Just like with life ashore, cruising life is all about balance. We find that neglecting maintenance projects so that we can maximize our sailing time makes us nervous about something serious breaking on the boat. And during our months of nearly non-stop projecting, we found that working on maintenance all of the time made us really want to go sailing.

Our friends Dave & Julia and Mary & Brian had a going away get together onboard Baker Street Blue the night before we departed the marina
Angie giving one last dog biscuit to her friend Skipper, who lives with his people, Brian and Mary, on their sailboat Windward Passage just down the dock from Madrone at the marina in Brunswick

The ideal situation, for us at least, falls somewhere in the middle – enough working on the boat to keep our confidence level in Madrone’s condition high, but not so much that we’re slaves to the boat.

One of our goals for our mini-cruise was to test out our new sails. A lovely sunset sail for the genoa’s maiden voyage

So after exploring the extreme sides of that balance in the past year, we’re hoping to get back to somewhere in the middle. And the first step is a simple one – stop working on projects and go sailing!

We anchored near Blythe Island County Park and stretched our legs on the shady paths
Checking out the Spanish Moss

For our first post-project mini-cruise, our goal was to stay close to “home”, take it easy, and test all the various changes we made over the last several months. Luckily, St. Simons Sound is a perfect location for that. Over the course of almost a week, we hopped from anchorage to anchorage, never ending up more than 10nm from where we started.

Motoring past the car carrier dock. It is a super busy operation. There are typically two to three car carriers unloading and loading at a time

It’s great to be on the move again during the day, and it’s great to be gently rocking at anchor again at night. We’re very happy to be off the dock again.

Our friends from the marina came out to anchor with us for a night- Baker Street Blue, Madrone & Windward Passage at anchor together
Sunrise with Madrone and Windward Passage (Photo courtesy of Baker Street Blue)