In our home slip safe, warm and dry!

John returned to j-bird sans pain and $25 in taxi fare this morning. He didn't see a doctor, but walking around seemed to cure his aches (at least temporarily). At 10:57am we caste off from Bert Jabin's Yacht Yard for the last time. It was chilly, but the rain held off and so did the winds. I put on two pair of socks, double pants and a sweat shirt under my jacket. John seemed fine without all the layers, but JoeJoe and Fred needed covers to keep the shivers away. Luckily, our friend J supplied us with several loaner doggy towels and I dug up an extra pillow sham to wrap around the little guy. Problem was is that he kept getting up when he spied a bird sweep across the water and we had to wrap him up all over again.

With no wind, we were forced to motor south for three hours. It was pleasant enough. We captured a great shot of Thomas Point Light and practiced setting and sailing to waypoints. We lunched on a bit of salad and roasted potatoes (left overs!)

The channel into Herrington Harbour North is very narrow so we carefully navigated it with great success. I backed j-bird stern first into the slip. We then spent over an hour figuring out how to do the dock lines -- the slip is almost twice as wide as j-bird. I walked the dock to see what other boats had done and then we tugged and rearranged the dock lines 3 or 4 times to get them right. We're still not sure they are right, but by Sunday when we leave, we will know more (crossing fingers).

This home slip is the top bar of a T shaped dock so most of the other boats in the marina are behind us. There is a boat on each side of j-bird, but our view is the break water and surrounding shore. It's like being at anchor with no one around. No one is blocking our view of the Herrington Harbour. We've settled in to our new "home".