Sad To Leave But Glad To Go

Thanks STEVE for the drone pic!

Each summer we've spent 3-4 months in a marina.  When we arrive we are so happy to put down some roots and stay a while... but at the end of each summer we've been SO glad to get going again.

It's like we have two lives.  We enjoy both so much... but the inevitable wanderlust is strong and it pulls us onward.  But again today as with those past departures from our summer home... we are a little sad to leave.  So many things we didn't get around to doing... maybe next time.

LAST Sunrise in the anchorage

The comfort we feel in familiar surroundings is hard to give up.  Even though we long for adventure, our lazy side is difficult to motivate... We've found that baby steps can help ease the bit of anxiety that still, after more than three years cruising, lingers.

Marina de Salinas has been good to us and at the end of our last day here, they were good once more. We weren't ready.  We had last minute preparations and one more package in the mail that had yet to arrive.  They let us stay an extra night for FREE!  One more night with air conditioning and no mosquitos!

But when morning came and our package still had not come, we moved off the dock and dropped anchor about a hundred yards away... to wait.  Even though we were still in Salinas, it FELT like we were somewhere else!  We were on the hook.  We were on our own again.  And it felt good...  Those last bits of anxiety melted away and you know what?  We didn't even miss the air conditioning all that much!

Super Moon

Click here to see our Delorme Map

Two days later and finally with package in hand, we pulled up the anchor.  We literally took the package from the mailman and left.  No fanfare, just left.

It was noon and we thought maybe we could make it all the way to Puerto Patillas... but when we motored out into the protected waters of the reef line and the wind picked up... we weren't even making 5 knots...and Jezabelle was already seasick... we asked ourselves why?  What's the hurry?  We have no particular place to go and all... well, forever... to get there.

Goodbye Salinas!!!

Dodging bits of rain

So we pulled in the reins near the exit that is unjustly (at least today...) called Boca del Infierno... Mouth of Hell... and found a nice flat spot in a divot in the mangrove cay near the reef and dropped the hook.

N17°55.464
W066°12.988

As you can see from this Google shot, we are tucked in where the wave pattern hardly effects us at all.

We spent the afternoon getting things down below ready to go out into the waves.  It's been so long since we sailed the boat, we've almost forgotten how... We put things that might fly around away and just as we were settling to watch the sundown... Bruce noticed that the refrigeration was blinking a warning light... Low Voltage...  WTF!!!

Bruce went down and cleaned the sea strainers, thinking (hoping) that maybe that was causing extra stress on the system and the light went away...

I was standing by to assist and missed the sunset... so we join our Sundown already in progress...

We've been asked where we're going...  After having changed our plans a dozen times in the past two days, we've stopped answering that question.

Right now, we are just looking for a place to do some laundry and that's about as far ahead as we can look.

Maybe tomorrow we will have light winds and kindly seas that will allow us to make it all the way around to the east coast of Puerto Rico where we would like to stop at...  wait, there I go again.  Guess we'll all just have to wait and see!