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Jule III splashed on 20 April with many things left to be done. This was the most 'unready' we have been in 8 years of cruising. Other than cosmetic stuff, she was ready to go back to sea (or so we thought). We moved to our new slip at Shipwright Harbour in Deale MD in late April and found it to be as comfortable as we had hoped. The slip was wide, the staff friendly, and the chatter lively on the docks. The only 'downer' was the ever increasing costs of leasing a slip.
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 The 'cost' encouraged us to buy a slip at
at Anchorage Marina in Baltimore MD where there is always deep water and big ships. Anchorage has floating docks that will be great for the boat but problemmatic for the dogs. We are going to have to jury-rig a ramp for them to board the boat. We will move up there in September to attend the Soutbound Cruiser's Reunion and leave from there to the Bahamas. Meanwhile, we will stay at Shipwright and explore the Middle Bay with the 'kids'.
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 Our first shakedown cruise had us traveling to the Wye River to meet up with S/V Magic. We decided to check out the autopilot to be sure it still worked. Guess what? It didn't! Add that to the list of things to do. We arrived at Shaw's Bay at 1400 on 15 May. We claimed our acre on the water not too far from Magic. As we are lazy by nature, we asked Ren and Barb to pick us up in their dinghy (we had not yet inflated ours). Ren, being almost as lazy as us, dispatched Barb to pick us up sans the outboard. She got her exercise that day.That night, our acre payed off. A squall passed through the anchorage, and three boats went aground; two came precariously close to Magic. One had to go aground to prevent the boat from sinking. We never found out why they were sinking.
Next day, we weighed anchor, bid our farewells, and headed back to Shipwright.
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 For our next shakedown cruise, we headed for
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 Later, we decided to inflate the dinghy
and check out the outboard. Everything was going fine until the engine
decided to stop pumping cooling water. Wow, 5 whole minutes of dinghy riding. we added another item to the 'get fixed' list. Next, we decided to 'unfurl' the wind generator and prayed that it would generate power. Well, it did. We were happy and the batteries were happy. Our rebuild from 2002 apparently was stillholding up.
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 The trip back was largely uneventful though
we found ourselves avoiding squally conditions. We finished shakedown #2 under jib alone to the Deale channel. Except for a sick dinghy engine, we had a great trip. Unfortunately, we can't take the 'kids' on any trips until the dinghy engine is heeled. There would be too much dog in the dinghy to row ashore. Maybe we will take them to St Michael's and tie up to to the Museum. The Museum is definitely doggy friendly.
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