SV-Baila: We're outta here!

(Brad)

Apologies for the hiatus (or perhaps condolences for the resumption!). It's just that it was increasingly lame to write about something we hadn't actually started. But that changed at precisely 0913 hrs on Sunday 9/25/16 when we finally cast off and left for our year aboard Baila. It was surreal. Years of thinking about this preceded thirteen months of active (and obsessive) planning. The moment was actually upon us; the boat that we purchased in 2013 with this voyage in mind was finally taking us away to begin what was previously the mere fodder of our daydreams.

This last final stage was surprisingly the most challenging. Though the major projects were already done (installing the desalinator/watermaker, solar panels etc.), myriad smaller yet equally time consuming projects awaited us. Supplies acquisition, organization, clearing out and then reorganizing- all the while starting the school year on the boat with the girls proved to be a tricky balance!

So many thanks to the multitude of people who made this easier for us. A huge thanks to my parents who allowed us to invite ourselves into their home for the past few weeks while we completed these final steps. My mom became the art and language-arts teacher with the girls while my dad kept chugging along with me on various boat projects. They tolerated a tremendous amount of mess, chaos and unnatural volume emanating from our little family. Likewise we owe many thanks to Lynn's folks for housing Lynn and the girls in Vermont while I finished up work. In fact, they helped Lynn sew some donated sunbrella (thanks Elliot!) to make covers for our spare fuel jerry cans.

Some sad news: we decided against bringing Walter. He's great on our short cruises aboard Baila. But after sage advice from experienced cruising friends plus a timely offer from our amazingly generous and helpful friends to take him for the year (the Feinberg family in Swarthmore where Walter's best doggy friend Lucy also lives!), we decided that this is actually best for him. We miss him terribly, but after just face-timing we can see that he is very happy there and getting lots of love. Apparently he's gotten into a bag (or 2) of Lucy's food resulting in his living up to his namesake, "Walter the farting dog" (it's a kid's book- great read, suspenseful with a real twist at the end).

After a nice trip down from Annapolis to Solomon's MD yesterday we are tucked in at anchor. Last night we dinghied into town to get ice cream for the girls. Entry #1 on the trip budget spreadsheet!

We've done this exact trip many times before, only this time the difference is that we're just going to keep going.

Also- It's official-- I finally got my USCG merchant mariner license in the mail the day before we left! It's called the "six pack" or "OUPV" (I'm down w OUPV yeah you know me). Took forever and totally unnecessary (it was an option to keep going for it once I finished by captains course) but now I can become a stevedore in a shipyard and join a union.

Hope everyone is doing well! Here's Lynn.

(Lynn)

I would like to add that I didn't have the usual first-day-unease down below (under deck). I was happy to be able to prepare lunch (only I know where all the food is because it is strategically packed in about 7 different storage areas) without loosing my appetite. I also took a nap, filed my nails (taught Avery too), started a new book and relaxed. We did have a few blips in our otherwise perfect day: we had trouble pulling out the mainsail- after I worked to keep the boat into the wind Brad diagnosed a sticky boom car that needs some attention. We were able to get the sail out once this was identified and get some sailing in. On the sail down it became apparent that we will have an "electronics-issue." Usually when we're on Baila we're on vacation and the girls get wide electronic device leeway. But this is real life now and just like school they will have strict rules about gizmo use. Anna devised a system for "device checkouts" where they're kept in a bin and they sign them out for their allowed time. One other first-day-issue was our anchor light. On our way back to Baila after our ice cream jaunt, we could not see our anchor light which sits atop of the mast and should be visible for 3 nautical miles all around. Thankfully we left our blue lights under the solar panels on so we were very visible. The anchor light was visible from all angles except from directly behind (astern of) the boat. We realized that bulky mast-top TV antenna that came on the boat blocks the view of the (recently installed but shorter than the original) anchor light from astern. I sense a project on the horizon! I'll have to haul him up the mast. But for now we're safe and VERY visible from behind at night-- imagine that back of a boat lit up in a faint blue smurf-like glow.

Also, we were not freezing last night as the temps dipped into the 50s. All in all, it was a perfect first day and start to our trip.

Random pictures:

A room in the Nanny/Poppy Falk house that is normally totally clean and devoid of Brad Falk-family mess. That is, until we descended with a year's worth of stuff

All of our clothes are in hammocks leaving drawers and shelves for important stuff. We will include some shots in the next post showing how between bungee cord, gear hammocks and cargo netting our boat looks like a spiderweb! The goal is for everything to be soundly secured, and (maybe) I went a bit overboard.

Some last minute work on the arch

Lynn's handiwork-- covers for our spare fuel jerrycans

Lynn sewing-she's gotten very good at it and I'm sorry we won't have a machine aboard!

We preserved our primary storage by putting stuff in bizarre places- here loads of various items are double bagged and then placed under the floor boards in the forward cabin. There are little hide-holes all over the boat where things can be stashed. The trick is remembering what stuff is stashed where. We have a massive spreadsheet entitled "stuff in weird places" to keep track of it.