We went into the water a few days ago and we’ve been living on the boat full time and testing all of the various systems for the day that we would actually throw off the lines and head away from the dock for the last time.  Well, that day is finally here! We had some errands to run all morning and a bunch of groceries to stock up on. (not that we need them, but we’re at a dock with a truck and that makes things way easier!) The last thing we had to actually do to be legal was to put the name on the back of the boat! It’s vinyl, because that’s just super easy and looks great.  I ordered it months ago but wanted the arch and swim step done so it didn’t get ruined.  Technically since the boat is Coast Guard documented she has to have the name visible on the back to be out in the water, so I sat down and measured everything out and installed it! We went with the same “painter’s tape” blue that we painted the hardtop because matching is fun and it’s what classy people do!

I suppose leaving actually snuck up on me a little bit.  We’ve spent so much time working on the boat that leaving on it just felt like some nebulous date in the future that wasn’t actually going to come.  I could have easily stayed at the dock another week cleaning and testing and learning to sail, but we have reservations for a mooring ball down south in St. Augustine for Christmas so if we didn’t leave today we would HAVE to leave tomorrow to make it there on time! So… Jason decreed we leave tonight! …and we did!!!!

Here’s another VIDEO (hope you guys like these…) of us leaving the dock at Holland Marine for the last time!

We anchored a few miles away from the marina because we got a later start and wanted to be anchored before it got dark. There are SO MANY crab pots here and for some reason they use black floats for most of them, so it was a slow drive the last part. The sunset was beautiful!

And here’s a summary of today’s events.  We ended up anchored just outside Black Creek, a few miles from the marina.  We can start heading out early tomorrow morning!