Hi all, this is going to be a quick update. We are in Wilson right now and internet is very spotty. The Google Fi phone plan we did gymnastics to get working in Canada, doesn’t seem to work in the country we pretended to be from in order to get the service! I blame it on the decline of the American empire! But let’s not go there.

On our first day, we sailed to Whitby. Disrupting our entire lives to see Whitby is perhaps the world’s worst commuting experience! Although it’s a pretty humble start, we had a great sail, using our gennaker (that’s the balloon sail you see in sailboat calendars) all the way.

Yesterday morning we woke up and left the dock before putting coffee on. The first two hours of our trip to Wilson were done with the iron gennie (that’s sailor talk for using the engine). After that, we were able to fly the gennaker again for an hour or so before the wind veered (that’s sailor talk for changed to a higher compass point). Winds picked up steadily all day and waves grew but not uncomfortably.

We were hoping for a slip at one of the yacht clubs here in Wilson, but they were unavailable or unpleasantly rolly from the Northeast wind blowing down the mouth of the harbour.Here are some of the lessons learned by team Spartan since leaving:

1. In an anchorage, watch out for power lines! We initially anchored far too close to one today!
2. Don’t drop the gennaker halyard all at once like you do with a main halyard. We are still waiting for it to dry now.
3. There’s no way we can hear each other when one of us is dropping chain and the other is helming. However, everyone else in the anchorage will hear both of us too well!

Today we are heading to Point Breeze where we expect no way to fix our cell phone issues.

Cheers!