Vic-Maui Prep - June 30

June 30^th started early with a departure from Scott Point on Saltspring Island for the final stage of the delivery to Victoria. I arrived in Victoria by 10 am in fantastic weather. After a few hours of boat jockeying on the dock to get everything lined up the way the committee wanted, it was time to figure out food and beer (both successful).

By the end of the day, there were two complete fingers of the floats in front of the Empress hotel full of Maui boats or spectator boats for the Maui event. I understand that on the 2^nd, we are going to have a third finger filling up. It should be a fun event.

Nothing like leaving things to the last minute. I finally figured out why the SSB radio would not let me dial in frequencies manually. This is now one significant item off of the ToDo list. The list seems to be hovering around 10 items with one going on everytime I complete one. So goes boating I guess, you only finish preparing when you leave the dock.

Tomorrow, July 1, is a big day. Being in front of the Empress, Canada Day and having our cast off party on the dock, I expect that by mid afternoon no work will be getting done :)

Travis

Vic-Maui 2014, by Catharine

As per his post, Travis left the dock this morning for Victoria, to do final prep on the boat.  We picked up vintage Hawaiian shirts from a store on Main St for the guys on arrival in Maui :)

The kids said goodbye, and won't be seeing Dad until he arrives in Lahaina.  I'm not sure they really get it... They've spent a lot of time on boats in their short lives, but have no concept of time or distance, or how far Travis, Darin, Ty, Adam, Steve and Steve, and Jason will be sailing before we see them again.
Even I have trouble imagining how far it is!

I know some of us are heading to Victoria to see them off.  After so much anticipation, I know I'm looking forward to getting this show on the road :)

I'll be posting to this blog anytime I hear news of how they are doing, and I'm sure we'll all be following them closely on the tracker.  There will be a certain amount of email traffic coming out through Turnagain's SSB mail, or via Sat phone if needed.  If there's anything important to communicate with friends and family, I'll be sending out emails or calling people directly.  

For those of us heading to Maui to welcome them, we'll be in touch!

Catharine

It Starts

I have just left the dock in Coal Harbour to begin the delivery to Victoria.  The last week has been even busier than the previous months of prep. Moving food onto the boat. Final equipment setup and stowage of all the spares etc.

The boat is about as ready as it will get (once we pack the fresh foods in Victoria) and has lowered down closer and closer to the waterline with every trip down to the boat.

The whole trip is really starting to hit home. It is way different talking about sailing to Maui for two years than actually untying and leaving.     There have been many people that have helped get Turnagain ready for this trip including (but not limited to) Catharine – my VERY supportive wife, the team at First Yachts (Brad and Adam mostly, but the rest of the team supporting them), the Turnagain team with a TON of hours from Darin, and the crew at Xprt who have taken a lot of work off of my plate to allow me to focus on this prep, and a lot of support from David and Gaylean Sutcliffe with the VicMaui committee.

We will be in Victoria early Monday am and I hope to have at least once daily updates to this blog from now until Maui and then again on the return.

Travis