**This blog is about the initial shakedown cruise we will have on our Sea-batical, moving our boat from Chesapeake Bay to Florida, with the idea to start the Great Loop next Jan/Feb. If we survive this, there may be more blog about the actual loop.
Atlanta, GA to Kent Island, MD
We started our adventure with a 6 am wake up call in
Atlanta and took an Uber to the airport with our many, many, many suitcases/duffel
bags. It seems a good omen that we got
upgraded to first class for our short flight to Baltimore. Upon arrival I went to get the rental car and
Melanie retrieved the aforementioned baggage.
Again, we were upgraded and headed out of the airport in a new, gigantic
pick-up truck.
We drove to Grasonville on Kent Island where Blue Horizon
was waiting at the Harrison Yacht Yard. She
had already been put into the water and was waiting for us to make her ship
shape. It was quickly apparent that was
going to be a months-long process. There was no inventory list, and the boat had been sitting for a long time and needed major cleaning. Melanie had a fit of vapors
and then rallied.
The day was hectic with Scott and Karen DeVos, our
training captains, arriving about 45 minutes after us, and Andy of Dock Call,
our mechanic, there to meet us and go over all the mechanical systems on the
boat. Then Rob Patchett from Patchett’s Fire
Prevention showed up to inspect the fire extinguishers (I had called him more
than a month earlier but he decided to wait until the very last day/hour to
show up.). Then the cleaning crew
arrived to reinstall the Bimini top/Isinglass.
So it was a hectic day with people all over the boat and that dislocated
feeling you get in a new home. In
addition to all that we made shopping lists and went to the grocery story, and,
of course, West Marine for all the missing boat elements (too lengthy to list
here but suffice it to say that we made the sales people there very happy).
We worked hard all afternoon and even installed our new
outboard motor on the dinghy – in the dark!
We’re so lucky that our trainers are the hardest working people ever,
and were organizing and cleaning alongside of us. We put our two new collapsible bikes on the
boat, ate Taco Salad and fell into bed (even though we hadn’t washed the
sheets!). It was a fitful night filled
with dreams of West Marine Frequent Buyers Cards and all the sayings that people
have about boats.
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| First of many! |
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| This is were I think we are - but my head is spinning so maybe not... |
