Our plan is to leave Mamaroneck tomorrow and begin our trip to the Chesapeake. We have been living on Breeze On for a week, learning about her, practicing cooking, refilling the water tanks, refueling, etc. We have learned a lot but we are both disappointed that we have taken her out sailing just once this week. The weather has been perfect for sailing the past two days but we don't feel competent enough to return her to the dock without assistance. Therefore, we don't leave the dock. Our captain arrives this evening and we know we will get plenty of practice this next week. We are hoping that we will feel competent by the time we arrive in Maryland. Even so, it is difficult to watch boats leave the harbor while we just sit here.
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| Bye bye |
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| Breeze On is the last boat on the dock on the right. A few days ago these two docks were filled with 25 boats. I wish I had taken a photo of the boats rafted to each other 4 deep. |
In the meantime George has been busy installing the step I will use for getting on and off the boat at the side gate.
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| Installing the step |
Breeze On has a five foot freeboard. I can't hoist myself up without a step. There has been a dock step available for me to use while we have been docked here. I can't always count on that when we are at other docks. The step should make things a lot easier.
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| It is five feet from the deck to the water. It is a VERY large step from the dock to the deck of the boat. |
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| The step makes it much easier |
I have been working on making checklists for myself. A checklist for what to do when preparing to leave the dock, another one for operating the engine. It is going to take quite a while for these things to become second nature for me.
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| One of my checklists |
At the last minute we decided to buy a Spot GPS tracking device. It allows others to track where we are and allows us to send pre-recorded messages to others such as,"we are okay."
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| The Spot device |
George is now at the local Starbucks using his laptop and their internet to get it set up.
I tried on my life jacket and harness to adjust them to fit.
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| My life jacket, harness, PLB and part of the tether |
We also have tethers attached to the harness that will allow us to be attached to the boat via jack lines. We will use these if we are sailing in rough conditions or during the night. The bright green "ACR" device that is attached to my life jacket is a personal locator beacon (PLB). If I fall overboard (NEVER, I hope) and the tethers and jack lines don't keep me attached to the boat I can activate the PLB to make it easier to be located.
I am both excited and nervous about our trip.
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