We finally pushed away from the dock at 11:45 with some help from Charles and Mom. We did a little coordination over SMS to wave at Sam who was biking on the Toronto Islands and waved at us from the rocks at Ward’s Island Beach. We got the sails up just past the Toronto T2 buoy, and made A beam reach at a stately 4 knots for an hour or so.

It would have been crazy to set off on July 1st, only hours after finishing work. It would have been crazy to set off on July 2nd, seeing the weather forcast in the morning. Having the two extra days at home to take our time getting ready, watching a few movies, relaxing at the local pool has made a big difference in energizing us. Now we’re ready to do the actual crazy thing and set off.

As we’re counting down to leaving next week, the weather is looking terrible. I hate that we’re in a rush to leave the marina. One of the classic blunders of cruising is to “have a schedule.” By having to leave or arrive on a given day, you can force yourself to make bad decisions with regard to the weather. For the most part, we are rushing to leave because we no longer have an assigned slip at Toronto’s Outer Harbour Marina.

Counting Down We are about a week away from setting off. July 1 marks the start of my time away from work. The kids will be finished on Tuesday, June 29, leaving them a day to themselves. However, how much will actually happen in the last few days of remote schooling? With that in mind, and keeping an eye on potential thunderstorms in the next week, we might even head off on Sunday aiming for Whitby.