Boat Dreams and Goodbyes

Weekly Blog | June 30 – July 7“It’s All Happening!”

Wow—what a whirlwind week! Stephen and I both officially wrapped up work. While I may still pick up a few on-call shifts to help with travel costs, it feels surreal to be stepping away after all this time. We’ve been squeezing in a flurry of appointments before my benefits ended on June 30, which made for a hectic few days.

One of the biggest highlights? We had a virtual walkthrough of a boat in Grenada—and we’re seriously interested! The tour went really well, and now we’re diving into research mode. The boat needs quite a bit of upgrading to make it a solid cruising vessel, so we’ve started working with our sailing coaches to estimate refit costs and set a realistic budget. It’s one thing to find out what something should cost—but what it’ll actually cost in Grenada? That’s a whole other puzzle. It's not as easy as googling local vendors or trades...it's finding out who knows who and how to get a hold of them...We are once again thankful for our coaches at Totem Sailing and for our amazing broker Max Shaw for helping us navigate these early days. Homework time!

Another major event this week: our wedding reception and going-away party! It was everything we hoped for—chill, joyful, and surrounded by all our favourite people. I probably should’ve done more visiting and less dancing, but if you know me, you know it’s hard to keep me off the dance floor. I went to bed with aching legs but well worth it. Thankfully, Stephen made the rounds like a pro—we really do make a good team.

As we looked around the room that night, we were overwhelmed by love. We know we’ll miss so many faces, but we also know those relationships aren’t going anywhere. These are friendships and family that will stand the test of time and distance. How lucky are we? We are still in awe with how much support and encouragment we have from everyone in our lives. Even complete strangers who hear about our adventure are so thrilled for us. We really do feel so blessed right now.

(Also… we may have overcommitted to a million more visits before we leave—oops! We’ll do our best to fit them all in.)

We also squeezed in one last Calgary Stampede for a while. Stephen, Anna, and I had an awesome time at the chuckwagons and grandstand show. They’ve truly made it a world-class event, and the fireworks were spectacular.

Coming up next week: possibly making an offer on the boat! It’s all happening so fast—exciting, a little terrifying, but mostly thrilling. This dream is quickly becoming real.

Stay tuned—we’ve got big waves ahead. 🌊⛵❤️