And....we are off! Pushing off from the docks in Jamestown, Rhode Island was a great feeling after all the months of planning, to-do lists, trips to marine stores, Home Depot, etc!
We managed to make tons of mistakes yesterday and still have a really good time. Our first mistake was taking off so late - more about that later. Understandably, we had two carloads of last-minute "stuff" to load on the boat. For a more complete definition of "stuff" please see let George Carlin explain, but you'll need to wait until the six-minute mark. Ok - so we needed to add on the exercise weights because those couldn't go on the day before. We needed to add on the clothes from the laundry, our toothbrushes, and obviously the food - you get the point.
We did manage to get almost everything stowed away and after a very nice sendoff from Jim Wharton, who managed to elbow through the throng of well-wishers, we pulled away from the dock at about 11:30.
That's our white America's Great Loop Cruising Association burgee - signifying that we are rookies.
Leaving late meant that we were headed into some pretty serious seas. There was plenty of wind from the south leftover from a nice thunderstorm the night before, and when it married up with the full ebb tide around Castle Hill we were looking at some 6-8 foot waves with a very short period. That's not a lot of fun in almost any cruising boat, and Egret is a semi-displacement hull designed to plane on top of the water not plow through it. At any rate, the first couple of hours were "a bit rocky." Another mistake - we didn't put the covers on the clean cushions in the stern which meant that they were soaked with saltwater in the first ten minutes of the trip. We didn't put Chrisy's shoes away - one fell into Millie's water bowl and spilled water all over. After rounding Point Judith the seas moderated "a bit" and we were able to bump up to 10-12 knots, but not without some discussion - Chrisy obviously wanted to stay in the 9-10 knot range. Violating another maxim, "Happy wife happy life," Roger kept on charging at the 10-12 knot range. Once we got in the lea of Fisher's Island - after a brief discussion - we were able to bump it up to 15.
We pulled into the Niantic River around 3:30 and were greeted by our good friends Steve and Margot at their wonderful house.
Millie Update: maybe we should have given Millie a melatonin because she was not a fan of the rough beginning, but she was a champ and settled in pretty well.
We are off in our tiny home, and our adventure has begun. Thanks to Steve and Margot for hosting us on our first night and maybe we'll see you in a year on our last night.
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