Someday, someday soon, and maybe next year can become a cruising mantra that never ends. There's always another project to start or finish. There's always another local destination to see. But there's also never a better time to take a journey than whenever you can cut loose.
So "When and If" has become "Why the Hell Not", and despite the logistics of suspending normal workaday rat race activities, we are going South this Fall.
The practicality of this decision has made the Summer of 2015 the Season of Upgrades. Instead of spending weekends jaunting about the Chesapeake Bay, we've been hunkered down on the mooring, drilling and sawing and crawling and banging. Back and forth to town for hardware. A box or two from one chandlery or another in the dinghy each week. The smell of hot plastic every time I pull a card out of the wallet!
Systems improved include increasing the solar array to 220 watts. Remove and replace the 12 volt refrigeration gear and adding a water pump option. A new anchor windlass with appropriately massive cabling and a chain rode and new anchor. The diesel heater will include a new day-tank for gravity flow that can do double duty as a fuel polisher. Of course the bilge pumps are rebuilt or replaced. And a few rewiring distractions tagging along with each new install. The mainsail was serviced and stitched as needed. The headsail was gone over last year. We also found a lightly used assym spinnaker that makes light air sailing much more pleasant.
So we can see that the trip planning is somewhat more than an impulsive leap. There's also the guidebooks and travel accounts of many other folks to be sifted through for useful information. But we have been doing that for years anyway!
Now some may say that once you are on the Chesapeake there's no need to go anywhere else. The most amazing estuary in the world will take a lifetime to explore. This is all true. There's just one thing that needs to be compensated for. Winter. So at least this once we will do our best to dodge it.
Enjoy
