We are underway to complete the final two (or possibly three) legs of our journey. Yesterday afternoon Ed, Luna and I moved ourselves and all our bags back onto Skylark in the hopes the weather would cooperate with us today for an early morning departure. We were sad to say goodbye to Aunt Nancy and her family but are eager to get moving. Some cruising friends who just brought their boat from the Islands to this area invited us to Boston for an impromptu engagement party tonight but we need to stay focused at this point on getting ourselves back to Maine. Our life as cruisers really is coming to an end.

Conditions this morning are less than ideal but not impossible. We hope to make it to York, ME today (10 hours) but if the conditions are too rolly or miserable, we'll stop in Gloucester, MA or Isle of Shoals, NH. From those points we'll sail into either S. Freeport or Yarmouth, ME. We want to offload some of Skylark's heavier items before we put her on the hard in Yarmouth, otherwise it's a bear climbing up and down a 10' ladder carrying bundles. We're not sure whether we want to do that in Yarmouth or if it makes better sense to get a mooring ball in S. Freeport before moving on. If money was no object, we would have greater flexibility but we are ever mindful of returning to a life where expenses suddenly mount. It's surprising how quickly that happens and will take some adjusting to on our part.

As of now we are about a month behind "schedule". We have medical appointments lined up and hope they don't have to be cancelled, we are eager to see our niece before she leaves the state for college in the Northwest, we'd hoped to see the kids and friends in NC by early fall and my mother baked a strawberry-rhubarb pie that awaits our arrival. We have other time-sensitive issues to be dealt with and while we're not exactly anxious, we are certainly cognizant of how far behind we are in terms of our expectations. Expectations don't make sense in either the world of sea gypsies or dirt dwellers. It is a sure-fire way to make fools of every one of us.