Wed, Oct 23th - In which we are totally overwhelmed...

**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. 

First of many!

This is were I think we are - but my head is spinning so maybe not...