ArgoKnot

What a lovely town Chestertown, Maryland is!  Fall sure does bring extreme weather with it.  To me the oddest days are beautifully brilliant days with high winds.  Everything looks so lovely and gay even, like the trees are prancing in the wind….but being out in these conditions puts me in quite a state of anxiety.  So when we left Rock Hall until we entered the Chester River was far too adventurous for me!  Yet it made a pretty sight….white caps on the water, trees bending in the ‘gale’ (okay…honestly, about 25 mph), bright sun….

When we turned into the Chester River the wind was then behind us, so we were able to put out our smallest sail.  In the river there were no waves and with the wind behind us the day suddenly became truly wonderful!

Doesn’t this look peaceful?  And it was….you’d never know the wind was blowing over 25mph!  What a difference wind direction and protected waters make!  It was about 25 miles up the river to Chestertown, and I enjoyed the sights while working on the little baby sweater.

This sweater is a fun construction puzzle, made all in one piece.

Chestertown is a pretty town with Revolutionary War history.  We may have afternoon tea today in an old inn and hopefully I’ll get some good photos!  The river is full of duck blinds, edged by rolling fields of farmland, lovely old farmhouses and newer manor homes.

Day 11, Sept. 21: Lay Day in Rock Hall

Day 12, Sept. 22: Rockhall to Chestertown

Day 12, Sept. 22: Lay Day in Chestertown

My finished shawl for Margo!  I’ll have a couple of her friends make their own prayers and wishes, along with mine, for healing when we get to Annapolis.  Then I’ll pop it in the mail.

Day 5, Sept. 15: Atlantic Highlands to Atlantic City

Zephyr is my favorite word related to sailing, and I’ve been saying this years.  Zephyr….bring it on.  A particular word related to sailing that I detest is gale.

The Greeks had many words for wind, and if I had better internet coverage here I’d try to find out just how many words there are for wind. Anyway, that is a sure sign that they have a lot of wind.

I imagined myself making peace with sailing down the New Jersey coast on a zephyr, relying on our motor to get us down the coast.  No such luck…. Bob is using a well respected weather router named Chris Parker, and if you are a sailor you will know that Bob has chosen well.  Chris Parker said it was a favorable time for us to tackle the New Jersey coast because even though there was a north wind which is highly fickle with lots of gusts (reaching gale velocity….my least favorite sailing word!), the wind would be behind us.  You know that famous blessing: “may the wind be always at your back…”

Well, this landlubber thought today sucked!  I dealt with it as best I could by taking half a stugeron at 7am and again at 2pm which insured that I slept about 6 hours during our 12 hour slog southward.  I still hated it.

But at last we came into Atlantic City as the sun was setting, no easy feat with the sun right in our faces and the buoy lights not on yet.  It was nerve wracking to me, the land lubber.  But at least I can say it’s a fairly quiet anchorage, in spite of the insane night lights of this gambling city.

I remember when Stitches East was held in Atlantic City for a couple of years…..now it’s held right in my new backyard (Hartford), but I won’t be there to attend this fall.  If only I could have done some knitting today….. not sure tomorrow will be any better.  We have to get to the C and D Canal (Chesapeake and Delaware) by Monday evening because Tuesday’s wind is going to be off the charts.  I need to find the appropriate word for that.  We plan to be in Chesapeake City, and I hope to be snug inside Vulcan’s Rest, a weaving/knitting shop, rewarding myself for enduring this fickle north wind, even if it is at our backs.

Day 3, Sept. 13:  City Island to Sandy Hook

This morning we played our own version of a “Top Gear” race.  We left City Island by boat, under power, and our younger son left his apartment on West 112^th St. (the block that has Seinfeld’s “Tom’s Restaurant” at one end and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at the other) for a race to the bend in the East River (#7), near  Roosevelt Island across from Gracie Mansion.  I think we (on the boat) even got a bit of a head start, but our son the biker beat us on this leg of the race!

After photos and a lot of exuberant waving (and happy tears on my part) we began the second leg of the race: the Upper East Side to the Battery (#8).

In Chris’s case this meant dodging a lot of traffic on 1^st and 2^nd Avenues.  We, on the other hand, were just sluicing down the East River at half throttle, with a favorable current pushing us and luckily no other traffic!  We won this leg by several minutes.  Chris had some bad information on the quickest route downtown, so he was terribly disappointed to miss getting a shot of us going under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Given Chris’s struggle with morning traffic coming down the East Side, it was impressive that we only beat him to Battery Park by about 10 minutes.  That boy can ride!

 I had quite a moment of panic when Chris jumped over the railing in Battery Park to get a photo of us.  The folks nearby asked if he was planning to swim out to us….

I thought this was an interesting juxtaposition, the Verrazano Bridge and the colonial fort near the base.  And that brings me to the similar clash of cultures I felt as we went through New York today.  We were on our very small vessel, not a lot different than a floating gypsy caravan, with all our power in our little world generated by four solar panels that sit atop our bimini at the back of our cockpit.  Meanwhile, we were motoring through one of the largest cities in the world, the city I have lived nearest for over 40 years now.  It’s vastness was almost as great as the ocean to me….and I felt pretty tiny on board Pandora.

We anchored inside Sandy Hook (#10), New Jersey, in time for lunch.  The excitement of the morning had thoroughly worn me out!  So it seemed appropriate for some quiet time with my current book and then a nap.  At this point, it’s almost opening time!

Day 1, September 11:  Black Rock Harbor on Long Island Sound (#2)

We are on our way!  The gypsy life has begun, and so far the weather gods have smiled on us.  Beautiful September light, crisp air, calm seas and wind.  It looks very like that day 11 years ago, which makes us both sad.  We would not have chosen to leave on this day, but weather trumps all other factors.

As we left the Connecticut River yesterday, the only other boat out on the Sound was a small catboat under sail.  This seemed particularly prophetic to us since it was virtually the same boat Bob and I first owned when we started sailing 33 years ago.

To end the day, we stopped in the port where we had kept that first boat, a catboat named “Tao.”  We have friends who are still members of Fayerweather Yacht Club there.  They had arranged for us to tie up on the dock and spend the evening together.  Their son is now about the age we were when we bought that first boat and joined that very club, and he is now the dockmaster for the club, so he helped us dock.  What a moment!  We spent the evening with our dear friends and their son, and our own older son Rob joined us as well as Bob’s parents and another good friend who lives a bit further down the coast in Rye.  What a lovely ending to our first day out!  Thank you Chris, Travers, and Pat for hosting us and thank you to our family and dear friend Craig for coming to share such a memorable day!

Today we have sailed down the Sound past many familiar spots from our ancient BC past (Before Children).  I was on the phone with Rob this morning as we passed Southport Beach, not far from where he currently lives!   Then on past Wesport and the Norwalk Islands, Stamford, Greenwich, Mamaroneck….all our old haunts.  Bob made a stellar lunch of Croque Madame with turkey and brie, enhanced with  sweet red grapes on the side.  Yum!  Tonight’s first dinner on board looks promising: beef filet tips with mushrooms sauteed in red wine and served with rice.

The extent of my gypsy garden… rosemary, tarragon, chives and sage.  I’m hoping the salt air will be good for them and keep them healthy through the coming months of cooking on board!

I spent a good part of the afternoon knitting the flower basket shawl.  I have only one more repeat to go before beginning the 10-row edge border.  It should definitely be done before we reach Chesapeake City, where I hope to mail it to our friend.

Day 2, September 12: Little Neck Bay (#5)

What would you take in your caravan if you were pulling up roots and hitting the road?

Bob would love it if I could manage to fit all my fiber dreams for the fall and winter (and early spring) into these two bins.  It’s harder than I thought it would be.

On my list:
Non-negotiable:

1. Alice Starmore “Mary Tudor” supplies (in basket so colors will stay organized)
2. Vivan Hoxbro “Ann Jacket” supplies
3. Nadita’s “Soo Feminine” supplies
4. Vivian Hoxbro “Zig Zag” wrap supplies (more than 75% done I’m happy to discover!)
5. Einstein Coat supplies, ready to start sleeves
6. Bergere du France wrap, with its 3 cones of Zephyr
7. Partially finished circular shawl by Liz Lovick with notebook of instructions
8. Revontuli shawl supplies
9. “Wingspan” shawl supplies
10. Evelyn Clark “Flower Basket Shawl” supplies
11. skeins for 6 pairs of socks, some already in progress
12. All my knitting needles

It appears that I might not be cut out for the gypsy life.  Perhaps I am too much of a home body, nesting in all my wooly, silky, fibery material possessions.  How can I cull this list?…because I know it will not all fit in my two bins.  And I haven’t even started to list the spinning projects!

1. Electric spinner (at least this does not need to fit in the bin!)
2. Drop spindles
3. corriedale hand painted roving
4. Mohair hand dyed roving
5. Ginger red alpaca batt

Lastly, for those times when neither knitting or spinning seem to fill the bill, I thought I’d bring along one or two embroidery projects.  This is my solution for not taking any weaving with me.  Meanwhile, I have not even done any embroidery in about a decade.  I do realize this seems a bit manic on my part…. the fear of not having just the thing to occupy my textile obsession.  At least embroidery takes up so little room.

This is an Evelyn Clark shawl design called “Flower Basket” that was first seen in Interweave Knits, Fall 2004.  I’m using Mini Mochi in colorway “Seaview” that is so much subtler than the colors shown here.  The colors are soft blues and aquas on pale sand, just like a summer day at the beach! I wanted to finish this shawl before we leave so I could block it at home. (It is for a friend who has spent her life on the water.) No such luck!  I will be trying to block on our bunk on the boat, without the benefit of my blocking wires!

Departure date: Tomorrow!