Eduardo Fritis

I slept last night; I start the day early arranging the bunch of stuff left to bring into the boat at the last minute.  Mi mind was running fast, excited, nervous, and afraid!

I was thinking in the fact that I was cutting off with all my safety, all what I knew to have and jumping into a totally unknown world, empty with no history.

I was not fiscally afraid I was emotionally afraid, a very ...

Yesterday I woke up at 4:30 am to go to meet Jim (electrician) at 8:00 am at the White Rock pier, to check the connection of my Wind Generator that was not generating!

Early shower, pretty day, on time...everything was looking great.  Stopped at Tim Hortons in Tsawassen to grab a sandwich for breakfast and a couple of my favourite white chocolate macadamia cookies.

Crossed the border, parked ...

 Do you agree that this sail is a pretty good passport?

When I ordered the sails I mentioned to Dave Miller from North Sail that I was sailing around the world to help people in need through "Shoes for the World", he had read about it in the newspaper.

Dave offered to put a Maple Leaf, at their cost, on the sail (genaker) so it would be a Canadian Flag!

Thank you Dave and Marcia, you are wo ...

When I started planning the trip I thought about taking a few containers of fresh water and a few flats of bottled water!  

I went to a presentation of Sailors who had experienced both and everybody said watermakers are a MUST!

What is a watermaker? simple... like everything now....very simple!

Just a box of stuff that you put in the boat and voila!  you have fresh water on board!

It loo ...

One would think that the Radio is just for talking to people.

Yea that's right! 

However, the modern radios do a lot more than that and they have more components hidden away.

Installation is not that difficult when you know what you are doing!

Will help me with this, it was a piece of cake! simple and works phenomenal.

We like to communicate with our friends a ...

After much research, a wind vane auto pilot is mandatory for offshore cruising.  You might ask yourself why?

Electric Power is something you have to generate.

There are some options... you can burn fuel to generate power, use the sun together with solar panels and use the wind with the wind generator.

Best is not to use power and use the wind to guide you.

So I picked the Hydrovane....th ...

It started like this! June 2009

The first step was to design and create an arch to hold the wind generator (a windmill that generates power), the radar (to see what is there when you can't see) and the solar panels.

I took on designing the system and went to consult with Frank, who did the installation, and Mehmet who started with the welding. 

So with my drawings I was sent to have the piec ...

Moving out is not fun! 60 boxes later and a few left over pieces of furniture packed with 250 feet of bubble wrap plastic! Unbelievable!

I called Joe from International Movers, who had offered me 6 months of free storage.  I told Joe that I was going to rent a truck and bring the stuff on Saturday afternoon, he said OK!

The next day Joe called and offered his truck, I thought that ...

 

 3,000 will be able to read and work thanks to the generosity of Brent Martin from Maxem Eyeware.



Brent called me last week to come to pick up some 200 pairs of NEW reading glasses.