R & R Finally

The Adventure Begins

REST AND RELAXATION.  We have decided to spend a couple of days here at Sarnia Bay Marina.  We arrived at 2 PM and within 40 minutes we were all set up and sitting by the salt water pool with a few beers. It feels great.  It was even better after a BBQ and a bottle of wine.  The trip up the Detroit River, across Lake St. Clair and up the St. Clair River to Sarnia was uneventful, even pleasant thanks to Dave, George and Grant;... the autopilot is a neat concept and it worked great.  The only down side was that there was a high wind warning.  It was blowing 30 km/hr when we arrived at the marina.  Fortunately our slip assignment on "Y" dock was easy to get into.

WOW, WOW, WOW  What a send off.  There was a crowd to see us off; flag waving, bell ringing, and horns blowing.  I suspect that Linda and I had more people with us than there were at the Sunday morning service.  I hope that the Big Guy is not mad.  We even had an escort of boats as far as the Ambassador Bridge.  I will post some of those photos when I get them.  People on the shore were waving and shouting... well Clara and Alex were shouting and their grandparents were waving.  It was a very memorable send off.  Thanks to all who have made the start of our journey such an event.

1 day down, 419 days to go.

Aground

I did not stay we "ran aground" but I think my boat is on the bottom here in my slip. This is the absolute most that has been put on the boat; probably 10 fold more than normal. We have most everything, I mean everything, onboard but have not yet found places to put it all. Still, I think that we are actually doing better than I thought we would because we are putting things in holes and spaces that we never did before. Right now the boat boat looks like hell (I owe little Alex next door a dollar) but it is true. Three years planning and now we are running are as!#^...heads off in the last few days.

Just over 24 hrs to go. The last load of laundry is in, the fridge is being emptied, and the furniture is covered. I have to remove the battery in Linda's car, turn off the water to the condo, empty the hot water tank, turn off the gas and lock up. Then we go to the boat and store the last of the provisions, swap the permanent dock lines for our transient / travel lines, get my hoses and power cords organized and then with any luck we can join the marina for their usual 4 PM cocktail hour (or 3).

Sunday 10 AM is our target departure time. Many of our local friends want to ensure that we are actually leaving so it has been necessary to set a schedule (pressure). I will be sooooo glad to finally start our 12 month vacation. Linda and I have earned it just in the past two weeks alone.

My next message will actually be sent from somewhere on the America's Great Loop.

Bon Voyage.

Tom and Linda

Bon Voyage Party Extraordinaire

Wasn't It a Party

Our friends at Westport Marina threw one heck of a party on Sunday.  This beautiful plaque is now posted above the bar in our salon on Q's End.  We will treasure it always. 

The party started early and after numerous toasts (ie. 2 bottles worth) of Grand Marnier and a fabulous BBQ with birthday boy (ie. the BIG 60 ) chef Sir Charles, 13 of the 27 party goers came aboard Q to escape the mosquitoes.  It was a great afternoon; the salads were superb, the drinks plentiful, and the company great.  Linda and I will miss this bunch.

The party only resulted in a minor setback for us this morning(unlike the Mayor of Westport who acquired a suspicious flu bug).  Today,we acquired a new US satellite receiver and have it hooked up to our VuQube sat dish.  It is currently downloading information onto our system, hopefully.   On Saturday, the install of our new autopilot went well.  There is only a small problem in obtaining a discontinued NMEA connector for my Raymarine chartplotter but I have already found a workaround if need be.  Regardless the autopilot works in pilot mode and will steer the boat in the direction that I point it.  Finally, some relief for the Captain when underway.

The house stuff is proceeding as well.  With any luck, we can move onboard come Wednesday or Thursday and shut the condo down.  We are still looking at departing on Sunday but I have yet to see the long range forecast. 

It was a great weekend.  

" The Destination holds very little for the voyage is everything. "

Busy, Busy, PANIC Time

The closer we get to our target departure date of August 8, the busier we get. There are way more details to take care of than any other trip that we have previously entertained including the time that we had to move onboard for 4 months while the condo was being built. My mind is in over drive which is why I sit here at 5:00 AM at the top of my basement stairs writing to you. Need I explain? Let me start with my new office in the basement stairway. As you know I have cancelled many of our services including my internet provider. Well our neighbour has kindly allowed us to use his wireless router but... I can only get consistent access from the top of my basement stairway which is directly across from their den. Thus I sit on a footstool with the laptop on a TV tray.

Why 5:00 AM....because once I get up, as I always must at my age, my mind will not let me go back to sleep. This morning I got the brainstorm that we should change the oil and gear oil on the outboard motor for the dinghy....so I get up and write a note to call the mechanic to bring the necessary supplies when he comes to the marina to fix a friend's impellers. With that taken care of I make a mental note to bring some chafing gards to the boat so that I can fish the cable from our new fluxgate compass to the helm. Oh, most of you are not aware that we are installing an autopilot. So many people thought that we were crazy to undertake a 6,000 mile trip without an autopilot, that we ordered one last Thursday. We are NOT crazy. The autopilot arrived on Wednesday and I have been planning locations for the different components, cable runs, power sources, etc. ever since.

A lot of new people have asked to be included on our travel list. Well this message has nothing to do with the fun travel side but is an update for friends and family on the preparation side for the trip. Feel free to hit delete at any time.

Details, details, details. There is no end to the number of details that need looking after. Some are taken care of easily and others are such a pain in the ass. Bell ExpressVu is at the top of this list. Arrangements were made with Bell 2 months ago with plenty of slack time in case there were some minor delays. Service was cut off as planned...then my supposedly last bill arrived with charges for the next month. To begin with no service but service charges is not cool but the bigger problem was the rental PVR which needs returning. One needs shipping labels and a box from Bell to return the PVR. One cannot go to a Bell store or office to return it. Of course, these labels were not sent out on the last day of service as promised so I have been chasing Bell for the past 10 days to try and make this happen. After escalating the issue 2 levels, I may have succeeded in getting them shipped just yesterday.

The GOOD. Industry Canada, a federal gov't department provided superb service this past few days. I decided last Sunday to apply for a radio station licence for my marine radio. It is unnecessary in Canada but is a requirement for the US and the Bahamas. The US never checks but if some redneck sheriff were to get PO'd at me... well let's just say that I do not want to give them any ammunition. So the good, I sent an email with a scanned application form to IC Spectrum Division on Sunday. By 10 AM Monday, I was informed that the application was accepted and that an invoice for the annual fee would be sent out the next day. On Tuesday I paid the online invoice by credit card. Later that same day, I was informed that the licence would be mailed to me on Wednesday and that in the meantime I could get a virtual copy from their website, which I promptly did. My call sign is CFK9701. Al, could PWGSC ever be that efficient???

This week we also received our US cruising permit from the Port Authority at Port Huron. This allows us as a foreign vessel to land at any port in the US without checking in for the next year. Here again, boaters seldom do this but a few have been caught and then are delayed several days while the paperwork gets done. We got our new US credit cards finalized this week and have begun loading the safety deposit box with ???? valuables??. We got our navigational extension on our boat insurance yesterday; only an additional preminium of $2,700, that is, if we do not go below the 35 th parallel before Nov. 2. If there is a claim from a named storm before that date, their is an automatic deductible of $40,000. Needless to say we will not go past Tennesse until that date. I finalized our medical travel insurance as well this week. Since we will be out-of-province for more than 212 days, some insurance companies would not touch us. In the end we obtained an OHIP extension for one year and with the 40 day coverage of our PSHCP (my supplementary health plan from work) we purchased medical insurance for 319 days.

We'll keep plugging away. For those who know us and have been in our basement, Linda achieved a major milestone on Tuesday. She is fully caught up on all of the ironing. ***applause***. Hopefully, the autopilot will be installed on Saturday because we are planning to move onto the boat on Monday or Tuesday. Then we will have to focus on closing up the condo. This shouldn't be too bad but I would like all of the patio furniture in the basement, everything off the basement floor, fridge and cupboards emptied, hotwater tank drained, electronics unplugged, furniture covered, water turned off, etc., etc., etc.

Farewell parties and get togethers are plentiful right now. If it wasn't for Bell ExpressVu, the oil spill in Michigan, the Asian carp problem in the Chicago Ship Canal, the flooding in the Illinois and Mississippi Water Systems and the Gulf oil spill, we might actually enjoy these last few days in our home port.

Until next time.

Tom and Linda
www.qsend.blogspot.com

Committed To Go

It has been an agonizing couple of months mainly due to the disaster in the Gulf but Linda and I have decided that we are going to start America's Great Loop. We have been following daily reports from the Gulf not only via the news networks but also the reports from members of the AGLCA (America's Great Loop Cruising Association). This is a great association that is proving invaluable to anyone who is considering doing the Loop. The current situation is such that Mobile Bay (the area where we will be entering the Gulf in the November time frame) is still clear. In fact, fishing and swimming is still going on as usual in the Bay. We will be entering the GICW (Gulf Inter Coastal Waterway) ((aside: get used to the short forms I won't be spelling things out for long)) from this Bay at Perdido Pass. This pass and all others eastward to Carabelle have been boomed off and are doing are pretty good job of keeping the oil out of the waterway. The booms can be opened during an ebb tide so with proper timing we should be able to get into the GICW and pass the worst of the diasaster. The rest of Florida is still clean and we hope that it will stay that way.

Of course all of this can change within a couple of days or after a storm but we will remain hopeful.

So now the push is on. I thought that we were in pretty good shape to take off but everything seems to be taking 5x as long as it should. Little things are croping up that are unexpected; the dinghy cover got ripped, the dinghy developed a couple of pinhole air leaks at a couple of the seams, the ice maker severed a water supply line, the anchor light is not working any more, my US phone won't allow me to add air time, etc, etc, etc. There are a million things to still do around the house to get it ready for a year's vacancy. I will not bore you with all of the details but it seems that I am spending as much time on the phone and doing things around the house as I am on the boat.

The plan, if you can call it that, is to leave Windsor in early August. Our first target or objective is to reach Chicago shortly after Labour Day. We want to be off Lake Michigan by mid September in the hopes of avoiding rough seas. Lake Huron in 2008 turned us off to travelling in 6 foot seas or greater. Leaving that early will give us plenty of time to explore some of the neat places on Lake Michigan that we have not visited and will allow for a sufficient number of weather delay days so that we can travel in comfort.

That is about all I have regarding the trip so I must get back to all of the details that need addressing.

PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR CONTACT INFO WILL BE CHANGING:

Effective July 19 service ends for our home phone number (250-0221) and internet service @ sympatico. On August 8 our primary cell (903-0221) will not work. Please, please take down the new contact information. It is already in effect.

When in Canada we are are going to use Linda's cell phone:  519-903-0223 .

When in the US we will primarily use our Net 10 phone:  313-434-1246.

We have 2 direct lines from Canada to the US Fone:
Ottawa -- 613-686-2385
Toronto -- 647-724-2270

Both phones have voicemail so I will likely, when I remember, check the voicemail on the Cndn phone once a week or so.

New Email Address:  tlgeiger@hotmail.com

Of course, I hope to find frequent WiFi connections throughout the trip so we can keep in contact that way as well.
I am still not really into this blogging business but I will try to keep that up to date and if possible (that is if I can get Linda to take some pictures) I will add more photos in the blog. www.qsend.blogspot.com

That is all for now.

Tom and Linda

Cdn Cell: 519-903-0223
US Cell: 313-434-1246
Email: tlgeiger@hotmail.com

Q's End: Heading for Another Adventure

Hi Everyone

Late this summer Linda and I will be taking off again on our boat Q's End. This time we are not coming back, well at least not for a year anyway. We are finally going to start America's Great Loop. This is a preliminary message to create a distribution list for those friends who are interested in receiving periodic emails about our trip and what we are doing. I know some of you might get annoyed by receiving emails from me but I also know that more of you cannot get enough of me..., or at least my emails. For some of our new friends who have not yet had the opportunity to follow one of our trips, I have sent out a series of emails for our boat trips in 2005 (The Ontario Loop) and 2008 (Lake Huron). You can actually read these things if you go to my new blogspot.

www.qsend.blogspot.com

To my fans, I have a bit of a dilemma. I can write my updates directly to the blog or I can send out emails with the story and then move them to the blogspot. I am going to use that site as a record of the trip and perhaps augment it with additional photos and information. Call me old fashioned but the trouble with blogs is that the chronology sucks. It is hard to follow a story or trip when each chapter is put in front of the previous chapter. So if you go to the site to catch up on the earlier trips be sure to read each entry in the proper sequence, that is, read the oldest entry first then the next oldest etc. I tried to follow a few Loopers on their journeys this year and had trouble keeping up to date especially when entries are posted irregularly. I will start off by sending the info to you but I may in some cases just send out a notice that there is a new posting on the blog. As we go along, please let me know what works best.

Well you can probably tell that this is another rainy day...that is why I am in here typing instead of polishing the boat or golfing or enjoying yet another dock party. The last rainy day, created the blog so do not expect much. It was my first attempt.

About the trip: I started thinking about doing the Great Loop when we were still in Ottawa. Al and I frequently discussed this at our "business" lunches and it was he who found the AGLCA, America's Great Loop Cruising Association. We have been members for the past few years. I say "I" wanted to do the Great Loop because Linda was less enthusiastic. At first there were a number of conditions like the need for a bow thruster (to make life easier for her) and a dinghy. We took care of both those items last year. Then it was just uncertainty about whether or not we could handle the boating portion of the 6,000 mile trip. This last hurdle was overcome at last October's AGLCA Fall Rendezvous in Alabama. Here Linda had an opportunity to talk to literally a hundred or more people who were currently doing the loop or had already done the loop. It was not long before she was convinced. Everyone, bar none, said it is a trip of a lifetime and you have to do it. Linda spoke to many of the other Captain's about the worst part of the trip "boating wise" and they all said the Great Lakes. When Linda told them that we had circumnavigated Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron and that we already had done the Trent-Severn, they assured her that we could handle the boating without any problems. Thus the planning began.

I will provide more updates as time goes along but for now please let me know if you would like to receive the emails about our trip and please let me know if any corrections are needed for your email address. Hopefully my address book is up to date. If you hear of someone who would like to follow just have them drop me a line.

Tom and Linda
Q's End

btw: This has been our earliest launch ever; we have been in the water for 2 weeks already.

To Blog or not to Blog

It is time again to start thinking about how I am going to document and share our latest adventure on Q's End. In the past many of you have accepted emails about our travels beginning with our Ontario loop in 2005. If I can figure out how to do it, I will include those emails in the Archive section. This is all new to me, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Our newest adventure is going to be the America's Great Loop. Basically, we are headed for Florida via Chicago and the inland rivers which connect and parallel the Mississippi River. We plan on returning via the Intercostal Waterway system up the eastern seaboard to the Hudson River. I will eventually get some links to more detailed maps and such. Once I figure this stuff out. What I do not like about blogs is that it is difficult to get the flow of things when you have gaps and time delays between posts. I much prefer to send emails out when I get the chance. Again, if I can figure out a way of doing it, I will add those emails to the blog and any extra info that I may want to keep as a record of the trip. More to come on these fronts. For now, I have successfully started a blog on this rainy day and I will figure out what is best as time goes on.