Finally got to use the boat

We got back to the boat late Tuesday night. Unfortunately Max could not join us as high school tennis practice started on Monday. Monday was also the day we dropped Annabelle off at the airport heading to Rome to visit one of our past exchange students for a little over a week. That gave us 6 nights to explore the Chesapeake a bit. We went without a plan and hoped to figure something out after we got there thinking we would run in to some other boaters that might point us in a good direction. Also I was not sure if we would have a working dinghy which might eliminate or at least really limit anchoring options.

I'm happy to report that after only 3 working days the boat yard had figured out a way to fix the steering in my dinghy and even had it back hanging in the davits when we got back. I've never had a yard actually fix something that quickly without standing over them and even better it worked correctly the first time. Turns out the steering tube needed a better cleaning and more greese. I have to admit I'm pretty excited to have a working dinghy again. Hopefully it still works when we come back to the boat in September.

The weather on Wednesday was not great which let us do some provisioning, we tested the dinghy out, and talked to a number of characters around the boat yard looking for some good places to visit. We decided to stay close and would head up to the town of St Michaels for our first stop (about 38 miles by water). We left Thursday getting in around 5:30. There are four anchorages close to the town. After exporting the first two it appeared we might be a bit too large to drop a reasonable amount of chain and still have the ability to swing as the tides shifted so we headed out a bit and picked another one. I should note that we have not tried anchoring with this boat before and are new to using a bridle with all chain and a new style of anchor. Before leaving we checked the windless (the motor that drops and pulls up the anchor for those not in the know) and everything looked good. Unfortunately when we went to drop  the anchor we found that we had pulled the anchor in a bit too far and it was now wedged in the anchor locker pretty good. I found some shoes and attempted jumping up and down on it a bit with no luck. Next step was to break out the hammer to beat on it a bit. After about 10 minutes I finally persuaded it to come free and we successfully dropped the anchor let out a bunch of chain, attached the bridle, and backed down on it. At this point it was time for a cold beer. Unfortunately after taking a better look at where the boat was settling in we didn't like our spot as we were fairly close to a buoy. So back to the bow I went with Amy at the helm I detached the bridle, pulled the anchor up and moved the boat about 200 feet over to what we thought might be a better spot. After going though the whole process again we once again sat down and when looking at the chart plotter realized it might not be as good as we hoped as we might be sitting on the bottom should the boat swing around when the tide goes out. So once again we muddled around getting the anchor up and redeploying it about 500 feet from the most recent location. This time after letting the boat settle in we still liked the spot. By this point we were hungry we made dinner and enjoyed the sun set. At which point we realized we were now dragging anchor. Why does everything bad always seem to happen in the dark? Luckily we were pretty far from the shore so were able to pull in the bridle then let out an additional 50ft of additional chain redeployed the bridle and backed down on it again. It seemed we were once again stuck pretty well. We were both a bit nervous if the anchor would hold so neither of us slept very well getting up to check on the anchor about every hour. Fortunately we didn't have much wind and didn't move that night.

The next day we headed into town. We found the public dinghy dock and set off to explore. We checked out the museum, the brewery, the candy store, got some fresh crab, and of course checked out one of the ice cream shops. St Michaels turned out to be the typical cute tourist town and also one of the location they used when filming the movie Wedding Crashers. One of the local hotels had a fleet of boats that would take their guests out for sunset sails every night. 

We ended up anchored out there for three nights. We took the dinghy around and introduced ourselves to a few of the other folks in the anchorage on the other side of the channel. For some reason nine other boats came in and anchored there vs the one we selected (maybe the holding is better over there?) The anchor seemed to hold the boat well. When tide shifts happened we could see where the anchor drug a few feet before repositioning itself. For some reason on the last night we found ourselves dragging again. So we pulled everything up once again. After a couple try's we got the anchor to stick once again not getting much sleep worrying if we might be floating away again.

The next morning we decided to head over to check out the town of Oxford. We got a dock for the night. It should have been an easy dock, unfortunately the wind was blowing us away from the dock. Luckily one of the fellow boaters helped us with a line and I eventually got it backed in. Seems we still have a ways to go as far as coming up with a repeatable docking process we can accomplish with just the two of us.

It seemed the town consisted of two restaurants, a bowling ally, and three ice cream shops. We found some dinner and of course had to sample the local ice cream. On our way back to the boat it started to rain and we found cover to wait out the storm only to realize that we had left all of the hatches open on the boat :(. So it was a quick run back to the boat to close up with the hope of not having a mattress that was completely soaked though. Turns out we had got lucky and actually had a waterproof matris pad on the bed so with a little clean up we had a good/dry nights sleep.

Unfortunately the next morning we did not fair to well getting off the dock. We had asked another fellow boater to hold a bow line for us which would have allowed me to pivot the back end of the boat out using one engine. He apparently didn't understand the ask and tossed us the line before the boat was ready. It was windy, we were now being blown into the dock and I had a large concrete dock about three feet from our stern. Somehow I managed to get the boat out without any damage but it was not as graceful as I planned. Once we were a few feet away from the dock I realized we didn't have any steering. Luckily I could steer the boat enough using just the engines  until I figured out that Amy had engaged the auto pilot (which is hydraulic and bypasses the steering wheel when engaged) when plotting our course back to our home dock. During this process we also picked up what I suspect was a large bundle of sea grass in one of our props. This also made steering by the engines a bit more challenging as I had one engine running about twice as fast as the other just to get the same speed from both. This entire experience was a good reminder that its not just one mistake that generally gets folks in trouble its a series of unfortunate events or bad decisions that really gets you. Luckily in our case nothing major happened and we didn't panic but I could have easily gotten into some good trouble and damaged the boat or worse yet other folks boats around us if one more dumb thing had happened.

Coming back into our home dock was again another humble reminder that we need more practice docking. Again the wind would be blowing us away from the dock. The goal should have been to get a bow line on then put the port engine in reverse to back the boat alongside of the dock. Unfortunately I can't see much on the starboard side of the boat due to the location of the helm and was a bit far from the dock not allowing Amy to get a line around the pole. Instead of backing out and trying again she tossed a line to someone on the boat next to us. Unfortunately the water was too high and he could not get off his boat to really help us and with the wind working against us the boat was too heavy to pull over. Eventually we got the boat in with help from the dock but it was not with any grace or elegance... once again :) 

During the rain storm the previous night we had identified a leaking hatch. We drove into town found a replacement o-ring got some dinner at a fantastic local Italian place the cashier at the hardware store recommended then headed back to the boat for the night. The next day we packed up and headed back home for the next set of adventures.

Overall I think we both left this adventure feeling humbled. Nothing had gone really wrong. We sort of enjoyed our time onboard for the week but it was not a comfortable relaxed feeling. We were reminded this is a new boat for us and we need to come up with new processes for everything we do on board from pulling the sails out, to cooking, as well as anchoring and docking. The odd thing with this boat is that it's the easiest to maneuver boat we have ever had but I feel like I'm really struggling with docking for some reason. I don't recall learning to dock the tug being this difficult and its the least maneuverable boat we have had. This boat is big or at least really wide, visibility is somewhat limited, and both factors help make communication hard. We have headsets we use when docking on the tug. Once we bring those to this boat I think it will help a lot allowing who ever is at the bow to call out distances and where the boat needs to go. The other big thing we have been used to is having the 3rd person on board. The spry teenager that is willing to jump off the boat at hights we would not while running around to get things tied up quickly. I'm not sure how we are going to make up for that loss yet?

Boat work

Now that fair has ended we are hoping to head back to the boat next week for some actual cruising and getting to explore the Chesapeake a little. During our last trip I had started a running list of boat projects. Most were nothing major but all of them take time. So I decided to make the 8.5hr trek to MD to check on the boat and hopefully get a few items on the list addressed.

Unfortunately despite calling the generator repair guy for four weeks now I still have not got anyone to come look at it let alone fix it. So that's still a work in progress. He has promised maybe next week? Unfortunately I have a feeling the inverter is going to need to go back to Fisher Panda for repair/replacement so even when they do get out to look at it/take it off the boat I'm probably looking at another four weeks before it comes back then will have to get on their schedule to put it back on. If I'm lucky we might get it fixed before October when we want to take the boat over to anchor somewhere close to the Annapolis Boat Show.  :(

I did however manage to get a bunch of little stuff done like getting new o-rings for the depth sounder and the blank, getting the Garmin chart plotters registered and up dated, replacing a couple of the hatch locks that were missing parts, fixing a broken sink drain, getting a new screen/shade unit put up in Max's cabin, and replacing a couple fans. Nothing major but all stuff that needed to be done and it pretty much consumed both days I was there.

After finishing a couple projects I decided to head out for a dinghy ride to explore the area a bit. I got it launched, got the dog in the boat, engine running, I shoved off only to realize the steering was once again seized up. After paddling back to the boat I started playing with it.. disconnected the motor from the steering to validate it was still moving freely. Unfortunately it seems to be the steering cable again. Last time I replaced it to get it working and when I pulled it out was quite rusty and all the grease had dried up on the tube it's supposed to move in. The previous owners clearly had not ever lubed it. I had before installing so have no idea what I did wrong that it would jam up after sitting for a month hanging on the back of the boat in a creek with brackish water. After my last experience trying to fix it in the water/back of the boat I decided to enlist the yard for some assistance in getting it hauled out making it easier to work on. They also suggested pulling the engine might make it easier than pulling the cable back and forth under the floor that you can't access. This all sounded good and they even offered to do the work so I left it in their hands as I was done with this project having already put three days into it the first time. Hopefully it's just a lubrication issue that can easily be solved.

I left the dinghy in their hopefully capable hands and Remi and I headed back to Michigan for a few days before Amy and I would drive back to hopefully get to do some sailing on the Bay. I would be really impressed if they have the steering issue fixed before we get back next week which would allow us to anchor but I'm not holding my breath. 

Life vest testing

This is the first used boat that I've bought that did not come with life vests. Before we left Florida we purchased the minimum find the body West Marine orange life vests to ensure we meet the minimum safty requirements before crossing over to the Bahamas. Knowing that the World ARC folks have some specific requirements for life vests I planned to figure out what they were and order them when I got home, then bring them back before bringing the boat back to the US. This was all well and good except for the fact that one cannot fly with self inflating life vests :(. Luckily we met a boat that was for sale and attempting to sell off all their stuff. Rummaging through their various items we found three very basic self inflating vests that looked like new and snagged them so we would at least have something more comfortable to wear on deck if needed. Fortunately I didn't need it but I did have it on while out on deck during the small storm we went through. Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself...

Life vests we purchased

When we came home from the Bahamas I spent a couple nights reading and watching YouTube videos about the various merits of different life vest systems. There is a lot of information out there but the one that came up as number one or two over and over again was the SpinLock vest here. There are a few versions one can get but I decided when it came to safety and having the best chance of being found at night having the additional lights and releasable harness system was the way to go. According to the marketing the vests had two lights in them. One is inside of the part that inflates and the other is on a stick that pops up to blink adding additional visibility. While I could imagine how this might work unfortunately I have not seen any videos showing the lights in action. I also purchased a set of three point safety lines (also an ARC requirement) ensuring we can be well attached to the boat should we need to go forward on deck in bad weather. Additionally we will eventually add personal locater devices to each of our vests. Hopefully we will find them on sale at the boat show this year. Either way it was easier to spread the costs out a bit as these vests were not cheap.

Personal locator

As I started to mention earlier I had purchased these thinking we would take them back to the Bahamas with us only to find out we could not fly with them due to the CO2 cartridges. I supposed we could have pulled them out and simply planned to manually inflate the vests if needed but that would not due much good if one of us were knocked out or otherwise hurt. Luckily we stumbled across the other vests so we hopefully had something better than the basic orange vests for the return trip home.

While we were out there during my night shifts it really hit me how hard it would be to find someone that went overboard. In the past doing overnight trips on the Great Lakes we could generally see shore even if it was five miles off there was still a certain amount of ambient light. This was not the case in the ocean and with the much larger swells one would be lucky to just keep an eye on someone if they watched them go over but I'm guessing after the first or second swell they would be quickly out of sight. Once the crew could get folks on deck to get the sails down and the boat turned around it might be 5-20 minutes. I would guess the person would be out of sight then they would have to locate the person in the dark probably during bad conditions. I can't imagine the changes are great they would be found easily. With all that said I think I want to be well lighted and as easy to find as possible. Additionally I think the personal locator beacon may help as supposedly as soon as it hits the water it sends out a radio signal that will create an alert on any nearby chart plotters that someone is in the water and needs help. Additionally it will show roughly where they are. While not cheap it seems well worth the money if ever needed and I have seen videos of several folks trying them out showing how effective they are with the chart plotter alarms and integration.

After experiencing dark nights at sea I wanted to see if I had purchased what I hoped I had. Spinlock has what appears to be a number of part numbers and options one can get for their vests. I thought I got the one with all the lights but was not sure. I also wanted to see what it felt like when the vest inflated and how visible the lights would be while also having an idea what I might be looking for if one of us happened to fall overboard. Fortunately my sister in law has a pool and was up for letting me test it out one evening. I also got to test out our new dog's swimming abilities but that's the subject of a different post. The video here shows me testing what the vest looks like in the water and the neat thing is there is a dongle that hangs down so the vest knows when it's in the water. When I got out of the pool it immediately turned the lights out. Pretty impressive as I even jumped back in again to ensure they would turn back on and once again everything worked as it should. This quick video shows the vest in use with the spray hood up. The hood seemed to do what it should. I'm sure it will fog up with heavy breathing but it would defiantly help keep the waves and water out of your mouth making it easier to breathe should one fall off in bad weather.

Three point safety lines

Over all the vest felt like one of the orange vests above and easily kept me afloat in fresh water. It should work even better in salt water. When deployed it was snug around my neck. The strap between my legs was not uncomfortable and the lights appeared to do their job. Hopefully the harness system works as they say it does should I or another crew member not be able to get in the boat the crew could attach a line to the vest using a halliard and electric wench to pull the person out of the water. The only item I was not really impressed with was the included whistle. It took a bit to blow the water out of it and did not seem very loud while in the water but my wife and her sister claimed they could hear it clearly.

Next step learning to repack the vest, replacing the CO2 cartridge, and water deployment sensor. While not an inexpensive test to do I'm glad I tried it out. I now have trust in these fancy new life vests and just hope that it will still deploy correctly after I replace the spent items and get everything zipped back together. After trying it I'm guessing with the addition of a whistle and a light the basic orange vest would work just as well but time will tell if this one is more comfortable to wear during life at sea.

Home for a month

Max rock climbing

As I mentioned a few posts back buying a boat was not in our plans for this summer. Like most parents we have a seventeen year old kid with a full schedule which means we have a full schedule to support those plans. Once we landed it was time to shift gears and start getting ready for a week of Scout Camp. Fortunately we had got home on Friday which gave us Saturday to rest and prep to leave the next day on Sunday with several other leaders also transporting car loads of teenagers and a Troop trailer in tow. 

Max & I kayaking at Summit

Max has been a Scout since first grade when he joined as a Tiger and I've been a leader since second grade doing most of the various scouting positions along the way including running various STEM programs and Shooting Sports in our area. For us Scouts has allowed both of us to learn a lot and have a number of experiences I'm sure we would not have had following our everyday path. Last year he earned his Eagle Scout award and with moving to a new school at the same time which offered a much larger number of athletic programs and clubs he has found more interest in those activities (and girls) then Scouts. So I've begun to back out as well. Having been a leader for 11 years now, it's probably best to make room for new blood ensuring other parents get to have the same fun I did with their kids. With all of that said this would be our last summer camp before he ages out of scouts and we hoped to make it a good one. Our Troop decided to head to West Virginia this year to visit one of the bigger camps called Summit Bechtel Reserve.  The nice thing about this camp was they have a lot of high adventure activities most the other camps don't have. With no required merit badges to earn Max made the most of his time white water rafting, doing ropes courses, playing on zip-lines, rock climbing, mountain biking, and swimming.

Trap Team at Nationals

After a hot and exhausting week at summer camp it was time to switch gears once again. I am also the head coach for his high school trap team. Our team had qualified for Nationals. Fortunately Nationals is only about 3.5hrs away in Columbus, OH. We got back from camp on Sunday and had to be in Columbus on Monday morning for the teams first event. Luckily I have some good assistant coaches that were taking RV's up and did all of the meal planning and shopping for the team ensuring everyone would be well feed, rested, and hopefully hydrated for a weeks worth of shooting with the best kids in the country. Overall our team did pretty well. In Trap we placed 57th out of over 250 teams. In the other events the kids stayed in the top third of the pack. I was proud of their performance overall. We got lucky and had good weather for the days we were there. Some of the teams that were shooting later in the week were not so lucky getting held up by delays due to thunder storms.

Max and his cousin at Trine

We now had a week before or next planned summer activity which allowed for some time for a couple college visits. Max got to tour Trine and Central that week. I tried to fit in MSU but for some reason he wanted to be home and spend some time with his girl friend instead. So we both enjoyed some downtime at home. He still wants to visit a few more before making a decision and at this point really has no clue what he wants to do. For the moment he is thinking about being a Dr. or an engineer of some sort. Someone suggested biomedical engineering which has currently peeked his interest. Anyway we still hope to tour a few more schools he has not been to yet like Ferris, Western, Eastern and State.

Heading to Sandusky on the Tug

As if this month has not been packed enough we still had two more weeks in the month with more activities packed in. I don't think I've mentioned that I have the role of Cruising Fleet Captain for our local sailing club. Basically this means I'm responsible for setting up and organizing a number of events over the summer for our club to do by boat. Unfortunately I had already missed our clubs first two events while we moved the new boat to the Bahamas and then again while we were moving the boat to the Chesapeake. We had a week long cruise planned which was supposed to include a night on anchor (a rare event for our club) and visiting a few of the Lake Erie islands.

Dinner with the club on Middle Bass Island

The event went well and we enjoyed some time with friends we had not seen much this summer. Traditionally these events involve a little bit of sailing and a lot of eating, exploring and just hanging out. This summers was no different and we had a good turn out with 11 boats joining the group. Unfortunately our planned night on anchor got canceled due to weather so we headed to Put-in-Bay for a mooring ball one night, then headed over to Middle Bass for two nights. From there we visited downtown Sandusky where we got to see Annabelle (she is working at Cedar Point this summer as a lifeguard). Then went on to the city of Huron where the club stayed for two nights but we had to leave early to get back for our county fair. The club moved on without us to Kelly's Island and then everyone went their own ways with most heading back home. Everything with the boat was working well other then a exhaust leak I found right before we left. Luckily its easy to get to for a fix but is a pain in the rear to actually take everything apart to put a new gasket in as the leak is between the exhaust elbow and the turbo unit on the engine. We decided to ignore it for the week and deal with the mess later.

Max doing the Pack Goat competition at fair

We had to leave the summer cruise early to head back for barn setup and animal check in at our county fair. My wife and I have been 4H leaders for a number of years now and she was once again on the roster as the Goat Barn Leader for our 4H club. 4H is big in our area and was one of the bigger clubs at our kids previous school. Even though our kids don't go to the school anymore they both stayed active with the club and have shown goats for the last 8 years. If you have not experienced fair as a 4H member you will have an entirely different view of your county fairs. For the 4H kids fair is an opportunity to turn in the various projects they may have worked on during the year to have judged where prizes are given out and show/sell their animals. This is all a big commitment though the entire year with fair week being the peak. If kids are showing animals they are required to be there all week to take care of them ensuring the pens are clean every morning, during the day, and at night when the fair shuts down. Max is a Jr Superintendent which also means as one of the older kids he is responsible for the overall barn and ensuring the other kids are doing their chores and other fun things like early morning hay and straw pick ups, grand stand cleanups, turns working the cafeteria, and more. Fair is usually the first week of August and generally around the hottest time of the summer which always makes for a long exhausting but generally fun week. This year was no different. It was a long hot fun week hanging out with our 4H friends. Max is saying this may be his last year showing Shadow (his goat). I'm not sure if its because we packed to much stuff in this summer or if he is really ready to move on to something else but is a reminder that the kid is growing up and things are changing around our house.

One year of retirement

A couple days ago I hit a big milestone. At the moment I wondered why I was not celebrating it like a birthday or other major life event. Unfortunately celebrating something like that feels odd as most of folks I meet cock their heads and look at me weird when they hear I don't have a job or a business anymore. On August 1 of 2024 I officially left my job with a company I had been with for 28 years. 

When I left it was a scary moment. I had all of our expenses tracked down to how much toothpaste cost us per year and decided I had to trust the math. It all added up saying we should be able to do this thing. I had even taken a year's leave of absence when we did the Great Loop a couple years prior partly to test our spending plans ensuring they actually worked as we thought they should. To say it was scary would be an understatement.

I'm happy to report I've really enjoyed this year and have no regrets leaving when I did. Even though I had been reading and watching YouTube videos on the subject for the last few years on what to expect and how to be "successful" in retirement. I almost found myself falling into the working one more year category but thankfully got a buyout offer at the right time. 

I will say there were a few surprises. I really thought I would have more time to do things I wanted to do. I had a list of items to address around the house, I thought I would work on our landscaping, I thought I would get into a workout routine, I thought I would play more video games. At this point looking back I can safely say that I have not got many projects done around the house. Much to my wife's concern the fan in the sunroom still does not work, the old water pump from the Tug still has not been rebuilt, and a long list of other items are still being neglected. The landscaping around our home looks worse then ever, I did start walking about an hour every day with the dogs but would not call that a workout. Unfortunately I have also played less video games this year.

What I did learn is that I now have the time to say yes anytime my kids want to do something with me. While I did spend a lot of time with my kids while they were growing up it didn't really hit home until my daughter moved out two years ago for college that I would not be getting that same kind of time with them again. So I have really been trying to make the most of my limited time left with our son at home. I have learned to slow down and appreciate the little things more. When we go places I like to think I'm walking a little slower taking everything in rather than being focused on rushing to the next thing. I've also started talking with people more. Historically I was not good at making time to get to know new people. As I'm starting to slow down and creating new routines I'm also taking the time to make more then just passing acquaintance type relationships with a number of new people.

It's been a fun year and it's gone by fast. With that said I'm really looking forward to what's next. This year will be my son's senior year. After that he will be off to college and hopefully soon after that we will get to start our sailing adventure around the world.

We found a home for the boat

Our boats new home for the next year

Being fairly late in the season and not knowing much about the Chesapeake Bay Area (turns out its about the size of Lake Erie but probably a bit bigger shorline wise due to all the various rivers and fingers in the area) we pretty much took the first marina that sounded good not paying much attention to location or details.

When we called the owner had told us he had just put in new docks designed for big catamarans and was planning to start focusing his business on catamarans. Turns out we were his fifth one. Three were on the hard for the remainder of the season while the owners went home and one was for sale as the owners wife was done with it. There was one other in the water but the owners were not around. The docks were nice. He was still working on getting power out to the docks and lighting was coming soon as well. Soon in this case might be November(note we came in towards the end of June). It did not appear to be the busiest place but one could see it had been an active but smaller boat yard at one time. The marina was in a quiet and seemingly well protected area from wind/storms towards the end of a creek.

The owner a fellow probably in his late 70's was on the dock to greet us and help with lines as we came in. He provided suggestions for timing up and offered to give us a tour of town and ensure we got a rental car.. neither of which we had been planning for. Our first stop was his main office in Oxford at a different marina he owned. When we first talked to him he suggested we stay at that marina but after finding it on google maps it appeared that he only had one dock at would fit our boat while allowing his other dock holders to actually get out of their docks and it sounded like maybe he already had some transient boats planning to come in during the month of July. So we opted for his working boat yard with the new docks. One of the downsides as we would find out later was that the yard in Trappe did not really have working bathrooms/showers for dock holders. They are in the process of being remodeled. If I had to guess this may not happen anytime soon? Anyway the Oxford location did have showers which we promptly took advantage of. While waiting for my turn at a shower I had a chance to get to know our new friend. Turns out he bought the marina we were staying in to build boats back in the 80's and he did so until the last recession when the boat market crashed and it was not viable to create them anymore. He had also been a Grand Banks dealer and service center at one point before they went bankrupt. He was still actively servicing a number of his customers but as those boats got older and changed hands that business was shrinking so he recently decided to pivot his business into one focused on catamarans. His goal was to establish a service center first then become a dealer for a brand of power cats I had not heard of. The display model he had looked nice. He's an engineer at heart with an entrepreneur's spirt that loves sailing and overall a very sharp and interesting fellow.

Once we were all showered he drove us down through his home town of Oxford (think a one stop light town) which is quite cute. It has a restaurant or two, a yacht club, bowling ally, his marina, and a hotel. From there he took us to the next town over in hopes of getting us a rental car so we might get to an airport to fly home. This process took us about 3hrs as the first location did not have any cars available and of course we did not know we were even doing this so had not made reservations ahead of time. Eventually we were successful at getting a car at a very small regional airport, found some lunch, and headed back to the yard.

Once back at the yard we signed a contract and paid to keep our boat at his facility until November with plans to store the boat there for winter. Turns out he just purchased a travel lift that can pull out boats up to 33ft wide. Seems this is a unique thing in the bay area so it appears he may keep our business for more than just the one season. Being a true entrepreneur he tried to drum up some service work from us but I felt I could manage the current list of items and had a fair amount done a couple weeks ago while at Xquisite. The only thing left on my list was the generator which he could not tackle but knew someone that could so it seems I have a good contact to start with. 

Now that all the business was settled, we were feed, we had a loose exit plan, we could all feel the exhaustion settling in so back to the air conditioned boat we went for naps. 

By this point we had worked our available timeline to within one day. It was time to find some flights home as I was due back to take our Scout Troop to West Virginia in two days. While Max and I rinsed the boat down Amy found some flights home and we were off to celebrate our first two successful overnight trips on a new boat with some ice cream. The next day we packed up, put stuff away, and headed out. Time will tell if we picked a good spot or not.

The adventure continues

 After recharging in Southport for a couple of nights it seemed that we had a decent weather window to make it all the way to the Chesapeake Bay. Based on the weather forecast we would have some wind the first day then get stuck motoring for a day then the wind would return on our third day out.

Unfortunately we ended up motor sailing the entire way. We did not get much wind at all and the trip ended up taking us 4 days to get to Trappe, MD. The waters were calm and it was hot... Turned out it was the hottest 4 days of the year. It was so hot we really didn't want to do much so we each took our turns on watch and enjoyed the water. 

We did get a little visitor that decided to hang out with us most of the first day. He was a cute tiny little bird with a yellow breast. You can see Max walking him out of the boat on the top of the VHF antenna. We had to do this a few times as he was determined to check out our salon & cabins. We got some other visitors the next day in the form of dolphins. Dalphins happen to be one of Amy's favorite critters to see in the water and she is determined that if she calls them and waves her hands just so they will come to visit. I just happened to be reminding her that she had not seen any that day when she decided to call some over. Seems like they were just waiting for her call. As soon as she held her hands up and called, one popped its head up and started swimming towards our boat bringing its friends with him. They entertained us hanging out for about 5 minutes and then moved on presumably to entertain another crew somewhere or find some lunch.

Our new friend perched on top of the anntenna

As we worked our way up the coast I was surprised how many big cargo ships we passed. Some were anchored others were just drifting waiting for their pilot boats to come get them and bring them into port. Usually once we got within about 5-10 miles of them they would make contact providing their status and which side they wanted us to pass them on or which side they planned to pass us occasionally. This proved to be our primary entertainment for this passage.

As we worked our way up the coast we were also running closer to shore still trying to keep the boat in the Gulf Stream. Off shore Starlink had been working great. Before leaving the Bahamas I signed up for the offshore plan that provided 50GB of data. The first day we somehow managed to use 20GB after that we limited the Instagram & Facebook scrolling. I'm guessing the video bits that go with that really chew up the data. Now we were limiting our data to download mainly audio books, weather updates, post trip updates to family and some other basic stuff. Once we came in closer to the Outer Banks of NC our cell phone data plans started working again and we could all start getting our social media fixes once again.

Hatteras Lighthouse

Once we made it to the mouth of the Chesapeake we checked in with the owner of the marina we were heading to ensuring he knew we were really coming and when to expect us. We realized that it was going to take us about 12hrs to get there from the mouth of the bay mostly working against the tide so we made the decision to slow the boat down to ensure a early morning arrival vs getting in at 2 or 3am in a place we were unfamiliar with.  We were all a bit disappointed that we would be out one more night without ice cream and AC but the weather was good and it's always nice to just be out on the water even it meant motor sailing though another hot & humid night.