We closed the circle Tuesday the 29th of June as we reached Mallorytown Landing exactly 303 days after departing.
We left Kingston Tuesday morning after checking into Customs and celebrating on the town the night before. We had a quick sail down to Mallorytown Landing as the wind was blowing pretty good (and in a good direction too). It was a great way to end the trip as we were able to shut of the motor and enjoy being propelled solely by the wind.
Bitter-Sweet would be the description of our feelings as we pulled up to the dock at Mallorytown Landing. On the one hand it's great to be back home in Canada, back with family and friends. Not to mention all the luxuries we will have access to by living ashore. On the other hand it has been such an amazing trip and I've gotten accustomed to it being just Sal and I together on our little boat. But now that we've had a taste of the cruising lifestyle, we cannot wait to get back out there. It might not be for a few years from now, but we've been bitten and have already talked about future sailing dreams.
We spent our last night aboard after taking down the mast and getting the boat ready to be trailered in the morning. We celebrated with a dinner of Subway (that we picked up on the way in Gananoque) and some chilled Champagne. We were enjoying sitting out in the cockpit in the evening until about 9pm when we suddenly got attacked by hundreds of mosquitoes. We had forgotten how bad mosquitoes get here in Canada and quickly moved below and put up the bug nets.
The next morning we visited our sailing Guru Phil and had a leisurely breakfast before meeting my dad at the docks. We pulled Second Wind out of the water and gave her an inspection. Besides the scummy bottom and dirty hull, she had a few dings but happily no serious damage. We had coffee with a family friend before taking the 401 to Brockville than the familiar route home. It didn't seem like we had been gone for over 9 months as we pulled into the driveway. After a quick lunch we started the clean-up. No one could believe the amount of stuff we took off the boat. The lawn was covered, the backroom floor was covered and the kitchen table was full. Two days later we had the boat shining again, the stuff sorted and stored and a new to do list.
We are now enjoying showers, television, home cooked meals, refrigeration, two ply toilet paper and standing head room!!
Both Sal and I have learned so much about sailing, about each other and about the places we've visited along the way. For myself, I can say that I’ve become more relaxed and less stressed and live more in the moment. It will probably be a little difficult to get back into the swing of things and back on North American time but we are both looking forward to starting our careers and living the landlubber lifestyle.
Thank you for following along on our journey with us.
