Mattress closes

Last evening was bittersweet. "Once Upon a Mattress" finished its scheduled run. After last night's performance we dismantled the set to clear the stage for the next production "Forever Plaid."
It was sad to see the show come to an end. It has been so much fun and we got to spend time with some wonderful people. We will miss them. On the other hand, our evenings are now free and we can turn our attention to getting the boat read for our planned cruise this summer.
As of right now the big projects that need doing are 1) replace the broken motor mounts and 2) get the standing rigging checked. We would have liked to haul out and do a few things on the bottom, but time and finances aren't in alignment for that yet. We may do a haulout somewhere along the route to get those things done. (Bottom paint, a couple of seacocks, etc.)
Our plan, as it stands now, is to leave Boot Key Harbor somewhere around the first week of May. We'll stop at Driftwood for a few days to retrieve a few things we left on Walkure, give Walkure a good cleaning so she looks presentable for her as yet undiscovered new owners. (If you know anyone in the market for a great boat to "do the Loop." let us know.) Once that is done we plan to race north as quickly as we can to the Chesapeake, see a few things we missed last time, like maybe the Outer Banks, and then finish the Loop in Kingston, NY. It's only been 6 years!
Once we cross our wake we will spend some time with Mike and Kari in Albany, then sail back down the Hudson, work our way through Long Island Sound to Cape Cod, the Vinyard and Nantucket. We'll spend some time with family in MA, then start back south. We expect Jack Frost will be chasing us back down to the Keys.
It's an ambitious trip, but a good part of it is familiar territory since we did it in Walkure. It's only the Chesapeake to Hudson and Hudson to MA sections that we haven't done. With a bigger, heavier, faster boat, we should be OK.
Start watching for updates on a more regular basis now that the show is closed and we are really gearing up for a long cruise. I already canned 9 pounds of chicken for our larder, this week I'll do the same with some ground turkey. The beer and wine are piling up and we are gradually adding to our stock of non-perishables. The less often we have to stop for provisions, the faster the trip will be.

Here's a shot of me as the Wizard, quizzing "Princess #12" in Once Upon a Mattress.