On To The End

We made it back to Selkie.

It is going to be hard to not be emotional about this last little bit of our journey.  This is it.

Ninety miles to go and we’re taking three days to do it.

We have a reservation at the Solomon Island Yacht Club on 30 August and we have family and friends joining us for a little celebration.

The celebration will not just include crossing our week, but will also include our 41st wedding anniversary.

Selkie looked great when we first saw her.

She had a little bit of bird poop here and there and some algae growing in the dinghy cover, but the bright work that Libbie worked so hard on and the interior of the boat was in great shape, and I had just had a diver clean Selkie’s hull.

The engine room was also very good.

Once on board, we did our safety checks and made sure that all the engines started appropriately and ran with the nominal indicators.

We are very happy to check those boxes without incident.

We worked hard to get her cleaned up as the next morning, we had a couple of parties coming to take a look at Selkie, hopefully to purchase her.

Wednesday arrived. We met two very nice couples who were very interested in Selkie and complimented us on her appearance. We will wait to hear from them to see how they want to proceed (if they do).

Later in the late afternoon we were joined by two old friends of mine. 

One was a member of my high school, a member of my wrestling team, and a real rapscallion.  We enjoyed each other’s company more than 50 years ago, and it was great to enjoy each other now. 

The other was an ex-colleague from my first company, Westinghouse.  That means we’ve known each other for at least 30 years, and had reconnected on social media, like many of my old friends.  He and I reminisced about fellow coworkers, and our experiences supporting some famous US Navy ships, some still protecting our freedom. 

Both of these fine gentlemen were able to make a connection as they had some things in common, including living not too far from each other. 

I hope they can share a beer together in the future.  

We went to bed and as I fell asleep, I prayed that Selkie would treat us well the rest of our three week journey wrapping up the Great American Loop and exploring the Chesapeake.

She certainly has treated us well the previous six thousand plus miles. 

The next morning opened with partly cloudy skies, a light southwest wind and temperatures in the low 70’s. 

We cast off.

Selkie purred like a kitten as we made our way out to the Chesapeake Bay from Little Current Marina in Norfolk.

As we left, I started to hear a sound like some huge angry bees which raised my blood pressure a bit.

I looked around and saw the Marines practicing landings on their big hovercrafts.

These things are big. 

The older ones are around 80’ long and can carry an M1 Abrams Tank. The newer ones are closer to 100’ and have a bigger carrying capacity. 

I’m glad it wasn’t a sound Selkie was making. 

We had a forty mile run up to Jackson Creek where I had picked out an anchorage. Of course we would anchor our first night out.

As we made our way up the Chesapeake Bay, we saw several navy ships out doing sea trials and patrols.

There were more commercial container and break bulk freighters plying the waters heading in different directions.

It was awesome to be underway again.

The winds remained under ten knots, and Selkie waltzed her way to our anchorage.

We worked our way through a narrow channel and arrived at Jackson Creek just south of Deltaville, Virginia. We dropped anchor and settled in.

We have to start sorting out our stuff in preparation for selling Selkie. Some stuff we will leave behind for the new owners, some stuff we will take home, and some stuff… well, we don’t know what we were thinking.

We are making progress one day at a time. I was able to save my favorite hats to take home.

We have a long way to go. Not to cross our wake in Solomons. To unpack Selkie.