Afloat at last!

After three weeks of sitting parked at the marina, save for the two days we had Captains Chris and Alyse on board training us in the water, we’ve finally made our first solo foray into the Intracoastal Waterway (ICWW).

The photo above shows our homeport where we’ve been the past three weeks, just left of center, in the bottom half of the photo, where the docks form a 3-legged Y shape.  The slightly larger Faber Cove is the one just right of center, also in the bottom half of the photo. It’s easier to see if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

Today Dave, our fearless Marine Technician who tackles all problems great and small on a boat, completed the repair of the seals needed to fix the steering fluid leaks, so the boat is now a navigable vessel again. We told Dave we wanted to leave the dock, so he departed earlier than usual this afternoon, and after the canvas guy  left (another worker doing some tweaking on the canvas and isinglass on the sundeck and flybridge enclosures), we cast off our dock lines and headed for the ICWW!  OK, so we only went 5 miles, but Bob did a great job getting us out of our slip and the marina, we ventured south on the ICWW a few miles then turned back north, and we’re now anchored out for the night in Faber Cove, a short distance from our marina, but not on a dock or hooked up to electricity or water. 

It feels great to be away from the marina (though we like it there a lot – a great place!)  We celebrated by having Bob cook steaks on our barbecue on the transom, and Cathryn sauteed some chard and mushrooms (thank you, Generator, for the ability to use the stove), which, accompanied by a glass of red wine, made for a nice dinner at anchor. Cheers!

Though we slept pretty well, we each got up once in the middle of the night and felt compelled to look out the window to confirm our location.  We wanted to ensure our anchor had not slipped, and we weren’t about to run into the nearby anchored sailboat (an experience we once had at Sucia Island back home when a sailboat slipped it’s anchor and ran into us at 5am).