Let's see, since February we rehabbed our rental townhome, found some super tenants, prepared for and delivered a fantastic wedding for Laura and Norm, baby sat Jake and Dylan umpteen times, joined the ranks of Medicare citizens, bought gold, sold long term bonds, drove to Virginia to visit our ailing Uncle, drove to Florida to visit Mom and another Uncle AND to see LUCKY BIRD, yipeee!!

She looks great; the diesel engine started right up, no water in her bilge, no leaks, no rust, no chaffing on the mooring lines. We inflated the dinghy, launched it, mounted the outboard and gave it a pull. IT STARTED, Holy Cow, WOW are we on a roll or what?? But....

Two months sitting still in warm waters does create one sort of expected problem.....growth on the bottom. As we approached her at first she looked as though the Very expensive bottom paint had done it job but, as we got closer OMG, that's Goodness, ha ha!, the grass length was as if she hadn't had a hair cut in months, well she hadn't right? So we'll have to hire a diver to scrub the bottom before we head off.

I was hoping that being shut down for two months wouldn't create problems for us and my sense is our preparations before leaving paid off. I tested the electronics and everything worked, what was really pleasing was there was not a drop of water anywhere.

Most sailors have to live with a small amounts of water sloshing around in the bilge and it gets kind of knarly after a while what with oil residue, diesel fuels spills, bacteria growth and what not. So finding only dust was gratifying and reassuring.

So we'll start reloading, replenishing and spiffing her up for a targeted April 22 start. This part of the journey will take us up the US coast back into the Chesapeake where we want to blend into the history of the area. So much of America's development has occurred there we really want to feel it. Then we'll continue back to New England and fall in love once again with the islands off the coast. You know, Block Island, the Elisabeth Islands, Mathas Vineyard, Cape Cod and Nantucket. And finally, time and weather permitting we'll sail to Maine and re-explore the coastline we've cruised and enjoyed so many times.

We drove from Virginia to Stuart in some 16 hours, making the return trip with Lucky Bird may take several weeks unless we go outside and boogie along with a couple of overnight trips after all we sailed from Hampton, VA to Tortola, BVI in just under tens days so we could make it back to Hampton in much shorter time but wait... we're cruising now so what's the hurry anyway?

Thanks for all the positive feed back from readers. I'm amazed and flattered. We're having a great time and we know we are blessed.

Cheers,