We spent most of the day cleaning and organizing everything aboard Shellerina. By 5:00pm it was time to push off and take a ride!

After a little jog up Neguntatogue Creek, shown above, we took the boat out on Great South Bay to excercise the engine and test everything out. Everything worked great: Hydraulic tilt/trim, trim tabs, shifting, steering, gauges, etc.

There were no navigation buoys out yet. So we relied upon our GPS “breadcrumbs” memory tracking from last year to stay within the dredged channels of a generally shallow Great South Bay.

This year we decided to try and get one more year out of our aging canvas camper top. So long as the sun is shining, the cool breezes of the early season do not bother us. This dark canvas helps us enjoy many extra boating days despite varied weather conditions.

Even though this year’s launch date, April 23, was a full month later than our earliest launch date two years ago, you can see that we are the only boat in the water on S-Dock, so far. Can’t complain; we are envied to be in earlier than most!