And AWAY we GO!!

Yipeeee - we left the dock this morning. We left on a short shake down cruise to Cedar Creek near the mouth of Adams creek for the night. It was really only a run of 25 miles. Fortunately we hadn't planned to leave early because there was thick fog about. Even at 10am when we left it was still a bit foggy but lifting rapidly.

I'm glad we decided to start with short hops at first so we could get back into the swing of things. Even though we have been boating for better than 25 years it still takes time to get the rhythm back.

This morning I had a HUGE brain "short circuit". I was bringing all the systems online and needed to reinsert the knot meter transducer back into the hull of the boat. We take it out when the boat isn't used frequently so it doesn't foul with growth. I pulled the dummy transducer out which went smoothly and inserted the real transducer. I tried to screw the collar down but it wouldn't catch. It just went round and round and the whole time water is rushing in until this is secured. After a good minute I tried to put the dummy plug back and it wouldn't thread on either. Ohhh great I have the inch and half hole in the boat and water is coming in. I took a deep breath before calling for help -- probably will have to be dragged to a marina and hauled out when it dawned on my "righty tighty, lefty loosey". Crap I was turning the locking nut in the wrong direction. Hell that is like forgetting how to put shoes on!! Well righty tighty got it secured. That was a scary start.

The rest of the trip went without mishap. We made Cedar Creek around 1:30pm and only one boat was already here. Now at 5:15pm we have 4 boats here -- all snowbirds heading south.

The weather is GREAT with light wind and a high in the 70s and a low in the 60s. No weather forecast until Friday so we are enjoying it.

Tomorrow will be another short hop to Spooners Creek to anchor. The weather is fairly clean there and I plan to change zincs and clean the hull before moving on. This will all be done with my scuba gear. Hopefully won't take more than an hour and half.

Looking forward to nice night on the hook here tonight with a nearly full moon.