Becoming a SailorIn short
In June 2015 we drove from Ottawa to Ogdensburg, New York, to ship eleven boxes to our catamaran in Bradenton, Florida. They held homeschooling materials, snorkel gear, kitchen items and original birth certificates, and weighed 418 pounds on one pallet. We used My US Address and paid $541.70 CAD for the 1,400-mile trip. We probably packed too much. Prices have surely changed since 2015.
This morning we drove from our home in Ottawa, Canada to Ogdensburg, NY. Our goal was to ship eleven boxes to our boat in Bradenton, Florida. We own a St Francis 50 catamaran, and plan to move aboard full-time in mid August.
Here is a picture of our children in our van when we were shipping gear from Canada to the USA.
Shipping Our Gear from Canada to the USA
The boxes contained homeschooling materials, snorkel gear, a few favourite mugs, kitchen items, some wine glasses, original birth certificates, and so on. We were pleased that we didn’t get asked to open our boxes at the Canadian-US border. But, we brought packing tape with us, just in case.
418 Pounds of Gear for Life Afloat
Altogether, our boxes weighed 418 pounds. Here is a picture of the boxes being wrapped with plastic after they had been assembled on a pallet.
For shipping gear from Canada to the USA, we used a company called “My US address”, which claims to be “A Cross-Border Shopper’s Best Friend.” They gave us the dimensions of the pallet, and we stuck to two layers. In truth, we probably packed too much, and will have to pare down.
How Much Did It Cost to Ship?
$541.70 CAD.
The distance between Ogdensburg and Bradenton is 1400 miles or 2200 kilometers.
This story was written in 2015. Prices and procedures have likely changed and not in the best of ways. Consult your shipping company for the latest tariffs, rates and forms.
See also the SV Aphrodite Family Dictionary Entry Coming from the US.
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$600 US