Christening Sunny Tug and departing for our shakedown cruise
Before we left for the shakedown cruise, we wanted to properly christen the boat for good luck and to officially establish her new name with Neptune, the god of the seas.
Sunny Tug is named in honor of Diane's dog Sunny. He (and Diane!) have been a dear friends for years, and I wanted to honor the love Sunny has shown, and the wonderful adventures we have shared together.
Diane came up with the idea of a "champagne bottle" filled with treats as a way Sunny could share in the christening ceremony. He could happily tear into the "bottle" as I was cracking a bottle of champagne over the bow of the boat.
Diane and Sunny are on the west coast, while Caroline and I were on the east coast (a three hour time difference). In order to make this work, Diane conducted the ceremony at 5:30 am while we were conducting it at 8:30 am.
Sunny was very happy with his treat filled champagne bottle, and Caroline skyped the event with Diane, using my laptop as the camera.
It was wonderful to have them both be part of the ceremony!!
West Marine sells a pre-scored bottle of champagne that is in a mesh bag so you will be assured that (1) the bottle will break and (2) you won't scatter glass all over the place. Have a sturdy plastic bag at the ready since the mesh bag is not that sturdy and bits of glass will be sticking out once the bottle is broken.
With Sunny Tug duly named, we were ready to begin our shakedown cruise, leaving from Hawthorne Cove Marina in Salem, with our first destination being the small town of Rockport.
Our first stop after leaving Hawthorne Cove was the Beverly Marina, to pick up 41.5 gallons of marine diesel then we were off on the relatively short run to Rockport.
Of course, on the way we had to let Sunny drive the boat!
It took a bit of trial and error to learn how to plot a course on the laptop using Garmin's Homeport software, and then to transfer that to the Garmin Chartplotter.
I was expecting a marina when we arrived, but instead the very helpful staff came on board with "fender boards" that they put between our fenders to keep us off pilings. We were moored beneath a quite famous fishing shack, known as "Motif #1." This is apparently frequently painted by artists.
We did a quick exploration of the town and planned activities for the next day. The tide range was quite large, so at high tide the windows were level with the top of the wharf, while at low tide (as in the picture above) it was a bit of a scramble up the ladder to get to the wharf.
Sunny Tug is named in honor of Diane's dog Sunny. He (and Diane!) have been a dear friends for years, and I wanted to honor the love Sunny has shown, and the wonderful adventures we have shared together.
Diane came up with the idea of a "champagne bottle" filled with treats as a way Sunny could share in the christening ceremony. He could happily tear into the "bottle" as I was cracking a bottle of champagne over the bow of the boat.
Diane and Sunny are on the west coast, while Caroline and I were on the east coast (a three hour time difference). In order to make this work, Diane conducted the ceremony at 5:30 am while we were conducting it at 8:30 am.
Sunny was very happy with his treat filled champagne bottle, and Caroline skyped the event with Diane, using my laptop as the camera.
It was wonderful to have them both be part of the ceremony!!
 |
| Sunny happily finishing his champagne/treats christening "bottle." |
West Marine sells a pre-scored bottle of champagne that is in a mesh bag so you will be assured that (1) the bottle will break and (2) you won't scatter glass all over the place. Have a sturdy plastic bag at the ready since the mesh bag is not that sturdy and bits of glass will be sticking out once the bottle is broken.
With Sunny Tug duly named, we were ready to begin our shakedown cruise, leaving from Hawthorne Cove Marina in Salem, with our first destination being the small town of Rockport.
Our first stop after leaving Hawthorne Cove was the Beverly Marina, to pick up 41.5 gallons of marine diesel then we were off on the relatively short run to Rockport.
Of course, on the way we had to let Sunny drive the boat!
 |
| Sunny has the wheel! |
I was expecting a marina when we arrived, but instead the very helpful staff came on board with "fender boards" that they put between our fenders to keep us off pilings. We were moored beneath a quite famous fishing shack, known as "Motif #1." This is apparently frequently painted by artists.
 |
| Sunny Tug in front of Rockport's Motif #1 |
We did a quick exploration of the town and planned activities for the next day. The tide range was quite large, so at high tide the windows were level with the top of the wharf, while at low tide (as in the picture above) it was a bit of a scramble up the ladder to get to the wharf.
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