And so it begins....

Well, tomorrow we start our cruise south from our home port in East Greenwich, RI. It's kind of a "Ready or not, here we come!" Everything isn't fixed but the essential things work, so we're taking off. It has been really cold and rainy here. Last Saturday we had winds gusting over 50 knots. So we couldn't have started much earlier regardless. We should have pretty good weather next week; sunny with highs around 50, winds NW, 10 to 15, shifting to the SW 5-10. Our plan is to head down Long Island Sound to NYC. It'll take us 3 days with stops at Fishers Island, Port Jefferson and City Island. This last stop will be so that we can time our passage through Hell Gate at slack water. After NYC we'll head out along the coast to Norfolk and the Inter-Coastal Waterway (ICW). We'll leave the ICW at Moorehead City to travel down the coast to Florida and the Keys. We will stop every night before dark while on the ICW. After the first of the year, the Bahamas. The challenge will be the shallow depth of the ICW. There hasn't been money made available to dredge for many years (global warming?) so instead of a 12' controlling depth, we'll most likely find places that won't handle our 5.5' draft. At least, this time, well be running aground in daylight since we don't plan on running at night as we have in the past.

We've been plagued by little mechanical and electrical problems ever since I finished the AT. Things that worked flawlessly all summer, took my return as an opportunity to break. Our new Mermaid reverse cycle unit's fan wouldn't come on so we had to send it back. The Inverter stopped inverting. Apparently, this was due to a bad shore power cord but that means I had two bad cords (the back up didn't work either). Seems unlikely. Nevertheless, I bought a new cord and everything is okay again. The water heater thermostat stopped thermostating, so I had to replace that. And then there's the routine failures (toilet water intake clogged with debris, etc.). Our friend Rob, the most knowledgeable mariner alive, noticed that our compass globe, although not leaking, was cracked around the base and opined it would give way within a few months. And, to top it off, last night, the OSU Buckeyes lost!!! Pat thinks it's an omen. She thinks it's me!!! Everything worked while I was away and the Buckeyes won! Of course, any fool can cruise the world with everything working and good luck. We're going. I have a feeling that the longer we wait, the colder it'll get, so Sunday's the day!!!

Our many thanks to our friends at Norton's for their help and to the Norton's staff and management. To paraphrase the Governor of CA as the Terminator, "We'll be back." I guess that would make us the "Marineators".