A Heartfelt Farewell

March 22, 2022

We knew the weather was not going to be entirely in our favour to leave the dock Tuesday morning. Part of us wanted to stay, the other part was antsy to get our journey started. A detail of this story we haven't shared is the dock we were staying at was the private dock of the previous owner of Holy Cow. The family graciously agreed that we could keep Holy Cow on their dock from when we took possession in December until March, when we were prepped and ready to leave. Without this arrangement, the entire adventure wouldn't have been possible for us. They allowed us to join them during the Christmas break and nicknamed us "the neighbours" as we came and went from the dock just outside their home. We moved into Holy Cow over the holidays by towing a literal boat load of things by U-haul from Ontario to Marco Island. During these past few months, the purchase of Holy Cow turned into so much more than we imagined. We met one of the most generous, hospitable, loving families we've ever had the privilege of knowing. The memories we made with this family could be an entire blog in itself.

We woke up Tuesday morning and decided it was time to leave, despite the weather. We were leaving the comfort of our temporary home base, the beautiful home and family we had become familiar with, but it was time. As we said our goodbyes, both Gord and I were emotional. We were so thankful for everything they had done for us. Our farewell was full of the sadness of a goodbye to people that had made a huge impact on our life, the excitement of the journey before us, and the anxiety of the unknown which laid ahead. With a toast of champagne, hugs and the final push off the dock, we set out on our adventure.

Our destination that day was Panther Key, south east of Marco Island. We wanted to anchor for the night and head to the Florida Keys the next morning. The trip to Panther Key was reasonable. It was choppy, but we took the waves on the bow for the most part which makes for a smoother ride. We had left the hatches open to allow for some airflow through the boat. Not long into our journey, Gord noticed we were taking on some "spray" so the hatches probably needed to be closed. I hurried down into Brooklyn's room because that hatch is over her bed. As I climbed up and unscrewed the hatch to close it, what seemed like a small bucket of water splashed through the opening and hit me square in the face. It took my breath away in surprise and the salty water was in my mouth and eyes. I closed the hatch and hurried to the bathroom. By this time, the floor was soaked and the bedroom carpet was starting to sop up the water. I closed that hatch, not before receiving another bucket of sea water to the face. Finally, off to the next bathroom, I closed the third and final hatch. I didn't escape this one without a solid spray to the face either.

After the hatches were closed, I got busy drying up the wet floors. I suppose it had been awhile since I came down from the bridge, so Brooklyn had come looking for me. I was walking down the hall back towards the door she had just walked through and she greeted me laughing with "OMG mom! You are THAT wet!?" Yes..yes I was. How do I look after 3 small buckets was salt water to the face - like this. We have a saying now - there are lessons when boating that we will only need to learn once on this trip. This lesson has been learned.

We pulled into Panther Key and set anchor. Gord and I discussed the tides for the next day and decided a fairly early departure was in our best interest. We made the best of our time in Panther Key and had a lovely evening. We took a short dinghy ride around the anchorage, we star gazed and Brooklyn posed for pictures under the cockpit lights.

Before we cozied in for the night, we made all the preparations needed for the departure in the morning, as well as for anything that may go awry in the night. If chaos hits in the dead of night...well, if you know... you know. Our boating crew on Georgian Bay - we all know!

Gord has this fun app. It's an anchor alarm. A boater can calibrate it by GPS once the anchor has been set and an alarm will sound should the boat move outside a set radius. Gord and I are seasoned boaters on the hook. We prefer it to being on a dock actually. However, this is our first night on the hook with Holy Cow and in the ocean waters. It's windy, it's a little choppy, but we are up for the challenge. We head to bed and we will see what the night brings. I sleep with Brooklyn in the V-berth because she's a little unsettled. In her room we can hear the wind whistling and the waves loudly lapping on the hull. This makes for a slightly restless sleep for me.

During the night, I wake up and can see the light of Gord's phone in the master stateroom. The anchor alarm has gone off which means we have moved outside of the desirable radius of the anchor. I sneak out of Brooklyn's bed and go in to talk to Gord. He seems confident that all is fine and he will watch the anchor app to see if we reset. It seems Holy Cow is firmly anchored and we go back to sleep. At 4:30am the alarm goes off again and it is loud. This woman's voice is alerting us to the possible peril we may be in, over and over and over which raises my anxiety level. I heard her the first time!

We watch the iPhone screen to see what is happening with the anchor, and again it seems we are safe and secure. Gord falls back to sleep. I do not! If you are interested, here is what Holy Cow was up to through the night.

Morning comes, and as expected, it's choppy. Gord takes the dogs to shore by dinghy, we raise the dinghy on the bow, secure the contents of the boat, doors, drawers etc. for a possible rough ride. We put the dogs inside and head to the bridge for the longest necessary run of our journey. Today we have an approximate 85 mile journey ahead of us. We've said all along, this is the biggest push we have to make on this trip. This is the most open water we will be in where there is no option to stop, no anchorages to tuck into and it's our first real run on Holy Cow. It's a lot to take in - seas we don't know on a boat that is equally unfamiliar to us. At 7:45am, we warm up the engines, we haul up the anchor, face Holy Cow southward and head towards the Florida Keys.