We officially started the trip south today. The first leg of the trip was completed in about 10 minutes as it was a jump of about 50 feet. You see, the slip we have been in since our arrival was a LOT narrower than our 12 foot 10 inch beam. We spread the outside pilings and wriggled in and have been here for several months without ever leaving the slip. Our friends on Dawn Treader left a few days ago, leaving a very desirerable 13 foot wide slip behind.
It poured all day and finally around 1600 hours the rain let up enough for us to go about unplugging the shore power cord and gathering in all our docklines and fenders. Because of the rain and the state of the tide we were floating 2 feet higher than usual. Since we have to “spread” the pilings to get out of our slip I wanted to do it while we were floating higher. The further up the piling we are, the more I can spread em’. Things went well and we easily slipped out of the confinement of our 11 foot 6 inch slip.
Christy drove while I handled lines as we usually do when departing a dock or slip. Conversely, whenever we dock I do the driving as Christy has limited vision in one eye and as a result she has virtually no depth perception. Since it was so crappy out I decided to let her stay inside and drive while I rigged lines for the new slip. She really aced getting into the new slip and we were soon tied up and plugged in. I was having nightmares about having a perfect breeze from the north to drive us down the bay but not enough water to get out of the old slip so I’m real happy to have made this small jump.
Things are winding down and falling into place. When we bought the dinghy from Grant we had to find a buyer for the old one. It kinda slipped to the back burner and we soon found ourselves owning 2 dinghies with only 2 weeks before our intended departure. Christy wrote an ad and we posted flyers in the local marinas and West Marine, we also put an ad on Craigslist. Results….the dinghy is sold.
Sitting here for so long it was easy for the boat to become “unpacked”. The V-berth is usually organized with the rarely ever needed things buried nearest the bow. It took some time but we’ve repacked the V-berth yet again and it’s ready for the trip.
We’ve been working very hard and knocking things off the “to-do” list in an effort to be ready. In between everything Christy has gotten 3 coats of finish on the rub & toe rails.
We still have a couple of dozen things on the list but we’re knocking them off. We have a few more hours to work with Maggie and then I’ll return the work truck……and we’re outta here. All we need is some water to return to the bay after yesterdays big winds from the northwest.
2 comments:
I like the pics do people forget about the tide when they tie their boats up?? neat pics maybe they should come to Lake Michigan no tide to confuse them or invest in floating docks.
Its just that the wind was pretty strong from the NW for a couple of days and literally blew all the water right down and out of the bay. It was lower than we had ever seen it. As soon as the wind let up 2 more feet of water came right back.
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