The Final Leg: Norfolk to Annapolis

Brad
After some great sailing days, gorgeous anchorages and enjoying our last days of buddy-boating with Dorenavent up the Chesapeake, Baila has returned to her home slip.  We are all so thankful for our safe return, but are already feeling nostalgic pangs and wishing this were just another stop along the way.  But, for now at least, we're back and it's time to start de-commissioning (and cleaning) Baila in preparing of our transition back to work, formal schooling, and most importantly some regular personal hygiene.

Though surreal to pull in the sails and motor along Clements Creek to the dock, seeing Nanny and Poppy Falk waving enthusiastically from shore made for a wonderful homecoming!  It seems so recent that we cast off the lines and left for a year of unforeseeable adventure.  To think about all of the places we've been and the people we've met makes our heads spin,  but we know that we are so much richer for these experiences and relationships.  We've learned so much and as mentioned in previous posts the challenge for us is to now fold these lessons and perspectives into our lives back home.  It would be a shame to lose sight after such a year of clarity.  We've had a taste of a simpler life and I want to make sure that we all take something away from it.   Thanks for reading along this year as we've tried to record some of our more memorable experiences- it meant a lot to be able to share our "control-alt-delete year" with our friends and family from afar.

We'll sign off at this point as we tie things up here in Annapolis and also make one final leg (over land) to Hendersonville, NC to see Lynn's grandmother who is turning one hundred and two years old!  She's been an avid blog reader and we are grateful that Lynn's Uncle Henry made such an effort to ensure that she saw and read (many times!) each post.  It means so much to us.

Our best wishes to all of you.

Anna
This trip has been unlike anything I have ever done before. It has been a sad, happy, and exciting experience that I hope to have -- in memories -- for the rest of my life. We have met some amazingly kind and generous people along the way that I will be very upset to leave behind, because they are all like family to us. To be back at our home will be a whole different adventure to us (showers, space, and toilet paper actually allowed in the toilet!), and I look forward to seeing my friends again. Being back is. . . bittersweet. . . and I look forward to finally, after ten months, being able to see friends from Swarthmore and having a non-mobile-house again.  I look forward to future trips on Baila, however long, and feel happy knowing that she is safe at her home in Maryland.

Isabelle
Hi everyone! I can't believe that we are back!!!  I am sitting in an air-conditioned house as Avery munches on frozen marshmallows while watching Paw Patrol.  The year is over but still alive in my memory. It has been great, horrible, fun, scary, annoying, boring, and amazing!  Being back with family is weird. After ten months of being crammed on a 42 foot boat and then running around in our grandparent's house able to stretch out our arms without hitting anyone or anything, and AUTOMATIC FLUSHING is weird because Baila has been our home so its kind of like moving to a new house and leaving your old one behind.  I am happy to say that this year has given us so many chances and experiences that I will NEVER forget and we have met so many wonderful and amazing people that we will stay friends with for the rest of our lives.  I am excited to go back home and see all of my friends and be in our house again but sad to see Baila sitting at the dock looking so sad after she was floating in beautiful water and sailing the ocean.  I can't wait to see you all! Bye! 😀💗💙
   
Avery
"It's not the end.  Because we're going to North Carolina and then back to Swarthmore.  But when we get to Swarthmore, then it's the end.  I met wonderful people this year.  I want to do this trip again when I'm older and Izzy and Anna are in college- and then I'll be the only child!  When we get back to Swarthmore I won't have to worry about weather any more.  By the way the best place in the Bahamas is Rachel's Bubblebath! I filled a plastic bottle with sand and water from there and brought it back home and when I shake it up I have my own mini-Rachel's Bubblebath!  There are so many tiny bubbles.  I miss Walter and can't wait to see him!  Bye Bye!"

Lynn
No one has mentioned that school is over!!!!  Woo Hoo!!!  Anna and Izzy both received positive evaluations for their year of work and should progress into 8th and 6th grades respectively once the school district signs off.  Avery did not have a formal evaluation, but she can read very well, enjoys writing, has a growing list of French vocabulary (get out your wallet Grandpa Herb!) and completed half the year of her 1st grade math curriculum-  so she is well situated to enter 1st grade.  I am really excited to send the kids off to school in the fall and allow professionals to take over their education.   I plan to have a first day of school party  - for me - in the fall!  Also, the girls passed their "boat final exam" that Brad wrote for them.  Let us know if any of you would like to take a stab at it and we can email it to you!

One already common question we are asked is, "Would you do this again?" And our answer is....yes! We are thinking about doing another year when Anna and Izzy are in college and Avery is in middle school.  It would be nice to give Avery another experience to hone the skills that she learned (sailing,  raising and lowering the anchor etc.) and take them to the next level.  Anna and Izzy will hopefully visit us!  One benefit to this would be less sibling squabbles, only one child to homeschool, and all the non-perishable food and large items (like kayaks and bicycles) that we could store in the extra cabin!  I think we would like to cruise the Caribbean with a stop in the Exumas to see that incredible water once again.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, we are still so excited to return home and see all of our friends. Though we are in our home port, Swarthmore is our home and we long to be back at 223 Kenyon Avenue!  But it has been so great to catch up with our friends in Annapolis- the Greeley and Van Gieson families! It's been such a fun reunion.

Because my grandmother is turning 102 years old we decided to take a few days to visit her (and my Uncle Henry) in Hendersonville, NC.   En route we get to catch up with our longtime friends, the Steines family, in Harrisonburg, VA whom we haven't seen for several years!  I also hope to make some trips to the DC area to visit my dear friend Melissa Schettini Kearney and her family before we move back into our home on August 1st.  The girls are also looking forward to a week of sailing camp during the last week of July while Brad and I decommission Baila.   Anna and Izzy will be at Camp Letts, an overnight camp near Annapolis that Brad attended as a boy, and Avery is excited to go to an arts day camp selected by Nanny C.

We are super excited to see Walter, our beloved beagle-lab mix, who definitely enjoyed his year with the Feinbergs.  Thanks again to the the wonderful Feinberg family- there were so many times this year that we said, "thank GOD we don't have the dog!"   It would have been very difficult and we are forever grateful that they took such incredible care of our little guy.  After a year of having his own couch, a constant playmate (Lucy) and a warm loving Feinberg family we hope that he will willingly come back to us!

This is the incredible interactive museum- Nauticus- in Norfolk, VA.  The girls jumped at the chance to virtually dock and drive a boat in this video game.  It's not as if they've lived on a boat for a year and had the chance to do the real thing at any time!

Avery hefting anchor chain on USS Wisconsin (wonderful tour of a recently retired US battleship)

Avery doing some deep sea submersible work:  here she retrieves some unique bouncy balls that only live near the deep sulfur rich sea vents. 

We've been feeling like Baila has a bit of the old "junk in the trunk" when we're sailing in light winds.   We know she is so much heavier after everything we've added and brought along this year, but it was incredible to see her next to the exact same boat that isn't loaded up.  Low Rider!   Along with our blue transom lights, low riding boat and killer sound system, Baila is not a boat to trifle with.  

Anna thought she might be a bit old to go in there

She was

A US submarine passing us in Norfolk.  I thought about calling them on the VHF and asking for a "slow pass,"  but decided against annoying a vessel equipped with nuclear weapons surrounded by armed RIBs

Back on the Chesapeake

Aymeric is such a good kid and tolerates his three "older sisters" dressing him up

It's so beautiful when fronts roll in

Here dorenavent swings about the mooring in Solomons, MD as frontal winds and rain arrive.

Beautiful rainbow over Solomons, MD

This is Calvert Cliffs State Park located near Solomons, MD.  Located on the broad Chesapeake the constant wave erosion offers a glimpse into a Miocene Period (approximately ten million years ago) shallow seabed.  One can usually find petrified sharks teeth and coral- however a few years ago a child found an entire whale skeleton!  It's a really neat place and the kids get really into sifting through the sand prospecting for shark teeth.  We were lucky to have a flat calm day and anchored right off the beach providing easy dinghy access. 

Shark tooth!  

A new beautiful piece by "Wired to the Sea"

It was so hot that the girls asked to shower on the foredeck with the washdown hose.  They normally do not electively bathe

She's a climber.. 

Tuckered out in her favorite spot

July 4th in Oxford, MD.  We could see the fireworks from the boat which was great.  It was also nice to catch up with the Ranson family from Wallingford who have a house here in Oxford. 

St. Michaels, MD.  Aymeric, the future spokesperson for La Leche League

Homestretch:  Avery steers Baila toward Clements Creek

It was so surreal to be in such a familiar area after a year of everything unfamiliar and new.  Sad, but also a big sigh of relief for the safe return

Girls getting excited to see the dock

Final approach to the Falk dock

And.... done.  Here Baila is docked with dorenavent out on the mooring

Terra both firma AND familiar!

Back in December when we met up with the Pickup family (friends from home) in Boca Raton.  They thoughtfully gave us this Japanese 'Daruma' doll that (once we colored in one of its eyes) watched over and protected us during our year's travels.  Following instructions, once we returned to Annapolis we all colored in the second eye, thereby completing our voyage and celebrating our safe return home.  Thank you Pickups and thank you Daruma-San!