“Preparing for our Atlantic Crossing”

We’ve had the usual mix of experiences (good and bad) while back on the boat. We got back to Matthews, VA in early April and got right to work “recommissioning”. Moxie had been “dormant” for 6 months so there was lots of work required to “bring her back on line” (e.g., batteries, engines, watermaker, fridge, etc.) but after a week were ready to head up to Annapolis to hang out while waiting for crew.

Annapolis was several hours away by car and a couple of day hops by boat so we slowly worked our way North. One stop was particularly special…. Back story – We were in the Bahamas last winter and ran into a couple that owned a Sundeer 56 (the type of boat we circumnavigated in with the kids, 2005-2007). We chatted with them a few minutes and they said…. “We know another couple who owns a Sundeer in VA… I think it used to be called SeaFever”. Wait… it get’s better. We said, “Oh cool” and went on our business. Several weeks later, we were in Georgetown in the Bahamas, and this couple comes to the boat, knocks on the hull…. “Moxie… We’re the new owners of SeaFever. Can we ask you a few questions?” OMG – What are the odds.

And that’s how we met Christine and Mick – the new owners of SeaFever, now renamed Juno. In fact, on our way North, we sailed up the Great Wicomico River, and had dinner at their house and saw SeaFever/Juno. BTW – We did our laundry at their house too – Bonus!!

They have done a beautiful job with the restoration and it was wonderful for to see that Juno (aka SeaFever) is being well taken care of and still sailing!

Once we got to Annapolis, I flew to FL to visit some girlfriends while Anthony started work on “the list”. One of the first things was to replace the Triton instrument display on the port side – a fairly simple task… or so he thought.

When replacing the instrument, he noticed the housing unit was full of water so he attempted to remove the “housing” by sliding a box cutter underneath to loosen the caulk and pull off the box.

Needless to say, that didn’t work well! I wasn’t here so he had to find an Uber to take him to the ER and get in the dinghy and over to the dock with one (very bloody) hand! Good thing he cleaned up the mess before I got back!

The end result was 7 stitches but it’s healed nicely – which is REALLY good because sailing requires 2 hands!

We stayed in Annapolis for 2 weeks and reconnected with friends Greg & Vickie (S/V Erin Brie) from our time in the Pacific and then headed back down to Matthews for some last minute trouble-shooting on the batteries (engine wasn’t charging them properly…). Once that was done, we sailed to York River Yacht Haven to wait for crew and work on other chores. Including lots of “provisioning!

Is this enough chocolate?

Always plenty of tasks on the “to do list”, and this is a great place to get them done while we wait for crew!