we left norfolk first thing in the morning for a 6+ hour run to deltaville. i had been fighting computers all night trying to find a machine that i could use and in the end, while underway, i ended up using tom's new one. the trip was generally uneventful. the weather was great and the day was gorgeous. aurora was doing wonderfully on her first day as ship's pup. there were a LOT of crabpots out but in the chesapeake, the watermen place them in long lines that are predictable. when aurora was awake, i sometimes stepped out onto the side deck and held her in my arms so that she could familiarize herself with the sights and sounds of what is now going to be her life on the water. when we were across from gwynn island, we received a radio call from CJ, our friends joe and claire, who were out on their shakedown cruise - these are the folks with the new jack russell puppy, also named CJ, who is going to be aurora's best friend from now on, the same claire who sent me the email about the puppies. we said that we would see them in a little while.
when we arrived at regatta point, we were directed to slip #G-32, two slips down from our original #G-30 where we lived for almost two years - same starboard tie to the finger pier - i even used the exact same lines we used before that i had marked so that we were held in the same position every time. it's like we never left! only one of our former neighbors was around but it was nice to see them. we borrowed the courtesy car to pick up my car at norview and stopped in to see CJ and chatted for a while and compared notes on new puppies. CJ is a week older than aurora and quite a bit bigger but then again, aurora is just so tiny. that's basically everyone's comment when they see her - that she is so little! anyway, after that, it was off to return the loaner and then a trip to the deltaville market.
it is good to be "home" for a while in a familiar place, to have a car, to see old friends and to know where everything is. we spent the next day cleaning up and sorting things out - a trip to our storage unit and west marine and then cocktails with one of our neighbors. aurora came with us everywhere and did remarkably well although she got a bit underfoot while we were trying to clean up so she got put in the crate where she screamed until she finally wore herself out. she is only 8 weeks old and needs constant supervision and if i can't watch her constantly, she needs to go into the crate. potty training is going pretty well so that's a plus. and she enjoys our little walks and, like consuelo before her, she loves grass. the weather is wonderful - warm days and cool nights. still quite a bit of pollen in the air though.
spring in the chesapeake is lovely and we are glad to be back. we were gone for seven months. we left regatta point on september 17, 2014 and returned on may 3, 2015. we put 455.3 hours on tadhana's engine. a lot of miles there!
looking forward to heading south again in the fall, but in the meantime, our chesapeake cruising season begins :)
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