9/8/26: Goodbye Helene

Today was a mix of a lot of things. Very excitingly, Chuck and Candy arrived in the morning and they, Marc, Katie, and Tyler all moved onto the boat, which returned a feeling of completeness to the boat. We then got to do the food provisioning; filling up shopping cart after shopping cart with anything we wanted to eat for the next month. With everyone on board and food stocked we were almost ready for the next leg of our journey. The last thing was to say goodbye to Helene.

This was the largest change of the trip so far. Helene has been on the boat longer than anyone but myself. Arriving all the way back at the start of June before the boat had even left the dock it was launched onto. From that point on, she'd been the first person to turn to, and now she had to leave. From everything from engine repair, to skippering, to accounting, Helene was the one for the task. Apart from her dependableness in all tasks her mirth was also integral to the high spirits of the boat and her departure left both the newly appointed 1st mate, Nathan, and me deeply saddened.

But with her departure, the boat was now ready for the next leg of the trip. The crew was set, the food was stocked, and the boat was ready. We had one more dinner at the Light House Cafe before turning in early in anticipation of our new journey.

A few photos of Helene from the trip:

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