Saturday, 6/1/2019 – It’s pretty hard to believe that we’ve been married for 6 years.  In some aspects, it seems like it’s been so much shorter than 6 years.  Time flies when you’re having fun, right?!  In other aspects, and not negatively, it seems like it’s been so much longer than 6 years.  No matter how long (or short) it’s felt like, we spent our anniversary celebrating in a way we never have before – boating on the Chesapeake Bay in our boat.  It was a beautiful day to be on the water, though the wind was a bit on the light side.  We started the morning around 10am by requesting our first ever bridge opening so that we could take care of a few chores that we’ve been anxious to accomplish since moving the boat up from Deltaville.  In my head, the whole requesting that the bridge open for us was going to be much more complicated than it actually was.  The bridge tender was fantastically pleasant and my child-like glee when I saw him in the window, looking down and waving, as we passed through the open bridge was the icing on my happy cake.

We agreed that there wouldn’t be any boat work this weekend, ya know, anniversary and all, but we needed to get diesel and pump out since we hadn’t taken care of either once since Deltaville.  We were quite pleased when we only needed to take 23 gallons of diesel (for a grand total of $71.19) to fill our tank.  Being able to recalibrate the holding tank sensors since we were finally able to pump out was a pretty big win, too.  We called for our second bridge opening (woohoo!) to get back under the bridge after we were done and headed a bit south.

We found a quite spot just outside the main channel not far south from the bridge and decided to drop the anchor for a bit and grill up some lunch.  Since I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to steer the boat while Josh dropped the anchor the first time we anchored, we decided to reverse roles – Josh would steer the boat while I dropped the anchor.  The decision was a good one and we set the anchor in about 12 feet of water.  After getting settled, we broke out the grill that had come with the boat and Josh grilled up some lunch.

Josh was anxious to get some sailing in, so, after about 2 hours at anchor, we decided it was time to a bit more south to get some wide open space to experiment with the sails.  After a small snafu pulling up the anchor, we were on our way. (Note to self: make sure to reposition the chain in the locker as it’s being pulled up and into the locker by the windlass…if it gets piled up at the back of the locker, the windlass will beep loudly, stop working and Josh will start cussing.)

We spent a few hours putzing around, Josh manipulating the sails in 2ish knots of winds and the dog and I alternating nap duty.  We wanted to make sure we got back to our slip with plenty of daylight and ended up getting back around 6pm.  Docking was a bit more challenging than we’d like, as our bowthruster has decided it’s on strike, but, we eventually got tied up, just the two of us, and Josh only cussed at the boat once.  Not too bad!

I almost forgot to mention that the dog got a life jacket this weekend, too.  I think he’s got a future in doggie life jacket modeling…hahaha!

Friday, 6/7/2019 – Sunday, 6/9/2019 – Josh took Friday off work to head to Dutch Springs for a weekend full of diving and divemaster candidate work.  I worked on Friday but left work and headed to Dutch Springs to join Josh and spend the weekend tent camping and providing some ground support and go-fering for the divers.

It was an absolutely beautiful weekend and the first weekend I can remember that it hasn’t rained…not one single drop…all weekend long.  We took a quick pass through the 2019 Dive Expo that Dutch Springs was holding on Saturday, with high hopes of winning something.  We weren’t lucky that weekend but I did decide that I want to do a few full face mask demos after seeing a pretty sweet looking hybrid mask.  Despite the chilly water, the majority of the group got a ton of dives in over the weekend.  I opted to keep the suffering to a minimum and stayed dry except for the night dive on Saturday evening.

Saturday, 6/22/2019 – Sunday, 6/23/2019 – Saturday, we took the boat out and did some sailing practice and then spent a while having cocktails on B Dock with some new friends, Jim, Pat and Tim. Jim and Pat were working on completing the Great Loop and had recently purchased a new-to-them boat so we spent some time touring each others boats on Saturday. It was super cool to get to check out their boat and to hear about their adventures.

On Sunday, we said goodbye to our new friends Jim and Pat who were headed to somewhere near Delaville; Tim who had purchased Jim and Pat’s old boat and was moving it closer to his home before embarking on his own Great Loop adventure; and our dock neighbors Joe and Nancy who were headed back home with their boat Miss Nancy for the rest of the summer. It was our first real “see you sometime in the future” moment with boating friends we had made, which was an interesting rollercoaster of emotions.

Tuesday, 6/25/2019 – We got an exciting delivery today! A brand new, beautiful, shiny FOLDING WHEEL! Since the first time we stepped onto our boat, I had envisioned replacing the huge, impeding 42″ wheel with a folding wheel and today, it FINALLY happened! To say we’re excited to get it installed is an extreme understatement!

Friday, 6/28/2019 – After a long week at work, we took some time to spend the evening with a bunch of dive buddies for West Shore Scuba’s Diver’s Night Out. One of the main discussions at Diver’s Night Out was West Shore Scuba’s annual Bonaire trip. Knowing that one week in Bonaire wasn’t nearly enough this year, we committed to spending two full weeks in Bonaire with West Shore Scuba in early 2020. We are SO excited! Since we got the dates for the trip this evening, we booked our flights as soon as we got home!

Saturday, 6/29/2019 – Sunday, 6/30/2019 – Between spending time at the boat and spending time at Dutch Springs, we had been seriously neglecting the house. Like…SERIOUSLY neglecting!

We decided it was probably time to be responsible home owner’s and spend a weekend at home, taking care of chores, errands and taming the jungle that had become our front yard. It was a long, hot weekend full of not-so-glamorous or exciting work, but, it was well worth it in the end.