New Season New Crew...

It’s that time of year again when we head to warmer temperatures and blue water. This season will be a bit different being that we will have a new crew member on board… Harley..a 4 1/2 year old mini-schnauzer. Harley was re-homed to us on September 10th which happened to be my 63 birthday. What a gift! Harley was immediately thrown into life on ten acres in Idaho and soon to be experiencing life on a boat…in the Bahamas and Caribbean. Fortunately he’s just gone along with the flow which is exactly the attitude you need to have doing what we do. As long as he is with us he is happy doing anything!

So on October 31st, we left our nearly completed home in Idaho with it’s cold temperatures and got into a Chrysler, Pacifica rental van and headed towards our destination….Charleston, South Carolina where we planned to meet up with our friends Kory and Kerry on SV Hope (a sailing Lagoon 450 Catamaran). From there the plan was to get a ride with them (and all of our belongings...clothing, boat parts and some new electronics) to our boat which was in dry storage at Bradford Marine in Freeport, Grand Bahamas.

We drove 5 long, 10 hour days through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina only stopping for fuel, potty breaks/walking Harley, dinner and overnight stays in dog friendly hotels. We made good time. The weather and roads were just right and the speed limits were up to 80 miles an hour in some areas. Only a few traffic jams to slow us down driving through the downtown area of the big cities and a bit of roadwork here and there. We were only pushing it so hard because there was a good 4 day weather window to sail across the Atlantic and the swiftly moving Gulf Stream on the 6th of November. The wind, the wave height and time in between waves would make for a comfortable and safe crossing.

On Friday, November 3rd we made it to Charleston in the late evening so we decided to stay in a hotel for the night before getting in touch with our friends. The next morning, we drove to the City Marina in Charleston around 10 a.m.and parked the car. We called our friends and alerted them to our arrival. Kory zipped over in his dinghy from their boat which was anchored just outside of the marina, and met us in the parking lot with dock carts. We loaded up the carts and rolled them down to his dinghy tied up to the dinghy dock. We had to make two trips with all of our belongings to their boat. Harley and I were added to the last trip. Harley seemed to love the ride on the dinghy. He stood with his hind legs on my lap and the other two leaning forward at the bow soaking up the breeze with it’s fresh air and all of it’s new smells. We were happy to see that he was adapting so far.

Once to the boat we were welcomed on board by Kerry and Gracie, their cute white fuzzy little Bijon. Well maybe not Gracie as much. She definitely wasn’t as thrilled and let Harley know about it. Harley didn’t seem too bothered. He just trotted around the boat sniffing and investigating figuring he’d give her a little space. In time, I think they will be good friends. After finding places for all of our things we visited while getting caught up and discussed the journey ahead. Kerry prepared a delicious dinner that night (one of many meals and snacks that we would enjoy during our 6 days on Hope). We were pretty tired and we all called it a night and retired to our cabins. Our cabin was located down below in the port stern which was decorated in an adorable nautical theme…just as the rest of their luxurious boat! We couldn’t wait to crawl into the comfy looking bed, but when we turned our backs for a minute, Harley jumped up on the bed, laid down thinking it was for him and he looked at us like… ‘where are you going to be sleeping?’ We removed him even though he looked so cozy and put him in his dog bed. We slept really well that night. We couldn’t have been more comfortable and what a nice change from all of the hotels we had recently slept in on the road.

Next day after a delicious breakfast on board, we got back into our van and drove to a few different stores for 6 months worth of provisioning. Buying as much of the things we needed on our boat that we could not get in the Bahamas and at least reasonably priced. It was a long day..a lot of running around and more driving. After our errands and returning the van to Avis car rental located at the Charleston International Airport, we hopped in Kerry and Kory’s vehicle and stopped for dinner at a Mexican restaurant similarly set up like Chipotle, on the way back to the boat. Sunday morning, our last day on land in the U.S., the Farbach family which are long time dear friends of Kory and Kerry who we were fortunate to meet last season, came for a visit. So great seeing them all! It’s like no time had passed. So while Kory, Kerry and the Farbach’s went to church, Rick and I drove to do one last errand and met up with the gang around lunch time. After lunch we all met back at the boat to continue visiting and to take the boat over to the fuel dock to fill up the tanks for our departure on Monday. We also ended up tying up to a dock on the other side of the fuel dock for convenience.

So everyone of the Farbach’s loved Harley! They were all hugging and taking turns holding him on their laps. Miss Ellie Farbach wanted to take Harley home with her. She really took to him and he, her! After a nice time visiting and preparing the boat for travel, we said our see ya later’s to our friends. Never goodbye! We all wished that they would be joining us. Hopefully they will be passengers again on Hope sometime this season.

I will have more to report in our next blog…our crossing!