Well the day is finally here where we toss our lines, raise the sails, and point the bow north! When we first targeted July 11th as my last day of work and cast off shortly after, we created a list of items that “must be completed”, a list of what “should be completed”, and a list of “wants to be completed” as seen below. Note that items in GREEN we completed and items in RED are outstanding.

All in all, our list was about 50% "musts", 30% "shoulds", and 20% "wants". As the days ticked down, we worked through the list at a pretty good clip and by July 11th, the boat was ready, and all the “musts” were completed. Now even though all the “musts” were completed, there were still several “shoulds” and “wants” outstanding, so Abby and I evaluated each outstanding item and determined they were not vital to our safety or the enjoyment of this summer trip.

Now I had focused on the boat projects but there was also an immense amount of work to divorce ourselves from land life. We needed to sell our cars, clean and pack our previous living space, clean/pack our respective workspaces, and spend time with those we are close too, etc. This non-boat list honestly took up the majority of our time during that last week, and I have to admit that I underestimated how much work it would be. Somehow, we managed to get it all done and we were ready to go!

Based on the tides & currents over the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel and through the mouth of the Chesapeake, we had a window to depart every 12 hours. These windows were Saturday 0100, Saturday 1300, Sunday 0100, Sunday 1300, Monday 0100, etc. As we approached the weekend, we were religiously checking the wind forecasts. Early in the week it looked like Saturday at 1300 was going to be the time as there was 10-12 knots of wind coming from the west which would help propel us out of the Chesapeake. Unfortunately, the Friday morning forecast changed on pretty much every weather model and now no wind was predicted on Saturday. With Saturday 0100 and 1300 ruled out, we turned on our sights to Sunday. Sunday 0100 still had no wind but the wind seemed to be picking up throughout the day even though it was going to be from out of the East! While that was doable, it meant that the first 4 hours were going to be a beat into the wind.

We were planning on making the straight 260 mile shot to New York Harbor which was expected to take between 50-60 hours based on wind and sea state so we were also evaluating what the weather would be like on our journey. Sunday night was forecasted to be little to no wind and then the wind picking up out of the Southeast on Monday midday and carrying through Tuesday evening between 8-15 knots. Wednesday was forecasted to have sustained 20-25 knot winds so we were hoping to be in the New York Harbor, or we had plotted anchorages along the way that we could stop at if needed. Now this wasn’t the perfect forecast but it was generally less wind than we liked rather than more wind, so we decided to go for it! We departed Hampton Yacht club at 1220 and stopped for Fuel at Safe Harbor Bluewater Marina and were off the dock at 1240 on Sunday 7/13/25!

-Tom

Cast off day!