the last of the preparations...

We got up on Monday morning, and decided what needed to be done for the day.  We are definitely leaving at midnight tonight.  It's a lunar eclipse, and a full 'blood moon' at that, so it should be a once in a lifetime sail.  I continued to monitor the weather throughout the day, and it's going to get really crappy by Wednesday afternoon, and potentially stay that way throughout the rest of the week.  There's a narrow window of good wind and weather, so we're going to take it and hope for the best :)

It seemed that all we had to do was fill the water tanks, fuel tank, fold up the bikes, and that's about it...Riiiiiight.

We managed to stay busy and on our feet until well after 9:30pm, when Captain went down for a nap.

Captain did some final touch ups on the blue piglet, then I
took some pictures and got it posted on Craigslist.
Richard and Sophia stopped by to bid us goodbye,
and I helped him book a quick flight home for a
family emergency.  I'm going to miss Richard-
he became a good friend to us this year, too.
 

Anybody want to buy the blue piglet?!

Willis was delivered to Kenny &
Fran's, and he quickly made himself
right at home :)
Clearly, he misses us terribly.
Dern cat.

We looked to be in good shape chore-wise, so we took
Len up on the offer to pull traps one last time.
 

Any day on the water is a good day for this girlie :)

Covered in slime, but having a ball.  Sadly, we only
got one claw...and we got stopped by an unmarked
FWC.  Thankfully, Len had all his crap in order-
no violations!

After we got back, Len gave us a lesson
in casting a net...he was after a school
of mullet in the canal.

Nice throw!  Nice action shot!  No fish :(

When we got back to Banana Bay late in the day, it was
a steady stream of well-wishers dropping by-
including little Suesea, who put on her party dress
just for the farewell occasion :)

Len invited us down to Springers for one last go
around of music, but we needed to finish readying
the boat for passage. Cap'n also needed a nap.
We were sorry to not say good bye to Larry, though.
He and Robyn had just returned from the Dry Tortugas. 

We asked Len to stop by after Springers to send us off.
I wanted to get some pics of Marquesa leaving.

Time to cast off the dock lines...

Take two- we couldn't see one spring line in the dark!
and then we were off...making an overnight passage
to Marco Island.  With a little luck, and a lot of prayer,
hopefully we'll have fair winds, following seas,
no weather, and I won't get seasick!

G'Nite, y'all!