It is always hard for me to leave my mom. This time was no different. We said good bye yesterday and made the break. I had been working myself up for days but it always takes a few days for me to shake that 'kicked in the stomach' feeling I get after I leave....ugh.
We had a great time with her in NY. My mom lives about two hours north of the City so we left the boat a lot and I actually spent most of my time up North hanging out and attempting to wrap up administrative stuff..emphasis on attempting, while O bounced back and forth from the boat.
O and I found a washing machine! We have already bought and installed it in Sam's bathroom. My new laundry room looks great although I haven't used it yet. The machine is small and only uses four gallons of water but it can wash about six pounds of clothes at a time. We took out Sam's head which O put up on the foredeck to disassemble for parts. I'm not sure which is worse, junker cars on blocks in a front yard or a toilet up on your foredeck. It's a close call.
The boat basin ended up being quite an experience. The current RIPS through there at about five kts which makes it interesting when the wind is blowing in the opposite direction or just in general. I was grateful we had a Catamaran as people in monohulls we having a hard time getting on and off their boats. Although it was precarious for us at times with the kids. Had Sam fallen overboard he would have been swept away immediately....anxiety ridden stuff. Getting the washing machine onboard was quite a sight as well.
We also replaced the mattress in our cabin with a futton mattress with springs. O has a sensitive back so hopefully this will help a little.
We left yesterday and are now transiting the C&D canal. It was strange being back onboard after so long. Indy does not do well unattended, she becomes a boat with all the usual boat smells that come with it. Slowly but surely she will become home again. Last night was the first time I had cooked anything onboard for three weeks!!!! The kids have adjusted without a blip. Now that things are starting to come back together I feel like it's home again. It's funnybut I do feellike Indy is part of the family.
The trip South was pretty uneventful.I had the dog watch last night(12-4) which for some reason I volunteered to take. Throughout all my years on boats before I always avoided this watch because you didn't get to see either the sunset or sunrise but I enjoyed it last night. THe weather was warm with a slight breeze off the forward port quarter. Although if I were to be honest, I didn't have my groove back yet which made me question my judgement on a few thing s so I ended up waking O up TWICE! This is unusual for me as I usually prefer night watches because it's easier to tell which way boats are traveling due to their running lights. However, I had FOUR tugs towing barges which at first I did not recognize what the lights were. It was strange to be second guessing myself after all this time but as you all know there is no shame in my game so I woke O up.... Hopefully, I will get my groove back soon.
School has started again for Ben. He had two weeks of school and then three off!!!! Any child other than Ben would love that. School started again yesterday which pleased him and it felt good to be back in our routine.
Next stop Annapolis.
I am going to try and stick with the three blogs a week thing.
I have lots to report actually. Remember when we first bought the boat and our broker 'hit ice" in the Chesapeake while bringing Indy to the companies dock??? Well that was not exactly true, he ran it up on the rocks of a very well charted lighthouse causing considerable damage.He even bent the rudder post trying to get it off the rocks and then tied the boat up and left it for TWO days until he noticed it listing on his way to work because she was taking on water. Then he called us and said he ' must have hit ice but didn;t even realize it'...right........we talked to him about it six months ago and we were very fair in the settlement we offered him(too fair) needless to say he has never paid a dime and keeps giving us the check is in the mail story(I can't believe people still try that one)..we will be seeing him and taking care of this while here. I will go into further detail in the next blog.
Didn't spell check sorry!