a walkabout it is

Wind out of the south the first couple of days, I'll do all my sailing on Chesapeake Bay.  A south wind is no way to work our way down the Eastern Shore seaside.  Fine by me.  The walkabout will be an extended version of the Bay Days 220, one of my favorite cruises.  We'll launch out of Crisfield, work our way up Tangier Sound to the Little Choptank, Choptank and Miles Rivers.  No set plan or route, but I'll look forward to visits to the Bay's offshore islands, Tangier and Smith, maybe Taylor's Island, certainly Oxford, Knapp Narrows on Tilghman Island, St. Michaels and maybe Cambridge.  And a lot of places is between.  The photo above is from day four of the Bay Days sail, sailing the Choptank towards the Tred Avon River, a very breezy morning sailing under mizzen and jib.   

The electronics are charging away, batteries for the GoPro and Fuji X-20, and the power pack for the GoalZero solar kit.

Out in the garage the gear and supplies do not appear as large and as complicated as when it was all piled up in the living room.  Starting from the top you can see the portable head, sleeping gear that gets tucked up under the foredeck,water, gas, dry bag of freeze dried meals, plastic jars of food, cook and notebook kits and hats.  What you don't see is the gear stored under the seats of Spartina's cockpit seats, that's already packed - fishing gear, toilet and cleaning supplies, safety gear, batteries and spare parts.  Clothes will get packed tomorrow night.

We should start off under clear skies, then have some moisture moving it.  But that forecast is three days out and could certainly change.  The only true forecast for weather is that there will in fact be weather, beyond that it is at best an educated guess.

Here's my tracking url, which I will post again before I leave.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0JPDqxA4Ln2kgAnlVGkFVHAji21Fr0M76

Am I the only one who gets nervous as I pack my gear and look at the weather?  Shallow breaths and long sighs, and wondering what it will be like.  It will be this way until we push away from the dock in Crisfield.