Arrived at Uncle Paul and Aunt Denise's right around 9 pm on the 26th. We said hello, had some delicious pepperoni rolls, said goodnight, and went to bed.
Ben was up and at the boat by 7 am on the 27th to prepare and complete boat projects. Our friend TJ was able to meet him there and help a ton. Uncle Paul went and helped in the afternoon. The next owner of our boat was able to fly out and get to know the ins and outs of her future home.
I had been checking Marv's Weather for the last week to find a good weather window for our crossing to the Bahamas. It was looking like any day Thursday-Tuesday would be good, but as those days got closer, it was narrowed down to Friday, Saturday, or Monday. Friday looked best, but would not give Ben enough time to get his must-do-before-leaving work done. We were shooting for Saturday, the next best day, and figured we would go Monday if none of that checked out for us.
Aunt Denise ran me around town for the items I was responsible for and we managed to check those off the list pretty quickly. Our only setback was the dog food bag that had spiders hiding in the corners of it. Ew. Returned that and added one more stop to our list.
While setting up the appointment for the dogs at the vet, I found out I needed to complete the Click2Clear application for our temporary cruising permit for the Bahamas before we left. I was a little upset because we had logins from the last two times we were in the Bahamas, so I expected most if it to still be in there, but they changed the system and don't use logins anymore. It took several hours to get everything in there. THEN, when I needed some information about the fishing equipment we were bringing with us, the guys were at the boat and I didn't want to bother them, so I made sure everything was saved and hesitantly went on with my day. When I got back to it, it said exactly what I was anticipating it to say- my session had timed out and I had to start again. And then it took several more hours the next day because I wasn't going to deal with it all again right then. That time, it processed and went through without trouble.
I was able to go to the boat on the 28th to check the status of items I had inventoried at the end of last summer and unpack the tubs we'd brought from home, putting away what belonged to me and the kids while Ben handled his own things.
Bear, Moose, and Roo were living it up in Uncle Paul and Aunt Denise's pool ever since we got to their house. The dogs were enjoying their last land moments, not knowing what the future weeks would hold for them.
On the morning of the 29th, Aunt Denise and I took the dogs to the vet for their International Health Certificate.
Cartermaran was scheduled to be put in the water at 2:30 and we planned do our Costco run after that. It didn’t get in the water until closer to 5. Ben had a few errands to run and told me we would provision (get the food at the store for the boat) when he got to Uncle Paul and Aunt Denise's.
Ben and I did the Costco run without the kids, which they were bummed about, but we had to do it quickly so we could put it away and leave the next day. Ironically, this Costco didn't have as much of what we normally get, so the kids didn’t miss out on much. After 6 summers of this giant Costco prep, we really had it down. We spent the least we've ever spent for provisioning at Costco and we're proud of it! We went to Publix for 1 lb packages of ground beef and some of the cereals we knew the kids wanted, but Costco didn’t have. Between Costco and Publix, we spent just over $2,000.
Driving to the marine center, we had a lightning show and knew we would be racing to unload the truck onto the boat before the rain started. We parked close to the boat and made a zillion trips between the boat and the truck, dumping it all as we went.
Food drop:
When we got on the boat, I put it all away, removing all the boxes and extra trash. Ben continued working on his must-do checklist. He said it would take me 2 hours to put all the food away. I didn't believe him, thought it would be less, so I set a timer. It took me 1 hour and 40 minutes. I started clearing off our bed and looking for our bedding, then made our bed.
My favorite part of the start of the summer:
Food away, find homes for the rest:
By the time we were both done for the night, it was just about midnight. We considered going back to Uncle Paul and Aunt Denise's with the kids and dogs, but slept on the boat.
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