General Update, October 24 edition

Calypso is back at Oak Harbor, this time at a slip. We were happily sitting in Spa Creek in Annapolis when we really started thinking about the remaining tasks that need to be done before we head south. Other than boat projects (and making sure we have all the pieces needed to keep plugging away at boat projects once we leave), the biggest thing outstanding is to get all gear onto Calypso that needs to be on board.

This means moving things from Mischief to Calypso (and a bit of vice versa.) It means emptying out storage and stowing those items on whichever boat they’re meant for. It means going through the van and grabbing Calypso stuff.

We could have done this while in Annapolis. The van was with us there, parked on the street within a block of the dinghy dock. Thinking about the logistics of trying to manage storage in Centreville, boat hijinks between Pasadena and Annapolis, the van (and not being able to leave things out next to the van while we made a run via dinghy to the boat), and doing it all by dinghy . . . well, it just became daunting. Pasadena to Centreville to Annapolis is a bit of a triangle. By moving Calypso (and the van) to Pasadena, we’ve effectively removed one leg of that triangle.

*Points of the triangle. Oak Harbor is in the unnamed circle.*

There’s still more work to be done on the boat, of course. The dodger is about 95% done and the last bits will need some drier weather to finish off. Windvane parts will get their paint coats now that we have a place to stash them for easy drying. We need to do little things like get the sails bent on, install lazy jacks, finish off the stack pack.

But we’re close enough that we’re monitoring the weather, listening in on Chris Parker’s weather, running departure planning scenarios on FastSeas starting as early as Halloween. We’ve pretty much ruled out Bermuda for this go around. Weather just isn’t kind this time of year in the North Atlantic and we’d like to enjoy our time there when we do get to visit. It sounds like we’d either have a very truncated stay (as in a day or two) or be stuck for weeks; neither option is very appealing.

With any luck, we’ll be somewhere in the Caribbean by Thanksgiving!