Cleaning and Polishing - Top to Bottom

We still have several days work to do on Foreign Affair before beginning our journey north next week.  The migration has begun.  Every day boats are departing heading north as the weather warms. During the day, everyone is busy working on reducing the length of the "to do list" and in the evening, people gather to say their farewells and compare notes on marinas and anchorages along their routes north.  Today, a diver cleaned Foreign Affair's bottom and installed a new anode.  Carla and Dwayne scrubbed and waxed.  Rod and Diane, of Colonel's Lady came by for sun-downers and to hear what we had to say about exploring the Chesapeake Bay.  Their home port is Charleston, SC and this will be their first journey north.  They moved aboard their Beneteau 473 in April.

For the first time since early Fall, the Marathon harbor has a few mooring balls open.  When we passed through there a month ago, there were still over 50 boats waiting to get a mooring.  Many have left for the Bahamas and more have already started heading north.  Many of the live-aboard cruisers head to the Bahamas after most of the snow-birders have left.  Besides being less crowded, the weather is supposedly better in the Bahamas from mid-March to early May.

Paul, on Enough wants to buddy boat with us for a while.  Frank and Carol, on Hakuna Matata will buddy boat with us up to Hampton, VA.  We will leap-frog our cars as we head north.  Their home port is Hampton and were with us in the SAIL ICW Rally.  We'll link up with them in Marathon where they and some other friends of ours, Stephen and Maureen, on Minuet and Frank and Susan, on Rockhopper are still waiting to depart.  Steve and Maureen are bound for the Bahamas and Frank and Susan are headed back to the Chesapeake.  Life's pace is picking up with so much work and so many farewell get togethers.

Our Neighbor on Cruz-In Preparing to Clean Her Bottom