A very rushed departure day

Wednesday 18 Nov, HHN, last day of winterization (day 49):
Temperature is sitting at freezing point this morning, and I can tell you it was not much higher inside the boat! So, I’m happy to head off to do the laundry and thaw out. I’m even tempted to climb into one of the tumble driers for a few minutes! Wednesday is seniors day at the launderette (sorry: laundromat) and I’m one of them. The crowd are mostly black elderly women, and I am thoroughly entertained by their banter. One of them claims she is losing her marbles. And when she keeps accidentally putting items of clothing into my tumble drier, I think she might be right. The third time she did it, she laughed so hard I think she might have wet herself! If you want to meet real locals in Maryland, the lauromat is the place!

My day is working through an intense set of lists, all about leaving the boat and making sure I’ve not forgotten anything. I finally get all the antifreeze through the systems when Oana reminds me about the bilge pumps – they need it through them too. The list seems never ending and I’m missing not having Oana around. She is the chief packer between the 2 of us.
After finishing with the flushing, I move all the pieces from “Trophy Corner” into the engine room, to have them safely out of the way. And all the tubs of smaller parts stacked in the galley. The decks are now clear, but it’s getting pretty crowded inside now.

Finally, 1 hour before leaving I feel I might just about get everything done, when I remember I haven’t had a shower yet! Panic! And even more panic when I realise I now have no bike to cycle to the showers. I’ve cleaned and packed that away too. So it’s a jog to the showers and the quickest shower I’ve ever had.

Ray turns up bang on 7pm (thanks Ray for taking me to the airport) and before I know it, I am saying goodbye to Cloudy Bay again. It’s been such a rushed day, I haven’t even had time to be sentimental about departure. I’m more focused on getting back to Oana.

At Dulles airport, it’s like a ghost town and I’m checked in and through security in record time. I really like this aspect of travel during Covid!

The daily blogs will end here. But I have taken several projects home with me and I’ll summarize progress over the winter every now and then. Till then, hope you’ve enjoyed the winterizing of Cloudy Bay over these last 7 weeks. We’ll be back in spring 2021!