This was originally going to be my departure date. I love numbers and math and there was something appealing about leaving on 11/11. But the marine forecast and my list of "to do" items made it impractical. I've spent much of the time since returning from the Lauderdale Boat Show trying to get everything ready to run South. It's Spring commissioning all over again for the start of the Winter season. Paint bottom, paint outdrives, wax whole boat, change oil and drive fluid, change zincs. Long cold days trying to get it all perfect. My trim senders also needed replacement and some 4 hours of work to do it. Installing a dinghy davit system on the swim platform and new Formula pop-up cleats on the swim platform were the final tasks and completed the afternoon before departure. The boat was relaunched and towed to the fuel dock (no fuel in it). No time for trials to make sure everything was working, we'd find out underway but I had faith that it was all done right.
Making Waves singer/songwriter and friend Tad Jones arrived in the afternoon and was quickly put to work taking things off the boat or putting things on. In the final light of the day, the dinghy was put in it's new davit system. The systems is designed for easy launch and retrieval... easy launch seemed to be the operative statement. It was so easy to launch that we feared it would launch itself during the trip. You can see the system at http://hurleymarine.com/. A series of tie-down straps and some lashing seemed to resolve it. Tad stated that it would have been nice to try the system out underway briefly before a long cruise. Yes, that would have been nice. Tad will be helping for the first 4 days and some of the longest days of running. The plan is to get from Rock Hall to Myrtle Beach (530 miles) so that Tad could fly out of Myrtle Beach next Tuesday morning.
A final meal at Harbor Shack and then more off-loading of non-essential "stuff". The only thing that wasn't going to get done, provisioning. Thankfully, I had water and Coke and Tad brought some snack items for us so provisioning would have to wait until a future stop.
Some how, my night turned in to 2am before final going to sleep. Not exactly the good-nights rest I planned to get before running 175+ miles on day one, but the endurance element as a certain appeal to me anyway.
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