Cutting the cord

October 3 we are finally shoving off - a day later than planned, but not too bad considering all the myriad details that came up in the final hours. Our lawyer(!) David Brown, who both prepared wills/trust for the boys and us, and gave us advice from his own HaHa advantures, told us of a dock-line cutting ceremony prior to setting off on a long voyage - so with friends Sonja and Sam, Sumit, Ravi and Evelyn looking on and ready to give us a push off, Valencio and Tino cut the last dock line and we were on our way!

Loads of dolphins showed up as we passed under the Golden Gate.  And unlike our shakedown sail to HMB, the Bonine and homeopathic remedies did their work and nobody got sick.  The boys slept most of the way, unclear whether this is from medications or rolling.  We did see some exciting waves going across the South bar, but none came close to breaking near us.  Then had to motor-sail as wind had turned South.  But after arrival at about 6PM, we had our best cheap eats in a long time - huge bowls of excellent non-dairy clam chowder at Barbera's, very filling and perfect for a first evening of a long voyage.

Very grateful for the presence of David and Angie on this first leg, as we were so stressed from everything that we could easily have headed off in the wrong direction ;-) David also set up the antennas for wifi and AIS (identifies big ships in vicinity), while Angie lived up to her name by packing many supplies very efficiently - all on the second when we should have been setting off, or them doing other things in their lives.

D and A left after those bowls of chowder and some key lime pie (which was decent, but nowhere near David's famous homemade version).

Next day we organized (parts of) the boat while Jan got the wifi and router working, and then went for a great walk along the shore to Pillar Point - Patti and Jan walked a little labyrinth, the boys played javelin with rushes and explored an old water pipe coming down the hillside.