July 5, 2025
Well—today is the day. Our Bon Voyage party. Open house. Whatever we want to call it.
And I’m a bit nervous.
I think I have everything ready. But I’m not really nervous about what the boat looks like. I mean, people have seen it on YouTube—and it’s way cleaner than it usually is on YouTube.
What I’m nervous about is... if people will actually show up.
Does that make sense?
Have you ever had a party and thought, “Oh my gosh, what if nobody comes?”
I’ve got door prizes. I’ve got ballots for people to fill out with their emails. I’ve got loads of soda (and whatever’s left can come with us). Two kegs of beer. It’s shaping up to be a pretty chill afternoon—but I just really hope people show up.
Because if they don’t? You kind of feel like a loser, right?
Like, here you are planning this party, inviting a whole bunch of people online... and what if it’s just us?
I think that’s what I’m most nervous about.
YouTube is still a weird thing to me. The fact that people watch us, care about what we’re doing, and might actually show up to hang out? It’s hard to wrap my head around.
But we did get our steps in last night—and not 10,000 steps. I mean, we actually installed our African mahogany steps onto the boat to make it safer for people coming aboard. The last thing we want is someone flying down the stairs and doing a header after a couple of beers. That would really hurt. And I don’t want that kind of bad luck hanging over the boat.
We brought our pineapple onboard—yes, the good luck kind (look it up).
No bananas onboard, thank goodness.
But we do have a bunch of women onboard... which, according to old sailor lore, is also bad luck.
Also, we’re not leaving on a Friday—because that’s very bad luck. We’re leaving on a Monday, so I think we’ve got our superstition checklist covered.
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day loading everything. And I’m honestly a bit nervous that Blaine won’t get done what he needs to get done.
Last night we took a break and sat in the hot tub (yep, the dock has a hot tub). Had a beer and a cider. And I asked him, “What’s Plan B?”
And Blaine said, “There is no Plan B.”
So—here’s the backstory. Blaine is building an FRS engine for a Subaru. It’s the last job he has to finish before we leave. It’s for our friend (who’s also our bookkeeper), and he promised her the car would be drivable. And when Blaine makes a promise—he keeps it.
He’s been staying up till 12:30, even 1:00 in the morning, working on this engine. It’s now in the car, and here we are—the morning of our party.
He’s going to be working on it until about one o’clock today (I told him that’s his cutoff). Then he has to come back to the boat.
He might even head back to the shop again tonight around 7. But that’s Blaine. He won’t pass it off to someone else. He won’t leave people hanging.
And I get it. But also—I’m like, “Honey, you’re burning yourself out.”
So when we finally leave on Monday, I’m going to take the helm and drive us all the way to Decourcy Island—our first stop. And I’m just going to let Blaine go straight to bed. Or maybe head down to the Xbox and blow shit up for a while.
He’s earned it.
July 2, 2025
It’s 6:30 at night and I just finished cleaning both the upper and lower aft decks, and power washing the carpet for the upper deck. We’ve got a reporter coming onboard at 9:30 tomorrow morning to do a story about us leaving on the Great Siberian Sushi Run.
And I think it’s a pretty good story.
I sent out a media release about how I was diagnosed with PTSD after 20 years of policing, and how this trip is, well… a bit of a healing journey. Let’s say that. So, we’ll see what the reporter says. He’s coming to do a video interview, and he wants pictures—including Izzy. The challenge there is just getting her out of bed.
Now, let’s talk provisioning.
It takes a lot to get ready for a trip like this—especially when you’re leaving Canada. There are some favorite things here that we just won’t be able to get when we head north.
Things like my Red Rose tea, which I drink about three cups of a day.
Things like Blaine’s Level Ground Trading coffee.
And the dog’s food from Bosley’s.
Every morning lately has been about provisioning. Grabbing dry goods. Stashing stuff at the house. We haven’t loaded anything on the boat yet because, honestly, I have nowhere to put it right now. Everything’s a bit chaotic.
I don’t want to bring too much on board either—at least not yet—because we have our Bon Voyage party on the 5th. That means… I don’t know how many people are coming onboard the boat to see it, chat with us, and send us off on the 7th. So for now, we’re only bringing on what we need for the party.
Which includes:
- Two garbage bags full of chips
- A heck of a lot of soda
- And a couple of kegs from our favorite brewery—Category 12
We’re going to miss that brewery.
Okay, I’m not going to miss it—because I don’t drink beer. I drink Straight & Arrows. It’s a local… what do you call it? Gin drink. No, vodka? No… gin. Anyway, I’m going to miss that, but I’ll take a couple cases onboard when we head north.
Blaine, though—he’s really going to miss his Juicy Data. So having a keg for the party is perfect.
But I’m tired.
The big thing too is that we’re still making YouTube videos—because YouTube is basically our livelihood now. And I’ve got to get them out but to be honest - I like making them. Tomorrow morning at 10am, we’ve got a “Questions Answered” video going live on the refit channel. We recorded it, but I haven’t started editing yet.
Luckily, I’m getting faster at editing.
And of course, we’re still putting out our Wheelhouse Weekly episodes for our online crew.
Our online crew—they’re the folks who support us through our membership program. It’s odd to say I have an online crew, but honestly, it’s this amazing community. Just an hour ago, NautiGirl came by—Adam and Hai waved as they passed us. They’re heading into Tod Inlet to anchor for the Bon Voyage party.
We’ve also got my Uncle Chuck coming down on his sailboat, White Knight. He’s been living on that boat for something like 40 years. He’s sailing down from Squamish.
Our friends from Mariner’s Compass, Brian and Rosie, are coming in.
Another boat called Tonka is on the way—they’re subscribers, and I’m pretty excited to meet them.
And of course, my sister Krista and Dave are already here on Our Time.
So that’s—what?—four, five boats already coming in for the party.
And I have to say—it’s a little bit of pressure, putting on a party like this.
It’s not the organizing that stresses me out. It’s making sure everybody has a good time. That’s the part I worry about. My counselor says that’s my PTSD. I catastrophize everything. Like… it’s gonna suck, everyone’s gonna hate it, everyone’s gonna hate us.
I know it’s not true.
If I look at reality, I know it’s not true. But that’s the feeling.
Still, I’m excited.
There’s just a lot to do.
Blaine and I are not going to have this boat finished by the time we leave. So we’re bringing everything on board that we still need—wood, insulation, metal—on the 6th. And on the 7th, we leave.
Once we get away from here, once Blaine’s not trying to shut down his business and wrap up clients’ engines and side jobs, then maybe we’ll finally have time.
Time to work on the boat.
Time to make videos.
Time to just be together.
Until that day—
And I’m looking at the calendar magnet on the fridge right now—
We’ve got four days left.
Four days to finish what we can.
Four days until we drop the dock lines and go.