Really?
I didn't have the heart to tell him that somehow that part had got buried under 8 months of work, often in freezing cold conditions. But it was good to be reminded. Scott is a friend we met via the Cruisers Forum, and he happened to be working on a boat of similar size to Wind Wanderer, but needing a lot more work. It makes a difference having someone nearby on a similar journey. It means offers to buy anything you might need when they're going to a hardware store etc.
We have been extraordinarily fortunate with the new people we've met during this long project. Bob and Elizabeth who own the dock we've been renting. You couldn't wish for more helpful, friendly landlords, even though they tried to get us to like 'scrapple'!
Scrapple is a local product they were raving about... I can't bring myself to call it a dish or delicacy. It is what it sounds like, a kind of square patty made from all the left over bits at the abattoirs... they didn't appreciate the term 'factory sweepings'. Some folk eat it with a savoury sauce or gravy, others cover it with maple syrup. I think it would be best covered with concrete.
We couldn't bring ourselves to take more than a nibble. I'm convinced that babies get trained to eat the stuff somewhere after breast milk but before they've learnt to say 'No!'
Then there was Rich who lent us tools, and borrowed some, and let us get stuff delivered to his door so we could walk off the boat and pick it up.
Bill Trayfors, again from the Cruisers Forum, who tackled the final hookup of our solar panels and other things electrical. When he found some sticky bits he brought a buddy to help out. Phil Johnson is a retired navy engineer who was responsible for keeping the entire 6th Fleet functioning. So here I had an engineer who was used to working on everything from aircraft carriers to nuclear submarines, working away on our boat. He also set us up with the ability to use our marine radio to send and receive emails and weather fax while at sea.
It's a funny old world.
Chris, the manager of West Marine in New Castle, Delaware, was not only a source of limitless information and worth listening to because apart from being a very active sailor himself, he worked on Dennis Connors America's Cup boats. He'd come to the boat on his days off to drop off stuff I'd ordered. Then he'd look at what we were doing and make suggestions, usually at a cost saving.
Even Patrick from Sailing Associates, who I did in fact get to do a rigging job, spent hours on the boat giving me a very good analysis and assessment of our Ford Lehman diesel.
We really have had a support network we would have had difficulty finding anywhere else.
Sometime I'm going to make a list of everything we've done to this boat to turn it into our go-anywhere home.
Often it seemed as though the work would never end. So many things had to be added to the list, things we had no way of factoring in, but once discovered had to be done.
It's only been in the last few weeks that we've had the feeling that we just might be able to sail out of here soon.
Our departure date has been changed so many times it's embarrassing, but a week ago we identified last Thursday as our opportunity. We would have just enough time with the right conditions to sail down Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, where we could rest up for a day or two before heading across the Gulf Stream and a sweeping arc down to Antigua in the Caribbean.
Does anyone ever finish the work with time to sit around reading books until the weather window arrives?
After 8 months we still had a list we had to chop down to essential jobs, and those that could wait until later.
The day before departure we discovered a crack in the oil filter base plate and oil running into the bilge.
There went our weather window.
Thursday became a hunt for a new base project, and late that afternoon I found one and Tom took it up to his work trailer to do the modifications.
On Friday we completed the repair and decided to start the trip down the Sassafras River so we could at least made our departure.
By now the wind was blowing from the east and pushing us hard against the dock, but with careful working of the lines and engine, we eventually managed to get Wind Wanderer off the dock and out to mid stream.
The bridge guy opened the bridge for us and we slipped through. It was a grey evening and we had been so busy we didn't really feel the enormity of the moment. We've read stories of folk setting out on voyages with a whole lot of fanfare, farewell parties, crowds on the dock etc. We just slipped quietly down the river.
The night fell quickly and we wound our way down the river by navigation beacons and the chartplotter. Tom knows the river well and warned us about a beacon that must be given a wide berth because there is a shallow bar that comes out way past it. No prizes for guessing who was at the helm when he ran the boat aground. Of course he was the butt of our jokes, once we had managed to get the boat off. It was quite a struggle and I thought we were going to have to wait for the next tide to try to refloat. I guess 2 years living on the Adriana
must have taught me something and we eventually made it to deeper water.
Twenty minutes and we swept round a bend with a strong current that carried us right onto another sand bar.
This time I was at the helm so all jokes were forbidden. Again we managed to refloat, but with it starting to rain and being close to the river mouth I made the call to head for quiet water and drop the anchor so we could get a good night's sleep.
The next morning we steamed out of the river and started making our way down the bay.
Our vision of sailing straight down the bay was wishful thinking. The weather had turned against us and the weather forecasters have obviously been talking about another Chesapeake Bay.
Nevertheless we got our new sails unfurled for the first time. The roller furlers worked quite well once we'd learned a few of their idiosyncrasies.
I could give a blow by blow account of our trip down the bay so far, but suffice it to say that this shakedown part of our voyage is well and truly shaken.
We've had to reinforce and reconstruct parts of the roller furlers. Nothing too major and they are working well now and I have a lot more confidence about heading out into the Atlantic with them.
We're using the delays while we wait for a favourable turn in the weather to continue completing boat work.
It really is hard to believe that at last we have set sail.
On Wednesday it looks like we may be able to get a good run down the bay, but I think it's when we cross the Gulf Stream and start our 2 week run to Antigua that we will feel like we're cruising at last.