sailing – Page 21

Family Time

October 8, 2012 | Leave a Comment

We have just spent the weekend with our two sons Rob and Chris and Rob’s girlfriend Kandice! Kandice was a sweetheart to host all of us along with Rob’s dog Bosun at her house in the suburbs of Baltimore! We all crammed into one car, with our laundry and weekend gear! We laughed a lot, played with our granddog and Kandice’s three cats, drank margaritas and ate wonderful food!

I don’t know what we were thinking to drive back to Annapolis (in boat show traffic!) on Saturday to walk around the town and have a late lunch aboard Pandora. Just getting five people in the dinghy at such a crowded floating dock was a bit over the top! We spent the afternoon walking through the Naval Academy. There was a wedding in the ‘chapel’ and it was lovely to see all the men in uniform and the bridesmaids in rich fall colors of deep purple dresses (aubergine) carrying bouquets of deep orange and red gerbera daisies. Those young women had to be freezing in their strapless dresses during the outdoor photo session!

We ate a lot of decadent food together, but Kandice’s Sunday morning ‘Monkey Bread’ took the prize!

This is our last day in Annapolis….not a bit too soon for me! That’s an odd thing to say about a place I love….so many beautiful places all within easy walking distance! But to spend a week in a city while living on a boat is definitely weird. Living on board is much more suited to being off the beaten path, in some remote location that is utterly unspoiled. To be right in the middle of a busy harbor, especially during the biggest sailboat show in the US, is really quite jarring! I’m living off the grid while sitting just off a bustling city that rarely sleeps! The Naval Academy run their stadium lights all night long! (Well, that’s not entirely true…I think they are off from about 2 – 5 am each day. Still….)

This is the kitchen window in an Arts and Crafts brick house circa early 1900s right near the academy. I was smitten! Wish I could have seen the whole kitchen! I do want that light fixture!

Another view of the chapel at the Naval Academy.

Here is Bob taking a photo of Pandora from the Academy.

Chris took a couple of photos of the family during our weekend together, but I do not have them yet!

We will work our time slot in the SSCA booth this afternoon, after finishing up on our last needed purchases from the show, and tomorrow we will be on our way to more secluded locations.

The weather has changed and it’s now definitely autumn on the Chesapeake! It was raining and in the mid-50s (F) when we returned to Pandora yesterday afternoon. It went down into the 40s last night. We are running our Esbar heater now… it’s definitely time to head for warmer climes if we are going to live this way! Here is this morning’s sunrise.

Days 25 – 28, October 5 – 8: Annapolis and Baltimore suburbs (by land!)

Anticipation…

October 4, 2012 | 1 Comment

We are just hanging out in Annapolis, waiting….and waiting….

…waiting for the boat show to begin. Bob is always excited to visit the boats on display and to find out what new and improved equipment and technology has entered the sailing universe. He has a shopping list of things we need before going further south. We are working in the booth of the SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) on Monday afternoon so we cannot just pull up anchor and leave….we have obligations…

….also waiting for our two sons and one girlfriend to visit on Saturday and Sunday. This is such a high point for me that I’m practically holding my breath until they arrive. I’m worried about all the little details that might get in the way of enjoying their visit. At the moment the dingy dock situation is so awful only a handful of dinghies can actually make landfall. This does not particularly bother Bob since he will scramble up any number of hurdles or obstacles to get ashore, but I really must insist on a more civilized disembarkment. There is a water taxi, but the wait times can be long and the cost for one round trip is $20. That will add up quickly….

Also, it’s been so humid, with rain all day on Tuesday and about 100% humidity on the days since then, with temps in the 80s. It feels a bit too much like July, and that kind of weather does not promote my happiness or energy level for sight seeing. Sigh… into each life some rain must fall…

Meanwhile, there is no denying that Annapolis is a beautiful city, easily walkable, with so much to see and do. Annapolis is the capitol of Maryland, and at the top of the main shopping district that rises from the edge of the harbor is the heart of the government sitting on a beautiful circle with surrounding government offices that look more colonial than either Philadelphia or Williamsburg.

Later today we plan to walk through the Naval Academy, which is also quite an architectural gem.

Days 22- 24, Oct 2 – 4: Still in Annapolis (yes, that is editorializing)

Summer Camp for Cruisers

October 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment

About 75 boats and lots of cars (new word, CLODS: “Cruisers Living On Dirt) arrived at Camp Letts on the Rhodes River just south of Annapolis for a long weekend of seminars for long distance cruisers. Bob was in sailor heaven, getting to share his passion with so many other like minded sailors, and getting to meet some of his cruising gurus: Nigel Calder, Lynn and Larry Parday, and Hal Roth’s widow Michelle. It was a quite the gathering of famous cruisers…

Each day from Friday through Sunday we had catered breakfasts, lunches and dinners ashore, with two morning seminars and two afternoon seminars. It was a very busy weekend, and we fell into bed exhausted each night! We met lots of people who will be spending the fall heading to various exotic locations, and some of them will be heading to the Bahamas like we are! This gathering was a way of not only learning some important techniques and ideas from well known sailing authorities, but also a way to meet the folks who’ll be traveling to the same destination we are, or traveling to destinations that we hope to go in the future. I can see why this yearly gathering of sailors is so important!

Bob and I took seminars on lots of subjects relating to long distance cruising, and I knitted through most of them. The baby sweater is now finished and I’m nearing the end of the second front of my Vivian Hoxbro “Ann Jacket.”

Now we are in Annapolis, anchored right where all the hoopla is going on to get the Boat Show set up. Bob is like a little kid at camp, enjoying watching all the pilings get driven in and the temporary docks being assembled. As the next few days go by lots of show boats will get put on those docks. We will be in the thick of it….

Today’s chores are laundry, restocking the larder, and mailing the shawl and the baby sweater! ….mixed in with reconnecting with lots of friends who come to this boat show every year. This is our first year to arrive by boat rather than by car.

Days 17 – 20, Sept. 27 – 30: Camp Letts, Rhodes River

Day 21: Annapolis We are going to be here almost a week. It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been out sailing for 3 weeks today. In many ways it seems like a lot longer. By the time we leave Annapolis next week, we will have been gone a month….and only have traveled such a small distance, 477 miles! We have a lot more ground to cover to get to Vero Beach by early December, another 1200 miles or so. It will be time to make tracks!

An Almost Perfect Day!

September 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Not many days get better than this! ….
A walk through charming Chestertown….

In the mid 18th century Chestertown was a thriving British Colony and busy port. Who knew?? (Well, clearly, I didn’t!) It is so far up the Chester River it is hard to imagine this being such a busy port, but the number of stately brick houses and the depth of the river definitely attest to the town’s history of wealth. Even the sidewalks are brick!

I know most sailors love a bit of shore leave, but I sometimes wonder if they can possibly love it as much as I do. When I get ashore I sometimes wonder if it’s the shore leave I love most! Walking through a beautiful town like Chestertown, seeing all the lovely homes, doing my best to get a glimpse of the interiors in some of these houses and the equally beautiful private gardens seems to be my main goal. I’m always a little sad to go back on board. Embarrassingly, I had never even heard of Chestertown before our visit.

We left in the early afternoon to take advantage of an ebbing tide and winds that should have been behind us. Sailing back down the river was somewhat less than perfect, but the sights along the shore were still bucolic, in spite of a flukey north wind that caused me some discomfort when we heeled more than I like! At one point we heeled rather severely and I heard a crash, which was my computer flying off the nav station and sailing across the cabin. What a distressing moment that was! Kudos to Apple for making such a sturdy little machine. The only damage seems to be a tiny nick in the corner. I’ve learned my lesson not to leave it out anymore while we are underway.

We ended the day in another perfect spot, which makes me realize there are benefits to sailing that no land trip could ever match. We are anchored in a quiet cove that is so undeveloped only our boat gives away what century we are in. Trees and other fauna grow right to the banks of this little estuary off the Chester River called Queen’s Creek, and the banks are teaming with wildlife. We took the dingy to explore this little round bay and saw a number of blue herons each staking their claim on a bit of shoreline, patiently wading the shallows. Our dingy was ghosting along on a mirror surface with only the tiniest little rings of disturbance which I took to be insects landing on the water, which I imagined would be attracting the fish that the herons were anticipating. When I looked a bit closer I saw that each of these little rings was being caused by a small jellyfish, and there were thousands of them! The little bay was teeming with them. Are these the stinging nettles so famous in the Chesapeake? Further into the bay we saw a few deer drinking at the water’s edge, something we haven’t seen in many years. These days we are so familiar with deer wandering our suburban neighborhoods, eating right out of our manicured gardens. I’d forgotten just how perfect they look in their natural setting! Just above we noticed a bald eagle perched at the very top of a dead tree, surveying the bay. Wouldn’t you know we left the camera on board when we set out on this wonderful exploration??

This photo was actually taken early the next morning when there was a light breeze ruffling the surface and a morning mist.

Perfect day turned into perfect evening as we watched a sunset just like the ones that must have inspired Maxfield Parrish….the sky all ‘parrish’ blue and deep rose. Stunning. The bright half moon rose shortly before the sun set, so that as one light faded the other was ready to take its place. The large cumulus clouds that had filled the sky before evening made a dramatic setting for the moon’s travel across the sky. As things go on such rare, perfect days, we also managed to put together a marvelous dinner, which included another loaf of bread fresh out of the oven….wish you could have smelled it!

The absolute highlight of the day was getting in the dinghy to look up at the night sky. Bob cast off from Pandora and we drifted around this lovely bay, barely moving since there was hardly a breeze and hardly a current. We watched the Big Dipper slide down below the horizon and and then found the easily identifiable Arcturus and Polaris. And then I realized the autumn equinox was last night! The moon will be full in another week, and I wonder what that will do to the higher than normal tides we’ve been seeing the past few days….

Day 14, Sept. 24: Queen’s Creek to St. Michaels

Migration

September 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment

The lovely sights in Chesapeake City….

Do you think they bought that red car to match their front door?

We are starting to see lots of migrating birds, and it seems to me that this year we are migrating with them. Each day that we haul anchor in the morning we are accompanied by the honking song of Canada geese in their V-formations, and as we travel south we find monarch butterflies alighting on Pandora for short breaks before fluttering away.

The bird life here is extensive! In the Sassafras River we were exploring the coast line, and we startled two blue herons off their nest! What a beautiful sight to see them take flight right in front of us! We had not noticed the nest because it was well hidden in a ‘bog’ of lotus! We have never seen lotus growing in such a temperate climate before. It looks like it has become rather invasive in the Sassafras River, and we wondered if the lotus will soon take over… I guess only time will tell.

We have been sailing along with three other boats since Cape May….not on purpose….but each day that we travel we see them sailing too. For several nights we’ve ended up in the same harbor, so naturally we’ve gotten together to re-hash the day and talk about where we’re heading. I know this is quite a common occurrence for boats heading south. Perhaps we are becoming a different kind of migrating flock! We saw Banyan, a 40 ft Juneau, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Cape May with David and Alex (short for Alexandra) onboard. In Chesapeake City we first saw Peregrine, a 42 ft. Catalina, with Dave and Libby on board with their dog Brody. And also in Chesapeake City we stumbled on Rick and Julie Palm, who live aboard Altair, a larger version of Pandora, and whom we met briefly a few summer ago in Maine. We have formed our own very loose flock and have decided to explore the Chester River together over the next few days. We will see both Banyan and Peregrine at the SSCA seminars that will take place in Camp Letts at the end of next week.

So I am settling into life aboard…. coffee and knitting in the mornings. I have finished the shawl and should have posted photos days ago. I have now started a little baby sweater for the brand new granddaughter who arrived last week to join the family of my oldest childhood friend. And earlier this week I made ‘poolish’ which will become my ongoing sourdough starter for bread while the weather remains cool enough to bake. I made the first loaf yesterday, and it was a success! I will make another loaf today since there is more poolish ready to use now.

2012-09-18 09.48.43 — Swatch for "Shadow Baby" sweater

I am feeling the pangs of homesickness, but it is balanced by the joys of living is this soft southern landscape. We’ve seen a number of bald eagles since arriving in the Chesapeake, and yesterday we saw one shag a fish right out of the water and rise into the blue sky with his/her catch! It was dramatic!

Day 8, September 18: Lay Day in Chesapeake City (#29)

Day 9, Sept. 19: Chesapeake City to the Sassafras River (#29 – 31)

Day 10, Sept. 20: Sassafras River to Rock Hall (#31 -34)

Day 11, Sept. 21…..we’re not entirely sure yet! We will walk into Rock Hall today for some provisions, and then we’ll think about sailing up the Chester River to Chestertown….