We have made out landfall in Herrington Harbor Marina in Deal, MD, safe and sound and without complication. We had four days of beautiful, fast downwind sailing, and 14 hours of getting paying the piper while we beat upwind into a full gale. All those things average out.

After nearly 6 months of major and minor projects, it was a bit much to expect absolutely everything on the boat to work perfectly the first time out, but it did–almost! The new turbocharger on the engine, and the new transmission both worked great. We did have a small leak from the rudder shaft, but that’s an easy fix.

We’ll likely be here until traveling becomes more routine. On our trip up here we saw less than a half dozen other non-commercial boats. Out in the ocean we it was hard to judge the relative number of cargo vessels on the move, but once we arrived in the confined space of the Chesapeake Bay it was obvious that commercial traffic was reduced–a lot. Training and ship movements out the Navy in Norfolk seemed to be close to normal levels.

Now, our next step is to turn around in a few days, and do this all again! There is an Amel 54 at the dock in Hollywood, Florida, that needs to come here. As in RIGHT here, just a few slips away from where we are right now. We had expected to be doing this delivery project ourselves, but it turns out that the owners (who are very cool people) are going to be able to come along. Rotating watches with four people instead of two will seem an amazing luxury. Almost like riding on a cruise ship!

Flight scheduling is a challenge, but it looks like it is possible and inexpensive. As with all things in this new and complex world, flexibility is required. It looks like flying will be Friday, and sailing starts Monday.