Mighty and Mini

The cruise ships that sit in the harbour can be 16 stories high, huge floating cities the dwarf the rest of us cruisers.
Watch out Mini Mouse, here comes Mighty Mouse

Bowling and Golf !!! On a Sailboat???

That's right Gord, Sue, Bill & Cathy had a great game of bowling, played some golf, a little tennis and wrapped up the evening with some wakeboarding. Co mpliments of wii and the luck of have a large salon to jump around in.  Fun "A"

Mishaps

Boats they tend to rock and roll, sometimes when you least expect it.  We're in the process of installing our new davits and its definitely a larger project than the designer led us to believe.  Gord was tidying up after a sweaty day of work when one of those unexpected rock 'n rolls happened and his toe and the lazarette hatch competed for the same space. Gords toe lost. The hatch slammed down and almost cut the end of his toe off- well needless to say there was a little  *%#*#! and of course squeemish me ended up prone on the deck while he doctored himself. Sorry Gord! So, there's been no swimming for Gord, but still the sweaty work days. The Davits are almost fully installed, the toe is healing and he can't wait for to get the snorkel out.  Check out the new Davits

Sitting at Anchor

We'll I've been here a week now, had a wonderful time over Christmas, we were invited to a home on Water Island for Christmas eve ( which happens to be the same place that Joe Bidden- US VP is currently holidaying on)  long walk up the hill from the dinghy dock, but wonderful hospitable  people with loads of food- including caviar, free booze and a great Christmas carol sing. Christmas day we shared with 2 other boats and had turkey and the fixins on " Dream Maker" owned by Bill and Cathy fom Vancouver.  Not the same as home and family but the next best thing, new friends in a tropical paradise.

Rocking to sleep tonight

Wow was it hot when I arrived.  It's taken a little time to get used to the heat, but it was nice to get rocked to sleep by the motion of the gentle waves and the slight swaying of the boat.

We started on installing the new Davits- now that's a challenge, but they're looking pretty good and it will be so nice to have the solar panels moved off the deck and also to get the dinghy out ofthe water at night, it makes for a cleaner bottom and way less scrubbing at the end of the season as well as protects it from theft, which can be prevalent in some areas.. As we were sitting in Lindburg Bay last night, enjoying a rum punch, the sun set spectaculariy over the water and the most gorgeously decorated sailboat came cruising thru the bay with christmas lights on just about every surface possible. It was spectacular.

Tonight there is a lovely cooler breeze so I know I'll sleep well.

Can't believe I'm on my way

Well its been 7 weeks now that Gord has been in the Virgin Islands while I worked away up here in the cold. My work is done, I've helped my daughter move and settle in, gathered hundreds of pounds of stuff to go to the boat from a grapefruit knife to 20 lbs of frozen steak. I've driven it to Florida, crashed at my Mom's for a week and managed to get it all shipped and on its way.
 I finally take off tomorrow.
I'll miss my daughter "Tiffany" and grandaughter "Sadie" at Christmas, but definitely will not miss the cold and snow, besides they're planning a trip in January to see this floating retirement for themselves.
Life is getting fun and adventurous again after many years of heartache.
If you're up there in the cold, just close your eyes and pretend you're sailing with us. I'll keep the blogs posted and will include pics when possible, you can feel like you're right there too.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, Fair skies to all!

The Launch

We're finally in the water. Extracted from the mud of the storage yard and sitting proudly in slip B7 with our newly painted hull, our sails in place and our new name and hailing port displayed on the stern.
There was defnitely that sigh of relief, she floats and she doesn't leak, so we're ready to push off in the moring and head cross to the US Virgins in pursuit of some packages containing some wonderful new instruments. Oh No more work! the rewarding kind that doesn't leave the muscles so sore. I can hardly wait.

The Change

Today was busy. The vinyl for our new name arrived by courier today so its out with the old and in with the new.

The sailing vessel "Furthur" is no longer.

As Gord says now she feels like "our" boat.

We have our summer wings and now have our winter wings.

And " Ocean Wings" is born

Rain, Rain go Away, come again some other day

Well today was to be launch day, worked and worked to get everything ready. the weatherman had other ideas and with a huge thunderstorm raging around us, we're in the hotel doing paperwork instead.  Does hurricane season follow the old saying of " In like a lamb, out like a lion"  if so we hope its it's last hurrah as we're ready for some of that famous caribbean weather with sunshine and steady breezes.   Maybe tomorrow??

Getting Her Ready

The fall has arrived and we've been planning all summer for our return to the BVI's and a little/ or a lot of work before we set sail and see the caribbean.
As luck would have it a friend , that we met last year in Nanny Cay, offered his assistance in getting the boat ready. And since Sue was still tied to home for all of November and couldn't accompany Gord it was an offer we couldn't refuse.
Gord and Irek are now in Tortola , blue as can be, covered in dust from sanding and bottom painting.
Meanwhile Sue is at home, packing up some necessary supplies and taking almost daily calls with additions to the growing list.  the shipping company will be "rubbing their hands with glee"

Finding Our Dream

Welcome to the Travels of Ocean Wings, a 56' Whitby ketch.We discovered our boat while browsing online after much agonizing over do we or don't we commit to such a large purchase while going into our retirement years.But we saw her sitting at anchor in the BVI's with a lot of the features that we had wanted and best of all a motivated Seller.So we travelled to Tortola and took the leap of faith.

First Impressions

Our first view of her as we walked the dock , was " O my she's way to big. At 56 ft long she took all the slip and more. She looked a little neglected, as she had not been loved in months and months and had recently just come out of the storage yard.However her lines were awesome and there was a great fully enclosed dodger that looked almost new. Sails with a flaking system and a not bad paint job on the hull.

We were starting to get excited!! She was pretty close to what we had hoped for.Tapping us on the shoulder as we stood there in the dusk dreaming, was a young couple that turned out to be the captain Bill and his girlfriend Stacie that were here to show us thru the boat the next morning. They had assumed by the puppy dog look on our faces and the drool dripping down our chin that we must be the prospective buyers. 

They were fabulous. They invited us to join the on the boat- much to the rokers chagrin- we moved aboard and went island hopping with them for almost 2 weeks.  It convinced us that although there were a bunch of necessay repairs and upgrades, it really was a great boat, sailed well and would be just the one to start our adventure on.

We were hooked and started the buying process.
Bill and Stacie headed home, were hoping that they will come back one of these days and sail with us on the new improved  " Furthur"  now rechristened as " Ocean Wings"

" What Have We Done"

We're now Boat owners and we're happy, excited, scared and slightly crazy. Why Crazy?? Well, because we've spent our retirement money on a large floating, fiberglass home and we've just learned what Boat stands for: "Bring Out Another Thousand". Of course there are a multitude of things that need fixing, cleaning, polishing and outright replacing.
But, this new floating home will take us travelling to see some of this great big, beautiful world that is best experienced from a clear, turquoise bay ringed with white sand beaches and palm trees, that can only accessible by boat, no roads, runways, of other footprints in the sand. Avoiding the expense of hotels and airfares and taking our amenities with us, like "personal" pillows!
We've owned her for 8 weeks now and have already placed our personal stamp on her with curtains, hatch covers and winch covers as well as addressing many of her mechanical challenges.
We've tucked her on the hard (ground) for the coming hurricane saeason and will truly start our adventure aboard her in November, when we return to get her ship shape and ready to explore and welcome our friends and family onboard. After all, Fun and Adventure are so much better when shared.