Off to sea

I am going sailing again! October 3rd is C Day, where "C" stands for Charter. This will be the first time sailing without a captain aboard! I have a little logbook from the American Sailing Association that says that I am qualified to bareboat charter, but you know how it goes with certifications and actually being able to do things...I remember when I first got my driver's license, my parents still wouldn't let me borrow the car because they said I didn't really know how to drive. No idea what they were talking about, I mean, I passed the driving test on the road with flying colors! My instructor sat in the back seat, and every time I would start to do something wrong, he would push his foot under my seat before I got myself failed. I figured that if the Commonwealth of Massachusetts deemed me skilled enough to let me drive, then so should my parents.
My parents may have been right; the first time I got the chance to drive in snow, I wondered what would would happen if I took a sharp right turn at 30 mph on a snow-covered road out in Dover. Luckily the snowdrift stopped my path into the trees and just left a minor dent in the driver-side B-pillar.
Five is the magic number for this boat, meaning she drafts a little under 5 feet. This is important becuase the Chesapeake Bay can be rather shallow in many area's, and we'll need to watch the depthsounder and plan our course carefully to avoid a repeat of the two other groundings on the Metedeconk River. Got paying customers on this trip, and I think that they want to sail rather than wait for the next high tide!