17 August 2024

Well … we finally left our slip at Marina Village in Alameda, CA after four (4!) years of preparation. And we had to leave: T wisely made slip reservations in Ventura for 26 August so we would depart from LAX vs SFO for our annual Greece jaunt on 2 September, so the jig was indeed up. We waited two weeks longer than we planned to for a post office debacle I won’t get into … Suffice it to say that the extra time was good: I got some more pickleball in, got to play and spend the night with Jude, had drinks with Kim and a follow up visit with Glo, had a final pickleball game with Jane, and drinks and fries with Moms at Barca. All good in the proverbial hood.

On departure day, I picked Mom up so she could see us off and drive off in our — now her — car, which softened the blow a bit. She left me with a perfect parting goodie bag complete with flowers, fried chicken, curry chicken, Hershey almond nuggets, and her specialty: an abundance of cards. She also packed a tear-inducing care package which i opened two days later and included her favorite fan, more cards (she’s truly a card freak), and some practical essentials (including the all important tiger balm).

It’s super busy leading up to departure, so no time to be sad. Feels pretty surreal, but not huge yet since our first stop is Half Moon Bay … somewhere we’ve been before. I think it will all hit harder when we’ve sailed somewhere new. At any rate, not much wind, so motorsailed the whole way. Took us seven hours. No real drama until we anchored and T took the traveler off to free a line … at which point a good chunk of the ball bearings fell out, some alas irretrievably into the ocean. Of course we had extras, so ultimately no biggie. We slept really well after not having gotten much sleep the night before, pelican funk and seal barking notwithstanding.