Planning the first trip

Although my wife Sharon and I had done a few overnight trips on a previous boat and on Coast2Coast, we had never done an extended trip.  We planned to do so when we purchased Coast2Coast, but life, family obligations and business obligations got in the way for a couple of years.  Finally, this year all of the elements were in place to have the freedom for an extended trip, so we began to plan.  My brother had moved to a place on the water near New Bern, NC, and since we are on the water near Gloucester, VA, it seemed like a perfect first trip, especially since the Intracoastal Waterway, also called the ICW, came down the Chesapeake Bay and approached within a few miles of New Bern on the Nuese River.

We would also be cruising with our two Border Terriers, Jake and Kimi.  While Jake had overnighted on the boat, Kimi never had, and neither of them had been on an extended boat trip.  We decided to do an overnight trip just to shake down a few things and acclimate the dogs to sleeping on the boat.  I also wanted to teach the dogs that they could use an Astro Turf mat I had placed on the swim platform as a bathroom in case we could not get them ashore.  We anchored behind the Goodwin Islands near the mouth of the York River near our home for the trial.

It was a pleasant evening and everything worked fine on the boat.  Jake and Kimi enjoyed the evening.  They both have life vests and I have attached a sensor to each one that is part of my Autotether System, so if they go overboard I'll get an alarm.

The biggest problem was getting them to use the Astro Turf.  They both see the boat as a "no go" place, but after telling often that they could "go out" there, and walking them through the access door to the swim platform on a leash like I was taking them out from a hotel, they finally both reluctantly agreed that it was OK.  The only other problem that night was that it was a little windy so it took a while for Kimi to get comfortable enough with the sounds and motion to settle down for the night.

After the trial run and outfitting the boat with food and equipment we felt we would need, we figured we were ready to give it a try.