Every Picture Tells a Story



Tools of the trade, crabbing on Tilman Island.

The Osprey have left Solomons Island.

Light Houses and Our First Dolphins

Friday morning we set off early to beat the predicted seas of 4-5 feet. Yet another day of winds on the nose with the expected seas! Land lovers, we call those "lumpy seas." However, Rick always finds the best in everything so here's our sights for today. We are settled at York River Yacht Haven across from Yorktown. We'll be here several days to enjoy Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Jamestown.

Wolf Trap Light

Mother and Baby

Fences And Fog

Before we left Oxford, Rick made sure we saw all the fences! We spent the next two days in Hudson Creek at anchor, just us and the rain. Our next stop was Port Kinsail where we tried White Point Marina. We tied up just before a storm- but look what we had for a reward just before sunset!After just one night we moved to Dosiers for a two day rest in Deltaville. The weather held calm and sunny (not what was called for), Susan finally did some sewing, and we met several cruising couples. Everyone traded war stories of selling homes and all that stuff we had to have years ago, and then shared they cruising history and plans for this year. This was very helpful for us. There isn't much to do in these towns but we did explore each of them, caught up on reading and boat maintainance. Our only disappointment, we aren't getting to sail enough.

Finally Setting Sail!



Baltimore Light in the fog.

It felt like we would never leave, but we did sail away Wednesday September 21st! Fog did not deter us, winds were 8-12 knots, and we managed to sail past Annapolis before heading into Tilghman Island. The "season" has ended so this trip is about as serene as one could hope for, mostly lighthouses, cruisers and fishermen for companions.

Love a good ol' boat.

Thomas Point Light

The fog persisted until rain ended the day in Tilman but the fishermen are hard workers, full of color and history.

Thursday we headed carefully through the Napps Narrows toward Oxford, a short ride sans sailing. Each year the town of Oxford holds a fund raiser, auctioning sections of fence milled in the Oxford style and decorated by local artists. This stop was just for a bike ride through the sea captain architecture and the photo op with the fences. Tonight is dinner with my favorite chef at the Robert Morris Inn. We'll decide later if we'll cast off tomorrow or not, all depending on the rain event over us.

Rains, Fire, Earthquakes, Hurricanes and more Rain

We've watched storm after storm roll across Chesapeake Bay from a nearby beach this summer.

Even the Oyster man at the Rock Hall Harbor Memorial has had enough rain.

We've been holed up here in Rock Hall completing preparations for our departure the third week of September.  During the preparations we started waking up to smoke from the Dismal Swamp fire that started August 4th.  Even though the swamp is in Virginia and over 150 miles down the bay the prevailing Southwest winds would occasionally bring the smoke all the way up to our area. 

Then one of the few sunny afternoons when we could go to the pool along comes the earthquake.  I was standing by the pool when it filled with 1 foot waves.  Oddly friends on their boats never felt it.

When Irene came through we tied the boat off with extra lines, took off all the canvas and the jib, then headed to Washington, D.C. for a long weekend.  I'd offered to help Micah teach a fly casting class to a lunch  and learn at the Discovery Channel that Friday   Then we spent the weekend watching the weather channel to see how bad the boat would get hit.

Sunday afternoon we followed the trailing edge of the storm back across the Bay Bridge to find all was well. That evening we were treated to a great sunset.

The following week we sailed up the Chester River to an anchorage in Grays Inn Creek.  To our surprise in the morning we were treated to a huge flock of swallows.

After a while I rattled the halyards and finally blew the horn to chase them off, but the next morning they were back again with the sunrise, but didn't stay as long the first day.

It's raining again today and we're off to Baltimore this afternoon to pick up family for the weekend.  I hope to get Gus on our crew for a Saturday race on a friends boat.

More pics and notes to come, we're just getting started.

Rick

Eastern Shore Living

Saturday evening August 20, 2011

As we walked off the docks this morning headed for breakfast and a trip to the Easton Farmer’s Market a fledgling Osprey screeched overhead while carrying a large fish in his talons.  We wondered if it was one of his first captures. Maybe he didn’t know what to do with it as he swooped lower over the water and out into the anchorage repeatedly crying for an adult to help.  Then over the woods South of the marina, but much much higher in the air was the flash of a white tail. As it circled we were able to confirm with new friends in the parking lot that it was a Bald Eagle.

The lightning and torrential rains of last night were finally over, and the heat of another Maryland summer day was upon us.  And after three weeks of retirement I thought it was time to begin to chronicle our journey,

Friday morning July 29 we packed out of our temporary quarters (of 68 days) at the Marriott Residence Inn and filled the Saab and Envoy to overflowing.  We dropped a few items off at our storage locker in Riverside, NJ, picked up our bicycles and headed for the boat.  The weekend was taken up with finding a place for everything we thought we’d need till fall, buying groceries and cleaning up our boat which still suffered the need of spring cleaning. Promise had been abandoned during the sale of our home, the subsequent garage sale and finally packing what was left for storage with the aid of a moving company.

Monday we headed off in our Envoy to Annapolis to meet Micah with his Yukon and car tops to pick up an Achilles dinghy and Tohatsu outboard motor we’d ordered a couple of months earlier from Maritime Solutions. The dinghy allows us to explore shallower waters and during the next week we made several runs up Swan Creek to break in the motor, enjoy the evening sunsets and savor the rural country side of colonial homes intermingled along the shores with cornfields and woods.

After several morning bike rides, each one a little longer than the last, I was greeted with a flat tire.  Luckily the bikes were still in the barn, as by now I could have been a few miles from home before it went out.  After stealing a front tire off of Susan’s bike, so I could complete my intended ride, I dropped both bikes off at the Chestertown Bike Shop for a much needed replacement of all four tires and tubes.

By the following Monday we still hadn’t taken the boat out, so we tossed the dock lines and headed out into the bay for a day sail, only to learn that the engine wouldn’t rev beyond 2500 RPM.  We put up the sails doused the engine and headed out to mid bay while I pondered on the situation.  As we lunched in a light breeze on a close tack I called Gratitude Marina service to be informed that we’d need a short haul and bottom cleaning.  They could take me that afternoon, but I was already out in the steamer channel, so we fell off, restarted the engine and made back for home port.  As we pulled in the service crew was waiting for us and Promise was soon getting a bucket of barnacles scraped off the prop and a thorough power wash of the bottom slime and beard dangling from the keel.  Good news and bad news came an hour or so later. Promise was fine, but the starter motor for the lift was broke.  Not to worry someone had already left for town, 14 miles or so away, for a new starter. Another hour later the new starter didn’t fit and the crew was off for a second replacement.  The marina manager stopped by and asked if he could give us a ride somewhere or home.  We jokingly let him know that home was hanging from the slings of the lift and we had nowhere else to go. By 5:00 PM we were back in the water, engine capable of turning the 3300 max RPM it was supposed to, and then headed back to our slip for dinner.

As afternoon temperatures climbed each day to nearly triple digits, we were forced to spend more time down below in the air conditioning.  We even took in a movie matinee, An American in Paris, only $5.50 senior rate.  Mark and Alison offered to bring Eden, now 17 months, to spend a couple of days.  We began preparations for the weekend, which were delayed by the onset of a summer cold until the following Wednesday, each day we received an update and with temps in the 90’s and storms it was good that the kids held off their visit.

Eden slept in the Pac and Play set up on the dining table in the salon.  Mark and Alison didn’t complain about the drone of the A/C in their suite.  Everyone slept well with the fresh air and the new surroundings.  The wind finally settled down on Thursday so we headed out into the bay only to have the wind die all together.  It was a nice afternoon to motor up the mouth of the Chester River and then over to check out the fish trap on Love Point.  Eden finally slept on Mark’s lap after fussing without an afternoon nap, so when the wind finally returned we decided to let the din of the engine keep her sleeping and we motored back to the slip for a takeout dinner from the Inn.

Friday morning Mark and I set off in the dinghy for a trip up to the end of Swan Creek.  With a falling tide we eventually found our self bogged down in mud and weeds and barley made it back down the creek.  We pulled the dinghy up on the foredeck with the spinnaker halyard for the first time, and then used the new Cato motor lift to secure the outboard to the stern rail for storage..

The kids took off in time to avoid the crowds for “Pirates and Wenches” weekend in town.  Saturday Susan and I rode bikes into Rock Hall to check out the gala affair.  I found a large piece of chocolate covered Cheesecake on a stick to get all over my shirt, not recommended eating on a bicycle on a hot misty day.  Oyster Court was full of youngsters being entertained by a Punch and Judy type puppet show and various brigands and roustabouts dressed in Pirate costumes trying to act like what they thought a pirate should act like. Arrugh!

After catching up on laundry, restocking the boat and several trips to West Marine for boat stuff we set off early Wednesday morning for the 19 mile sail to Annapolis.  We picked up a mooring ball, #35, just opposite the Severn Sailing Association and a bit up creek from the Spa Creek Green can.  Later that evening we watched a hundred or so boats check in at the Annapolis Yacht Club, pick up crews and head out into the harbor for the start of the race.  To our surprise the last mark before the finish line was the Spa Creek Green can and the same hundred or so boats all came racing around the can and straight for Promise swinging on the mooring in the evening breeze.  Some boats opted to pinch into the creek thoroughfare and fall off just after passing our bow while others choose to run through the mooring field tacking back and forth through the other boats to the finish.  For most boats it was a very competitive class by class finish with many boats stacked up bow to stern like a deck of cards, especially what I believed were the two Navy Academy boats.

Thursday morning we headed back home on a downwind run with just the jib out in 15-20 knot winds, even sailing right into Swan Creek without so much as a change in tack or jibe.

Friday we bought groceries again in anticipation of our Friday Night local Rock Hall race, only to get washed out by storms and a broken reefing line as 25-30 knot wind and rain forced the four of us on Moonshadow to scratch.  We watched as 6 of our fleet of up to 15 boats sailed off between huge storm clouds headed for Green can 1. Not much of a racing season this year for me.  The weather just wouldn’t cooperate, but the potluck that evening with fellow sailors made up for the lousy weather.

More on the travels and travails of Promise in the coming weeks.  Keep in touch. Maybe I can learn to post pictures.

Rick

Back from Martha's Vineyard

Every one finally caught fish.  How does a Stripped Bass hit a fly? "Bang" says Matt.

Only 28 day's left at Novartis.  More to follow