happy. Traveling, meeting new people, seeing new places, experiencing new foods and diving new places all make me happy. Sailing and diving make my hubby happy. So combining these two dreams seems like the right thing to do. So out into the world we are going ..in 439 days ..July 1, 2014.. we will begin our life on the water. We will spend some time in the Carribbean first to shake things out. Then off we go. Once we get across the Pacific we believe that we will be able to dive and see many of the sites we could otherwise not afford monitarily however our souls can not afford not to. 

A Winter Break In Cuba

2013 was a very very long winter. It is now mid-April and the ice from a major storm is still melting in some places while others are awaiting their power to be fixed. The combination of high winds and heavy ice downed many power lines and poles inthe area. Taking this into consideration I was looking at some of our winter vacation pictures and thought I would share.
This winter we took a trip to Santiago de Cuba. We love Cuba for its beautiful beaches and freindly people. We have journeyed to Varadero, Havana, Cayo Largo, Cayo Coco and Santiago. The diving in Cuba varies greatly from place to place. Santiago definitely tops the list due mainly to its location. It is on the very Southern tip on the Carribean Sea side.

The diving here provides many of the same sea life you would see all over the Carribean. In fact across the water from here in a staright line South is Jamaica.
Dive operators are government run of course. We brought all our own equipment but their rental stuff looked fine. The inital dives are $30 per person per tank but decrease as you dive more. Thus it is not cheap but hey there is no competition.

Beaches in Cuba tend to have the softest white sand. My favorite beach location anywhere is Cayo Largo, Cuba. Walking in the sand there feels like walking in powder(icing) sugar. It is super soft, super white and goes on for miles. No one really lives on this Cayo. They fly staff in and out of the resorts for 20 day "tours of duty". The only exception are a couple scientists who live in the turtle reserve. We helped them release the baby turtles at sunset for their best chance of survival.

Come on Spring !!

The calender says it is Spring..the weather man ..not so much. We are trying to arrange with the trucking company and crane to move the boat back near the water in about 10 days. At this moment the cradle is frozen solid to the ground..urg...the forecast says the daytime temperatures should go above freezing all week so we will have to put some salt down and try to get it thawed out a bit.
Once we get it back near the water we will need a couple days with temps above 60 F to get the last coat of bottom paint on before getting it in the water. Until that happens we will put all the topsides back together...lifelines, pulpits, new arch, wind power, solar panels...etc. If the weather cooperates with us we could be floating in just a few weeks !!
In the meantime I have been busy buying myself some "toys". I have always wanted a little kayak to explore the areas around where we anchor. Kyle's argument has been no space for said kayak. So last week when we walked into the marine store and saw an inflatable one on clearance for a mere $100 ( originally $349) I became the proud owner of it :)

For the past couple years as I have looked at my Walker Bay dingy in the basement of my house I have dreamed of getting a sail kit for it. The price has always been prohibitive $850. But I figure it is better to sail around little bays then use all that gas all the time. Plus the main engine and generator are both diesel so I do not want to carry a lot of gas around just for the dingy outboard. Our boat has a 7 ft draft so in many places we need to anchor further out than we would like. Well I guess after thinking about it for 2 yrs my husband decided it was not such a bad idea. So we bought it !!

What else did we do ?

Besides new decks,

*the boat was given all new electrical panels and wiring

*new plumbing and heads

*new ports and windows

*new matresses

*new headliners (ceiling)

*new shower

*dive compressor and dive shop room

*new kitchen, with back splash, new stove, new double sink

*new bottom barrier coat and paint

*new logos, new curtains, new freezer, new washing machine

I am sure there is more on this list which the many bruises and scars on my husbands body can attest too. www.benger.blogspot.com

Refit Highlights

What did we do ? No, no, no ...what didn't we do is more to the point.

The first and largest task was replacing the decks. The previous owner had removed some of the damaged teak decks but not all. The rest had to be removed.

A new core was installed and then much new apoxy/fiberglass was laid.

With new cores, paint and kiwi grip they should last us a long time !

Refitting the Boat

Sorry it has been a while since a post on this page. However my husband has been very busy posting on his blog www.benger.blogspot.com . An account of the complete process of refitting a 30 yr old boat for ocean living is available on that blog.

We pulled our boat out of the water with the plan for a 2 year refit. Fortunately for us a friend allowed us to use his farm to store and work on the boat. Unfortunately that farm is a great distance away for the water. Thus the boat has to be trucked then craned into its new temporary home.