Our Travels

Some of you might be old enough to remember the commercial with O. J. Simpson racing through the airport, jumping over things to make his flight. Well, this wasn’t like that. Sure, we were anxious, made worse by a change in wind direction Sunday night that made things even more sporty in Red Bay. We stuck it out for most of the morning to (hopefully) allow time for some of the boats anchored in Marsh Harbour to (hopefully) move out. At 1100, we donned our life jackets against the sway and bobble, then weighed anchor and crossed our fingers (and toes for good measure).

We saw plenty of encouraging boat traffic in the distance and on AIS, but you can’t really see into the harbor until you round the corner in the channel. After a short two-hour cruise and with all eyes intently focused on Marsh Harbour, we rounded the bend, and yeah! We think there’s room!

Now, if we can just find a spot with enough depth. A bit of slow cruising through shallow spots, wiggling through the anchored boats, and suddenly, there! Drop the hook! We are in the harbor with 1.6 ft below the keel at low tide.

SaltyMare has safe haven for Susie’s trip! Whew. And our fantastic friends on Finish Grade are right beside us. High fives all around! Heck, we even broke out a shot of something; sorry, don’t remember what.

Okay, admittedly, we are on the edge of kind of the informal part of a channel. It’ll be fine, Honey…

To top it off, Lynn pinged us with an invitation to dinner aboard Finish Grade so we wouldn’t have to worry about cooking and could focus on last minute details, a kind gesture that almost brought a tear to our eyes. Knowing that Tuesday morning would involve Susie packing and fussing over the last things she wants Todd to remember (along with a sweet list of Honey Do’s), we dined with Terry & Lynn and celebrated the sun setting over Marsh Harbour.

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Susie was up before sunrise. During coffee time, Todd asked if she packed long pants. Deer in the headlights look – umm… pants?? A quick check of the weather in Virginia lead to removing a muumuu or two from the suitcase to make room for said pants. Done. Great. What about a jacket? sigh (She adamantly drew a line against packing socks.)

During coffee/tea time we noticed the anchorage continued to empty out, especially those to the south of us. Quick conference and both boats moved within the anchorage. Both boats feel better about not being near (or IN, yes we were kinda IN) the channel.

With that handled, we headed to shore shortly before noon for the taxi pick-up to get her to the little airport for the 1405 flight.

Short ride to the airport, and officially we can call the mission complete! Thanks for the ride, Rosie!

See you later LoveBug, give your Mom a healing hug for me! I miss you already! mmmwwwwaaaa! ❤️😘