Wild Fire

Here we were as COVID-19 continued to rage during the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 in our 6-month townhouse rental in a suburb of Calgary, working from home. The space was cozy enough but we had stripped any remaining normalcy from our lives by selling our home in Toronto, packing up and driving across the country to this new temporary home. It didn’t help that we couldn’t visit with family and friends, that there was 16 hours of darkness a day or the weird Alberta fluctuations in weather with -30 without the wind chill and hard packed snow- and ice-covered streets being very normal. We resigned ourselves to the situation and focused on the good stuff like Christmas planning with the kids, skiing and of course on-line sailboat shopping!!

We both had notifications from the major websites letting us know when a boat with our desired specs would come available and we were also scouring the internet for any yachts for sale via other methods. Over the course of 3 months, we had found so many “perfect for us” boats and had gotten totally invested in owning them. We would have virtual tours, begin the planning process and could see ourselves as owners. Then when we would hear that an offer was pending and then eventually the boat would be sold. We had never seen boats selling so quickly ever before. It was definitely disheartening.

Come early January, I was done riding the “Get our hopes up excitement train” and just wanted to wait until we were actually ready to jump on a plane and put our money where our mouth was. Graham continued his search without me. Our intention was to stay at the rental until the end of March and then to put our belongings into storage and figure our next steps towards full time sailing.

Well, as is the case with all of our past adventures, a tiny spark builds to a raging Wild Fire in a matter of moments 😉. It was Monday, January 18^th and I was madly cleaning because the landlords had decided to list the home for sale just to make things more interesting during Covid. The videographer was coming that afternoon to take the pictures and videos for the brochure and website. I was in a full on sweat with mop in hand, my ear phones on and talking to a colleague from work when Graham comes into the kitchen and wants to chat. He proceeds to remind me about a boat we had looked at online awhile ago in Grenada which was everything we wanted but that we had dismissed because the price was a bit out of reach. We agree the boat was awesome but the price didn’t work. He suggests that we put in an offer for $30,000 USD less than they were asking and obviously on condition of survey and sea trial. We very briefly discuss what we would do if they accept the offer, such as “how the heck are we going to get to Grenada during Covid?”. We decide there is no way they will accept and then off he goes and I continue cleaning.

Well, I am sure you can imagine how the rest of this story goes. While we are out of the house for the photos, we receive a text from the broker that they have accepted the offer!! OMG, OMG, OMG. We are both in the car and are like…” Now what?”. That evening we have decided to completely pack our house and give the landlord our notice for the end of January. I remember calling my mom and she said, “how could I have kept all of this a secret?”. She really couldn’t believe we had decided to do all of this in one day 😉. Either could I!!

Now the hard part began, figuring out how to get from Calgary, Alberta to Grenada during Covid and while following the ever-changing Covid protocols. I am not going to lie to you this was a moving target that was very difficult to navigate. We booked and rebooked a number of flights and took way too many Covid tests. We needed to ensure that we had the Covid results in hand prior to departure in Calgary and that the results were less than 3 days old when we arrived in Grenada. There were also no direct flights to sunshine destinations so we had multiple flights and an overnight stay in the US prior to getting to Grenada, so you can imagine the difficulty in all of this. We also had to work out all the quarantine rules and paperwork in Grenada. The regular insane stuff like packing our house, renting a storage container, sorting out storage for our car, insurance and logistics of the move during Covid while still working (albeit part time for me but full time for Graham) seemed like a cake walk.

The other difficult stressful part was finding a new wonderful home for Aiden. I have known for the past couple years as we have talked about this next chapter of our lives that this would need to happen but it didn’t make it any easier. My sister agreed to take him while we figured out a long-term solution. Aiden loves it at their house but unfortunately, they just weren’t set up to keep him permanently.  Shockingly everything came together though, my Dad reached out to friends of theirs (Randy and Aleitha) who use to own a sheltie and asked if they would be interested. We set up a video chat and within moments they told us how excited they would be to be Aiden’s new parents. After getting off the call we both knew that Aiden was going to be loved and treasured by them. I took time to write them a short novel all about Aiden – from how to care for him to all his personality quirks 😉. Aleitha send me a response that read, “…Wish we could prepare him for us by letter!” I know he will love the attention and new love, and it won’t take him long to adjust. We got very lucky finding these two awesome parents!

So now here we are, the night before our one-way flight from Calgary to Dallas to Miami to Grenada, all alone at my brothers’ home as they are away, organizing our carry ons and 1 checked piece of luggage. There are so many unknowns ahead of us. My stomach is churning with a cocktail of fear and excitement. I have missed this feeling. I have craved this feeling.