And...We're Off!

Today was departure day, and we made it.  Whew!

The boat left the dock at noon, only one hour late.  Not so bad.  Especially given all the activity that had to occur to get it out of there.  Lars and Odin and their cousins Einar and Soren untied the dock lines and we waved good bye to Tor, Lee and Mike who are going to sail the boat to the San Francisco Bay area.  Lars, Odin and I will drive down with my sister Jenn to meet them.  After waving good bye at the dock we drove to the Locks to watch them come through.  Lucky ducks drove right in, tied up and the gates closed behind them and they were off.  Much different than the 1-2 hour (or more!) waits we have heard from other boats this summer.

A quick stop (not so quick I guess...Tor needed to do a little car repair for me, poor guy, but I really didn't want the heat stuck on to drive all the way to SF!) at Shilshole for fuel and they were off!  I spoke with Tor tonight and they decided to put into Port Ludlow for the night, after 3 hours of sleep last night, he just needed some rest.  Good choice.  A nice dinner out and a little time to finish stowing gear and they all sounded cheerful.  The plan is to get an early start tomorrow and head towards Port Angeles.

After leaving the boat at Shilshole the boys and I took the last of the gear up to the house to store. To say I'm tired of dealing with stuff would be a vast understatement. But, it's all done and the boys and I are thoroughly enjoying the hospitality of Paul and Barbara. They have a lovely and comfortable home, we had a very nice dinner together and then the boys even got a bath before bed.  The height of luxury for sure!  I'm quite pleased with the shower I got too.

I will be posting without pictures until we reunite with the boat in San Francisco since I didn't manage to think that detail through and don't have a way to get the photos from my camera onto the computer.  You may get to see an occasional phone picture, but frankly, it's not likely.

It feels great to be at this stage.  We are all exhausted and totally spent, but I'm glad I pushed hard to be done with the big jobs today.  Odin and Lars were fantastic and really knew that I just needed to put my head down and work.  When looking ahead to today and the long to do lists, I was feeling jealous of Tor because I know very well that feeling you have when you finally depart on a boat...it's crazy busy and the number of details to keep in mind are insane, but once you untie the dock lines, there just isn't anything more you can do.  It's always a relief.  I was expecting that I wouldn't get to have that feeling since I'm still living on land for the time being, but since we pushed through today and got the last big jobs done, I have a sense of that relief, and that I too have untied those dock lines. The adventure has begun!