by Jen
07/01/2009, Gloucester, VA ---> Deltaville, VA

What a BUSY week!!! Monday was our last day in the house. Finally!!! It seems that we have been working toward this for so LONG! However, it was strangely anti-climatic. I guess because we have been working so hard to get the place clean and ready for the renters we didn't take the time to get emotional about this big step. Anyway...we did it! The house is rented, they moved in today!

Our first few nights on the boat have been great! Daytime is toasty in the sun with highs around 88, but Anastasia stays cool inside. The lows have been around 70 for the past few nights so sleeping has been very pleasant. Here is a look at our setup.



This is a view of the Chesapeake Bay from our bow.



Each day so far has found us running errands, and trying to stow/organize our belongings into Anastasia's lockers. Surprisingly, she has much more space than I anticipated! Evenings, we seem to find ourselves in the marina pool cooling off from the day. Last night I made our first meal!! We had steak, potatoes & fresh green beans. The beans were courtesy of Mary, our former neighbor at the house. Great parting gift! The marina has a great screened-in area stocked with a grill & picnic tables. I prepared everything, packed it into a basket, and we headed off to this little space. After a toast we inhaled the meal. It was the first "home cooking" in a while.



Slowly we meet a few more people each night. Fellow liveaboards, people anchored in creek that are using the facilities and other marina members. One precious little guy, Freddie, all of about 6 years old was telling us how he and his family crossed the Atlantic heading here from their home in England. There is something so enchanting about a little sailor from across the sea relating his ocean crossing experience in a small but confident voice. Maybe we can hire him as crew!!

This morning I made banana pancakes with fresh blackberries! I have found a blackberry bush on the grounds that I am now visiting everyday.

The activity at this marina does not cease to amaze us. There is always a flurry of people and boats moving about all the time. There are children playing, adults enjoying cocktails and plenty of transients in the creek.

This weekend we are planning a vacation from our vacation! For the 4th we are heading to Georgia to visit friends.

I will leave you with my view as I write this blog.



Life is good!

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by Jen
06/26/2009, Deltaville, VA

...or so they say! Yesterday, Maxwell and I decided to concentrate on Anastasia's pantry. The previous owner used this converted hanging locker as storage of all things oily, greasy, lubricating etc. Good or us, he left all of it's contents on board so we have lots of things to spray on things and squirt in places that need squirting. It really is a great place for all of that stuff however I need more galley storage. I have BIG plans!

Once we removed everything we found the locker to be quite nasty. However, after a meeting with my bucket of magic cleaning solution it looked much, much better! And no residual odor either! Major Victory!

Once clean and dry I lined each shelf with nonskid liner. We brought over the last of the contents from our pantry at the house and filled her up! Of course, when we leave, our provisioning will be carefully planned and stores will overflow into other areas than the pantry. However, this will be the main "go to" spot for most everything used regularly.







Now I LOVE to cook! And I have made it my personal mission to transition to a Galley Goddess seamlessly. And every Galley Goddess needs a decent pantry.(so say I) For research on this, I have bought a lot of books, maybe too many.(so say my Husband) But I am INSPIRED to make this a great space that great food comes out of! Just because my kitchen is now a galley and there is water beneath my feet doesn't change much in my mind.

We both have great expectations for this trip as a whole. And we are glad to be able to share the before thoughts with all of you! Stay tuned for the the afters!! We will see how accurate our expectations really are!

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by Jen
06/18/2009

I title this entry "The Best Fiends in the WORLD" for one reason...THEY ARE!! Who, you might ask? Ben & Emily!! Over the past few weeks we have been looking for a foster home for our boxer, Bailey. We had decided that this trip would not be the best thing for her a long time ago. That was not up for negotiation. But, the fast approaching deadlines have made this decision an unpleasant reality. Finding a foster home has proved to be very difficult and until now, unsuccessful. As of Monday afternoon we thought the best thing to do would be to place an ad on CraigsList for our baby girl. Only this time the advertisement read "Free to Good Home." OUCH!!!

We had a flood of interested people, that was the good part. The bad part was that it tore a boxer-sized hole in our hearts! So we endured a few days of moping around, random tears, and all around droopy-ness. UNTIL...(you have to know what comes next because of the title) our GREAT FRIENDS Ben & Emily came to the rescue!!

They have offered to keep Bailey for as long as we need!! Not only that, they are going to give her back to us when we return!! I cannot tell you how much this lifts our spirits. We have no children except for this dog and she is so special to us. Just knowing that she will be in their friendly care sets us at ease.

So, just in case you did not know the definition of "The Best Friends in the World," that is it.

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by Jen
06/15/2009, Still in Gloucester

It is one week to the day that we moved our things into storage. We have been cleaning, painting & patching all kinds of things! It is strange inside the house without all of our furniture. The shot above is Maxwell at the new desk/kitchen table...it is really a folding card table. We have one chair & ottoman that are supposed to go to a family member and that is really all to speak of.

On Thursday night, we had the great pleasure of welcoming s/v Prudence into Jackson Creek for the night. Doug & Cheryl were on their way up to Annapolis in preparations for Prudence's sale. Maxwell and I rowed out to visit while the sun was setting to our backs. It was nice to see them again so soon!

Well off to do a little more!

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Jen
06/09/2009, Gloucester, VA

Yesterday was it! We MOOOVED OUT!!! And from the start, I have to give it to our crew!! Both my parents and Maxwell's parents were here to help. And HELP they did!! From 9am until about 3:30 these folks schlepped boxes, chairs, lamps, tables and all the other junk that we have seemed to accumulate in the almost five years that we have been married. The first photo below is of those four FABULOUS workers!! On the left are my parents, Howard & Pam Winder and on the right are Kay & Rob Williamson, Maxwell's parents. We could not have made it happen if they were not there!! Once loaded we had taken up THREE trucks and THREE trailers!! All together heading down the road we looked like a band of traveling gypsies.








Thanks so much to Joyce & Greg!! We know our stuff will be safe and sound!!

Other news!! Our 26' Tanzer sloop sold recently!! Second Wind was a great boat that I learned to sail on. We have such fond memories of sailing with her on the Chesapeake these past few years. However, it is better for us to own one boat instead of two so this was great!! The new owner, Brian, seems that he and his family will much enjoy all of the fun sailing experiences that Second Wind has to offer.



Also, we are back to spending money...our recent purchases include: Mark 25 Sextant, Ipod Touch for all of our music, MapTech Chart Books, Weems & Plath Chart Plotting table, and soon a Garmin 3006C Chart Plotter. And the list goes on...

Well, it is off to Lowes to buy a few things. Until next time!

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Jen
06/02/2009, Home, Gloucester, VA

This week is dedicated to packing. Anything and everything that will not move onto the boat with us is finding a box. We started in the office, moved to the spare bedroom, tackled our bedroom closet (a.k.a. the black hole) and are now in the kitchen. Monday our oh so kind and supportive parents are helping us to move all this stuff into the storage unit. We are using a great company in Mathews, VA, Crawford Moving & Storage. They offer climate controlled storage and are also family friends so our belongings will be safe and sound with them.

After Monday, Maxwell and I will be sleeping on an air mattress and eating at a card table while we make the last fixes on the house to prepare for the renters.

We are not totally ignoring Anastasia while moving out of the house. In fact, she is like a little oasis away from all of the chaos of home. We try to sneak away to her at night to catch a sunset whenever we have a chance.

To add to the chaos, Maxwell may be needed in a trip to Maine next week too. He has a friend of a friend needing crew to move his Morgan 41 from Virginia to Maine in one straight shot offshore. Who knows, I may be spending those first few nights on the air mattress alone with the dog.

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