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April 23, 2006
N43.4 W79.2 Cabbagetown, Toronto
It feels vaguely like home, but this brief four-day visit to Toronto means that we will barely recall the things we love about this city before we are back on a plane headed for New York.
We arrived last night around 7pm, and quickly made our way to our very dear friends, David Pickwoad & Alex Johnston. As soon as they heard we were coming to town, they left. For a holiday in England. Nevertheless, always welcoming of our long-winded stories of sailing, they left us a key and told us to make ourselves at home.
We made our way to a favourite restaurant in the Church-Wellesley Village and had barely sat down to look at our menus when we were approached by a long-time friend, Elaine McCrae. We haven't seen Elaine in 10 or 15 years, and it was a thrill to connect again.
In telling our story to her and her dinner guests, they were most curious of our plans now that we had moved off the boat. As the plans unfolded in words, it donned on us that we had not really thought it all the way through.
I mean, really, how much can one fit in a teensy weensy brain at one time?
The story unfolded something like this:
"Well, our immigration papers were couriered from the Arizona law firm on Friday, to our permanent address in Canada at Chis' sister's house. We need 4 hours to process the paperwork at the Toronto airport, and Chis' meeting schedule is already filling up for the week of May 1. So, we will probably leave Toronto on Thursday, giving us a few days for glitches. We haven't booked a flight yet, and we have no place to stay once we get to New York, but we think we will start in a hotel, then move to a furnished sublet apartment while we look for a permanent place to live. Once we have found a place, we will ship the things from the boat, now in storage in Pompano Beach, Florida. And then ship the things from storage in Toronto. Then return to Toronto to pillage the things on loan to various friends and family. All in all, we should be up and running by the end of May."
Four pale, dizzied faces looked back. They seemed stunned.
I repeated our plan to myself on our walk back to David & Alex's home. It suddenly seemed rather daunting.
Well, if we can sell most everything, quit our jobs, buy a boat in France, ship our selected worldly possessions, while keeping the secret, then sail 10,434 nautical miles, sell the boat privately, train the new owners, move off the boat in Florida, travel with our remaining worldly possessions through Mexico, I think we can handle this.
Posted by dave at April 23, 2006 11:22 AM