Snowbirds to Miami - Day 1

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One of the main reasons I retired from Johns Hopkins this past year was so that Ann and I could live out our dream of spending the Winter months somewhere warm on a boat. After years of planning, it all came together this morning. Our awesome neighbors Jeff & Stephanie (who always appreciate a shout out) came to see us off, and we set sail at 8:05 a.m. Here is Empty Nest last night at our home dock, our last sunset in Annapolis before heading South.

Last Sunset in Annapolis

As we prepared to leave, I plugged in our route to our first stop, Solomans Island, into the electronics.

Empty Nest helm station

Our first sight, of course, was Thomas Point lighthouse. Always glamorous.

Thomas Point Lighthouse



Our path today

If you are tracking us using my Garmin Inreach site, you would see this path we took today. It was about 5 hours from home until we were on the hook. Once we were safely anchored in Back Creek at Solomons, we brought down the dinghy and took Gimel to shore to do his business.

Gimel needs to do his business

We did not set out to buy matching sweatshirts, but we were cold on the dinghy and it would be colder going back, so we picked these up. And the sweatshirt even has my birth year (off by 100).

When we got back to the mother ship, I had to drive around with the dinghy and take some pictures. I missed the sun setting behind the boat by about 2 minutes. Ugh. Will plan better next time.


The plan tomorrow is to stop and anchor in Deltaville, MD. Last stop before Virginia. The weather today was ideal. No wind, no waves, and warm enough temperatures that we did not use any climate control. Could not have scripted this day better! And to top it off, we picked up some famous key lime pie in town. Tomorrow's breakfast will be memorable.


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