Saturday Nov 5th - DEPARTURE DAY

Ok so we were up early this morning to get the last tasks accomplished before  heading for the START LINE! 
My most important task was to change the raw water pump impeller - no big deal as I have done this lots of times. To make it easier, I have bought a new impeller puller tool to make the task easier and it worked perfectly. I put the new impeller in and then on went the cover with its four little screws. One two three screws in and tightened .....fourth ..... CRAP!!!! I snapped the head off the screw!!!!!!! Now it is my turn to PANIC ..... I tried to use my screw extortion bit - no success. Dashed over the the boatyard office to find that since it is Saturday none of the mechanics were at work .... oh oh oh ... not going well. 
Searched the dock for Myles - the rally participant hat did the diesel seminar to ask his assistance ..... he has already headed out and on his way to the start line. 
The marina is emptying out quickly and we are still tied to the dock. The last thing I want to do is have to wait to Monday to get a mechanic on board and then head out late Monday, a full 48 hours after the rest of the fleet left. I figured that I should at least test to see how the cover may leak with one screw missing. Fired up the engine and anxiously watched for the signs of leakage at the pump ..... huummm so far so good. Increased the RPM to 2000 and checked again ...... huummm still no leaking. 
Time for a captain to do what a captain needs to do - take a decision .... Oh great!!!!! I figured that we would leave the seacock closed all the time so that there would be no way for water to get to the pump when the engine was not running - risk minimized ..... since it didn't seem to leak and even if it did, the pumps would easily keep up with the small amount of water. Decision done - we leave with one screw missing! I hope that is different than one screw loose! 

We drop the dock lines at 10AM and we are OFF!!!! 

Instrument shot at departure

Chart plotter as we head past the naval yards

 We have about 18 miles to motor to get to the start line which is located ate the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. This takes us past the largest US Naval yards. There is more military ships here in dry dock or in slips being overhauled, updated and repainted than us Canadians have afloat!  

One of four aircraft carriers that were in for a refit....impressive to say the least

Jean analyzes latest weather and routing files pre-start line!

Motoring up to the start line

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is the start line

Sails out and over the line at 2:27PM 

Instrument shot at the start line

 Our first afternoon and evening at sea is very quiet and we ghost along at 2 to 3 knots in very very light winds. Since the boats did not start all together due to the shift of one day early, we quickly lost sight of the few that were near us at the start. By evening we only see a few on our AIS (this is a device that transmits and receives location data, speed, direction from other boats that gets displayed on our screen)
As darkness sets in we get prepared for the first overnight shift schedule. Maryse chooses the 3AM to 6AM shift, Jean takes the midnight to 3AM and I take the 9 to midnight.