Welcome to Master Plan

6/8/2010

Greetings dear family and friends!  I am excited to announce that we brought our new home – Master Plan – over from New Bedford, MA to East Greenwich, RI this past Friday and I took lots of photos – link is below.  It was an amazing experience and we really lucked out with the weather and sea conditions.  We were delighted to have an outstanding crew join us – Paul’s Dad Peter and his good friend Paul Kuzia who sold us the Annie Sea!  Peter was an outstanding navigator plotting our course and keeping us on track – you’ll see some “action photos” of him checking the charts to make sure we didn’t end up in Maine!  J

Paul Squeglia handled his new baby with tremendous expertise and skill – I was so impressed and am so proud.  Clearly this boat is much bigger than the Annie Sea, but his role as captain was executed with sheer perfection!  As always, he is so at peace at the helm.  Way to go Paul!

We started the day out of the water – as you’ll see in the first few pictures.  Paul and I were actually on board as the boat went in the water, accompanied by a few mechanics.  It was one of the coolest moments and my heart was pounding with excitement as they expertly guided the boat from the large white storage shed down a huge ramp and into the water.  I just remember thinking – “holy crap – this is it!”  The boat remained on the “lift” until it was enough in the water to start the engines.  Once Paul fired those up, then they slowly pushed us right into the water and Paul immediately docked it perfectly right next to the ramp.  The mechanics double checked everything to make sure we were good to go.

Our first order of business was getting through the swing bridge in New Bedford – took some cool picture of that – we then fueled up and headed on our way.  We were about 20 minutes into the trip when we hit some fog – so Paul went to slow us down and something went wrong with the port engine – it was stuck at 1400 rpm.  We called the mechanic and we worked our way back – we moored just inside the harbor (so we wouldn’t have to deal with the bridge again – it only opens once an hour) and the mechanics came out and quickly fixed the minor problem – a broken cotter pin -  and we were on our way again about a half hour later.  “Master Plan Maiden Voyage . . . Take Two . . .” 

By the time we got back on our way, all of the fog lifted and we had a great trip to Rhode Island.  The trip took about 3½ hours.  As we approached Newport, you could see all the mansions (got a photo of that) and then we rounded the corner and headed into Narragansett Bay and under the amazing Newport Bridge with the wind at our backs.  It was breathtaking!  We settled into our slip at Norton’s Marina in East Greenwich at about 7pm Friday evening and the captain and crew were thirsty and hungry!  We had a great dinner in East Greenwich and headed back to New Bedford to pick up the cars. 

So now the fun begins – we’ve got lots of projects to work on as we make Master Plan our home . . .  We enjoyed a little sunset dinghy ride around Greenwich Cove this evening – life is indeed good.  We will slowly transition from land to sea over the summer as we figure things out day by day where things go and what works well, etc.  It’s all good.

One of the pictures I took was a fishing boat in New Bedford harbor called Friendship – I had to take this, as we are so thankful for our friends and family and your incredible support and enthusiasm of our journey . . . so THANK YOU!  We can’t wait to welcome you aboard!

Love, Jen & Paul  XXOO