We have untied Hawk's dock lines a day ahead of schedule. Anyone who knows Evans will not be surprised at that!

She is currently anchored up Cypress Creek, right off the little family boat yard where we installed the interior and systems so many years ago.

The forecast is for northerly winds for the week, so we will hang out here for a while and read and putter about.

Our day one list while at anchor, to convert the boat from coastal cruising to 'serious cruising' was:

1. Inspect all the shackles on deck and make sure they are all tight and wire tied shut. There is a lot of vibration on passage and shackles can/do vibrate open. The plastic wire ties will degrade by UV so need to be inspected periodically. I use monal wire on the few we never ever move, but most of them we do occasional move so I use the plastic ties on those.

2. 'Deep Stow" most of the fenders and dock lines, while bringing out of 'deep stow' the drogues and drysuit (which is my regular foul weather gear on passage).

3. Fill the main fuel and water tanks. Costal cruising we mostly operate off just the fuel day tank and a couple water jugs - too keep the boat light and not have any fuel or water go bad. But for real cruising we put a ton of fuel and a ton of water in the main tanks.

4. Put out the short fixed tethers - cow hitched to padeyes at the helm, mast, inner stay, and head stay. These are just long enough to allow us to work those areas but no longer, so they are not long enough to let us over the side even if the boat rolls (which is not true of the more typical jackline and longer tether systems). They are also always in place, so we can clip in even if we have forgotten to bring a tether with us.