At 8:30 this morning, we pulled out of our slip at Port Annapolis Marina searching for warmer weather and clearer water. It’ll be a little while before we find those, but the trek southward has begun.

We arrived back in Annapolis from my work excursion in Maine on Wednesday.

On the seashore of southern Maine, near Old Orchard Beach

Brrrr!

A little jazz at Blue in Portland

Thursday was a mixed day of recuperation from our time in Maine and preparation for our journeys onward.

Thursday morning Rainbow.

The Mystic Whaler, a 106′ Schooner which was one dock over from Beatitude when we returned to Annapolis.

Replacing the wifi booster/extender we destroyed on our rough passage from Newport to Martha’s Vineyard. All is well once again with the wifi world.

Friday and Saturday was spent at the largest and oldest in-water sailboat show in the world, the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis. It’s always a pleasure to step aboard the huge number of sailboats and see the latest and greatest in sailboats. There is also tent after tent filled with vendors selling their marine and boat-related wares. We made a few small purchases, like dock-lines and boat-hooks, and one large purchase, a life-raft. We’ve had a coastal 6-person life raft since we’ve bought the boat, but it has not been serviced in a long while and is really not adequate for the kind of passage-making we’re anticipating. So, we bought a new 6-person Offshore life-raft that we hope we never have to use. It’s a huge expense into which I hated to put the money, but having adequate safety equipment is the right thing to do. Besides spending money, Cindy and I also enjoyed sitting in on free seminars given by some of the most well-known and experienced cruisers.

Cindy sitting on the bow of this cool Neel Trimaran.

A very cool piece of equipment that we hope we wasted money on.

The famous Don Street sharing his thoughts on great places to go in the Eastern Caribbean.

The famous Lin Pardey, sitting on the left, imparting her wisdom on sailing in the South Pacific

So, it has been a busy three days back in Annapolis prior to today. We are both excited to be moving southward again. It is already way too cold for my tropical blood in the north. Our plan is to sail all day today and overnight tonight, not stopping until tomorrow night somewhere along the Dismal Swamp Canal in North Carolina. If all goes well, that’s what will happen. The weather looks perfect for the next 36 hours (although the winds will be light, entailing motoring for much of the time). At some point within the next two weeks, we hope to sail into Charleston, where we will once again visit with our friends, the Argabrights, for a few days and then leave the boat for a week while I work for a few days. Upon returning from my week of work, we hope to make a bee-line for Miami, which will be our jumping off point to the Bahamas. Barring any large, unforeseen complications, we hope to be back in the crystal clear waters of the Bahamas within six weeks. Wish us well!

Selfie at one of the seminars at the Sailboat Show.

Selfie at the Federal House, where I watched my Georgia Bulldogs play poorly and lose for the second week in a row.