We begin!

Hello!

This is our first blog entry for our sailing trip. Eventually, this blog will hopefully include Florida and the Bahamas! For now, we are taking things one day at a time.

The past few weeks have been a flurry of activity including major engine repairs and a frustrating experience with a new refrigeration system. Brian spent hours installing the new system, only to later replace the faulty one from the company with a new one. Now it works and we even have ice cream and frozen meat on board. Then, we were briefly delayed on vacation this week because of Brian's consulting job and some last-minute boat projects needed tweaking. It is exciting to finally begin...

We left Newburyport this morning around 8:30am, showered and had breakfast underway. By 10am we arrived at the Annisquam River, and embarked on the twists, turns, and low-clearance bridges awaiting us on the Blynam Canal. There were some tricky moments, but Brian remained calm and we successfully got through to Gloucester. The girls enjoyed their DVD "down below" in the cabin and were mesmerizingly quiet, which helped us to concentrate.

We motor-sailed in sunny weather south for the rest of the day. The girls loved playing with their new puzzles and singing the same songs 100 times. :) The water was beautiful, and Madelyn's imagination was active as always. She exclaimed "Mommy! One of the sparkles on water is swimming towards us! Look! It jumped on my lap! It wants to stay with us on our trip!" Here is a photo...

After calculating tides/currents, we decided not to tackle the Cape Cod Canal today under less than favorable conditions. We will stay tonight in Plymouth. I called all the marinas in Plymouth Harbor, but they were full of Labor Day boaters. So, we anchored in a beautiful area in Cowyard, where the Pilgrims anchored originally.

Tonight we were treated to a handful of local firework shows on shore, as well as a red setting sun followed shortly by a beautiful full red moon. Brian and I were remembering Labor Day 2004, when we charted a boat in the Chesapeake with Erik and Vera and visited Annapolis. We've come a long way since then...

Aimee, Brian, Madelyn and Katja