Last days on land – part 3 – final projects and cast off!

The past few weeks have been crazy. We originally planned to leave September 15, but hit one delay after another. First it was finishing some critical projects (inststalling the new head, adding a temporary dept sounder etc…), then the pope visit, then Joaquin… finally we finished up and were ready to head out. Coincidentally, it was exactly a year to the day we bought Elara.

We had a new head:

New v-berth foam/padding/sheets

New vinyl in the dodger

We had our cast-off party

got our dinghy delivered

Ran our new reefing lines (that was a chore since the 2nd line had nothing to pull it through and had to be fished through the boom with an electricians fish tape)

Since we knew we weren’t leaving for a week or two, we took some time to do some final partying with friends

And then we were off!

The sail down the Delaware was un-eventful, except for some massive debris fields kicked up by the tropical storm.

It was a strange feeling – this was literally the fulfillment of a childhood dream, and yet it felt surprisingly… normal… like it was the most natural thing in the world. We had initially hoped to make it through to Chesapeake City on the first day, but by the time we got to the C&D canal, the current was running against us, and the thought of crawling through the canal at 2 knots or so was not all that appealing. Instead we decided to spend the night in Delaware City, which was our last stop on our first trip bringing the boat back. Kind of a “come full circle” thing… it was cool.

One good thing about our delayed departure was that it put us at the head of the Chesapeake right around the Annapolis boat show. We had some friends who were also sailing down just for the show, so we decided to see if we could make it to Annapolis by Friday. Thursday we sailed through the C&D and dropped the hook in Turner’s Creek off the Sassafras River. We were the only boat in the secluded little anchorage, and spent a peaceful night there. Beautiful place.

The next morning, we left at first light, and pushed through to Annapolis. Hit a few small squalls along the way, but nothing major. Worse was the fact that there was plenty of wind, but it was *right* on the nose (of course). We finally made it to Annapolis, and took a slip next to our friends in the Annapolis City Marina.

Tosha has been adapting to boat life surprisingly well. She seems to love seeing new sights every day, making circuits around the deck to check everything out. She is just eternally curious… She’s not too crazy about the engine and spent the first two days of motoring huddled in the cockpit with us, obviously pretty stressed. She seems to be getting a bit more used to it though, as today she didn’t even leave her nap spot when the engine went on… We’re spending a few days in Annapolis, meeting some folks and having a good time before proceeding south!