Ready, Set, Gone

We had a whirl wind of a month in Salem seeing friends, taking care of medical issues, looking at condos and doing lots and lots of boat tasks and errands of all sorts. When we dock for a extended time, we almost always have a rental car, and because we're on familiar turf, our stay in Salem is a great time to get things done. Not exactly a relaxing stay this time, but we did accomplish a lot, and managed to get to the end of the A list of to-do's by the end of our dock reservation last Saturday morning.

The Fishing Fleet

October is prime tourist season in Salem, which turns its heritage of witch trials into a halloween fright celebration starting in late September and slowly cranking up to October 31. By last weekend, the Columbus day holiday weekend, with the streets crowded with busloads of tourists and the pedestrian mall filled with sausage and fried dough vendors, we were ready to get out of Dodge. So here we are on an anchor in Long Island Sound, on our way South.

Five weeks ago, we couldn't help but notice hundreds of schools of tiny fish just below the surface throughout our marina. When big boats with underwater lights docked near us, we watched the little fish attract large stripers up to 18 inches long. As the weeks went on, the little fish were obviously growing much bigger and we saw them schooling less frequently. Then early one morning last week, we got another lesson in the food chain. We saw more cormorants than we've ever seen at once, having a fine breakfast of little fish.

Got Netflix?

Our last days in Salem were busy preparing to travel for a couple of months. We loaded dock carts full of grocery bags onto the boat and I rearranged the panty until everything fit. I stowed a couple of cases of wine, each bottle swathed in bubble wrap, under Paul's berth. It's cool and dark under there-- our boat version of a wine cellar. There was one last trip to Trader Joe's for Pound Plus Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds, a must have for the Captain.

I made my last DVD run to to the Salem post office, with the three amazingly efficient and friendly female employees that could make anyone mourn the end of the US Postal Service. It's more amazing that general delivery not only still works, but dependably so, at least in Salem.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Then there was the last trip to A & J King, a world
class bakery only a few blocks away from our dock.
We discovered them several years ago when they first appeared at the Marblehead Farmers Market with their artisan breads. Their product line has expanded to include beautiful pastries and scones I could cry over, but the one thing we never leave without is a freezer stock of toasted walnut sourdough bread.

One of my last errands was to pick up our repaired pump. Paul had told me that the shop was something out of another century, so I was happy to make the pickup, camera in hand. The shop owner, repair person (and perhaps the decorator?) was very happy to hold the pump for me for a photo. My only regret was that he was so efficient in checking me out that I really didn't have enough time to inspect the rest of the shop and its contents. That probably would not have been polite anyway!

The Pump Man

During all the getting ready, I found myself looking forward to spending some quiet time sitting in the pilot house, with only the job of getting the boat from point A to point B safely and as efficiently as possible. We spent Saturday night at the east end of the Cape Cod Canal and Sunday morning rode the current through the seven mile cut. Somehow the canal seems like a divider between Massachusetts "home" and our winter sojourns southward. It was a beautiful day, another in a string of beautiful days, calm seas and winds-- the perfect start for our journey.