Lou polishing the sides.
Our first "home" in Rhode Island.
Leaving Boyne City with the "stuff" we will need on the boat.Every sailing trip begins somewhere looking something like this. Sailors pride themselves on living with the bare necessities.....but look how much space it takes. We tried loading the ladders on the top and everything else inside the van. We got it all in, but the real problem was that the shocks were strained to the max with the weight of the 5 batteries plus, plus, plus. And, besides the ladders would have "whistled" all the way to Rhode Island. So, we repacked in the little trailer.
Here are a few early stats: 2009 trip referred to as THEN and 2010 trip referred to as NOW.
THEN it took 9 days to travel on the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany. NOW we drove the same distance in 4 1/2 hours.
THEN we caught sight of cars only a few times. NOW we smiled every time we caught sight of the canal.
THEN we stopped in Amsterdam, NY, walked up the hill to a very nice restaurant, and met the State's US Congressman. NOW we drove around Amsterdam 30 minutes before settling on a factory type seedy bar in a rough part of town. The factories were closed and all the windows were broken. Much to our surprise the Parillo Armory Grill was a quaint Italian restaurant with Tiffany lamps and antiques everywhere.
THEN we traveled about 1200 miles by boat from Charlevoix to Bristol, RI, in 10 weeks. NOW we drove about 995 miles in 2 days from Point A to Point B.
The picture of the tent is our "hotel." We'll be in Bristol for about 2 weeks before Tequila gets launched. We haven't tent camped for 43 years and had to borrow a tent from Lisa and Don. We can now say that we have been initiated into tent camping in a rustic area.......the first night we were cold and the second night we slept through a torrential rain storm but stayed dry. (The bag under us and on top of us got a little damp.) It rained so hard it sounded like we were in the pit with the orchestra/band playing all around us. Occasionally the percussion section would have a solo and the volume would increase. We remedied the "being cold" problem by buying new sleeping bags. We think the old red ones were about 40 years old so it was time to upgrade. We were in the new bags with lights out at 8:40 p.m.
The reason we came to Bristol early was to have time to do "work" on the boat. There is always "WORK" to be done on a boat. :-) The picture shows the old guy polishing the sides. Last year Matt helped us do this, and we both liked him doing this chore better than us doing it. I say "we" because every project needs a straw boss and that's my job.
So the adventure for 2010 has begun. Once we have dried out the sleeping bags we can only hope for good weather. Special thanks to Charlee for her phone conversations about sailing in Maine waters and Bill Murray for being on "stand-by" for computer advise. Please excuse any grammatical or spelling errors. Sometimes I don't know the difference and sometimes it's a typo. Either way, please read between the lines.
