The trip up to Herrington Harbor North at Tracy’s Landing was a rather short four hours. Along the way we reached the 3,000 nm mark, about 3,450 statute or land miles. The big excitement of the day was retrieving Bonny from her outside winter “home” at Skinners Turn Storage, just a 10 mile uber trip away. She looked good and started right up after Russ re-connected the batteries. A bit musty but hey that will dissipate.

Packages awaited us at the marina office where we confirmed a week’s stay (at least) and got a pool pass (can you believe it went unused?) Haha

I’d been waiting with very high expectations for these new babies ever since Russ attended an electrical/solar/battery talk on Volleyball Beach in George Town, Bahamas. These replaced the not-very-old AGM dudes. The Trojans are designed for constant and deep discharging. Since we rely on our batteries to keep two or three fridge/freezers running all night, these new ones can handle discharging down to 12.3 (or lower) and still come back swinging full force. Life on the hook just got a positive boost. Leave it to a Trojan to provide great protection, right?

So we are sitting at the salon table, I look up to see a boat about to kiss our exposed starboard side- what the? Turns out they had engine troubles, no power and so we helped them tie up around the corner. Weekend outings are so precious; we remember those times.

Time got carved out for a short drive down to Herrington Harbor South where Don on s/v Blue Dancer now had a slip. We’d met him during our stay last Sept/Oct. He headed south but due to circumstances never got farther than Swan Point Marina in NC where we last saw him, preparing to be hauled out then fly home to Hawaii. A genuine, really nice man who loves to sail and I am certain is an excellent sailor. (maybe he and Patti should meet!) A lovely evening and my first Mojito in a long time. (thanks for planting the idea Benj)

The dreaded day arrived. No, not leaving the marina. The day we’d spend 15 hours away from Twins driving Ms Bonny to Connecticut and shelling out $67 in tolls for the pleasure of the shortest (fastest?) route on I95 and the NJ Turnpike. All in all the trip was good. Our EZPass is a life saver. We stopped at Tweed New Haven Airport for the Hertz (best price) car we’d drive back to MD, grabbed a delicious fast lunch at Lobster Landing (you should all be drooling and very jealous now), picked up our mail, dropped off Bonny, and back we went. Oh, I should mention that a HUGE mass of rain and thunder storms was headed east. PA got it bad but location and timing was our friend today and only had some light rain a couple of times on the way back. Whew, I was very glad we dodged that.

Google saved us a 90 minute delay on I95 before the GW, routing us on the Hutchinson and Saw Mill Parkways. The bridge seemed half empty, mostly due to the backup, we figured.

Finding a place for dinner is my challenging job. Was easier in pre-smartphone days when you almost had to stop at a service plaza or take a chance on some exit. I used a couple of different methods to find a place not too far off the interstate where we could wait out any commuting traffic slowdowns. Thanks for the help honey.

Texas Roadhouse came out on top and while 6 miles off the interstate, we just knew we’d be pleased. Oh ya babe, sure were. Only our third time ever in a TR; each time the entire experience has been delightful. You know how often the first time can be so great and then the next is so-so. Not so at TR and since this was our first time at this particular one, they lavished extra attention upon us. But not so hovering that we couldn’t stand it.

Inside that rounded dome thing that sat forward of the solar panels is a mini 360 degree directional dish that moves to find the station you want- or some such nonsense. You have to subscribe to DIRECTV in order to watch anything. I will spare you the LONG story on this but we tried it for a 3-day trial last Oct, and for a whole bunch of reasons, decided it wasn’t for us.

A few days before arriving at Herrington, Russ placed it on ebay along with the box and wiring, making sure that the darn thing still worked. yes it did. He listed it for pickup only and at the end of the auction- SOLD to a local guy who came when he said he would and took it off our hands. Weight off the boat is a good thing; so too is $$ in our PayPal account.

 

For many days the June 10 forecast promised 5-10, but from the north so we said, OK we need to get moving, we’ll do it; how bad can it be? Saturday looked much better and after a short day we’d be nestled in at Delaware City Marina, hunkered down for 3 nights.

Lots of possibilities here, as we enter the home stretch; Essex/Deep River CT only 375 nm away.