Maiden Voyage

We set sail November 1, 2011 at 13:40 from the Charleston Maritime Marina. Crew onboard was Mike, Sara and Daubie and cat Nelly. This was Tanqueray's maiden voyage with her new captains. It was a bit rollie heading out, but all seemed to be going smoothly with me at the helm and Mike and Daubie storing the fenders. About 5 minutes later, however, Nelly comes out into the cockpit looking for her litter box. Not the best timing, since we are just on our way out of the marina for the first time and learning how the boat operates and waves are rolling us around, the wind is blowing fiercely and we are still working on stowing the gear. Mike runs below to bring up her litter box, which is a plastic storage container and maybe a little too small for her, but it seems to still be working. Well, maybe not, Houston we have a problem! It appears that Nelly has not adjusted to her sea legs yet and she looses her balance in the litter box and now there is screaming and yelling in the cockpit as cat diareaha is everywhere and the boat is rolling around! Mike gallantly begins to cleanup the mess, luckily he has some experience with this from our previous days with our dog Brodie. Daubie and I try to keep our distance with the excuse that someone still needs to steer and navigate the boat. Mike locks Nelly down below in the head for fear of cat poop being tracked everywhere. After cleanup is completed, we continue on to Tom Point Creek, where we anchor at 6:40pm. The Tanqueray has been christened on her maiden voyage, just wish it was with champagne instead!!