Yesterday our shore power cord shorted out, blowing the dock breaker. The cord was ancient, so it was off to West Marine for one more expensive item. We have to leave the dock so that we can stop spending money!

I'm looking forward to being underway. We'll likely be motoring all the way down the Bay, but there appears to be 10-15 knots of SW breeze waiting for us on the ocean. On the outbound trip there will be a new moon, so we should see lot's of stars. On our return leg, we'll have a full moon... less stars, but we can see the waves at night.

We set sail Saturday at noon. The forecast is for light south winds on Saturday and Sunday, so it looks like we'll make our first leg to Norfolk under motor. We're hoping that the winds will remain from the south for our Gulfstream crossing. The Gulfstream current moves from southwest to northeast and having the current and wind moving in the same direction makes the waves smoother. If the wind shifts to the north, which often occurs when a front passes by, then the seas will be choppier.

Our first update underway will be on Sunday the 29th, when we should be closing on Norfolk. Then we will continue to maintain a radio schedule each morning at 8:00 AM until we arrive in Bermuda.

Tally ho!

The rental EPIRB arrived today. This is one the most important pieces of equipment on the boat. EPIRB stands for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. This thing transmits a mayday signal to a satellite which is then forwarded to the Coast Guard with position info accurate to within a couple of miles. It's great to have this connection to shore-based help. (Hopefully, we'll never need it!)

This weekend we completed everything on our to-do list. New halyards are reeved, the dinghy is on board, lot's of geared was stowed, etc. While I was up the mast I found a number of cotterpins that the riggers had left untaped, so I wrapped all of them. One exposed cotterpin can easily tear a sail, so the trip up the mast was very worthwhile. At the top I also lubricated the top bearing for the mainsail furler with heavy grease. Thanks to Eric and Beck for coming over and hoisting me up.

We had a major shopping expedition for food today, to be followed by some more shopping later this week. One more week of work and then we are off!

We attempted to speak with Mary Ann on the SSB on Friday. She's in Charleston at the moment. The sky conditions where poor, probably due to the bad weather we have been experiencing, so we were unable to hear each other. Suzan doesn't really believe that our radio works... We've changed our schedule to talk to Mary Ann at 8:00 AM each morning, hoping for better propagation.

Suzan's friend Carol and her husband Ken came by Friday evening to share their Bermuda experiences with us. They gave us lots of good info about anchorages, where to snorkel, and where to find groceries and services. We greatly appreciate their insights.

OK, it looks like Robin is in, and I notice that Jim has his account set up also. We should have good communications for the trip.

Tonight we have a radio schedule with Mary Ann to verify that our SSB is still working after reconfiguring the backstay. For those of you who are curious, the backstay is the wire that supports the mast from the back of the boat. This support can also serve as an antenna by inserting two insulators inline to isolate part of the run. Then the radio output is attached to the isolated portion of the backstay.

The insurance company has given us the green light for our trip today. One more checkmark on the pre-departure checklist...

I picked up 2 new halyards at West Marine this evening. Fresh hardware is a beautiful thing! Saturday Eric and I will run the new halyards, and I'll go up the mast to lube the top bearing of the mainsail furler, replace a missing screw from the spreader lights, and make one final check of the rig. Then we'll roll up the dinghy and get it aboard.

After Saturday we should be able to concentrate on water, food, and clothes. Suzan is working on the provisions and the medical kit and plans to do some shopping. I suppose I should bring some Bermuda shorts. Seems appropriate...

Mary Ann and Richard and Jim have volunteered to help us with our communications while we are at sea. Mary Ann and Richard have a SSB radio aboard their boat, and will keep a radio schedule with us each day, at 9:00 PM EDT starting on the 28th of June. They have an email-only connection, so they will email our position reports to our friend Jim in Indiana. Jim will post our position on this site. The SSB radio is capable of communicating over long distances (thousands of miles) but it's reliability is affected by the ionosphere, so don't be alarmed if we are unable to communicate on some days. It's a bit of a Rube Goldberg contraption, so it will be interesting to see how well this works. Stay tuned...

My sister Robin is also able to update this site and she is our primary point of contact for our EPIRB, so she'll post here as we contact her when departing and arriving in port.

It's been a productive weekend. We got the water tanks sanitized, I accomplished some electrical upgrades, the bimini is rigged and we took off a bunch of unnecessary gear. There never seems to be enough space for storage when you start looking at where you are going to stow things. We need to find places to store 3 weeks of provisions...

There are just 2 more weekends to spend preparing. This weekend I'll focus on putting up the bimini, getting fuel aboard for the outboard, doing some minor electrical work, and getting the mainsail outhaul to work a little better. Suzan is focusing on chlorinating the water tanks to make sure they are sanitary, and starting to provision with the items that don't need to be fresh. It's time to run through our lists and make sure we haven't forgotten anything important!

So, while the rig work was underway, I had to remove the man-overboard pole and mount and, so I decided to take the man-overboard pole home for repainting. It took some time to complete, as the rain prevented painting on most days, but after several weeks I had a nice, freshly painted pole. While I was re-attaching the mount to the backstay, I dropped my screwdriver to the deck, which bounced up and over the side and into the water. OK, so I lost a screwdriver. I went down below to find another screwdriver and I thought about the fact that I'd never put the man-overboard pole in the water. It's been sitting on deck since I bought the boat 6 years ago and I've never tried it. So, back on deck I took the pole and gradually lowered it into the water. At the halfway point, it's still not floating by itself, so I continue lowering. I went a little too fast and lost my grip and it just kept going down, and down, until it disappeared. So, our man-overboard pole doesn't float...

The rig work is complete, except for replacing a couple of halyards. Eric will come over weekend after next and help me run the new halyards and go up the rig for a final checkout. We had a good day with the crew yesterday, went over all of the boat safety equipment, and sailed for a few hours to checkout the new mainsail. We practiced man-overboard drills for a couple of hours... The crew was Andrew, Eveleen, Eric, Beck, Suzan, and me.

Now, it's time for final preparations. We have to get the final release from the insurance company and start putting aboard supplies, rig the bimini, get the dinghy aboard, etc. It's almost time to go!

I checked on the boat yesterday evening and it appears that the rig work is nearly complete. The rigger informed me this morning of several additional parts that need to be replaced on the roller furler, and also indicated that all of the halyards should be replaced. One more thing to worry about...

Talked with the rigger and he says that the work is underway today. We should have the boat put together in time for the weekend. Just in time for our shakedown sail on Sunday! The new mainsail is onboard also...