I think I have mentioned the no good, very bad stain that a previous owner put on top of our mahogany interior.  After much advise to just paint it white, Mark and I decided to try and save it.  We are contrary like that.  We couldn't make it any worse and could always resort to paint if we wanted to.   The v-berth and the quarter berth still had the original finish so thankfully we didn't have to worry about all of the wood slats that line the hull interior.  The mad re-finisher (Mark uses bad names to describe this person) was also too lazy to stain behind the cushions.  As my girls would say, so there's that.

The plan was to strip everything and refinish using a wipe on polyurethane.  Sounds good.

September 13, 2014
We set our anchor and thought we were done for the night.  When our friends arrived we rafted up to their Shannon 51.  No problem we'll pull up our anchor while the Shannon holds our place and set their anchor.  Mark went up front and tried to pull in our anchor- no good.  He did it  that morning without issue.  I went up to help and the two of us couldn't do it.  What's up?  Try again while our friend, an experienced sailor, holds position directly over our anchor.  Remember that our modest 9,000 lb. boat is rafted to his 60,000 lb. yacht.  Our poor cleats!  

On the next attempt I saw another anchor hanging from our anchor.  WTF?  And it was bigger than ours.  I won't go into the cursing and attempts to lift both.  I'll skip to the solution.  Earl had a hook and a line that we used to catch the other anchor chain and transferred the weight to the Shannon.  We finally got ours on board and set his anchor.  We used his windlass to raise the found anchor and 88 feet of chain.  

Lesson: Be ready for anything and the first solution doesn't always work.

September 13, 2014
After a slow start and almost dropping our jib into the Chesapeake, we had a long slog (is that a real word?) up to the Little Choptank.  No wind to speak of, a drizzle that wasn't in the forecast, and biting flies, made for less than ideal trip.  And yet, we were smiling the whole time.  We had a boat.  We were on our very own boat. 

We motored for eight hours with our mighty one cylinder diesel.  Engine is loud and lumpy sounding but we got there.  One Day's autopilot was called into service and much appreciated.  This was not on our list of things we wanted or thought we needed.  Holy mackerel!  What a difference it makes to just keep watch without trying to hold a course for hours at a time. 

The weather cleared just in time for us to drop our anchor in Hudson Creek.   A good day's work.  The next day we were set up for an easier trip to Deale, MD One Day's new home.  Friends were meeting us for the evening what could go wrong?

September 12, 2014 
We packed and planned as if this was a grand expedition instead of a two night trip.  We re-purposed some old camping gear and stocked up from the dollar store.  A friend drove with us down to Kinsale, VA (2.5 hours) and drove our car to the new marina in Deale, MD (thanks Jermaine).  

After cleaning and stowing we were ready to shove off.  Mark got us to the fuel dock where we didn't need any more diesel.  We have no gauge so better safe than sorry.  

Day one was crossing the Potomac from Kinsale to Point Lookout.  We never raised the sails and the trip was uneventful.  Just what we needed.  We were both pretty nervous.  This was our fist trip without adult supervision.  


We ate dinner as the sun went down.  Life is good.