Solomons Isle and Tangier Island

Departure

Well we made it out today. It finally happened, and it was a good sailing day as well. Nice 10 knot winds, clear and cool. It was a clean departure, and thanks to our boat neighbors for the photo of us leaving the dock. The sunset is in full showmanship right now, so I added a pic of that as I sit here typing. We're moving on again tomorrow and then may take a day or two to relax. More in a few days.

Farewell Party

Wow, what a great day! We had our farewell event and all our neighbors and friends were there to say goodbye. The weather was fine, the company great and an overall success... except for the cut finger during the renaming ceremony. Yes, we had a renaming ceremony to make it complete and appease the gods of the sea and wind and all went well until I smashed the 18 year old bottle of our wedding champagne on the bow and glass managed to find itself everywhere. It was just a flesh wound...

Thanks so much to all our great friends. A special thanks to Angie, Betsy, Tim, Hank Billy and Rod for the helping hands. We'll be shoving off in about a week and will take the great memories with us.

Provisioning Complete

We loaded down the car and then the boat with a load of food today. All of it is canned, boxed, dried and thus not fresh. But it will last awhile. Turns out the ziplock bag is an amazing invention and a friend to the cruiser. We have hundreds of them from snack to ten-gallon size. Yep, ten gallon, just like the cowboy hat.
One side note to provisioning, filling up fuel and water tanks is that the boat sits lower. Gravity or sumpin... Anyways, our waterline is right to the edge of the anti- fouling paint that covers the in the water part of the boat. Next time we paint the bottom were gonna have to raise the waterline ..... Or eat a lot less.

New Crew Member

The crew took a vote and decided we needed another crewmember, mainly to help steer. Sadly the current crew will still be doing dishes, but the new member has been hired as a helmsman.... introducing our new autopilot:

Staying cool

We’ve moved onboard full time, and staying cool (physically!) is important.  We made this sun shade, which seems to be standing up pretty well with a breeze.  The amount of shade is incredible, and the fact that you can move around with some ease is good on the back.  Now if we could just get the boat sorted out so we could move around below.  For anyone attempting to go cruising, take what you need and then cut that amount in half and save yourself some headaches.  Still, we’ve managed to find room for it all… barely.

Crazy time

So we finally got out for a quick trip across the bay.  Its been busy cleaning out the house, getting the boat ready, trying to keep sane.  You know, the usual drill.  We put the name on the boat a few month ago, and will soon have a “naming” ceremony complete with the requisite champagne.  My only concern is the champagne is so old and cheap it may remove the finish on the boat!  Once we get closer to moving south we’ll post more often.  Until then, a few pictures….