I dutifully set my alarm for 7AM in the "Mourning" because I didn't want to hold up leaving the dock. At 7:30 Dana knocked on my door. My alarm showed it was going off but there was no sound. My suspicion is the waterproof case I've gotten for it is interfering. I jumped up and tried to get ready as fast as I could. I walked up to the marina facility, took a quick shower, and returned.

Note to self: I /ALWAYS/ forget to bring flip flops. Bring flip flops next time. 

I got  back to the boat, jumped on board, and went to stow my towel and toiletries and by the time I made it back on deck just as  the boat was turning out of the dock. 

"Wait. What? I was just going to go up to the helm." I thought and then I remembered, "Oh, right. I'm crew."

I sat down at the table in the salon and messed with electronics. There was an impressive sunrise over Baltimore that I needed to repeatedly photograph.

Given the magnitude of this adventure it is my intent to try to capture the memorable moments as they happen. The difficulty is that there are too many memorable moments and it isn't even the end of Day 2 yet. We are still in the waters of the Northern end of the Chesapeake Bay that I am intimately familiar with. 

I tried to use more of the technology I've brought along. I have my adventure camera which tags locations of the photos taken with it making it easy to show where things happened on the Trip Map Tab (see top of the page). I have the GoPro action camera that Duncan gave me. I got a floating handle for it. I always have great ambitions to weave video into what I do but I rarely do anything with the videos I take. It's going to take a while before I'm comfortable talking to a camera but I feel that it might capture a bit more than just the words I put here.

There was coffee and little for me to do so for a short while I futzed with all this tech and then made myself my typical breakfast, oatmeal, pecans, and blueberries with coffee.

Just as i sat down to have my breakfast, Dana embarked on the task of installing the new starboard water heater, which was contained in one of the boxes he had shipped to my house. I finished quickly and went to see if I could help him. 

Again, it felt like a very unusual role for me. Just as I am so used to being the one at the helm, I am used to being the one contorted down in some hole cramping muscles as I try to repair one thing or another. It was not so this time. I just stood by handing Dana tools and getting him things as he needed them. I can tell you from experience, having someone there once you contorted yourself into some cramped space, is invaluable. So I dutifully got tools, fasteners, etc as he needed them and stood by feeling like I was not doing nearly enough.

Dana is driven by some deep energy source I cannot comprehend. He moves from one, what I would call major, task to another effortlessly. Pack up the boat. Clear all the lines. Launch the boat. Ok, now it's time to install a water heater. There's something in the starboard drive engine that needs to be checked. Dive down into the bilge. Finish testing the water heater. After that, if there's enough wind we'll fly the spinnaker. 

Endless energy. 

It is my polar opposite. While it is less oppressive now, I move through molasses. These last two days have been higher energy than I have had since July.

"This (being on this sailboat) energizes me. I love it." There's a passion to the way he says it and you can see how driven he is. Endless energy. 

The water heater install went flawlessly much like running the outhaul line yesterday. When Dana works on something we collaborate on approaches and ideas and the while is greater than the sum of the two. I enjoy the projects we do even if I am just handing him tools and offering perspectives. 

 One thing that has really impressed me, which I knew, but have now witnessed in more detail, is how seriously Dana takes this endeavor. Things are done Right(tm). Things are done well. The boat is organized. The are ample spares. All the reasonable maintenance has been done. He is careful. He is thoughtful. He values situational awareness and attention to detail. However, if you listen to him speak and the commentary, one might get a different impression. More on that in a little bit.

Once the water heater was installed, connected, and tested and the starboard engine mystery resolved there was again not much for me to do. So I decided to experiment speaking into the GoPro while I was sitting in the salon.

Talking to a camera is a skill I have not yet developed. 

Moments after I mentioned to the camera that I had not been at the helm, Dana called me up to relieve Peter who had been piloting all morning. 

I would pilot the boat for the remainder of the day. There wasn't enough wind to merit raising the sails so we just motored all the way to Bert Jabins marina to pick up a spare starter motor because the one on the port engine has been acting up. We tied to a mooring ball and then attempt to lower the dingy into the drink.

So Peter and I lowered the dingy and Dana got into it when there was a shout. "Raise it back up"

It floats better if you put the drain plug into it.

I was very pleased to hear Peter say, "At the beginning, were there any signs, any signs at all?"

I laughed.

Once that was resolved, we lowered the dingy back into the water, this time without water rushing into it. 

It stepped into it, which for me is still a very awkward and error prone maneuver. The two stroke engine on the dingy has been having some issues. Dana pulled the cord to rip the thing into life. 

Then nothing.

He did it again. 

Nothing.

He pulled it again.

Nothing.

He pushed the primer pump and pulled the cord.

Nothing.

He yanked on the starter cord until he was breathing heavy.

This was a workout.

I was on the verge of offering to relieve him when that expression of realization appeared on this face.

"It works better if you put a key into it." he said.

Triumph!

"Were there any signs, any signs at all." he joked. 

It had become the refrain for the day.

We made our way to the dock and quickly found the building where we could pick up the starter motor. We then took a walk around the marina. It's very professional and cleanly maintained and is filled with just a ridiculous number of what look to me to be extremely expensive boats. 

We had seen a large catamaran on the way in that Dana had taken an interest in. On the way back out, the owner was on board and as Dana often does he engaged the person in conversation.

Peter and I walked up afterwards. The owner looked at Peter and said, "Hey, didn't you fuel me up in Yarmouth?"

They had all crossed paths up North just a  few months ago. 

This world I find myself in is crazy small. 

We made our way back to the boat and then I piloted it over to the anchorage in Annapolis. We had made crazy good time so it was still early in the day, around lunch time, so we took the dingy into Annapolis. We had lunch at Mission BBQ which for me was an error. I need to be really careful. Sadly, it disagreed with me and I was in a super low energy state for the remainder of the day. 

Dana needed to get some things and suggested that I show Peter around. Unfortunately, I was feeling pretty poorly with the commensurate brain fog that happens so I was of little use. But we went on a nice walk through downtown Annapolis. 

I did find some coffee, which helped. 

Eventually we found our way back down to the area where the dingy was tied up and we waited for Dana to return. 

A woman wearing a safety helmet on a pretty impressive looking bicycle rode up and started trying to load stuff from the bike into a dingy. I got up and offered to hand her her stuff so she could load it into the dingy. She seemed to appreciate this. I sat back down. Peter started talking to her and soon we found out that she was on the 45 foot catamaran that was moored right next to us and that she and her husband were on their way to Florida and the Bahamas.

It's very strange. I've been coming to Annapolis for literally decades. But yet, here I am on the first real day of this journey not even out of my home waters yet and suddenly I'm meeting people who are on journey's like the one I am on. I've only met a couple people in a lifetime who have done what I've been invited to do and yet, today, essentially day 1 under way, I've already met two. 

It's strange how that works. I talked about riding the Trans America Trail for years before I did it and met only a precious few who had done it but once I was underway it seemed like just the most normal thing to do because everyone was doing it. 

It's strange how all of a sudden to do something like this, to plan to sail out into the Atlantic Ocean for a thousand miles or so, and then to meet people who do it all the time make it feel, oh, maybe it is not such a big deal ... but, of course, this is a fallacy. This is a very big deal. 

As the conversation went on we told her we were just crew and somehow the topic of our trip to St Martin came up combined with the fact that I have virtually no sailing experience.

"How did you get to crew on a boat like that with no experience?!"

This is not the first time I have been asked this question. 

Just then Dana walked up, overhearing us, said, "Oh, within a few days he'll have plenty of experience."

It's late and I am very very tired. We got back a little while ago from a dinner that Duncan and Ann treated at Middletons. It was really nice for them to come down for a final time before we get too far away. I'm going to miss them while we are gone.