
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
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We are a Canadian couple living and sailing on our boat, Wild Horses, with our cute and sailboat-ready German Shepherd pup, Ocean. We have left our careers and the colder temps of Ottawa, Ontario behind for new adventures down south.
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
2d ago
Our fabulously talented mechanic at Al’s Mobile Marine Service finished our engine rebuild late last week. It was a daunting job of putting the engine, damper plate, transmission, muffler and prop shaft back together. Seeing all of our engine and other parts scattered about our cockpit, awaiting installation, was intimidating. Somehow, all of these pieces needed to find themselves carefully puzzled back together and perfectly aligned. Yikes!! We were very thankful to have a professional on ..read more
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
3w ago
Real life really happens. Yeah, despite what the 6/49 Lottery ads tell you, there isn’t some crazy magical nirvana-type life that happens when you live on a sailboat. And social media? You are not helping! Yes, we have those fantastic, magical moments. Yes, we do. And they happen day-after-day at times.But normally? Most of the time? Yeah, it is regular life. Stuff breaks. Lots of stuff breaks. It rains. It is too windy one day and then not windy enough the next. We bang legs, arms ..read more
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
1M ago
As we await our engine rebuild, we have been hard at work getting small and large tasks done on Wild Horses.We arrived at Wild horses in the Fall with a fairly large to-do list, which we have slowly been working through. The list has big tasks, small tasks, some weather or temperature dependent and others are personal-energy dependent. This last bit is huge. We have definitely learned not to take on a task if we are not feeling physically or mentally ready to do it. Not only will we rush through ..read more
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
1M ago
Still in northern Florida. Still in the boatyard. Still waiting for our engine work to finally be done.But we are hopeful, happy and surrounded by great friends. It has been a joyful holiday season for us.To make it even better, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel for our engine work. Yay! All of the major components that were removed from the engine by our mechanic have been assessed and are being fixed up and made new, or replaced. Phew! This was the nerve-wracking part for u ..read more
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
2M ago
It is now December and Northeast Florida is dealing with an early cold spell. Our days peak at 15 degrees Celsius and our nights are dropping to a very chilly 0 degrees. Boats have no insulation and are not air tight so the chilly nights really cool down the hull and the deck. The cold air seeps in through any slight opening and whispers its way across our floorboards, giving them an icy feel. Without our little ceramic space heater and our down duvet, we would be freezing. Not good! I pr ..read more
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
2M ago
On our way to getting our engine up to snuff, more and more of Wild Horses gets stripped off. It is unnerving but necessary!When our Westerbeke engine’s heat exchanger blew last spring, we knew it was going to be the start of something big. Our engine had failed a few times as we headed south to Grenada and it was the cause of much angst for Captain Mike. Every time our engine had to be fired up (arriving or leaving anchorages, no wind, or wind from the wrong direction), he held his ..read more
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
3M ago
Sigh.I honestly do not know where to begin. Something akin to “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” is probably closest to the mark (sorry, Charles Dickens, I am sure boat yards were not on your mind when you penned those iconic words!).We have never “lived” in a boat yard before. We have worked on our boat in boat yards, sometimes for very long days. But we always had a home to go back to where we could have a long hot shower, enjoying all ..read more
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
3M ago
Mike, Ocean and I returned to Florida and our lovely Beneteau 473 “Wild Horses” on Wednesday October 23rd.Our summer in Canada had been incredible. My brother’s house is situated just north of Belleville, Ontario and it became our base camp for our summer land-life adventures (thank you Michael, for opening your home to us and being the most fabulous brother ever!!!). We were also lucky enough to find an affordable used Nissan Rogue that could get us around town and to visit fa ..read more
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
8M ago
It was all very surreal. There we were, a mere two weeks ago, driving away from Wild Horses as we started our trek north in our rental car. We had only spent a handful of nights away from our boat, our home, in the last two years. Now we were embarking on a four-month trip back to Canada that would have us living fully on land. No more slight swaying of the hull as it rolls against the waves. No dinghy rides to shore. No more making our own water from the salty seas. Weather watching becomes more about staying dry than about staying safe.
A new, but familiar, adventure awaited us in Canada ..read more
Sailing Wild Horses Blog
8M ago
When we first arrived at Green Cove Springs Marina, we anchored in the Marina’s harbour with the plan of getting ourselves oriented and ready for Wild Horses to be hauled out of the water. You see, none of this was in our original plan for our first five years living aboard. No, the plan was to stay in the Caribbean for several years. We thought that any trips back home would be done by either Mike or myself, never together, so that we wouldn’t have to figure out the logistics of getting Ocean on a plane or finding a pet sitter. What we didn’t realize back then was how much we prefer to stick ..read more