Nervous anticipation

Tomorrow's forcast is for storm conditions, with winds in the 30s and gusts to the 50s. No weather for old men, and yet...

My new 6 M kite is in the foyer, and my new board is ready to rock. We are planning a dawn patrol to our favorite wave spot,  Horseneck Beach. I hope to then travel to one of the better slicks, Pleasure Bay for an afternoon delight. 

The nerves stem from the strength of the gusts and tbe new equipment.  Each one is a strike. You see, I have a three strike policy.  Three strikes and I don't go.  Doubt about a piece of gear is a strike.  Cold water is a strike.  Offshore breeze is two strikes.

Tomorrow I have two strikes, new equipment and strong gusts,  so I am a little nervous.  A 6M kite is soooo small, and so fast. To give you an idea,  I sometimes ride a 17 on summer days.

Back Home

Boy, the trip back home is a lot easier when you take a jet.

We spent our last day touring on foot and by bus around Bequia. If you ever get there, be sure to investigate Industry beach. It is a beatiful spot, as pretty as any I have found in the Caribbean so far, with lots of nice looking villas on the hillside, some of them for rent. We stopped at a restaurant "Dawns Creole Beach Bar" for refreshements and thought it was as nice as any to date.

On the the sea turtle sanctuary for a tour, then a long walk back to the boat for our last night and a meal of Barracuda. Sweet.

We left Bequia at 6:30 AM and took a ferry back to St Vincent. The old vessel was pretty much what you would expect, rough but serviceable with threadbare upholstery, minimal lifesaving equipment in view, and a smoking old deisel, but she got us there just the same. We were in teh company of many locals, mostly middle school students in their clean pressed uniforms on their way to mainland St Vincent for a better education.

From there, a LIAT flight over to San Jaun, and the rest is pretty much mainland experience. It was interesting watching the progression from rustic to polished as we headed back to the US. It was snowing in Philly when we passed through, and there is a light snow falling here as I write.
Thanks for following along. I may blog again later in the spring if I help Alan get Unabated back up north.

ttyl

Back in Bequia

We are back in Bequia for the last day of the Bequia music festval, and to stage ourselves for or return to St Vincent. and on to Boston by air.

We left Clifton harbor for a short sail over to Chatham Harbor (still on Union Island). Chatham is a very quiet spot in the lee of the island with a few local beach bars and one development by outsiders. The development has the look of Herman Mouk's (sp?) play, "Dont stop the carnival" in which the protagonist had great ideas for improving the island, but is confronted by obstacle after obstacle, mostly cultural, until the projects grinds not to a halt, but to island time. Which may as well be a halt. The development has a couple of LARGE titki huts with a nice bar and upholstered lounge chairs surrounded by a dozen or so cinder block structures that are barely started. No progress at all in the weeks Dawn and Laure have been around.

We went to a local beach bar for dinner, When you arrive, the boat boys come out and solicit your business for buying their fish, lobster, or coming to their bars. If you do want to come to diner, they take your order right then, I guess that allows them to know what fish to keep, and which they are free to sell on the local market, Or maybe that tells them what they have to go catch.

No need to worry about getting frozen fish, there is no electricity on this side of the island. This particular bar is lit by LED lights off of batteries. Technology that was doubtless imported by the visiting yachts.

At Vanessa and Seckie's place, Happy hour is from 3 to 6, with all drinks half price. At 6 they go up to regular price which is OK since they become twice as large. Dawn and Laure swear that they saw print ads ad heard radio adds for a bar that offered 3 beers for $10EC and 4 for $15EC. The stupid tax takes many forms.

We snorkeled and read, and the next morning we sailed for 4 hours back to Bequia for the music festival. We just caught the end of the festival, and really enjoyed only one of the 3 acts we saw. But it was cheap and a nice scene for hanging out, and we ran into old cruising buddies from SV July Indian for pleasant conversation. The music was mostly popular, and we would have preferred local forms; they have become one and the same..

Dana has become the fishing soothsayer, She successfully predicted each of our two catches this trip. True to her second prediction, we caught a nice little barracuda on the way, and will have it for dinner tonight. You don't think of Barracuda as an eating fish, but we all like it's nice white flesh with a flavor of scallops.

More pictures will be posted on http://corbettgonesailing.blogspot.com

ttyl

Union Island, Clifton Harbor

For pictures, go to Dawn's blog: http://corbettgonesailing.blogspot.com

We had a good, quick sail over to Union island, with strong winds well behind the beam. We had the lines out, but no bites.

Union Island is a wonderful spot. I had misgivings when I got here with regard to the kiting, but they were unfounded. It has blown 20 kts consistently since we got here. I am working on backroll transitions and making the biggest possible splash. I am in flat water for a change, and liking it. If I want surf, I just tack out a narrow, shallow channel in the reef.

The rest of the crew are enjoying a relaxing time reading a snorkeling. There were a few good finds in the book exchange at the local yacht club. (yes, there is one, and it s pretty nice..
The town is quaint and colorful, supplies are available and Dawn spotted a few lobster in a nearby reef a week ago, and we need to try to catch them.

Salt Whistle Bay

The Swedes were around for a couple of great sessions yesterday at Salt Whistle, I was sunburned and exhausted by10:30 AM. We had 20 kts of breeze and waist high kickers inside the reef, and chest high over the reef. I re-acquinted myself with backrolls and jumping on relatively flat water.

We headed off to a nice little restaurant on the hill for a nice lunch of red snapper and conch for lunch, which served as our dinner.

I waited for 4:30 to set up the kite for a sunset session. I was very disappointed when I crashed the kite hard after just a few minutes, and on relauch saw a 6" tear in the kite. On inspection, it was clear that there had been a small tear from beach trauma that opened up more on impact. I tried to fix it on the beach, but with 25 Kt winds, that wasn't going to happen. I did not think to just go get my 9 meter and continue, so the session was over.

The hell here never ends.

We retired to the boat for a very nice evening of dominoes and rum punch, and watched the monohulls sway in the swell. At this point in the game, Dana is slightly in the lead. We quit around cruisers midnight (8:30) and will continue tonight.

We spent a lot of time talking about what boat Dawn's sister and brother in law should buy to begin their planned trip south. My big conclusion after having spent more time on a Cat is: I would not do another trip here on a monohull unless I had something to dampen the rolling in these (relatively) unprotected harbors. The nights can be just too long when the northerly roll sets in. On the Cat it is not problem, the motion at harbor is very nice. I do prfer the motion of the monohull at sea, and Cats are very expensive; so I would try to find out all I could about "flopper stoppers" before I ponied up for a Cat. I have talked to mono cruisers that said it was the single most important piece of gear they carried. This morning, the crew of Unabated was exhausted, and we were well rested.

Sorry for the typos, This keyboard is skipping letters and there is no spell check.

I was up at 6:30 and patched the kite with the emerency kit I brought. I though I would do a morning session before we moved on, but the crew was read to move by 8:00. We were underway in a flash, and secure on two anchors in Clifton Harbor Union Island by 9:30. This is a great chan of Islands - Line of sight sailing like the BVIs but wihtout the annoying British Customs and immigration people.

Off to explore. BTW - I have not been able to get my email, so don't feel ingnored if you have replied without acknowledgement.

Salt Whistle Bay - Dana's new desktop image

We woke up to a pretty windy frontal system passing through. It was blowing about 25 knots and raining, and I had to be restrained from heading to the beach for some kiting.

There was some excitement in the morning when a charter boat dragged anchor and ended up on the rocks. She was holed and taking on water. Lauri quipped “Gee, it is a shame that the first boat you bought had a hole in it”, referring to the likely response of the charter company when the found out where the charterers had anchored the boat. (They were not in a location that was likely to meet with the approval of the charter company.)

In spite of the strong winds, I was shanghaied into crossing over to Salt Whistle instead of rigging the kite. It all worked out quite well though, as the wind held all afternoon, and I was able to exhaust myself trying to get back to my skill level of just a few months ago.

Herve and Gwen also sailed over, so I had some company kiting. I found out today the they are on sabbatical and bought a catamaran to cross the Atlantic and cruise the Caribbean. Later we met Alex, Caroline and Maria, who are very good kiters that pushed us to try more than we might have otherwise. This other group is here from Sweden on a chartered boat for a few weeks.

I hope they will be here tomorrow.

ttyl

Tobago Cays

After fixing the mechanical challenge on Unabated, we had our dinner of Bigeye tuna, salad, rice and pigeon peas and retired contented.

The next morning, we headed out to check out the kiting spot and the local reefs, When I say local, I mean that they were right there next to the boat.

The snorkelling was very good, with sightings of a white eel, cow fish, juvenile and adult angels of the French and Grey varieties, damsels, red lipped blennys, a 5-6 foot nurse shark, lobster, etc. etc.

The kiting was pretty good too, but with weak winds, only 13-16 kts, but enough to get a session in. I did befriend a nice Frenchman, Herve and his wife Gwen. We did some downwind kiting by launching a kite, putting the kiter on a dinhgy, and delivering him out to sea for a run back.
The boat has been visited by a small parade of boat boys (I am not sure that this moniker is politically correct, but it is the accepted local term) selling their wares to the tourist. They offer bigeye and yellow fin tuna, Florida lobsters, local jewellery, tee shirt and the like. I think they can see that Cat Tales is a long-term cruiser, and not a likely buyer for their wares. They focus more on those who are her for a week, and on a vacation budget. They may have been pleasantly surprised when Dana demonstrated that we are on vacation by buying some tee shirts.

Tomorrow we head for Salt Whistle bay, a short sail to the west.

ttyl

Damn Them All

Sorry for the delay, but we didn’t have the connectivity I though, so I am writing this not knowing when you will receive it. Sooooo…..

God Damn them all, I was told
We’d cruise the seas for American gold
We’d fire no guns Shed no tears
Now I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett’s privateers

Instead the brave crew of the Halifax shop “Antelope” were treated to 6 years in prison for having tried to capture an American prize. If you are interested in figuring out just what the hell I am talking about, you should find the lyrics for Stan Rogers’ “Barretts Privateers”. In fact, just try to find some Stan Rogers music to appreciate some sea chanteys; and if our experience is any indication, they should be enjoyed under an nearly full moon with rum punch followed by smuggled beef and root vegetables with christophene, a Caribbean vegetable delight.

That was our dinner song tonight, and quite a song it is. I think we need to learn all of the words by the end of the cruise. Not everyone agrees, but if I persist singing it all of the time, I think they will learn through osmosis, unless they just toss me overboard.

Our cruise is going quite a lot better than the sailors of the Antelope’s did. We headed off from St Vincent to Bequia in the company of Unabated, Alan’s boat, and a sister ship to Madness in fact and in spirit.

Bequia was very quiet and low key. We went ashore for provisions; mainly beer. We did some lovely snorkelling that featured golden spotted eels, which are really just snakes that live underwater, according to Dana. We also spotted some Moray eels that elicited pretty much the same response.

The next morning we headed over to Tobago Keys, the first kiting spot on the itinerary.
There is a saying among sailors that whenever two boats ply the same water there is a race. Our trip across from Bequia to the Tobago Keys was no exception, except that there is a strange variation on the usual theme. Each of the contestants is completely and utterly convinced that the other won the contest. Alan has a pretty convincing photo of the stern of Cat Tails, but we have not yet resolved the dispute.

I was conflicted during the “not a race” not knowing whether to cheer for the boat that I was the helming or the sister shop to my own boat. I thought that we had a good view of the stern of “Unabated” the entire trip, but while we will talk about it for years or even generations, we don’t have the ambition to determine the real answer.

One thing we know for sure, that if we eventually stumble on some fact that establishes “Unabated” as the winner, Cat Tails has the excuse that we caught a perfectly delectable Bigeye Tuna’ and had to engage in the ritual of thrashing about taking in sail, reeling in the fish, landing and bleeding him. He made a fine dinner for all.

Also, Unabated suffered a mechanical failure that might in some circles mean that she failed the contest, but as we are sailors, we do not hold this against her. It did make for some excitement when her auxiliary engine did not propel the boat forward as intended, and she had to be short tacked up a relatively narrow passage to the Tobago Keys. Alan sailed her to anchor with me running alongside in Cat Tales’ dinghy in case she needed assistance. (She did NOT), We spent a few hours sorting out the failure of a driveshaft coupling. I think this may have been frustrating for Alan, but it was good fun for me rigging a Spanish windlass to force the propeller shaft back into the boat. It was a good swim and as good as any other way to pass the time.

More about the Tobago Keys tomorrow.

ttyl

In the Caribbean again! Smuggling!

I have been ashore for months, but this blog is not about that.

Dana and I are visiting our cruising friends Dawn and Lauri Corbett on Cat Tails. Cat Tails is a Fountaine Pajot 35 catamaran (it is obligatory to have a feline reference in your name if you have a cat), one of my favorites is Feline Good).

The flight down was somewhat less dramatic than our last passage, there were no mutineys on USAIR flight 1969, no aviary pirates, no flare sightings. In fact, we were bumped to first class, and spent the time doing Sudoku puzzles and napping.

There was some intrigue to keep us occupied, we were smuggling in a whole beef tenderloin in the middle of our luggage. Good beef is very hard to find down here, even the French offer a poor substitute. Dana and I rehearsed our lines; she packed that bag, and I filled out the customs forms not knowing that she had included the illicit beef...

When our time in the breech came, the customs officer had just opened and searched the baggage of the person ahead of us, and it was looking dangerous. As we put our bags up on the counter, I started acting like I did not want him to search the very large kiteboard bag (marked pro golf, so the airlines won't charge board fees). The bag was our saving grace, it was large and strange enough that it distracted him from the contraband, and he insisted on searching it instead of discovering the bovine infraction right under his nose.

In truth, we would not have felt bad at all if he had confiscated it, as we sspected strongly that it would have introduced the locals to a very good quality of beef at one of their cookouts, and they might open their borders to USDA Filet Mignon.

The flight from San Juan to St Vincent was more interesting, flying over the Spanish, US and Brititsh Virgins, then Saba, Statia, St Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat. As we flew over each, I was pasted to the window, remebering passages and tours associated with each spot.
then it was on to Terra Incognita - Guadeloupe, the Saints, Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, and into St Vincents.

When we got to the docks via cab, we could see Cat tails right there at a mooring, and right next to it, Unabated, the sister ship to Madness belonging to Alan, who crewed with me to Bermuda.

ttyl

No matter where you go, there you are

Some people have asked "Do you recommend cruising?

As a fun thing to do for weeks or months, YES. No doubt. See my last post.

As a longer term lifestyle it is more complicated. A few years back therewas an attempt at a cult movie named something along the lines of Buckaroo Bonsai. As I recall, no cult formed. But Buckaroo Bonsai was fond of this catch phrase: "No matter where you go, there you are!" and it came to mind several times during the trip. Even though you were sitting there in a paradise, your inclination to find fault in a situation will eventually find its way to the surface in spite of your nearly ideal situation. You can see it in my posts - as the novelty diminished a little over time and the islands began to hold fewer surprises, I got bored from time to time, and said so. So regardless of where you travel, you bring yourself and therefore your baggage with you.

So if you are a person who already finds delight in a perfectly ripened tomato, or finding a good parking space, long term cruising is for you. There are so many of these little delights to be found, and many of the things you take for granted (like good beef, good produce, easy access to
fuel, machines that do your laundry and dishes) become delights when you find them. Of course, if you are that person, you are finding delight in ordinary things every day, and probably have no need to cruise to be delighted.

If you are a malcontent, and wondering if there is a better way out there, long term cruising may not be for you, since you will revert to being discontented after the novelty wears off. Paradoxically you are the person who needs the stimulation and change.

The truth seems to be in between. The change of scenery and exposure to other cultures has been helpful in putting minor irritants into perspective. I know that the experience has helped me appreciate all we have here in the states, and all I enjoy in my overly blessed life. But the new cruiser would be wrong to expect cruising to be a panacea.

Ttyl

Are you glad you did it?

A number of people have written to remind me that the adventure is never
over, and a few have pointed out that they would/do not expect life lessons
from a trip like this, it is just something fun to do. This is at least
partially true, but when you spend seven months away from your normal mode
of living I think it only natural that some observations about your way of
living will come to light. So, bear with me when I search for deeper
meaning, and remember that I almost always write tongue-in-cheek.

On a lighter note - A couple of people have asked: "Are you glad you did
it?"

Yes, without a doubt. It was a lot of fun, not outrageously expensive
(unless I can't find/tolerate a job because of it), nobody got hurt, and
even the boat survived. There was real challenge in planning and executing.
There was real danger (primarily from mother nature). I made new friends and
strengthened old bonds.

It should be noted that I had a fantastic crews. NO problem people at all;
this is remarkable when you put as many as 5 people in a 42 foot ship
(bottle) and shake vigorously for days. (Oh, here is a bad thought - maybe I
was the problem person!) I expect that character flaws are revealed in that
environment more than most, and without some humility and forgiveness,
things could get raw between shipmates.

It should also be noted that the ship held together remarkably well, with
perhaps the exception of the first two days. I think I might have different
observations had the diesel needed replacement in some remote island. Also,
I am lucky that I have some good sense on jury-rigging and repairs. We had a
few failures that might have been a real problem for others who didn't have
the mechanical ability.

It was enormous fun, and the rhythm of moving from island to island, the
balance of challenge and ease is hard to beat. Another benefit is meeting
so many people living lives that are so far removed from corporate America,
and so full of adventure (remember Michael and Ursula? Yoyo? Ira?) Having
Dana visit instead of quitting her job and putting our stuff in storage was
nearly perfect - We had income, benefits, avoided the trauma of closing our
household, and Dana got to do only the parts she wanted, with no transits.
It would have been better for Dana if it had been shorter, so that she could
have participated in a higher percentage of the trip. The seasons dictated
the length. It is also good to have another dimension (like kiting, surfing,
scuba diving, learning local cooking, volunteer work, etc) to keep your
cocktail hour from encroaching too deeply into your afternoons.

Next: Do you recommend cruising?

ttyl

Epilogue

Well, it is over now, and I am struggling to put a bow on it and call it
finished. My brother told me recently that the blog just sort of trailed
off, and he is right.

I am tempted to sermonize in the manner of those silly, self important
protagonists of popular TV sitcoms. You know the lessons, they come in the
form of a voice-over at the end of the program that neatly knits up the
three subplots into a meaningful half-hour life experience. Perhaps this is
to convince you that you did not actually waste your time watching, that
there was something to learn if you paid attention.

Sorry, but I have bad news for you.

You may have wasted your time reading my blog. I can't think of a single
life lesson that will tie it up into a bundle and make it whole. There are a
few observations though, and I will give in to the temptation to share them.
They are too numerous and lengthy to impose on you poor abused readers, so I
will break them out into individual entries over the next couple of weeks.

Next: "Do you recommend cruising?"

ttyl

Home again

At 23:30 May 19th, SV Madness slipped by the breakwater of Padanaram's
harbor, and came to rest at her mooring, ending a sail of over 5100 miles.

I will summarize in a few days. Right now I will go take a shower.

Big day in the Big Apple

Well, my repatriation is more or less complete. Martin and I spent yesterday
walking and eating our way through New York. The boat is anchored in a
little cove behind the statue of Liberty. The anchorage is a great find, and
we would never have heard of it except for the good crew of SV Sayonara.

The first night. Martin and I hit a Japanese restaurant that featured a lot
of rules on the menu, like "No fighting, having sex or throwing food in the
main dining room", "The restaurant cannot be held responsible for injury to
patrons due to fighting between other patrons" "Patrons that drink
excessively and vomit in the main dining room will be charged $25 for the
clean up and for the displeasure if the other patrons".

Yesterday, we had a walking and eating tour of the city, from Wall Street to
Broadway up near Lexington and back, favoring as many city parks as
possible. New York is really a pleasant place on a spring morning. We ate
Tex Mex, over the top chocolates from a specialty store, street vendor
candied nuts, and finished the evening by meeting his sister Mimi and her
friend Jackie for drinks and Tapas. We had a great time with those two. I
think that they were greatly amused by the story of the naked St Martin
giant, which I don't think I ever wrote up in the blog because it is just
too odd. Ask me about that one when we are face to face.

I made no bones about being a tourist, because that is exactly what I am. I
stopped in middle of the sidewalk to look up at the skyscrapers, took
pictures of fountains and sculptures and generally made a nuisance of myself
to those hustling to work. The New Yorkers were very friendly in spite of my
behavior. It seems to be a truism that anything you can get anywhere else,
you can get in New York (except a sweep of Baseball, Football and
Basketball champions...you get to go to Boston for that). The pastries here
are just as good as those in St Martin, except that those serving them
aren't speaking French. I am sure that if I look for reggae here, it will be
as good as what we found in the islands. It is a bittersweet realization.
Good in that any major metropolitan area in the US has so much to offer, and
bad that the work has become so small that adventure and discovery are
diminished.

Today I am headed back to the city, then East to Boston in a couple of days;
home by Memorial day with luck.

ttyl

No good deed goes unpunished

After a perfectly enjoyable visit in the DC area (highlighted by my friend
Joe finally coming out of the closet; well not overtly, but his effeminate
protestations at not having been mentioned in the blog left little doubt), I
headed off for NYC. (There, Joe, now you have been mentioned;-)

I got no further than 100 yards (100 yards!) from the dock near Ben and
Jen's house before I strayed a couple of feet (a couple of feet!) off of the
fairway and was quickly hard aground (Hard Aground!...OK, I'll stop that
now). This being the Chesapeake, that is no big deal, since the bottom is
almost all sand and mud. This spot was no different. In spite of just barely
being on time to make my appointment with a fair tide in the C&D canal, I
remained uncharacteristically cool, betraying my experience with this
condition. I would get free of the sand bar soon enough, and if not, well...

A big power boat came by and this time I hoped and asked for him to make a
big wake to dislodge me. Normally I am cursing under my breath when they are
throwing big wakes because they slowed down for the no wake area. He
obliged, to no avail. Then he volunteered to pull me off, which I had not
asked for, and was a little worried about since I did not know his level of
seamanship. In not time at all, he was aground as well through a series of
mistakes that I will spare you of. I proceeded to lower the dinghy to pull
the poserboat off, then resume my self rescue. He managed to get free before
I was launched, and went on his way with my thanks.

The dinghy got Madness off the bar in short order, and I was on my way, but
late. I did make the tide, but had to motor most of yesterday.

Today I came down the Delaware, and was spared the awful ride the forecast
promised. I did not get the 25 kt gusts that were forecast, but instead got
no wind at all until after 1400, at which time it came up light from the SE.
This is good for me, as I had made Cape May, and was headed NNE to Atlantic
City.

Martin is on his way to join me there for the run to NYC, and Walter Sidor
is looking into joining me in NYC for the run East to Padanaram.

Right now, Madness is making 6.5 - 7 knots close reaching in light air with
all sails up. The sea is so flat in this new wind that it is relaxing to sit
and read while making better time than she can make under power. Nice. I
think the seas are under 1'.

Ttyl

Annapolis, New York

I have been in Annapolis for over a week, hanging out with friends Ben and
Jen and their daughter Alex on Back Creek.

We made landfall in Solomon's island on the western shore

I was also able to make it to visit with John and Sherry in DC, Tom and
Leigh, Laura Tim and Drew, and made my Niece Katie's graduation in Richmond,
where she graduated from University of Richmond with a BS in accounting and
Business Administration. Yea Katie! Katie and I have more in common now,
because my hair is as blond as hers. She tried to teach me how to get things
done by feigning helplessness, but it does not seem to work very well for
me.

My ever reliable Canadian crew (Paul and Joanne) has headed back to the
thawing north. I will miss their company and Joanne's cooking. Martin is
planning on joining me in Atlantic City, and sailing into NYC for a day in
the city before he returns. From there, it will be just a few days sailing
to Padanaram, where I will return just in time for...vacation! We are headed
to the Cape for a weekend with Fred and Cindy at the lighthouse in Chatham.
The hell here never ends.

ttyl

Comfort at sea, Culinary travels

We are about to set foot on dry land again, the first time since we left
West Palm Beach on Sunday. This time, there was no strong urge to land as
soon as possible and try our land legs. I think when we reached Bermuda
after a similar time at sea, we quite anxious to get ashore. This time, we
could just keep going; I think we have hit our stride. We have been in sight
of land and striking distance of perfectly good harbors since 0300, but not
felt compelled to rush our return.

We are hankering for some exercise, particularly a walk, but not so much as
to do something about it, like leg lifts and pushups, which work fine
underway.

I realized a few minutes ago that we have traveled quite far. This is
evidenced in part by our diet which included: Beurre and condiments from St
Martin; Turks Head beer from the Turks and Caicos; plantains, mutton snapper
and mangoes from the Bahamas; king mackerel from the gulf stream outside of
Palm Beach inlet; and tonight, with any luck, will include Maryland Crab
Bisque.

We are about thirty minutes from Solomon's Island, where we will dock
outside of a local restaurant, enjoy a stationary dinner, then retire to a
(nearly) still boat and return to a schedule that includes no night watches.

Then on to Annapolis tomorrow.

ttyl

Word of the Day

The word of the day is: Whoaq!

Whoaq is a Canadian idiom that Paul enlightened us about last night when
playing Scrabble. It is apparently an expression of surprise and delight.
Used in a sentence: "Whoaq! I just got rid of my "Q" and "W" and went out!"

Chesapeake Bay

We just entered the Chesapeake Bay around 0500 today. The predicted wind was
slow in coming. We motored for almost 24 hours, and as constant and
comforting as the diesel can be, it was beginning to drone a little.

We had the last of the Mutton Snapper we caught on the Great Bahamas Bank
last night, in a Pesto crust, along with Brussels Sprouts, potatoes and the
last of the Turks Head beer from the Turks and Caicos. We played Scrabble
and later saw a beautiful moonset over slowly rolling swells from distant
winds.

We will probably stop at Tangier island, or Tilghman, or Solomon's, then on
to Annapolis were Paul and Joanne will fly home, and I will remain for week
or two before proceeding home.

We might have sailed down wind through a gale to get home as early as this
Sunday, but that sounded a bit uncomfortable, and way too sudden.

Once again we are cold, yet sailing North. It doesn't make any sense...

ttyl

Heading North with a vengeance (for now)

Sorry it has been so long.

Paul, Joanne and I had a good trip back to Florida. The clearing in was
uneventful, other than being sent back and forth between two offices several
times. There was no mention of the customs sticker that I was supposed to
purchase for the boat, and no visit to the boat.

I was able to make it to my mother's 80th birthday party. I was told some
time ago that Mom had insisted that we not do anything, and that it had
devolved into just a dinner at her favorite restaurant, but it was a party
after all, and my absence would have been conspicuous, even if I was sailing
a once in a lifetime trip.

I spent a couple of days at my mother's house, leaving the boat to Paul and
Joanne. It was nice to have that option, and I am sure that it was nice for
them to have the boat to themselves. (they tried to hide the evidence, but
there was a lot of confetti in the corners, and champagne bottles in the
trash bin onshore near the boat)

I had to cut short visits to the boat from family, as the weather told us to
get underway Sunday night right after the party. You don't argue with the
weather. The first night was a little rough, and very dark. It was made more
unpleasant by the formation of two new leaks, one in the vee berth, and one
in the main salon. It makes it a little harder when you cannot go below and
stay dry, and when you know you will be drying cushions and gear for a long
time. I think we have fixed one, and hope we have fixed the other. We won't
really know until we have rough conditions.

We made over 200 miles that first night with the help of the Gulf Stream. We
made 165 last night. We are presently approaching the outer banks. We have
the opportunity of heading out into a gale that would propel us quickly back
to New England, or finding shelter for a week or two. I think I may seek
that shelter, though it is tempting. The Gale would not be all that bad with
the wind behind the beam, but it would be cold and wet. I am used to wet,
but not cold.

We may duck into the Chesapeake Bay and stop in Annapolis to see Ben and
Jen. (This may be the first Ben and Jen hear of it). Then I would proceed on
up single handed via New York.

ttyl