Figuring out which way to GTFO of Toronto has been a big consideration for Melissa and I. We have 2 options: The Erie Canal/Hudson River to NYC or the St. Lawrence out to Atlantic Canada and then south to Maine/New England. What’s difficult about the decision is that they’re two very different options. In favor of the Erie/Hudson is expediency. Our family is young and while I’ve raced sailboats at a high level I’ve only cruised with my family on Lake Ontario. Plus this route saves about two thousand miles. The downside is having to drop the rig and missing out on some of the most beautiful cruising in the world. Which leads me to the St. Lawrence. We’ve lived in Canada for 12 years now and, sadly, embarrassingly, done very little traveling within its borders. Number 1 on my list has been visiting Atlantic Canada. The reasons are myriad and the desire is strong. And what better way of visiting the area than on our own boat? I’d imagine there’s no better way to see it. Our biggest concern with this option is time. There is a requirement to spend 2 weeks quarantined once you enter the Atlantic Canada bubble. Which is fine and doesn’t cost us too much time in the grand scheme of things. But if you pull out to a high altitude view I begin to have concerns about how traveling that extra two thousand miles impacts our schedule for the next 6 months. 

We’re really eager to not push ourselves too hard. Both in terms of the consecutive days spent transiting south and the emotional and physical toll that we expect it would take having to transit an additional two thousand miles. Our concern is that taking our time seeing and experiencing Atlantic Canada will have knock on effects as we move further in to the Fall and make our way south. Days are shorter and weather deteriorates. Add in break downs, weather delays and then overlay the desire to stop and see things and time gets compressed.

We do have some scheduling benchmarks that we have to hit: We will be spending 6 to 7 weeks visiting our families starting with US Thanksgiving and extending through Christmas. We plan to have our boat as far south as Brunswick, GA by mid November where Atlas will be hauled (insurance requirement) and we’ll likely have some work done while we’re away. We’ll then resume our transit south to FLA the first week of January before jumping off to the Bahamas and then making our way down through the Caribbean. Start gaming that out and you can see that spending close to 2 months at the beginning of our journey exploring Atlantic Canada may make the rest of our transit more stressful as we’ll need to push hard to get south in time. 

This isn’t an easy decision. To pass up the opportunity to see a truly world class cruising ground and experience an extremely rich culture is painful to me. My vote is for the St. Lawrence, hands down. But I have to consider the rest of my family and what we’re capable of. While the St. Lawrence will be the richer, more fulfilling option, I worry that it will make the other 70% of the journey harder, and perhaps more dangerous as we will feel the pressure to get south “in time.” I’ve got a 4 and 7 year old aboard. I know that taking things slowly is the right thing to do. Sometimes doing the right thing is opting for the “easy” thing. We’ll be heading through the Erie Canal and down Hudson River, skipping Atlantic Canada. This makes me sad but I know it’s the right thing for us at this time.