And it’s not what you think. After all the goodbyes to house, kids, family, friends, Amazon, and Trader Joe’s, it’s a mad scramble to get everything done. Taxes, insurance, bills, tenants, and the piles of paperwork gets checked off the list first. Then the huge items get attacked like bottom paint, putting sails back on and provisioning when you won’t be returning with the boat to the USA for several years.

The boat looks like it vomited on the inside. It’s so messy it’s hard to believe we’ll ever get it all sorted and put away.

And this morning at the butt crack of dawn we tossed the lines and left the harbor with long time friends Diana Klybert and Heidi Schlageter. Diana was a teammate on the America3 Women’s America’s Cup Team. We’ve worked together for over 20 years team building with the University of Denver’s MBA program. She brings a sense of humor that reminds me of SNL. Heidi and I met when we started our families, and became fast friends both on and off the water. We trained together and won silver medals in Dubai at the ISAF World Games racing Hobies.

Eric is happy with our crew. Di has been by his side non stop assisting in numerous boat chores while Heidi has assisted me in the provisioning and moral support when the shit hits the fan.

So now that we are cruising down the Chesapeake there is a sense of relief and excitement. Our first landfall will be Abacos Bahamas. ETA Friday.

Hoping to have a smooth slide downwind and with PredictWind and Iridium Go! we can do our own weather routing.

The stress should slowly melt away as we head out to sea.

Wish us fair winds and we will try to post positions on FB but no promises.