The Beginning of the End

We did the math yesterday, and it wasn't pretty. We have about 30 days if we are planning to be back to Deltaville by March 10th, so the calendar says we better start heading north. It's very sad, but we are trying to think of this as the beginning of the third part of the trip and not the end. Either way I am NOT looking forward to wearing pants or shoes on a regular basis. Our "plan" is to hit Hope Town and Man O War each one more time, and then, when the weather is good head across Whale Cay to Green Turtle. We'd like to see a few of the less inhabited cays between Green Turtle and West End before finding a good weather window to head across to Florida.

In a lot of ways the time has flown by, but when I think back to some of our adventures at the beginning of the trip - the softball team meeting us in Norfolk, Southport, fresh shrimp for Thanksgiving dinner, docking at the Kennedy's right when we needed it, being saved by Will and Renaldo south of Charleston - I realize how far we've come, in space, in our sailing skills, and in my state of mind and ideas of what's important. I feel like in a lot of ways we've really become liveaboards, even if only for a short while. I'm also amazed when I think back to all the wonderful people we've met and friends we've made along the way. I'll miss hearing a Whisper hailed on the VHF as we pull into a mooring field because friends spotted our boat or heard us hailing a marina or fuel dock on the VHF.

But, I said we're not thinking of this as the end yet and so I'll stop with the sad and sentimental. Plus I need to save something to write about at the real end of the trip.

In other news:

We had an excellent time at Pete's 16th Annual 50th Birthday Celebration. The pig roast was good, the sides were even better, there was plenty of rum to go around, we ran into some friends, and continued making new ones. We met the illustrious captain David from Tarheel, husband of the local celebrity, Betty from Tarheel of Cruiser Net fame.

Sunday morning we "sailed" (motored) back to Marsh Harbor, taking the outside route, which was about the same distance but we thought might provide better fishing luck (it didn't).

We arrived in time to go to Maxwell's for salad making ingredients for the Super Bowl pot luck at the Jib Room. We had another fun and relaxing night drinking at the Jib Room. We managed to stay out past Cruiser's Midnight (9 pm), but we did not make it until the end of the football game.

iPad Risk has beaten out Yahtzee for the new favorite boat game. I might need a few more practice rounds vs the computer before I take Ben on again though.

Monday we went on the offensive against the black mold. I think the winner was the bleach. The hulls are looking much better, but Ben's favorite sweater, which we thought had been carefully moved, now sports two large bleach spots. We still need to go for round 2 against the galley mold, but are saving that for later.

Yesterday morning Ben picked up a conch shell at Conky Joe's and only needed one trip to Keith at the Jib Room to successfully complete the horn. It really smelled horrible, but he has it smelling better, and sounding great. For the first time we were able to answer the calls at sunset.