Learning the Boat

We’ve now spent two days with Captain Marty.  We’ve been taking the boat apart, basically, from bow to stern.  We’re about ½ way through through the inside.  We now know which pipes vent the propane out to sea (to keep us from blowing up!) and how the heads work, including which pipes go to the holding tank and which ones go outside.  We know how to pump out the heads using the marina’s pumps as well as how to manually pump them out to sea (once we’re three miles or more off-shore).

We’re amazed at how many cubby holes and hiding places there are on board.  And the captain is impressed with the size and layout of this thing as well.  He says our boat is only about 10 feet longer than his, but has about 4 times the space!  Good for us!!

We’ve replaced a hose and washed out the stern locker.  We had to take our bed apart to get underneath it to follow tubing, chains and electrical wires, what a pain!  But we’re learning a lot.

We also manually pumped all the water out of the dingy and given her a good washing.

Captain Marty is not with us today.  He had to deliver another boat to Mexico.  But that only means we’re busy doing all the homework he gave us.  We’re just about to have lunch, then out to wash off the deck, which is fun!!  Its such a pleasure to be out there in shorts and sun dresses and bare feet, getting wet. 

Piggy is still terrified, as usual, so he hides all day.  But Archie is having the time of his life.  He gets to explore all the cubby holes and even lie in the sun outside.  Here’s a couple of pictures of him doing his usual.

Yesterday we went to Walmart.  Kelly, get this!  We picked up 6 bottles of wine (should have gotten more) for only $1.97 each.  No kidding.  We now have 9 bottles sitting in the “wine cellar” under the galley floor.

We have now replaced the wire furling line with rope.  Should be much easier to operate now.

We’ve not had the time to play with video yet.  We’re have issues getting it loaded on the blog.  We might have to post on Youtube and provide a link here instead.  Stay tuned. 

Oh, and here is a picture of one of the many beautiful sunsets we saw on the way down here:

For Videos go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrlTZpEtygc

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uh4-vMVJcY

We Made it to San Diego

Well, it took a week all told, but we made it to our boat.  We’ve been busy, busy, busy since we arrived.

Today we finished unpacking and stowing all our stuff.  We had to take out everything the previous owners left, throw out what we didn’t want and find places for all our clothing, electronics, linens, etc.  We’re quite amazed at all the space on board.  We actually have lots of storage space that is empty at the moment. 

We’ve been having lots of issues getting a working phone and internet service.  The reception around here is horrible.  We’ve been told that it is due mostly to the military that is nearby.  I guess they block of lot of the signals.  Apparently, the locals complain about it all the time.  We have a temporary cell phone, but we’re paying 10 cents a minute.  We got wifi service for $20 a month, but its not too reliable.  Not reliable enough to use the Magic Jack (which gives us free local and long distance phone service), and that stinks.

Archie (one of the cats) is loving it here.  He’s out on deck in the sunshine most of the time.  He hasn’t jumped off yet, but I’m a little worried he’ll slip and fall in.  I don’t know if he’d be able to make his own way back on the dock or not, as they are quite high.  So, whenever we leave, we put him below and lock in him, just in case.

The weather here is gorgeous.  Its been around 24 everyday except for one.  We’re in short sleeves most of the time.

Our bed is the most comfortable we’ve ever slept in.  Its so cozy in bed that we want to crawl into it all the time.  There’s one of those space age Swedish foam mattresses on it, and its very, very large.  We have about 7 pillows on it and a nice TV at the foot.  Its wonderful.

We’ve been able to cook on the propane stove and on the bar-b-que.  We think we’ll be buying a new bar-b-que right away as this one is old and doesn’t work too well.  The stove is also a challenge as we’re not able to adjust the flame.  Everything cooks on high!  You know what that means – we’re burning everything.  Hopefully we can just get it serviced, cause marine stoves are very expensive.

We’re not crazy about this marina.  Most of the slips are rented by boat brokers so there aren’t many people around.  We were looking forward to enjoying the boating community, so we’ve been shopping around for another one.  We think we found one we like and we’ll probably be moving there shortly.

We’re commissioned a captain to teach us everything.  And I mean everything.  He’ll be going over everything on the boat and explaining what it all is and how to maintain it.  We’ll be making a map of the boat detailing where everything is, cause we don’t want to be searching for things when we need them.  He’s going to take us shopping for gear.  We’ll be emptying out the water tanks and re-filling them, about 5 times, he says.  Also pumping out the waste tanks.  He’s going to teach us how to maintain the motor, etc. etc.  We probably won’t be going sailing for a week or so.  We’re going to spend a lot of money on this guy, but he’s going to prepare us for everything.

We’ve still got lots to do to get her pretty.  We’ve changed some of the rigging and have someone working on the graphics for her new name (In the Vortex).  Apparently, you can’t just change the name of a boat.  There’s a whole ritual we have to follow as well as getting rid of everything on board with the old name.  We’ll be doing it all later, but not yet.  We need to clean her up, polish her, etc.  We’re also going to probably change the carpets and upholstery.  But we’re going to try doing it ourselves.

We’ve been sleeping like babies, and its time to go get comfortable for the night. 

So far, so good.  This is the life!!

$^%%#@%& US Customs and Border Patrol

 We left Toronto on Jan 10^th, with the intention of getting to San Diego by Jan 15^th.  That plan has been blown all to hell by the &^%$^*( US Customs.

In all fairness, we did have a car full and then some.  They thought we were trying to move there.  Yeah, like we would want to live in the US!!!! 

On day 1 we were sent to the “office” to answer some questions.  The room we were taken to was more like a jail than anything else.  We were not allowed to bring in our phones or any water or food.  We weren’t allowed to use the bathroom or even to stand up!!!  We were informed that we would need to get proof that we had a home in Canada.  Meaning, we had to bring a list of stuff as per their instructions.  Things like the deed to house, our renters agreement, proof of employment, financial viability, etc., etc.

We were taken into a back room and body searched and finger printed.  At one point a female officer called me up and asked me if I had ever been arrested.  I said “no, never”, which is true.  She asked me if I was sure.  Of course I was.  After another hour or so, the officer handling our case (McCue) called me back up and asked me where I was in 1976.  I said “Montreal”.  He said are you sure you weren’t in New York protesting or something.  “Isn’t that what they did back then?”, he said.  I said no, I was just a teenager then.  He got pissed with me and said “no you weren’t.”  I said I didn’t know how old I was at the time and he said “yes you do”.  Gosh, have you ever tried to do math while you are under stress?  Ok, so I was 21.  Big deal.  So he said they ran my fingerprints.  He said “you understand that fingerprints don’t lie.  Is there something you want to tell me?”  I said “no, I have never been arrested.”  He said “ok, we’re going to send your prints to the FBI.  You can wait here until we hear back, which could be several hours.  I’ll give you some time to think about it.”  About an hour later he came back and asked me if I had anything to tell him.  I said “no, I have never been arrested.  I understand that fingerprints don’t lie.  You obviously didn’t run my prints or you’d know that.”  He said “actually I did run them”.  I said “I know you are turning us back, so what does it matter if I was ever arrested anyway?”  And he said, “You’re right, I don’t have to hold you.  You can go.”.  4 hours later!!!

When we got checked into a motel, we called the FBI first.  The FBI confirmed that the border patrol did indeed send them my prints.  But they were rejected due to poor quality.  They also informed us that the US Border Patrol is not capable of running fingerprints, so the customs officer lied to me.  We then called the Detroit US Immigration office, for a couple of reasons.  First one was to file a complaint about the officer’s intimidation tactics and his lying.  The second reason we called was to find out if we could go to an alternate border crossing with the information.  We were informed that we could go to any border crossing.  There was no way we wanted to go back there (Windsor/Detroit Ambassador Bridge crossing – avoid it at all costs!).

The next day we went to RBC to get a printout of my employment records at RBC as well as 6 months transactions to show income and bill payments, including mortgage and tax payments.  We got a copy of Neil’s book listing from Chapters and a copy of our tickets back to San Diego in May to prove that we would be returning to Toronto.  We took this to Windsor/Detroit Tunnel crossing.  When we were back in their “office” we were told that we had to go back to the Ambassador Bridge crossing, that what we were doing was considered “border shopping”, and that it is illegal.  At that point, I broke down and cried.  This appealed to the officer in charge and he became more gentle with us and said he would allow us to use that crossing without charging us.  Long story short, after another 4 hours we were once again turned around because we did not present the deed to the house.  I explained to the officer (Kerby) that it was back in Toronto and that I didn’t even know where it was off hand.  He said if we got a statement from the bank indicating that I own the house, the balance owing and that we are not in arrears, that would be acceptable.  Once again, we were body searched, finger printed and returned to Canada.

So, we ran to the bank again, but we were too late.  The next day, we got the necessary statement and returned to the Tunnel crossing.  Unfortunately, the same officer was not on shift and they started all over again with the “you didn’t bring the deed” and “you have to return to the Bridge”.  One officer even came forward and said he heard the officer instruct us to return to the Bridge.  Yes, he did, but he changed his mind later, but, of course, this guy didn’t hear that.  OMG, I thought, this is a nightmare.  Anyway, we asked to speak to the supervisor.  The wait was almost 2 hours.  During that time, Kerby came on shift.  Thankfully, he cleared everything up and they ended up letting us through.  WHEW!!!

We running 2 days behind schedule, but we’re finally in the US. 

(Would you let us in?)

And We’re Off

Well, after a lot of work, we’re finally ready to head out to San Diego.

We got almost everything taken care of.  We have tenants for the house, put in all our change of addresses and packed up.  Whew, packing was a chore.  Now, we haven’t checked it out, but I am quite concerned that everything won’t fit into the Beetle.  Thankfully, we bought a roof rack.    The plan is to put 4 giant duffle bags (or hockey bags) onto the roof rack and everything else into the car. 

We’ve decided to take both of the cats with us.  We’re not sure how that’s going to work out, but we feel better about taking them than leaving them.  They also seem to sense something and if I didn’t know better, they’re eagerly waiting for us to take them along.  We got all the necessary shots and papers from the vet and bought two brand now, comfy cat carriers for them.  These we’ve just left in the middle of the living room floor for the cats to explore on their own.  We also bought halters and tethers for them.  I think putting the halters on them is going to be fun!  But we have to make sure they don’t fall overboard.

We’re leaving Monday, January 10^th with the intention of arriving in San Diego by the 15^th. 

This trip is to gain our sea legs, get some much-needed sailing experience and to generally get to know the boat.  We’ve already made plans to return to Toronto on or about April 17^th.  We’ll drive back and sell the car while we’re here.  We have our return plane tickets for May 9^th.

So there probably won’t be any updates until we arrive in San Diego.  Then we’ll write an update and, hopefully, post some photos or videos of “In the Vortex”.

Until then, fair winds.