The Harris Crew Goes South

Well we did it. We left. Sorry but I’m not saving the celebrations for the arrival…I’m celebrating managing to leave the dock. The struggle is real folks! The dock felt like it had a tractor beam sometimes but ObiWan got the beam down and we were finally able to slip the lines and start heading south!

So today we are heading to Solomons Island part way down the Chesapeake and we will remain here tomorrow (Sunday) to wait out some crappy weather before heading to Deltaville, Virginia. This morning was busy, checking the oil, through hulls, removing garbage and recycling, stowing some items off the deck and getting rid of a few items (we had 4 sets of spinny sheets, we now have 3)…and this morning was a bit emotional. Tears for our dear friends Jeff and Marguerite. Some squishy feelings for the volume of new that is waiting just past the break-wall.

So to channel that stuff into something productive, in the few preciously quiet moments enroute today Greg and I interviewed each other.

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Megan interviewing Greg and capturing his words verbatim:

Hey there sailor…we are about to get real salty up in here…

During this photo the kids were down below making so much noise driving a RC car over a pile of dominos, up a ramp they made supported by 2 cups and then off the side of the table…this is what we mean when we refer to a “quiet moment”

Ok Greg…how are you feeling?

What kind of question is that? Ummm…I'm feeling too much pressure. I can't do this if you are going to just type whatever every time I say something.

How do you feel having left Herrington Harbour North?

It was weird pulling out of there. It was our home base and as of yet it's really the only / first place we've met people and made friends. We got comfortable, we knew our way around, so it was a strange thing to leave the dock and start heading to a new location - for real - knowing we aren't going to be back in just a few days, or weeks or months...well maybe months.

What will you miss?

I think I'll miss having kind of a network there - like a support system there. If something went wrong with the boat we'd know where to go and know who to ask. Hopefully we don't miss shore power but we might LOL.

We are kind of taking that network with us - we've got contact info from people and they've indicated a desire and willingness to keep in touch. We've had a few people tune into the blog and follow us that way. We are able to keep track of people and vice versa pretty well through Instagram and WhatsApp.

I feel like we've made contacts in the marine trades that we could reach out to as needed if something goes wrong. We've developed some relationships there that I think we can trust and reply on which is a pretty big deal. But we've also really developed our own skill sets in the last few months and I think are more self reliant - we are less afraid to get our hands dirty. I feel like we know the boat atsronomically better than when we started.

**Pause for course change and log book entry...coming into Solomons**

**Resume Interview***

So back to my original question, how are you feeling?

I'm excited about the next phase. I have a little bit of trepidation because everything up to this point we've done before albeit to a smaller scale. Traveling to other counties we've done before, but the ocean feels really big and I don't think there is anything to do to get around that other than just doing it. I feel like the kids are comfortable which is...important.

What are you most looking forward to?

Lots of things I think. I am looking forward to making new friends in the many places we'll go. I'm looking forward to seeing the kids make friends in the many places we go. I look forward to seeing them getting more confident, self assured and capable. Taking care of themselves and being independent. I'm looking forward to the tropics. The warm weather. Swimming and snorkelling and beach days. I'm even looking forward to home schooling.

Chocolates from Liz at Free State that we totally rammed in our faces as soon as we were a respectable distance from land

Aden was quite emotional and then snuggly today - but not being an empath who is totally in tune with her feelings, she wasn’t sure what was going on…I knew it was the big change and feeling a bit overwhelmed - extra hugs and attention did the trick :)

What are you afraid of?

Just really boat issues. Making a mistake and putting ourselves in an uncomfortable or worse case dangerous position. Or that we've forgotten something that we won't know about until after it's an issue. Like awww man we really should have brought along this, or a wish we had that. I don't know...I don't know what it is because we haven't encountered it yet. Everything is good right now.

I think that we've naturally fallen into a pretty good division of labour. A good set up of the tasks. A good sense of how to work together to manage this whole situation pretty well, most of the time. Like taking care of the kids, the boat, ourselves, make sure everyone is eating, drinking, sleeping and pooping and is healthy. Everyone I think is enjoying our time so far. I think you and I have enjoyed the time a lot less than the kids. Which is the way it should be I guess. I am hoping that now that we have takin the leap and it's time to go I am hoping we can relax a bit. Relax isn't the right word - I hope we can appreciate it a bit rather than just focusing on the next thing to do and the next thing after that.

Liam working on some lunch dishes - hello blue eyes!

Grace managing the bow lines as we leave HHN, with her eyes closed apparently :P

Greg interviewing Megan and capturing her words verbatim:

How are you feeling?

Sigh.  Mean look because I’m writing everything she says and does.  Evil laugh.  Uhhhh. I feel pretty good. I feel like it’s the right time. About as ready as we were going to be. And also pretty tired. It was good to leave today.  I think it was the right time.  I think it was the right balance between the boat  being as ready as possible and leaving ourselves enough time to get down without it being a crazy hectic rush.  I think it will be ok.

How do you feel having left HHN?

It was a really good place to be for the summer.  I have no regrets.  It was really nice to have such a fun place for the kids.  Comfortable.  Sort of like a safe atmosphere for us to get to know the boat.  The people were awesome.  Most of them.  Some of the people we care about were moving on and we needed to move on.  As amazing as HHN is in the summer I think it would be equally unpleasant in the winter if you were staying on board your boat.  When I saw the sign saying on Nov 15 the dock water gets shut off I was like nope!  Although our diesel heaters are pretty kick ass.  I think we might be there again for awhile next summer so the kids can play at the pool while we get some boat work done and it might be like coming home in a sense.  I have no regrets.

Extended family from New Jersey…they are the most lovely and loving people :)

Bye bye slip I-25…you’ve been a pretty sweet spot but it’s time to swing on the hook for a while :)

What will you miss?

I think I’ll miss our little rituals that we started creating.  Like always looking over the side of the dock for fish, snakes, and turtles.  Every single time we walked down the dock we did that.  Pausing and listening for otters in the reeds.  Going to the coffee table food truck on Friday mornings.  Afternoon swims in the summer.  Seeing Jeff and Marguerite just a couple boats down.  Saying hi to Brad as he drives by.  Just the little things we started doing on a regular basis.  I’m tempted to say we’ll miss the ease of the water and hydro but those aren’t available in the winter time so it would be changing anyway.  I will miss that sense of knowing where I am and what I’m doing.  I don’t love having to try something on for the first time.

What are you looking forward to?

Humpf.  I’m looking forward to… hmm… I”m looking forward to doing more things for the first time even though I don’t like doing that.  I like the feeling of doing it for the second time if that makes sense.  Like coming back here today (to Solomans Island).  We knew where we were going and what we were doing and it was way more relaxed and enjoyable than the first time.  I’m looking forward to doing more things on the boat so maybe it won’t feel like such a big deal all the time.  I”m looking forward to swimming in the warm water.  I’m looking forward to the kids jumping off the boat before breakfast.  I”m looking forward to hiking and yoga and I’m hoping we can get back to doing some of those things on a regular basis. We used to hike so often and I use to practice yoga so consistently and I miss both of those things. We do so much work; way more work than we did at home. I’m looking forward to some non-work things.

What are you afraid of?

I’m afraid that it’s going to be impossible to balance work and non-work.  And that we’re going to get burned out.  And of course I’m afraid of crazy weather and some catastrophe.  I’m afraid of catastrophe. I run through all kinds of scenarios in my head so I can feel more prepared but I’m still afraid of them.

That’s about it though. Balance and catastrophe. You know, just the small stuff :)

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So that’s a snapshot of how we are both doing today - I should say these were asked hours apart and under different conditions but nevertheless on the same day.

Tomorrow calls for rain so we hope to sleep in, make some pancakes and then maybe do a few jobs and then dinghy out for dinner. May the force be with us :P

The girls really suck at Mastermind.

The things you do when Daddy has the camera…just being dorks while we wait to get to our destination…

Much love,

M

P.S. Liam just came out of his bunk and asked if there was a leaky pipe that smells like dog breath. We said no that’s just the way you kids smell. Tomorrow is our “relaxing day” before we have a 12 hour sail to Deltaville on Monday (hook to hook)…however, on this “relaxing day” looks like we will be changing out a head hose that is a tad on the smelly side.