What a great morning! The weather was perfect for an October day so for a January day it bordered on super-natural. I was called at 0500 and told the temperature was 41 degrees, and at 0800 it had climbed to 44. Not too bad for this time of year, especially when I can recall many years when we sailed in snow storms! (BTW, for the record, this is my 27th sea term but I'm still short of the Second Mate, the present record holder). But it was crazy between 0600 and 0730 when we had many escorted guests aboard and maybe another hundred cadets ashore. I was stressed and the disembarkation of the guests coupled with the embarking cadets looked like it was going to stretch into our departure operations. So, for the parents that witnessed my 'take charge actions', I apologize, but we needed to have time to muster the cadets and crew for accountability checks, and be ready to sail by 0820, which is 20 minutes before the predicted high water slack current.
Finally at 0836 we cast off our last mooring lines, telegraphed slow astern to the engine room, and the tug boats pulled us off the dock as the whistle sounded. This was a little ahead of schedule. We enjoyed a weather perfect transit down Buzzards Bay; at 1245 we disembarked a service technician off Narragansett Bay. We are now steaming south at 9 knots through the Right Whale protection zone and at 1800 will be accelerated to 15 knots. Next stop will be Charleston SC for bunkers. More tomorrow.
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