Well, they managed to get the dock lines off and leave before dark this year!  I (this is posted by Ben) came down to drop off their laptop and sat phone in time to “help” with some last minute preparations (I helped clean out their condo fridge, aka eat lunch).  Then Jake listened to Herb, we untied the lines and unhooked the cord, and off they went.  It was a chilly 28ºF in the car when I got to it.  In the pictures you can actually see the heat rising out of the water because it’s still over 50º.  They’re in for a cold night for sure with the wind, but they’re also looking good weather wise in terms of maybe skipping a fuel stop in Bermuda.  Time will tell for that.

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Testing the email writing system before the boat leaves. They’re
packing avalanche as I type with a weather window today. It’s looking
like a 2pm departure time. Lets see if this get’s posted.
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It’s May, and for us that means it’s time to deliver Avalanche home 1600 miles from Antigua to Jamestown, RI.  Jake and I leave May 17th for Antigua with our bags filled with spare parts, snacks for those midnight watches and winter clothes for the part of the trip north of the Gulf Stream.  It will take us about a week to provision, prepare meals, check out and do maintenance work on all the systems, put away all the cruising gear and set up all the delivery safety equipment.  The crew will join us at the end of the week and we plan to lose the docklines after breakfast on Saturday May 24th and set sail for home.

There is a possibility we might write something as we make our preparations.  That will be a function of how well organized we are.  If not, we will definitely be writing each day as we make our way north.  We hope you will join us.

This message was emailed in using the system we will be using on the
boat. It’s an attempt to email in our location so you can see exactly
where we are when we make posts. That above location is where the
boat is while getting ready to leave. Here’s the location:
Click
Me!!!
.