We had a lovely night at anchor. Barbie got in the V-berth bed before we put the dogs in so she had "MY TERRITORY" staked out and had room and covers!
Hans and Greta ate a good breakfast.
We made a hot breakfast of oat bran (Barbie) with frozen blueberries, sausage, egg in a hole (Jeff), coffee and tea. It was a beautiful, calm morning. The weather forecast was for sun and highs near 70.
Before raising the anchor both dogs peed and pooped on the astro turf. They are great cruising dogs! 🐕🐕
We raised the anchor at 9:00. We had a very short passage to Middle River Landing Marina. Jeff called Tom, the manager/owner and received directions to find our new slip. This was the first time that we were going to back into a slip and also to see the marina from the water.
As we were approaching our slip we noticed people on the boat at the end of the pier with their phone camera taking pictures! Barbie thought "NO, don't take pictures of us trying to get in our slip for the first time!"
When we lived on Cynosure in 1989-90, we developed docking procedures -- Barbie was at the helm steering and Jeff (and the kids that were with us) handled the lines, boat hook and jumped off the boat to secure lines on the dock. We followed the same procedure with Aisling except NO kids. Having the bow and stern thrusters were EXTREMELY helpful and were VERY easy to use. They make it possible to "turn on a dime". Barbie did and EXCELLENT job maneuvering Aisling and Jeff did an EXPERT job getting lines on pilings. People on the dock also helped with lines. We were greeted by Max (a medium size dog) which made our dogs, Hans and Greta, bark.
We are very happy to have made it safely to our slip. We are enjoying having Aisling 20 minutes from home instead of a 2 hour drive each way through Philadelphia traffic. We are now working on the list of things to do before leaving - repair, upgrade and readiness projects. The list seems to grow longer each day!
Our first voyage on Aisling was a success. We made the one hundred mile trip without serious mishap. Aisling had been on land as we waited for warmer weather to bring her home. Finally with Spring we waited for two day forecast of fair winds. Thorough preparation would be key to our safety as we did not know much about this vessel's operation, having no opportunity for a "shakedown" trip. A water temperature in the thirties, added to the danger, and hardly any marinas were open for the season.
As it turned out, our engine ran fine, the steering worked well, and the winds were calm, and current was favorable, allowing us to cruise at 13 knots down the Delaware River on our first day out. The second day we were not so lucky with wind and waves, and we had a rough passage, with waves pounding our little Aisling. At least we were in the familiar waters of Chesapeake Bay. We waited out the windstorm in the lee of Poole's Island before completing our second day in the passage home.
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Nice update. Sounds like you're getting settled in. If I remember from our 1989 trip, the preparations are never complete, just complete enough to leave.
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