Day 0 : Moving onto the boat

Today was filled with uncertainty and emotional highs and lows. We began the day very excited about the beginning of our trip. The boat would be repaired by late afternoon, and we would move our stuff in and sleep on the boat and have an evening of fun in the Inner Harbor. Then we'd head out at first light on Wednesday.

Was not meant to be.

At around 9:30, I received a call from the mechanic that there were some parts missing, and that they would hopefully have them by tomorrow, but there was no guarantee that the parts would actually ship on time. My heart sank. I have 2 weeks dedicated to this trip which I look forward to all year. We already got delayed since the weekend, and now who knows when or even if we would get to go. No other dates work this summer for a 2 week trip. All our marinas are reserved, and the itinerary is set. The weather for tomorrow was perfect and who knows what the weather will bring if we get delayed. I was super depressed.

A few hours later, I had accepted that we weren't getting out today, and I started thinking about what to do if we couldn't leave for a few days. I cheered myself up by watching the semi-final of the world cup where France beat Belgium 1-0 on a gorgeous set piece goal, and one of the highlights of the week was a nice long phone conversation with Tamara, who has been in Israel for 2 weeks.

At 3:00 pm, the mechanic called to tell me that they did not need those parts after all, and that the boat is fixed, and it would be in our slip in a couple of hours. He even said he would fuel it up so we would be ready to go the next day as planned.

Halleluja!!!!! Praise the lord!

We started a mad scramble to pack, get everything in order, and get out of the house. We had to reschedule the dog walker for the second time today, get to West Marine to buy something I needed for the trip. Buy food, water, supplies, etc. In the end we rushed so much that after we were settled into the boat and thinking about getting to bed, we realized how many crucial things we left at home, and Ann and Benny headed home at 10:15 pm to collect those items, while I settled in to write my blog.

When I got to the boat, I pumped out the heads, topped off the water tanks, checked all the systems, unloaded my poker table and chairs and put them in my car, loaded our luggage from the car to the boat, and we were about as good to go as we could ever be.

Thankfully, Sababa is ready to go!

As I made my third trip to Whole Foods in a 90 minute period, I took in the sunset over the Inner Harbor, and it started to feel like vacation was happening.

Sunset over Baltimore

Once we unpacked my third run of groceries and put everything away, Ann and I went upstairs on the fly bridge to relax, have a beer, and unwind (this is before we realized how much stuff we had left at home). The view of Baltimore at night justifies the nickname Charm City.

The city at night

The plan tomorrow is for me to wake up Elana, and if she is still willing, to teach her every aspect of getting the boat prepped and under way. We'll start up the generator, switch the systems to gen power, put away the shore power cord, turn on all the instruments, set a course in the chart plotter, fire up the radar, turn on the thruster, pull up the lines and fenders, stow all loose items, sound the horn, and head out. Easy peasy. (Except I won't really sound the horn as it will be very early and people will be asleep on other boats.)

Our destination tomorrow is Crisfield, MD at Somers Cove marina. I've got a list of things to do there, and hoping Ann goes along with the plan to watch England versus Croatia at 2:00 pm. Should be tied up well before then. The next day Norfolk, and then on the OBX. Let's go!!!!