By Paula

As we have been adjusting to life back on land, I wanted to share some photos, funny moments and provide a general wrap-up of Rover’s first year of adventures.  Let’s start at the beginning of 2020 with Rover in Fort Lauderdale.  Rich lived abroad and did lots of work in getting our sailing home ready for our future trips.  In January and February of 2020, Brian, Lisa, and I enjoyed several trips to Florida sailing from Fort Lauderdale to Miami and Key Biscayne.  However, like everyone, Covid19 had some other plans for us.  Fearing Rover and Rich may get stuck in Florida, which was very real as marinas were closed and we were hearing bridges would be shut to pleasure traffic, our “extraction” mission started with B, Lisa, and I driving nonstop in the night to Fort Lauderdale in a rental SUV with a cooler filled with food and supplies.  Fearing that diesel would be cut off as well, Rover’s tanks were filled the day before the gas docks closed!  Whew, luck was with us!  We set sail from Florida nonstop back to Annapolis, what better way to start our quarantine than on a boat in the Atlantic Ocean?  The creepiest part was all the dozens of ‘ghost’ cruise ships off the coast of Florida moving around in circles to power their systems, with no passengers aboard.  Maybe foreshadowing of an impending viral pandemic, eh? We safely arrived in the Chesapeake Bay the day the Governor of Maryland shut everything down, after a fast 100-hour passage and sporty conditions off Cape Hatteras, gusting over 40 knots and big 10-12 foot seas.  We made it to AYC, and Rover sat for the next couple months as we weren’t allowed aboard. Team Rover then quarantined at our respective homes.  Once stores were opened and boating was allowed again in the late spring, Rover was prepped for the next part of our adventure, detailed in previous blog entries, and began in June 2020.