Goodbye Lesbian Chicken Colony or Untying the Dock Lines

August 27, 2004
By Tom

Saturday - August 21, 2004

Well, the boat didn't sink. It kind of sat a little funny from the weight of all of our groceries, but other than that launching went off without a hitch.

I recommisioned both engines which were a little fussy after sitting for 7 months with no use. We also had my mother and father down for dinner and an overnight stay on the boat with us. While they were here I sent my dad up the mast to replace two of the sheeves on the back of the mast that had been giving us trouble. The main sail is now once again raisable by hand. Thanks dad.

My mom and I took turns manning two chicken neck lines off the back of the boat and over the course of three hours we caught about twenty or so crabs, of which four were keepers. We each had a steamed crab as an appatezier before I cooked steaks and baked potatoes on the grill.

Sunday - August 22, 2004

My older sister Rhonda and her husband Bob came down to go for a short sail today with their three children. With mom and dad already down here, it made for quite a crowd. Her oldest two children, Jeremy and Carson really seemed to enjoy the sail. Her youngest, Madison, who is only 18 months was less than enthused. We had a nice time and the sail was uneventful, at least until we tried to land.

Both of our engines managed to loose reverse coming back into the marina and we had to make a carrier style arrest landing. Thanks go out to Bob and Dad for taking one for the team.

After the sail we had a nice picnic cook out on one of the marina grills. We also had 7 more crabs that Mom had caught over the last 24 hours. My sisters tribe went swimming in the marina pool afterwards and everyone went home happy and full by 3 pm.

Needless to say, I now have two engines to fix before we can leave.

Monday - August 23, 2004

Today was love your engine outboard day. In the morning I serviced the starboard side outboard while it was, well, out. By lunch time I was done, but it was too hot outside and I am lame.

Instead, Amy and I sought refuge in the air conditioning of Annapollis's finest chandlery's. We tried to find a few miscellaneous parts that I needed from four different hardware stores, but we struck out. In the end we settled for a beer at Friday's and then dinner at our friend Mark and Marla's house.

Mark is the guy who bought Amy's LBM (little black Mercedes) and we have been friends for a couple of years. They recently moved into a new house up near Annapollis, so we were invited to a sort of good bye dinner. Mark is lame however, so Marla and I cooked. Dinner was steak, a large home made salad, and some sort of potato derived creamy goo that I could not identify. The food received complements all around.

It was a late night and we didn't get home until after midnight.

Tuesday - August 24, 2004

I re-installed the starboard engine and then fixed the transmission linkage on the port one this morning before it got too hot to work. I was done and cleaned-up by 9am and then Amy and I got in our pickup truck for the last time and headed to Mom and Dad's house.

We are planning on departing for good on Thursday so we had a bunch of last minute errands to take care of back home. We had to open a new bank account near my dad as he has agreed to take care of collecting and sorting through our snail mail. We also got our wills (as in last will and testaments) signed and notorized. Hopefully we won't be needing those.

I cleaned out the truck in the afternoon and then we went to the local pub for dinner. We were home in bed at mom and dad's by nine.

Wednesday - August 25, 2004

We were up early to finish our errands which turned out to take all day. My brother is coming at 6 am tommorow morning to pick us up and drop us at the boat so that we can leave our truck at dad's.

I saw my younger sister, ate her cookies, and got to say goodbye. I also said bye to my mom's lesbian chicken colony. It is a toss up as to who is going to miss us more, the chickens or my sister.

We're all packed up and ready to go. T minus 8 hours and counting.

More to follow, end of line.

Thursday - August 26, 2004

My brother picked us up this morning for our big ride out, or down, or home. By the time we got all of our remaining gear into his truck, there was no room for Maggie. Fear not gentle reader, much to Maggie's dismay, we stuffed her in the bed of the truck with our other gear. I tried to explain to her that it was to be an enjoyable air ride experience and I think she was buying it until it started to rain.

All proceeded smoothly and we arrived, unpacked, dried out our ferret, and said our goodbye's to my brother. We cleaned the boat one last time and then cast off the lines for good by 10 am. Our destination for our first day as permanent cruisers was Galesville, a whopping 14.5 nautical miles from Deale.

We've been to Galesville numerous times and we selected it as our first destination for these reasons. We had the hook down and secure by 1 pm after a blistering 3 hour sail at sustained speeds approaching 4 knots. Amy said it might have been more like a good drift rather than a good sail.

Anyway, so here we sit. Our plans our not to move tommorow, but rather take it as a break-in day to begin cleaning, restowing, fixing, etc. several things on the boat. I also plan to begin the eternal quest for fresh seafood tommorow by stalking the elusive blue crab.

More to follow, end of line.