Day 1 2/17/21 Time to Go!

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MONDAY FEB 15-The packing begins...
After a nice Valentines Day/Lois' birthday dinner with our good friends the Hamms on Sunday, we made a decision to set sail sooner instead of later in order to take advantage of a small weather window favorable for going south.  Time to finish crossing items off the to-do list.

Brent finished some maintenance items, there was a trip to town for last minute supplies & perishable groceries, including 6 dozen unwashed eggs from our friends at Yellow House Farm in White Stone Va. (Unwashed eggs do not require refrigeration, and they will last us about 6 weeks.)  Pick up prescriptions, clean the house, haul 2 pickup loads of supplies to be loaded onto the boat. Luckily we can drive our truck down to the dock instead of carrying everything down a lot of stairs from house to beach.  As things were piled into the cockpit it was a scene of controlled chaos.  (This picture was just the very beginning of loading)

TUESDAY FEB 16- 
Bag by bag everything was stowed in its assigned place. The galley took awhile to stow all the food, but luckily there's lot of storage space.  Can I find easily find a certain item when it comes time to cook?  That's the big question, LOL.  We worked hard, finished putting things away about 10PM and were exhausted.

WEDNESDAY FEB 17- Time to depart
The day was sunny and beautiful, despite temperatures in the 20s and 30s.  One last look around to check that doors were locked, appliances were unplugged, and we said goodby to our little land paradise for a time. 
We left the dock at 10:45, and by 10:50 as we rounded the Piney Point sand spit all the pre trip tension was fading. Once we were in the Rappahannock River the sails went up,  and we felt the freedom of being back on the water.  The sails woke from their slumber and the rigging shook loose its coating of ice, sending a rain of icicles down onto the deck.  

Although the day's high temperature was in the low 30s, our enclosed cockpit gets excellent solar gain so we were warm & very comfortable.  Winds were 10-15 kts and our boat sailed very sweetly even though heavily loaded.   We had the entire southern bay to ourselves.  Wonderful sailing! 
With a midday start modest expectations for miles to be covered were in order.  We chose Cape Charles Town Marina and checked in for two nights.  We will sit here with the heater running while another winter storm roles through, using the time to work on small projects and relax.  If the rain lets up a walk into town would be nice.  

We're on our way!




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