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Birthday and Bermuda

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 Today was Tom’s birthday and we had a fun time celebrating with Dan’s family. We were up early to do cards and gift before the girls went to school and then we walked to school with them. Stopped to pick up bagels to bring home on our way back since they are Tom’s favorite! The whole family went in on Tom’s gift and got him a gift card to use toward new drivers for golfing. His clubs are 30 years old and too heavy for him now, so he was thrilled to be able to get new ones. Dan took him to the golf shop for a personal fitting and swing analysis and that was fun for them to do together. Tomorrow Tom and I leave on a Royal  Caribbean cruise to Bermuda for  a 6 night cruise. There was a great deal through Costco travel and we can leave right from here without pet sitting issues or airfare. We would probably never get to Bermuda on our own and it will be nice to have someone else driving the boat and worrying about the wind and waves…. We board at noon tomorrow, so this week was spent gett
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It Is Finished

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 And just like that our boating adventure of the past 2 years is over. We got up early to strip the bed and pack the last few items and made one last trip to the storage unit. We did one last inspection of all the nooks and crannies (with a flashlight) and actually found a small bag of acrylic glassware that had fallen down into a lower shelf unit, so we rescued that.  After loading the car to the gills, we took a couple of last pictures and walked away. I am sad on one hand because I loved our looping adventure on Orion, but by the time we left the boat it didn’t feel like “home” any more. We did something few people ever accomplish and I’m proud of that, and we always said we would know when it was time to move on, and it was. We drove to Baltimore with a stop at the Quantico Marine Museum that Tom has always wanted to see. Wow, what a great place! Reminded me of a Smithsonian. We spent over 2 hours there, ate lunch in their pub and drove the last 2 hours to Baltimore. Nothing beats
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Long Day

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 Another, and last, day of moving off the boat. 4 trips to the storage unit and one last one in the morning with bedding and we’re done. In addition to packing bins we cleaned up the bow pulpit where some adhesive was oozing out around the stainless plate, pumped up the dinghy, secured all fenders to the rails and hosed the boat off. Our boat neighbor, Richard, became the recipient of liquor, refrigerator items, cleaning supplies and some engine oil. He has started calling Tom Santa Claus.  LOL! Funny story for the last day on Orion…. When we moved onto the boat almost 2 years ago we discovered a new cubby filled with treasures weekly. The prior owners had just walked off the boat leaving expensive appliances, cutlery, knives etc behind. Everything they had was top of the line so I am leaving with wonderful treasures. About a year in, we discovered a cubby under the dinette seat containing a $900 Bluetooth printer! We were chuckling about finding those treasures when Tom pointed to a c
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So. Many. Bins.

 It was day one of moving off the boat and we loaded so many bins! It’s not just packing, because as with all of our “moves” not everything goes to one destination. We like to keep it complicated! LOL! We have used color coded tape to mark which boxes are boat only, RV if that is what we do next, needs to end up in Hudson, but not this trip, and finally - things that must go with us now to Baltimore and ultimately Hudson. Sigh… We accessed our storage unit early this morning and made 4 trips with a fully loaded vehicle each time. Lots of empty drawers and closets now so we made really good progress today. Tomorrow Tom has a couple of boat tweaks to do while I finish packing and we should be completely done by tomorrow night. We will sleep one last night and pack up the last bedding and towels before leaving on Monday. We haven’t stopped meeting new boater friends - met the guy on the boat behind ours and found out he just bought the boat. He is an older guy alone, sold his house and is
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Baltimore Week

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 We arrived in Baltimore last Sunday afternoon in time to stay with Charlotte and Claire while Dan and Andrea flew to Indiana for her grandfather’s funeral. They got back on Tuesday and the rest of the week we watched the girls during the day while they worked. It was a week filled with lots of Lego building, reading books, board games, movie and popcorn nights and swimming at the neighborhood pool. Needless to say, we are pooped! God gives children to the young for a reason… LOL! We love spending time in Baltimore and having one on one time with the girls is a blessing for sure. But today we drove back down to the boat in VA and have started packing it up to move off. We can access our storage unit tomorrow to begin to load in the bins. It was almost 2 years ago to the day that we moved onto the boat so it is bittersweet for sure… We hope to be moved off the boat and have completed a couple of minor projects by Sunday so the broker can begin showing it and hopefully a sale will happen
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We Have Wheels

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 What a luxury to sleep in! After a nice breakfast and hot showers, Steve and Kathy arrived to shuttle us back to New Bern to collect our car. We had a nice lunch here in Chesapeake at Lockside and then stepped into one of the boat sheds to see a historic river boat that has been restored. The owners happened to be aboard and invited us on to look around. What a treat! It has been restored to period but with modern materials and it is elegant! Our 3 hour trip to New Bern was uneventful as was our 3 hour return trip to the boat. Lots of packing and organizing had to happen, because we leave for Baltimore in the morning.
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Last Voyage

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 What an emotional but wonderful day on the water… We pulled away from the dock at Coinjock around 7 am and after taking lines and fenders away for the last time I watched the marina disappear from view through tears. 😢 We spent much of the 5 hour trip remembering events from our one and a half years of travel and thinking out loud about what comes next. There was a lot more boat traffic today since we are so close to Norfolk so we got passed several times. (We are always the slowest boat). Also 3 bridges to go thru, two of which had to open for us. So it ends where it began in October 2021 here at Atlantic Yacht Basin in Chesapeake VA. We met with the boat broker we are listing the boat with from  Virginia Yacht Brokers and we like him a lot. I feel good about listing our boat with them and we hope for a timely sale. His wife stages the boat after we move off and makes a video, so I will post the link to that when it’s ready. Tomorrow around noon Steve and Kathy are driving up from N
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