July 5, 2025

Well—today is the day. Our Bon Voyage party. Open house. Whatever we want to call it.

And I’m a bit nervous.

I think I have everything ready. But I’m not really nervous about what the boat looks like. I mean, people have seen it on YouTube—and it’s way cleaner than it usually is on YouTube.

What I’m nervous about is... if people will actually show up.

Does that make sense?
Have you ever had a party and thought, “Oh my gosh, what if nobody comes?”

I’ve got door prizes. I’ve got ballots for people to fill out with their emails. I’ve got loads of soda (and whatever’s left can come with us). Two kegs of beer. It’s shaping up to be a pretty chill afternoon—but I just really hope people show up.

Because if they don’t? You kind of feel like a loser, right?
Like, here you are planning this party, inviting a whole bunch of people online... and what if it’s just us?

I think that’s what I’m most nervous about.
YouTube is still a weird thing to me. The fact that people watch us, care about what we’re doing, and might actually show up to hang out? It’s hard to wrap my head around.

But we did get our steps in last night—and not 10,000 steps. I mean, we actually installed our African mahogany steps onto the boat to make it safer for people coming aboard. The last thing we want is someone flying down the stairs and doing a header after a couple of beers. That would really hurt. And I don’t want that kind of bad luck hanging over the boat.

We brought our pineapple onboard—yes, the good luck kind (look it up).

No bananas onboard, thank goodness.

But we do have a bunch of women onboard... which, according to old sailor lore, is also bad luck.

Also, we’re not leaving on a Friday—because that’s very bad luck. We’re leaving on a Monday, so I think we’ve got our superstition checklist covered.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day loading everything. And I’m honestly a bit nervous that Blaine won’t get done what he needs to get done.

Last night we took a break and sat in the hot tub (yep, the dock has a hot tub). Had a beer and a cider. And I asked him, “What’s Plan B?”

And Blaine said, “There is no Plan B.”

So—here’s the backstory. Blaine is building an FRS engine for a Subaru. It’s the last job he has to finish before we leave. It’s for our friend (who’s also our bookkeeper), and he promised her the car would be drivable. And when Blaine makes a promise—he keeps it.

He’s been staying up till 12:30, even 1:00 in the morning, working on this engine. It’s now in the car, and here we are—the morning of our party.

He’s going to be working on it until about one o’clock today (I told him that’s his cutoff). Then he has to come back to the boat.

He might even head back to the shop again tonight around 7. But that’s Blaine. He won’t pass it off to someone else. He won’t leave people hanging.

And I get it. But also—I’m like, “Honey, you’re burning yourself out.”

So when we finally leave on Monday, I’m going to take the helm and drive us all the way to Decourcy Island—our first stop. And I’m just going to let Blaine go straight to bed. Or maybe head down to the Xbox and blow shit up for a while.

He’s earned it.