Day 1 - last minute details before shoving off

Day 1 complete! 

We headed to the boat Friday morning with the last of the clothes and food.  I headed up the mast to replace both the anchor light and the steaming light bulbs. 
Success with the swap outs (the right bulb this time!) but the lights still don't work.  Apparently we have a short/bad connection/corrosion somewhere.  We will have to figure that out sooner or later.  In the meantime, we just hoist up our temporary anchor light.

We stowed everything away - and lemme tell ya, cramming cold weather gear AND summer clothes into one 3 sq ft closet each is a task in itself.  But we got all the food and gear put away, all the loose items stowed (you don't want things flying around down below when you're rocking around in the ocean), checked the weather again and went to bed early so we could shove off first thing in the morning to beat the rain.

We got up around 6:30a on Sat, scarfed down some breakfast and coffee and went up to start the engine and shove off into the beautiful, calm morning.  Too bad the engine wouldn't start...  Which is a good thing in the grand scheme.  It was relatively easy to drive around town (3 stores) and find the proper marine battery.  I just thought the battery for my 15 year old car was expensive.  Apparently our marine battery is lined with gold, per the price tag.  But it's a fairly crucial component to sailing, and we do still have jobs to pay for things like this, after all - so a shiny new starter battery was installed and we finally headed out. 

People complain about Wassaw sound due to the craziness of the channel, but it's our port to the ocean, so we're familiar with it.  We shot on thru and into the Atlantic around 11am-ish.  That's when the fun began.  It was cloudy and drizzly and cold.  And we ended up with 5ft seas at about a 3-4 second interval - just enough to have the nose of the boat ride up the wave,  hover over the crest and swoop down the back side, then start over.  My stomach was not loving it.  I'm prone to nausea when I'm down below cooking (warm + rocking motion = green)  But I don't actually get sick.  That's a bonus, right?  But this go round I didn't even have to be below. It was just a steady rocking - like a roller coaster feeling in the belly that doesn't go away after the drop.

We cruised on down to the northern tip of St. Catherine's Island and anchored out around 2pm.  Short sail day!  But the sun was out and the beach was calling, so we called it a day.  That's the bonus of being plan-less. 

Good

• ·         So happy to have the cockpit chairs that our friends from Tammy Ann gave us!  So cozy - we ended up taking afternoon naps before the rain rolled back in.
• ·         Fleece should never be taken for granted.  From fleece under layers to my wooly fleece blanket, I was one toasty girl.   (The puppies even have their own fleece blanket!)
• ·         So happy I packed lots of peanut butter crackers.  Nausea kept me from cooking actual lunch, so we snacked.  Then I headed below after our beach combing to make pasta for dinner.  Delicious!

Bad

• ·         While we checked the weather, we were unable to leave as early as we wanted and ended up cruising through more drizzle than we'd like.  But we were cruising, so it can't be all bad, right?
• ·         The puppies still refuse to pee on their "grass" pad.  At least they had a couple of beach trips to take care of business.

Ugly

• ·         Rain and nausea had to be the worst of the day.  It really wasn't terrible, but we both hate cold.  And I hate nausea.  Not much I like less than vomiting (or feeling like vomiting - I don't actually ever get sick, which is almost worse). 

Overall, it was a blast!  And we all 4 got to romp on the beach during a break in the weather.  That's what we're here to do - sunny explorations!

Very brief dolphin video - these suckers are always either too fast too catch or too fun to watch to stop and get the camera!

Here Molly and Libby attack Sand Mountain