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.

Sailing Home from South Carolina to Canada

We drove to South Carolina to see what we hoped would become our new boat. We also had made arrangements to stop and see many boats in States along the way from Ontario Canada to South Carolina. One we entered in the rain and got more wet inside than out. Some were obviously much older and worse for wear than the internet pictures posted of them were.  There really are all kinds of vessels out there for sale and all kinds of people selling them.  After meeting with the Broker and owner of the boat we had come to see, we were hooked. Stepping onto this vessel just felt like coming home. It would take a little elbow grease and a few bucks to get it into the shape we needed for a liveaboard but the bones were there. The hull was the most stable we had been on. It is a 45 ft pilothouse ketch built by Micheal Dufour (prior to Dufour being bought out). It was made in order to get the Lords of London Seal of Approval, in the style my husband would artfully call "built like a brick s***house". Solid as a rock.  She had brand new unused sails, a watermaker, solar panels, wind generator, new transmission, new prop, and that blessed second helm in the pilot house. So we negotiated a price that we could live with knowing how much we would need to still spend on her. And she was ours !
We headed back home to Canada to call the broker who helped us import our Catalina a few years earlier. He said it would be $200 to him and tax on the sale price to the Government and we would be all set to sail her home. Checking flight prices we decided it would be cheaper for the 3 of us to drive to SC plus we could then bring our own boating equipment which we would feel safer having. But we needed a vehicle to do so. Internet to the rescue again. We bought an old van for $400, loaded it with our our boat stuff, told our daughter to jump in and off we went to Georgetown South Carolina. It was a 1550 km drive and cost us $200 for gas. We later sold the van for $200 before we left so that gave our gas money back :)
We did a detailed daily blog of this entire trip home  www.kyleandshelley.blogspot.com  but the basics I will include here.
We took 3 days to clean up the boat and make it ours. Then we spent from July 16 thru to August 10 bringing her home to Canada.  We travelled 1297 nm. Our route started in Georgetown SC and continued thru Mrytle Beach SC, Wrightsville Beach, Beaufort NC, Norfolk VA, Atlantic City NJ, NY NY, up the Hudson River thru the Catskills were we demasted to enter the Erie Canal, Erie Canal, Oswego NY and then down Lake Ontario to Home.

 Photos Below -Entering NY City, Demasted and traveling in the fog up the Erie Canal, The Lengendary $400 van, passing Lady Liberty to enter NY Habour, motoring up the Hudson River, New York City

Time for a Larger Vessel

After spending a few years on our Catalina 36 we decided that in order to live full time aboard we needed to upgrade. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Catalina. If our intentions were to stay in the Great Lakes and use it every summer, we would have kept it forever. But these are not our intentions. As of the writing of this blog input we have 698 days til "retirement". For us that means we plan to sail south and then eventually east...who knows where or for how long ?? Since we cannot actually afford "retirement" and are way too young for pensions we need to have any boat upgrades paid for now while we are still gainfully employed.
So we made the obligatory lists...his and hers....he wants electonic "gadgets" of all sorts and more sail options ..I want a new stove, a second head and a shower...you see how this goes :) Then we compared, altered (by this I mean choose what we could not afford to live without montarily) and finalized our plan to boat shop.
Most importantly was how big of a boat could we handle with just the two of us and also afford to keep buy and float ?
As Canadians, we soon realised that anyone with a boat in our area believed because their boat was "not used" part of the year and "lived only in fresh water" that it was worth a great deal more than a similar boat south of the border. NONSENSE ! We had purchased our Catalina south of the border, in Massachusetts, had a very easy transaction and loved the boat. We could and certainly would explore that option again.
At first we thought we might like a Catamaran. We searched and scoured the internet. Again looking for something we could afford that fit our list of needs/wants. We found a model we really liked and discovered there were two for sale. One in Florida and one in Texas. Florida is a quick cheap flight from our home near Toronto Canada so we set off to see it. We arranged ahead of time for both a sea trail and a haul-out with a surveyor. Sea trail went well. Off to a good start we got quite excited. The next day the surveyor gave us the bad news....delamination in more than a dozen places in the hull. We asked for a reduced rate in the price realising it was going to cost thousands to repair. Owner said no, we walked or rather flew away back to Canada.
Really liking this particular boat we decided to try the one in Texas. We could have just paid someone to just look at it for us but after the first one my husband wanted to see for himself. Off he went to Texas. Guess what ?? Same problem !!! So on that note we scrapped the Catamaran idea and went back to searching for a monohull.

 After much debate, time and money we found her ! A 45 ft Dufour Ketch with a pilot house. It was living in Georgetown, South Carolina.

Winter Interlude - Diving Bonaire

 What does a donkey sanctuary,

 thousands of flamingos,

and rocks painted yellow, have in common ? Bonaire !!!

What happens when sailors are faced with long Canadian winters ?
They go south and dive of course.
The choice this time was a dutch owned island named Bonaire. Part of the commonly referred to as the ABC islands together with Aruba and Curacao. It is famous for its donkey sanctuary, flamingos and its diving.

 The most popular vacation and attraction for divers heading to Bonaire is their "drive and dive"packages. There are 86 different dive sites. Many of these sites are assessible from shore. Thus you take a vehicle, look for yellow painted rocks that mark entry points to dive sites around the island and go for a dive. It is simple and fun.

You can dive on your own schedule. You can dive alot or a little. The choice is yours. Anyone who has experienced "unpleasant" co-divers on dive boats can really appreciate this style of vacation.

Continuing West towards our Home Port

From Rochester we continued 34 nm west to Oak Orchard YC. We had never been to Oak Orchard before but it was highly recommended by others so we gave it a try. We had neglected it in the past for 2 reasons. One we were afraid that depth at the entrance would not be enough for our 7 ft draft. Two we knew there was a fixed bridge we would have to go under and we had conflicting information on its height. We needed 53 ft. The sailboat accompanying us ensured us that is would be no problem. Since he needed 54 ft we let him go first :)
The club was a self-serve and quite charming. Between the docks in the river and the shore there is a space that is essentially a turtle preservation.

 As you can see from the picture, the club building is up a hill. The river area behind the docks is very narrow. It did fit our 36 ft boat, however I would suspect that the 45ft one we now own would not be able to visit this tranquil place :(

 This is TopGun we are following behind. We figured it he made the bridge we were safe too :)



A short 20 minute walk from the club is a place called Brown's Berry patch. They have incredible homemade pies, fudge, ice cream and gifts. Outside they also have an area with many activites and a petting zoo for both big and small kids. Highly recommended !

As they say "all good things must come to an end", for us that meant it was time to head back to our home port of Hamilton Bay. It was another 82nm. We left early  in the morning and had a great sail complete with a rainbow to welcome us home.