Merry Christmas everybody! For those of you who live where it is cold, stay warm! For those of you who live where it is warm, enjoy! And everybody stay safe.

We are finalizing the last details of what we need to take with us on our delivery trip that starts tomorrow. It is actually a different kind of packing than either of us have done in a long time. The boat we are moving came with almost nothing. One set of linens for the large bed, and some serving ware in the galley. Certainly no food or other perishables, although it does have a good stock of spare parts.

The boat’s new owner did a great job thinking ahead, and remotely ordered things like tools, cookware, and other things much more easily and cheaply obtained in the US. This made a huge difference in the amount of things (like tools!) that we needed to haul along.

But for everything else, we have to take it along, and unless we eat it or drink it, we then need to bring it back home. Normally when we travel, we are onboard our boat, Harmonie. So packing really isn’t an issue, we have everything we own onboard. There is no opportunity for forgetting anything. Any time we travel by airplane to a land based destination, forgetting something isn’t a big deal. Leave your toothbrush at home? Buy another.

This is quite different. From the moment we untie the dock lines, until we are released from quarantine in Antigua will likely be at least 14 days. During that time whatever we forgot, didn’t think of or break in route, we just have to live without. It is not that we will need a LOT of stuff, but what we need we can’t just hop off to the corner store and get–at any price. Especially difficult are the things you do not EXPECT to need, but might…

We will have to take an unusual (for us!) assortment of clothing. Tomorrow morning here in Charleston it is forecast to be 26F. That’s about as cold as we have experienced in years. Within 2 days we’ll be sailing in water of 75F, and hopefully be back to our comfort zone. We do have a watermaker and laundry machine on board, so we don’t need to take a LOT of clothes, but will need a variety!

Then there is photo gear, a small selection of fishing tackle, our satphone, prescription meds, in addition to the normal toiletries and grooming supplies. All this… and all the stuff we need to do to leave our boat at the dock for a month!