Backstory - Part 2

So, lets start in Baltimore, where the boat was berthed for over a year. After getting the house packed and sent off to France in August, and then getting it sold right away to a colleague and her husband, we went off to France to meet the containers. Unfortunately, the containers were hung up in Baltimore by Customs, probably because we put the pickup truck into one of the the containers at the last minute. They took nearly 2 weeks to figure out what to do about it - xray the container, open it, or what. In the end, it seems that they did open it, because we found a cut security bolt inside when it wass delivered.

We had hoped to have the containers delivered in mid-late September, but because of the US Customs, we missed 3 sailings, and then when they did get to France, the French customs people took some time to decide what to do. They also focused on the truck, and eventually decided that it was a commercial vehicle(!), and they charged us nearly 2000 euros of import tax. This delayed delivery till mid October, and while we were waiting, jlm's mother passed away in NY. What to do?!?

jlm decided that there was not much she could do for her mother by rushing back to NY, so she decided to stay to help with the containers. They arrived, and with the tremendous help of our neighbors, were unloaded and shifted into the house&barn. We then went back to the US, buried jlm's mother and cleaned out her apt, and traveled to Pittsburgh to pick up the cats, at rxc's mother's house. Then we all stuffed the car full and went back to Baltimore, where our last residence in the US was located. We somehow managed to stuff all of the "stuff" into the boat, and spent 2 weeks installing an SSB and some other major equipment, before we left on Nov 18, the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

Luckily for us, we have a complete enclosure for the cockpit, so the trip south was not nearly as cold as it could have been. The first day down the bay started out foggy, but the sun eventually came out, and we were able to do some sailing. The winds were fickle, however, and after dark we had to start the engine and we motored most of the night. It was actually good to have the engine running, because the blower exhausts into the cockpit and helped keep us warm.

We got into Norfolk about 9:30, running down past the naval base to the marina right in downtown Norfolk. We did some essential shopping for groceries and charts, took a nap, and then got ready to enter the ditch.