Now that we were both unemployed, the whole adventure felt very, very real. Our to-do list continued to evolve; we made a lot of check marks, decided to postpone other tasks and added even more to the list. It was pretty overwhelming at times, we knew we wanted to leave the dock soon to explore the Great Lakes but we had so much to do. There were certainly times where it felt impossible.
Thanks to lots of late nights and help from our friends and family, we continued to make progress. Some of the highlights included converting our propane Force 10 stove to electric with the help from Uncle Rob (more on this later), adding Alaya’s home port onto her hull with help from Aleyna, replacing wet deck core on the cockpit sole near the rudder post with help from Craig and installing our brand new headsail and main sail.
Lucas’ brothers Noah and Paul came to help us for a few days at the end of June and they were a huge help! I was a little nervous about living on a 43 foot boat with three Kizer men, but they were awesome and Alaya handled the extra people like a champ.
All of this work was in preparation for our trip but also in preparation for our Going Away Party/Open House on June 24. On top of everything else, Lucas, Noah and Paul installed all the teak deck hardware I’d been busy varishing in my truck bed workshop. By the morning of the party, Alaya was looking good!
We had a wonderful time showing off our new home to our friends and family, many who traveled a long distance to come. Jeff, my dad, took an awesome drone shot of some of the group. Thank you to everyone who came to wish us well!
After the party, we continued on the projects. Paul was in town for a few more days and he helped us rebuild our windlass and mount our HUGE anchor. We wanted to test out the anchor and needed some time away from the dock, so the day before Paul flew home, we left the marina. Our plan was to head to downtown Toledo for an early dinner and then anchor at Turtle Island, which meant sailing down the coast and then motoring up the Maumee River for a few miles. We were having a great time until we got to the MLK draw bridge in downtown Toledo. The operator had trouble closing one of the car traffic gates and asked, “Can you take your mast down?” We of course could not, so we turned around and headed to Turtle Island.
Once at Turtle Island, we set our anchor and she held. We made a delicious dinner onboard and then rowed to explore the island. It was our first meal at anchor, our first anchoring and our first island excursion with the dinghy, only five miles from our dock!
Paul flew home and we continued to work on our sticky notes. Our anticipated leave date quickly came and went, like any sailors, we adjusted the timeline and trudged along. To quote a great blue fish, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep SWIMMING!”
