Today was all about making miles, though there was limited anchorages along the way so the ability to fully maximize your miles for the day was a bit limited!  

I had a few checks to do on the oil and engine before starting up and seemed to just be moving slower that morning.  Last to depart the anchorage, which is not uncommon for me.   I suspect that many people sailing as a couple or with a second person on board just get up and get underway.   Then one person can sort breakfast or coffee and the other can motor down the channel.   At least that is what John and I did on our boat and it worked great.  

However, when sailing on your own you do have to be a little more prepared.  I eat breakfast before pulling up the anchor, mostly because after the anchor I usually have muddy hands and even though I wash them as soon as I can just something about the mud puts me off the thought of breakfast and so I devour it before the mud is involved.   

This morning, it was just an apple and peanut butter though that is unusual for me.  Breakfast is usually cooked and served hot but I am determined to just get to Florida so am making do with the provisions I have on board and am officially out of bread, avocado, tomatoes, most fruit other than canned.  So I kept it simple today!    

And I always make my coffee before hand, but I usually only get two sips of it before going to pull the anchor.  It is always a bit of a game to see how long the anchor took to pull based on how hot my next sip of coffee is when I get back to the helm.   Though in retrospect there are a lot of factors here: whether or not I closed the lid fully, how cold it was that morning, etc.   Ah well, the little games you play with yourself when sailing alone, hey!?

Truly an uneventful day with nothing to report other than a few hours of glorious warm where I changed into shorts and a t-shirt just to get a bit of sun and Vitamin D.   The t-shirt made it a couple of hours and the shorts were immediately terminated after dropping anchor, waited a little long on the shorts but no practical time to change presented itself.  Other than my legs getting the first sun they had seen in months, I spent a bit of time looking ahead to route plan (and dreaming of Floridian and Bahamian sunshine) to St. Augustine where I will stop and visit friends George & Mary, pick up parcels and provision.   

Landing at the anchorage for the night, I pulled up again next to buddy boat Sea Wind (I had my sights set on a further anchorage but it was another 18 miles and the current was against me for most of the day so backup anchorage it was).   I dropped the hook and Tala found herself in a drone photoshoot for the evening with the photo above being courtesy of Parker on SV Sea Wind, what a legend!   

With no reception, I did a bit of work drawing a logo and route planning but in the end was in bed by 8pm with plans (per the route planning) to get up early and be the FIRST one out of the anchorage the next day.  The drive to get south was renewed by the reminder of how much I love the sunshine and warmth! 

Wish me luck!