watch the return path weather evolution carefully Dave. I try not to focus too much on it too early, or perhaps I'm denying the weather forecasts that are not in my favor. But if you absolutely have to be back on the monday, you have to calculate the return weather early on.

Your staging idea is interesting. We previously have always left somewhere near the mouth of Penobscot Bay to save the 10 to 20 miles of travel. This time, I left directly from Rockport at just after 5 am. I'm a very early riser and rarely asleep at that time anyway. I put that to good use on this trip more than once.

Anyway, that longer route worked pretty well overall, it saved a sort of "lost day" of moving and anchoring somewhere, going into Tenants Harbor, etc. From my end, there's no reason to leave the bay earlier than mid morning as I'll arrive at the Canal mid day next. In this case, I had timed the canal(a dangerous plan that far out) and it worked out. Even had time for a Coast Guard safety inspection while I waited for the tide to turn(flunked). My notes are onboard, I think it was about 180 nm, Rockport to Onset and took about 31 hours.

Now that you are retired, you may be doing this differently next time?