You’d think we’d done the moving dance enough times to know the process is lengthy, agonizing and always involves acquisitions as well as disposals. But boy this getting prepped process has moved along at a sailing snail’s pace! So much needed to be researched, double-checked and ordered (mostly) or bought locally; it consumed nearly half our time. And since my role as support staff, chief cook and bottle washer was limited; no electrician am I; the gargantuan portion fell to Captain Russ. Nary a complaint though. 🙂

The motorhome and related accessories, like the RVi Brake, zero-gravity lounge chairs :-(, grill, road atlas all sold. Annie’s new owners have a bucket list that includes all the National Parks, so she will travel farther and wider than with us!

We needed to replace my vintage iPhone 3 and I was happy to get Russ’s hand-me-down 5 while he acquired a 6S at the Apple store.  Too hard to come by at AT&T stores. The young man at the store got his first look at a vintage 3; we all had a good chuckle. Look at the  changes since my iPhone3 in 2010.

We attended the Annapolis Sailboat show, not because we are sailors at heart but because the sailboat show is the weekend before the Powerboat show and we needed to shop sooner than later. We even made a brief appearance at the Power Boat Show’s VIP day to look at and purchase our new dinghy because the only “floor” model of the one we wanted was at the show.

Faith clued us in to the famous “chicken roost” delly, but while the name sounds like that it’s actually Chick and Ruth’s. Isn’t that cute?

All the flybridge compartments needed a thorough cleaning before Russ could organize them and then remove the icemaker which was being replaced by an Engel fridge.  Yes, we are making up for that faux Engel mistake.

The hallway in front of the dinette that runs across the salon is a narrow 19” wide but long at 96” and nary an off-the-shelf rug was that narrow. But all is available at this huge boat show and we came across “Welcome Aboard” who would make us the exact size rug we needed using quality materials and a non-skid backing :-). Well done and on time, sent all the way from California. Love it.

However, the rug ended up costing us far more than its $200 price tag. Funny how casual words can beget a major experience. We had bought a new anchor at the show; a Rocna like on Ms Ortolan only smaller. Somehow this fact came up as we finalized our rug order about one hour before the show ended. Oh yes, the Rocna is very good, but oh the Ultra is far superior…. and we got the full low-down. Off we went then in search of the vendor’s booth; we looked we talked we pondered we made an offer we accepted theirs we closed down the show, driving off with a 46lb shiny stainless steel Ultra anchor, state-of-the-art self-righting anchor swivel and a yacht-y Sovereign Australian grill with stand! The jury is still out on the quality of our decision so we’ll keep you posted… if we ever leave the slip and get to use either one!

Our minimalist social life included happy hour aboard m/v Traveling Soul where sweet Spot (a Bengal) reins as queen 🙂 She’s got Ann and Mike well-trained (they think it’s the other way) and they dote on her; easy to see why. Traveling Soul is a gorgeous 52′ Jefferson, so the living room looks a lot like a “regular” one.

Faith and Dan came down to see our new ‘cat’illac. We last saw them in Annapolis on our first trip south aboard Ortolan. (here’s a link to that post) Time, however short with both couples, was quality and we especially enjoy being with like-minded folk.
Nearly every single undertaking took longer than it should have; some tormented us for weeks but eventually persistence and brains won out over clever trouble gremlins!

One required venture out was a very quick trip to CT to register Twins, the dinghy, and donate way too much to the State’s coffers. But we also had to bring stuff (a very stuffed full MINI) to storage and pick up our mail. Fortunately time was available for a stop at our favorite local donut shop, Beach Donuts. 🙂

Finally, m/v Twin Sisters became a proper motor yacht (did you know that across the pond, the term isn’t boat, it’s yacht?).

 

We love our new dinghy; has an outboard one step up from what we had before. Plus the smaller gas tank sits in the bow locker out-of-the-way. More about her in a future post.

 

So here we are, the day prior to departure. Too pooped party but we raise our glass to all those who are living their dream and pursuing their passions.  We are (even me) eager to cast off and begin our ICW adventures and more.

You may recall how much I loved the part of ICW cruising called “Dances with Bridges.” Twins (seems like a good nickname) has an air draft of 26ft; 18ft with the antenna down and even less if we could lower the mast but we can’t, well not easily anyway. We’ll be able to scoot under many opening bridges; a few will require we lower the antenna but that is easy to do.