And we are off!

Early Saturday morning, after weeks of preparation and after saying our final goodbyes we cast off on the first leg of our adventure. We had a nice sail to Port Dalousie where we met up with my childhood friend Nancy, her husband Wayne, and sister Vicki for drinks on their boat Moxie II followed by a lovely dinner at MA, a local Asian-fusion restaurant.

After a late night we got up early to sail over to the canal staging area where we picked up Wayne who had generously offered to be our third hand for the canal transit. After a three hour wait we were given the go ahead to enter the first lock. As the water started to rush in we understood why they required a minimum of three on each boat. Wayne and I handled the ropes and all three of us used boat hooks to try and hold the boat off the walls of the canal as tons of water rushed in lifting the boat to the next level.