My bags are packed, I'm ready to go

It's almost time to leave.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standing here outside your door 
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye,
but the dawn is breaking it's early morn, etc etc

Thanks to John Denver, we all know this song is called Leavin' on a Jet Plane. 

Well, I'm not leaving on a jet plane, I'm leaving on the slow boat to Seattle. It might as well be China, for how far it is and how long it will take us.

We did the shakedown cruise this afternoon, with no splinters (no crushed hull, no smashed dock). Jim was very happy with our progress. We backed out of the slip uneventfully,

We got to the fuel dock, negotiated a bit for our hydrocarbon fuel (diesel, gas, propane) and took on about 305 gallons. The guy next to us was taking 3000, so we didn't feel all bad with our $1200+ bill.

Then we motored out into the bay and spent an hour calibrating the autopilot, adjusting our flux compass (or is it flux capacitor? No, that's Back to the Future), doing circles and running in straight lines.

It was a very Beautiful Spring Day in San Diego Bay:

We returned to the dock, unpacked our stuff and straightened up our rooms.

I have the port forward stateroom with bunks, chest of drawers and locker (closet). Two portholes too.

In 12 hours we'll be warming up the diesels and heading out the channel into the mighty Pacific Ocean. Wish us luck...