Planning

As much as I look forward to travel and exploration, Fall is my favorite season here at home and it is beautiful in Minnesota…oops, Wisconsin!  OK, Equally beautiful 😁 !!  We are looking forward to our last few days in Bayfield, seeing friends, family and spending some time exploring the areas around our new home in Amery, before we head East.  There are a few fall festivals we’d like to attend, including Lamont Cranston playing right on the river in Amery and “Sangriafest” at the Deer Lake Winery (shameless plug).

Our new home is tucked in the woods and located on a beautiful tree-lined, narrow, dead end road; perfect for walking Miss Coconut.  We are seeing changes in our maples and of course, the sumac.  Joe reminds me that we will see “Fall” all the way East but something about cruising the roads along the rivers and lakes here and seeing all the color, just makes me happy.

Looks like we’ll be raking!!

In conjunction with clearing out our old home was the dilemma of what to do with the 100+ lb. anchor given to us years ago by some friends who are now cruising full time.  We enjoyed it for all the years we had it at our home (great conversation piece) but felt it should go back to Bayfield, WI.   The anchor was pulled from Raspberry Bay by these friends after they snagged it with their own anchor.  How they got it onto their sailboat is really a question.  We used a Bobcat to move it around our yard and a large tractor to get it into a trailer to move it to its new home, the Maritime Museum, in Bayfield.  Thank you Heidi for coordinating this — we will miss you and Terry stalking us all summer 😉       The museum was very happy to receive this gift and we feel it was the right decision.

We are hoping on this trip East, it will work to see Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and, if time allows, the adjacent Great Lakes Science Center.  It appears there are several dog friendly hotels nearby so hopefully we can find some doggie daycare.  Yes, Coconut is worth it–have you heard her Wookie imitation???

The remainder of the trip is mainly through Pennsylvania, which is a stunningly beautiful drive.  Hopefully fully ablaze in Fall colors.

Depending on timing, we may be able to hit the sailboat weekend of the Annapolis Boat Show.  In any case, we will be driving across the scary 301 bridge and head north around the Chester River and back to Rock Hall to prepare Pursuit for her Fall adventure.  Hitting a few of the restaurants we liked will be a nice end to the days preparing the boat.  We are hoping to see friends made while living in Rock Hall and a couple we met in Bayfield who keep there boat in a nearby Marina.

The best news regarding Pursuit is her former owner located some additional documentation and low and behold the manual for our auto pilot was part of the stash.  Joe spent a lot of time writing to the creator/builder of the autopilot system and inquiring on blogs and websites for cruisers requesting information or a manual.  We also received a response from the creator, Will, so we are now fully armed to try to operate this system.  The autopilot has several components and they all work; however, the boat zig zags.  Everyone agrees it is just an adjustment but no one knew how the various settings on the instrument box worked.   Hope!!!

We know Pusuit’s cover is still in place as she is in view of the marina owner’s home and he has checked on her.  We imagine a day or two of cleaning and then “plop” into the water but you boaters know how this sometimes goes…..

Joe has been planning routes and “must see” stops in between all of the struggles of moving and trying to sell a home.  We also know that several of the boxes in our not yet empty storage unit are earmarked for Pursuit.  We will continue to monitor the ICW’s condition and watch the storms now forming in the Atlantic.  So much to do!!!  Not complaining!  Hopefully, everything will fall into place making the hard work all worth it.  After all, this is what we chose to do and I have a hankering for shrimp and grits.