Leaving Cape Charles

We had a last dinner at Don Valerio's Mexican Restaurant with Chuck & Jo (sv Beatrix), and missed with Dusty & Diane (sv Tribute) as they had been exposed to Covid and considerately declined. Beatrix and another boat, sv Life Above Zero are waiting for the travelift to be repaired so they can join the Salty Dawg rally to the Azores, from Hampton VA. Hope they make the start date!

We spent a few days finalizing painting and winterizing Ashling. That's mainly about replacing water with antifreeze so your pipes, pumps, engines and water maker don't burst during a cold spell. It's probably not required, as we expect to return in early December, but this gives us flexibility in travel and peace of mind.

This haul out has been very long (since July 8), but we did some big projects. We've more than doubled our solar production capability by adding five more panels, and we repainted all the non-skid surface (about 80% of the deck). We also repaired fiberglass damaged by close encounters with docks, other moored boats, etc. over the past 6 years. The boot stripe was a little sad, so we repainted it as well. We'll, we're off to Portland with the generous airport trip help of Chris and Sue Johnson, ex- cruisers living in Cape Charles.Read more