20090810: 100 degrees, humidity 85 percent, motivation factor to pull cricket out of the water 0.01

hot day! lots of meetings with the folks at deltaville boatyard for workorders and "winterizing." a weird combination, this weather and talk of antifreeze good to 50 degrees below zero!
too hot for details!...
a car ride to:
- the hardware store
- west marine store
- the coffee shop
pulling anchor to go 1/2 block to:
- the pump out dock
- the fuel dock
- to meet with boat experts
back to anchor
a ride to an amazing restaurant (toby's) from an interesting iraq war vet.
hot and windless on cricket
too hot to blog much
a 9:30 dip on the water (forthcoming.... bye ; )

20090809: "decommissioning" is a sad word. making the best of it!

decommissioning is what the deltaville marina calls a haul-out on their work order. sounds so permanent, doesn't it? it seems so early in the season to pull cricket out of the water, but pull her out we must! tomorrow. but it is not permanent. only until next june... that's only... ummm, 9-10 months away... wait a minute! that IS forever! it will seem like forever, anyways.

pam woke me gently this morning, and then it was time to plan the day. but who can properly plan without a nice cup of coffee first? so it was dinghy to the marina's dock, borrow a couple of bikes, and head to the town coffee shop... oh yeah, did i mention with owen? yup! owen rode on the bike with me! many of the marina's bikes have baskets, so we stuffed a couple of towels into my bike's basket, stuffed owen on top of them, and pedaled on down the country road. owen exactly didn't love it, but he was a good sport. whenever a car came whizzing by he'd bury his head into the basket. so cute! and a far better reaction than trying to hop out! he did seem to begin to get used to it by the end of the ride. after some coffee and some breakfast (mine was apple pie and ice cream : ), it was time to bike back and get to work.

cricket needs to have all sails off her before the marina will haul her out, so it was decided that that needed to be done first. it was a very hot day (hottest yet), so it went something like: swim. take down a sail. swim. take down a sail. swim. take down another sail. swim. dinghy the sails to shore. swim. fold the sails on shore. swim (this time in the marina pool). bring the folded, bagged sails back to cricket. swim. eat supper. lay around with the fans blowing on us...

this evening we took jiminny on a little ride up and down jackson creek. there was no breeze at all on cricket's decks, so we decided to make our own breeze tooling around on jiminny. we explored a sandy spit that stuck way out from the shore. jiminny's outboard grounded on the sandy bottom, so i hauled up the motor and waded in with pam in the dinghy. fun! the seagulls were not very happy about us disturbing their evening peace on the sand, but we told them they could have it right back in a short while. they were all right back as we left their watery, sand bar so it was all cool. we headed up the creek, slowly motoring past beautiful houses, and docks, and trees, and little marinas. we went until the shores got quite close together, and the houses stopped, and it was quite dark, then turned around and went down the creek, back to cricket. it was very fun to just "lounge" on jiminny, slowly circle him around when there was something of interest to look at, and enjoy the sweet companionship of my best friend, pam!

20090808: back to deltaville

when i finished my night shift at 3am, the winds had picked up considerably, and cricket was doing a good 4 knots on a near run. we had made it all the way to the green marker that signals a port turn towards deltaville, va. from here deltaville marina was only 6 nautical miles away, and on a beam reach we'de be making 5-7 knots, which would blow us there in less than an hour! i kind of knew that pam would not want to try to navigate into the harbour at night, since it is very shallow, and very tricky on the way in. i know i wouldn't've wanted to try. so when she took over her shift it was no surprise that she headed her bow to starboard (east), and on out to sea (or bay). cricket kicked up her heels and danced up and down the waves at a very spritely pace! fun! while i was falling asleep in the bunk, pam and cricket were having a grand time sailing back and forth for four hours in a very fine wind! the wind and cricket had saved some of the best sailing on the bay for our last morning on the big water!
when morning light arrived pam woke me from my dreams of bouncing up and down on the trampoline to a very beautiful, cool, windy morning. it was time to go to our last anchorage : ( right out from the deltaville marina. pam did an excellent job of piloting us through to our stopping spot, and kept cricket from dragging her feet to her haul out spot. we were tired when we anchored, and tried to nap, but somehow couldn't. so we got into jiminny, dinghied over to the marina (a very short ride), paid the $35 a week to use their facilities, and showered to our heart's, and dirty hair's content! we then took the cute little deltaville marina's bicycles into town to the cocomo restaurant for tuna bites, a crab cake sandwich, a caesar salad with a tuna steak, a corona and a pina colada. all very good. all went down very easily!
biked back. dinghied back, and had "movie night' aboard cricket. while a windy and rainy storm was a-stormin' out side, we watched "the hunt for red october" on the laptop with great pleasure, nice and dry inside. we went out on deck afterwards to enjoy the cool night air and the moon coming out from the shreds of clouds for a wee bit, and then turned in. big day tomorrow... time to begin getting cricket ready for the haulout.

20090807: going back north, but not hurridly

20090807

today there can be no more foot dragging (or anchor dragging, whatever the case may be). it is time to head north to deltaville, cricket's home for the coming fall and winter. nope, no foot dragging, so up out of bed we rose, hopped into jiminny, and headed to the town coffee shop... you learn when sailing that many times the shortest distance between two points is not usually relevant, so a short tack to a cup of coffee and a muffin will get you there better.
but as one of our favorite sailing songs goes: " mercy, mercy, i do declare that half the fun of going is getting there. but mercy percy, you better start rowing 'cause the other half of getting there is going!" so back to the boat, hoist anchor, and get going.
it's been a lovely, easy sail in light winds, but that seems completely ok with is today. perhaps cricket is dragging her feet too. we decided to go all night, not because we're in a hurry so much as that now we've realized what a joy night sailing can be. and a joy it is tonight! a beautiful sunset without having to anchor. little lights along the shore. the green and red lighted bouys going by. ships passing by at a nice, safe distance. the full moon reflecting on the water, lighting up the white sails. a sweet, following breeze. the gurgle of the water under the hull. i even got to pass right by the dark figure of the wolf trap lighthouse, with it's light circling on top! it's all very fine! my 23:00-03:00 shift is almost over and it is time to wake pam and let her experience some of the joy. it'll be hard to leave this beautiful setting, but the bunk will be warm and cozy and rocking, while i put my trust in pam as pilot, cricket as the floating cradle, and God as the giant who carries us all.

20090806: a happy, rainy day

20090806

the winds told us to stay here today. we took some time to go over lists of things to do for cricket before we leave her for the winter : (
pam dutifully wrote them out so we wouldn't forget (i truly appreciate her gift of organization!). we also dreamt together of improvements to be made for cricket... hard to beleive this ol' boat has any room for improvement, but sure enough we're finding a few things that would make her even more of a joy to sail and live aboard! : )

we also took owen for a dinghy ride in the rain on jiminny, and a nice long walk through the beautiful buildings of the hampton's v.a., and the university of hampton. beautiful place! we stopped downtown for lunch, and got totally poured upon. we were glad to have our rain gear and our umbrellas! owen was particularly glad to have umbrellas! he also learned how to ride in the little canvas duluth pack on my back. he was quite a cute sight to see, with his head poked out the top, and his curious eyes looking at this and that, all the while under the protection of our big blue and white umbrella! his eyes slowly went to half mast, then he cuddled down for a little snooze on his walking human's back. i wished i were him, but was glad to be me! (wouldn't be great to have friendly giants!?) i loved walking in the rain under an umbrella as a little kid, and i still do!

it's nice now to be dry inside cricket, with the oil lamp burning warmly, enya playing softly, and a warm cup of irish coffee in front of me.

20090805: ways to cool off

20090805

after our first night out at sea it felt good to sleep in. very good! when we were both finally awake sometime between ten and eleven (i won't say who was up last) we had no definite plans for the day, so it was time to examine our options. while looking into and thinking about a few options (1: start north up the bay, 2: go north a wee bit to downtown norfolk 3: stay here  in old point comfort bay) i realized that i was too pleasantly groggy to decide without a good cup of coffee, and last time we had been here we had seen a nice coffee shop a short dinghy ride and a short walk away. so it was decided. stay it is. pam was happy to do just that, even though she wasn't as happily groggy as i (happy, yes. groggy, no). good decision.
we had a lovely rest of the short morning and long afternoon sitting in the air conditioned comfort of the pheobus coffee shop. it was one of the hottest and muggiest days yet, so sitting sipping hot coffee in a cold shop was just fine by us! we arranged to have cricket hauled out in deltaville : ( while we were there. afterwards we visited a cute little antique shop that was a bit disheveled, but had many fun old toys and things like tonka trucks and gi joes and old fisher price cash registers and plastic garden gnomes and lionel train sets and transistor radios and... you get the idea. they were also air conditioned.
when we got back to cricket it was hotter n blazes. hot enough for pam to sweat drops and drops! so naturally we thought for mealtime it would be good to enjoy some corn beef hash and eggs hot of the stovetop! just to match the temp... it was absolutely delicious! i wonder if that was the extra flavor could've been from pam's sweat dripping onto the frypan? i know a lot of love was dripping in there, for sure!
i tryed to move our ship's gps receiver to no avail. 
this evening we saw dark, dark clouds coming from the west. when the grey, bubbly clouds arrived they brought with them some pretty terrific lightning and thunder, a pile of pelting rain, and some mighty winds to drive it all! we realised we could probably use a little more scope (length) to our anchor chain, and i went forward to let some out. as the chain was running through the winch a great gust of wind caught cricket and pushed her back hard. the chain began to fly out of the chain locker over the winch. there was nothing i could do but watch it fly out. you don't want to grab flying chain with your bare hands! lesson one: wear boots when you're playing with anchor chain in a gale. before i knew it all 100 feet of chain had gone out, and 100 feet of line (rope) attached to it was flying out as well! i knew i didn't want to reach the bitter end of the line (it is attached to a cleat down below, but at the rate it was coming out, i was afraid it would tear it right off the boat). i let it run through my hands. lesson two: wear gloves when you're playing with anchor line in a gale. i tried to get a wrap around one end the sampson post (a very strong block of wood at the ship's bow, with a very strong iron rod going through it to secure the anchor to), but it was coming out too fast to get a loop. then it occurred to me that there are two ends of the sampson post, and if i could get the line under one end, and feed it over to the other end i would hopefully have enough friction to stop it going through. whew! that worked, so i tied it all off in the pouring rain, and let the wind help me back to the cockpit and to the hatch. the storm raged, but the anchor and line held so that we could all enjoy the storm passing by. even owen seems to enjoy a good storm. he likes to lay under the dodger and watch while he stays mostly (but not completely) dry.
it's still drizzling. pam is enjoying a book, owen is out watching the rain, and i have finished watching the twins get their butts kicked by the indians on the iphone (technology... what can i say?).
tomorrow it's northward.

20090804:

20090804

sunrise
coming back
storm aversion
dolphin play
back to hampton

20090803:

20090803

out to the sea!
over the cars
big ships
shifts
blue water
night shift
moon on sails

20090802:

20090802

severe weather watch
moved down to hampton
navy vessels
radar class / watching rain
pam up the mast
radar reflector
a wild evening ride to town

20090801: south pam goes, and i tag along for the ride

20090801

leaving anchor was much quicker than usual today, because we didn't have to wash off all that silty, gooey chesapeake muck from the chain because all we had to do was take a line off the mooring, and off we go! fun!
we motored over to the city dock and pumped out the holding tank. pam did another fantastic job at docking our ol' cricket. of course it didn't hurt that the dockmaster was there for us to do some line handling. colin. nice guy. he reccomended that we check out yorktown's saturday farmer's market, so we picked up a few peaches and a cucumber, and while we were at it we got cups of coffee, and some ice cream for breakfast (mine was oatmeal raisin, so it was a good breakfast, eh?). the coffee shop and ben & jerry's is one in the same there.
then it was off up the york river, and on south toward the james river and the sea! good winds for most of the day, even if they were somewhat contrary. a bit of tacking was neccessary to move on down. pam, again, did a fantastic job of captaining and piloting. she pretty much soloed all day! single handedly did most of the steering and tacking (including pulling on the sheets and such!). i lazily hung out down below, admiring her sailing skills. we're trying to allow eachother some time to singlehand to that we know we can do it if neccessary.
we ended up anchoring along the west side of the bay, right out there out from the coastline, in the open. we're just south of the huge navy docks in norfolk, va, just east of newport news.  lots of condos and houses and beaches all along the shore. the waves have plenty chance to build up before they visit cricket's hull, and are making us rock and roll, but the anchor seems to be holding well. the biggest worry of the night are all the power boats going to and fro. i hope they all see our little anchor light... we also added another little light on the stern, just to be sure we're more visible.
way off in the east, towards the sea,  right at the horizon we can see a long, long string of lights right near the water. this is the chesapeake bay bridge and underwater tunnel system. the bridge is very near the water level, but goes underwater (and underground) to allow the huge ships to come and go. it's kind of pretty to look at at night!

20090731: last day in yorktown

20090731

this morning we woke up to heat, humidity, and not a lot of wind. it took a little while for me to get moving. pam did a fantastic job of getting up and cleaning up after the "party" we had last night. i'm so pleased to have such a good ship's mate! owen joined me in the bunk, and it amazes me how much "cat gravity" he can have without even laying on top of me. he's very cute and affectionate. finally i rolled out of bed, and we caught the first dinghy ride we could to yorktown docks. yeah jiminny! there we payed for one more night of mooring (the weather called for lots of wind and rain and thunder today). then showers, and then to the coffee shop... ah, yes. i began to wake up proper!
twice we watched the double swinging bridge swing out to allow a couple of big naval vessels go through and on out to the chesapeake. impressive to watch. it was "cute" to see the little (only little compaired with the navy ships) tug boats helping the ships find their way, bumping up on them on either side. while we were watching from the city docks t was fun to see some little pencil fish hunting for some even littler fish, while some birds were hunting them. "the circle of life."
we stopped in a wool shop and Pam got a drop spindle to spin yarn out of wool. it was fun to get spinning lessons from the proprieter of the shop.
then we drove the vanderwettering car (marvin the martian) back to becca's house, and stopped to visit a bit, and to practice our newly found spinning skills. becca drove us back to yorktown, and we got hugs and kisses goodbye from the kids. david and anna were sad to say goodbye, which in all honesty, feels good to be loved that much. still sad to say goodbye. once again, thanks becca and jason for joyfully sharing your family with us!
back to cricket to check on owen (he's fine), get our computers and head back to yorktown for pizza, wifi and coffee while it blows and rains on the festivities of the town outside.
tomorrow we head towards the mighty sea!

20090730: visitors!

20090730

can tomorrow really be the last day of july? no way! it all goes by way too fast.
but it's like the frog says, "time's fun when you're having flys!"

today we were blessed to have such good friends as jason and becca vandewettering! they loaned us their car for the day (thank you guys so much!), and this morning we went to gloucester for our final food shopping trip. our larder is now full enough for the last couple weeks on cricket.
cricket's decks were filled with the joy and laughter of david and anna this afternoon and evening, as we went out for a short sail with becca and jason's family. it was great fun to have them all on board with us! little jiminny did a fantastic job toting six people from the yorktown city dock out to cricket. he was perhaps slightly beyond capacity (perhaps), but jiminny kept us all afloat, and mostly dry.
all of the vanderwetterings got a chance at different sailing tasks, and did a fine job! all plied a hand at the wheel, jason raised and lowered sail, and worked the lines when tacking (becca and jason tacked a few times together, becca at the wheel, and jason at the sails) and were a crack crew! david was an excellent watchman, looking out for other craft, bouys, and helped navigate us back to our mooring. anna helped with the piloting, and many other jobs aboard. she boosted the moral of the crew many times over with her bubbly, joyful outlook.
we had a lovely sail! the winds where light, but where there enough to push us along to get the idea of sailing. we were excited to see a few bottlenose around us, and a few pelicans diving headfirst into the sea for fish. we also sailed near the coast guard's pier, where jason works.
when we were back safely at our mooring, we had a fine ship's meal together on the stern of cricket. grilled brats, beans, fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, cherries, grapes, chips and iced tea (w/o the ice) were perfect as the sun set, and the city and bridge lights began shining on the york river's surface. a great day!
jiminny took us all back to the city dock, and after hugs goodbye with jason and becca and anna and david, pam and i got an iced latte, walked the historic streets for a bit, and headed back to cricket, tired but smiling! warm friends on a hot day is cool!

20090729:

owen to shore
coffee
wait for becca
a ride in the country
ice cream
jason and becca's
games
pizza
pictures
borrowed car / parking under the bridge

20090728:

shower
coffee
bus to jamestown
jamestown historic
jamestown settlment
square riggers
fort
indian village
yorktown victory center
pub

20090727:

20080727

fantastic day for a birthdate! thank you all for all the thoughtful birthday greetings! warms a guy's heart, that's for sure!
this morning we navigated cricket out of sarah creek, and crossed the york river to the yorktown dock moorings. to our starboard side was the large, double swing bridge that spans the river. moorings are big, red and white balls floating on the water off from the shore a little ways with a very strong (hopefully) tether going to the bottom of the water attached to a very strong (hopefully) and heavy hunk of concrete to keep it there. you tie your very heavy boat to it and it works like a super-anchor, only you don't have to worry about it holding, even in the hugest winds AND you don't have to clean the mud of the chain when it's time to leave! sweet! typically you pay a small fee to use moorings. so we set off to pay the dockmaster, and explore the shores.
jiminny took us to the city dock, located past a park on the river, the victory monument (revolutionary war victory), and a bunch of public beaches filled with summer bathers. we saw a largish, grey navel vessel go by, and the bridge open for her, and a three masted schooner tooling about the dock and river. a wonderously strange mixture of new and old.
dockmaster
back to cricket
helping our neighbors
trolly and driver
walking main
carrot tree
antique store
storm under the bridge
owen as captain
lovely evening
biggest birthday candle

20090726: quite a storm

20090726
we had a wonderful, shortish sail today, from our anchorage in mobjack bay to the historic york river (we barely got to know the place, because we got there after dark yesterday, and are off this morning). 
we took a shortcut through a very narrow channel through some very shallow waters. it's amazing out here in the chesapeake how far out from land you are, and how shallow it can be! pam did an excellent job of navigating us through the channel. there were moments when we were very close to grounding (6 feet), but we never did ground cricket. the little channel saved us at least 6 miles.
on our way up the york river to yorktown we got some mighty winds which helped us to break some cricket speed records! we had a steady 6-7 knots, and at one time hit 7.8! flying! although it was plenty windy, it was plenty hot to boot. felt lie standing in front of one of those turbo hand dryers for prolonged periods.
when we arrived in sarah creek, just across the river from yorktown, we had quite a time navigating the little creek. lots of shallows. we may have run aground one little time. we arrived at a spot where it seemed like it was anchorable, but the first try put us too close to a 5 foot area, and what seemed like right in the middle of the channel. pulled anchor. second try seemed a little better, but right then...
wham! a huge thunderstorm caught us before we could even try to set the anchor. lots and lots of lightning strikes all around us, the a deluge of rain, then it got colder, then came the hail, then the huge winds! we dragged our anchor right into a shallow area (luckly not into someone elses dock or something). the wind was so strong that it nearly put us on our side! oh my! fortunately we'de made it into a harbour, and had just enough time to batten down the hatches. huge winds blowing us through the shallow mud, rain coming down in sheeets, lightning striking all around us. quite a time... two waves of that. then we pulled anchor again (it took some doing, as the anchor was set in a shallow area we didn't want to get further into. dropped anchor again (all the time watching another wave of the storm getting nearer and nearer). we tried to set the anchor again, but she dragged again! argh! pulled it up once again (our anchor is brought up by a manual winch and our own strength). this particular part of sarah creek just wasn't working out, so it was navigate once again through the shallows, and find a new place. we did, al the while with another wave of the storm coming. we found another likely place, dropped the hook, and then came another wave of the storm. seemed to hold for a while, but then dragged for a bit. i ran to the controls and motored for a little to allow the anchor to settle a bit. it seemed to, and we watched lots and lots of rain for a good long time. thankfully, the wind didn't seem to blow nearly as strongly this time. whew! that was a lot of work! but it is amazing how well we were taken care of through it all! God is good!
weird having a day when you feel like you're in a convection oven, and then are shivering from the cold rain! weird, but good when you sit down to some warm tomato soup, and think about how much grace was in the day!

20090725: distance record

deltaville to mobjack
dolphins
strong winds
reefing on the fly
47.8 miles!

20090724: the best $20 ever spent and... play ball!

the winds decided for us today. ah yes! we intended to go south, and the winds are blowing from the south, so instead of beating it today it was pay $10 each at the deltaville marina and get:

> use of their dinghy dock.

> use of their toilets.

> use of their bicycles to go into town in the morning for a wonderful cup of coffee at coffee creations and, bonus! an amazing slice of apple pie for breakfast! and the people watching wasn't bad either. we even got to gossip with the gossip ladies at the table outside on the porch. one of the women was looking through her binoculars from her porch on the creek and saw a boat heading out of the creek this morning with a woman who was wearing a tee shirt, but when she bent over there was nothing on under her tee shirt ("naked as a jay, under her tee shirt," the woman said). we were also offered a ride to the drug store from the woman as well.

> use of their lounge, and wifi. pam got a pile of work done.

> use of their laundry room, for a few well needed loads (whew!).

> use of their car to go 6-7 miles to the drug store.

> use of their boatyard grounds to meet all kinds of good folks! one of which is another hans christian owner, and a couple who own a baba (a similar kind of boat).

> use of their bikes again, to go to the town baseball game between the deltaville deltas, and the ??? pirates. fun! they play in a wwii vintage stadium. they lost tonight, but it was a good, nail biter game. pam is the best "fan in the stands" you could ever want! i love that girl! here's more info on the team and park: http://www.deltavilledeltas.com/

> and finally, use of their showers before we go to bed!

what a deal, eh!

20090723:

motored from little bay to jackson creek.
deltaville marina / pumped out bilge
visited with derral and nancy
life's stories

20090722: the true porpose of this trip

a day of recovery of health after our little adventure up the antipoison creek (of which pam filled you in on the details yesterday)... (did she mention her health need, our long dinghy ride, tying up on another's property, the long walk, the drug store, the take out ribs place, jimmy carter, the jag offer, dinner at the picnic table, the long dinghy ride back, the amazing sunset, and ben sleeping outside, under the stars, on the deck of cricket? if not, let me know and i'll fill you in on the details).
this morning i was awakened by pam yelling something from the deck (by this time i had moved inside the
cabin to finish off my sleep, because the wind had died this morning, and the mosquitoes were taking over the great out of doors). i woke to her yelling, very excitedly, "dolphins! dolphins!" i bounced outside (as much as i can "bounce" first thing in the morning, which isn't much), and there they were. dolphins! probably a half a dozen or more! it was so much fun to watch there fins and tails and blowholes surface and go back down! i can't wait to go sailing with them. we must be truly in the southern end of the chesapeake now.
today was watching the crabbers, watching the locals, swimming, jumping off the bowsprit, reading, napping, eating and ended with a sweet sunset walk on the nearby sandy beach with a very happy owen, who gets to run free on this secluded beach, and chase little crabs into their sand holes. pam's feeling way better! t'was a good day. we're all very happy!

sailing tomorrow!

20090721: noises

i am inspired to do a series on "things that go bump in the night." it is funny how on a boat such as cricket, not all that big, say, compared to your house, that there can be so many noises that are very dificult to figure out where they are coming from! especially when all is "quiet" at night time while you're laying cozy in your bunk. many times the wind will cause a hailyard (a line used to raise the sails) to bump against the mast and make a sound to keep even the heaviest of sleepers from dozing too heavily. when you are moored in a slip (a spot for a single boat on a dock), and there are hundreds of other boats in slips all around you, and the wind picks up it is amazing how loud all the haiiyards banging away on all those boats can be! it sounds like a bell choir gone crazy! it is common courtesy to keep this from happening on your boat, especcially around other boats, but it's amazing how many people allow their boats to clang away. when kell (the previous owner of cricket) was with us, he would get up and go over to some of the worst hailyard banger offenders, board their boats and fix the ringing of the bells himself! i admit, i did do this once myself... so that pam could sleep better,  of course. anyway, when there is a strange noise coming from somewhere on the boat, lines are one of the first things to check, but those strange noises aren't always so easily traced...
last night while pam and i were playing a rousing game of backgammon in the cabin we heard what sounded like rain outside. i went to go close some hatches, but no rain falling. hummm. went outside. no rain. there were even a pile of stars shining above. i looked all around the deck of the boat to see if i could find the source of the noise. i could find no clues. couldn't even hear the sound at all. i went back below and there was that sound again. strange, but oh well. we went to sleep to the sound of the ghost rainfall.
this morning when we woke, it was still "raining." the sun was shining hotter n blazes. hardly a cloud in the sky. i poked my head into the head, into the galley, into the stern berth, and the noise seemed equally loud in each area. i started putting my ear against this and that and did find that it sounded loudest against the hull of the boat.
later today met a guy, whose name happens to be jimmy carter. nice guy. a fellow sailor. he'd been sailing the bay and the bahamas for many years. he gave us a ride (you may read the interesting details of this saga from pam's blog today). while we were riding along i told him about this peculiar sound. he laughed, and said that many a sailboat owner had heard that sound, and layed awake worrying that some electrical wires were frying beneith the surface of where they could not reach. he said the answer is much simpler and less worrysome than that. the noise is produced by little sea critters, such as shrimp, eating away at the vegetation growing on the underside of the boat! sweet! i don't want vegetation growing on the hull of cricket, so i welcome those shrimpies to dine away! now that sound will be as welcome as rain on the roof while i'm sleeping!  

20090720: today's news in a letter to my dear ol' dad

greetings from virginia! yes! we made it to a new state today! we'll miss maryland. s'been very good to us!
i'm going to cheat a bit today and copy an e-mail i sent to my father. it's still got the news o th' day, so it's cheating just a wee little bit...:



hey there papa!
nice to hear from you. hope things are going as well as can be!
getting things right the first time is way overrated! and the power of understanding is often way underrated! doing things right the second or third or hundreth time is just fine. i'm pretty sure Jesus would agree. amazing grace is an awfully good thing!
even though the picnic is 1995 years later than previously announced, pam and i still won't be able to attend as it is 6 days or so before we return from our first journey on cricket.

things are going very well out here on the chesapeake! today we broke our daily sailing milage record with 35+ miles (honestly, it was for 19-20 miles as the crow flies, but we had to do a huge tack to get out of the rather large potomac river mouth. such is the nature of sailing). however today we also got to experiance some of the best winds yet, even though they were contrary. we sailed much of the day at a speedy 5-6 knots. cricket lept and pounced through the 4-6 foot waves. quite a wild ride! not for those with the seasick gene, and fortunately for me the dna angels passed over my doorposts!
we went right by a lighthouse ( the smith point lighthouse) that is owned by a couple from winona, mn.

here's a good article about it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/24/AR2005122400836.html

and here's an interesting blog page about the lighthouse:

http://lighthousestars.com/2007/10/08/smith-point-lighthouse-extreme-makeover/

it's a cute, old, round, concrete building thrusting right out of the bashing waves a few miles out from the potomac. it was not a good day to visit, however. the wind and waves would have either cut the visit way short, or worse, extended it indefinately! anyways, it didn't look like anyone was home.
we are anchored tonight in a nice spot up the big wicomoco river, off of sandy point.  over to starboard there's a line of cabins, much like the lake cabins on minnesota's 10,000 lakes, with little sandy beaches and boat docks.
we were briefly visited by a pair of women on kayaks. they admired owen and cricket, and we admired their kayaks. we would like to get a pair of them aboard someday to explore shallow areas. our dinghy, jiminny, does a wonderful job of dinghying, but his outboard is a bit loud and smelly to sneak up on local widlife.
there is the sound of crickets, or frogs, or something coming from the shore. the wind is blowing relatively gently over our bows (of course... we're anchored). the breeze sometimes brings with it scents of a nearby seafood packing plant in the true workingman's town of reedsville. maybe not the best smell in the world, but it does help remind us of this place of the sea, of which we are blessed to be part of today.
owen, the cat is happy to be done with the pounding up and down of the day! he spent the day on the floor of the cabin, trying to find a place where he wouldn't slide downhill everytime we tacked. he's a good sport, though. never complained once! he is now cheerily prancing about the deck of the boat, batting at this line and that line, looking over the edge at the calm harbour waters. every once in a while he checks in on my lap, purring and nudging my face with his cool, whiskery nose.

i love you, papa! pam sends you her love too. please deliver loving hugs and kisses to mom for us too!


On Jul 20, 2009, at 2:24 PM, "WELLUMSON HOWARD" wrote:

Greetings again ...
 
I try to do things right the first time, but I find as I get older, IT'S Harder.
 
 
The date for the picnic is August 9, 2009, NOT August 9th 14th.
 
Any other corrections will be appreciated.
 
Howard

20090719: gettin to smith creek

we made it to the potomac river, and a few miles up it to smith creek. on the way we saw a huge sailboat race that was huge, a nifty old lighthouse in the middle of some pretty expansive water that was looking rather old, and a half sunken world war one or two (not sure which) ship that was half out of the water. we saw another lighthouse called "point lookout" right at the mouth of the potomac. a couple of boy's camps lined the shore on our way up the very wide river.
the winds were quite light most of the day, so we ended up motoring a good while.
smith creek is a lovely little inlet, lined with pines and hardwoods. from where we are we can see one big ol'  farm house a ways away, some lights from a marina a little further away, and trees, trees and trees. we like this sort of anchorage! 

20090718: little choptank river to patuxent river

today was one of those good-n-simple sailing days. not a lot to report, which must mean that we're getting a-hang of this sailing stuff! it was a sunny day sailing from the delmarva penninsula (del-aware, mar-yland, v-irgini-a) on the east side of the chesapeak across to the west side, and farther on down south. souther than we have been yet! winds varried from lightish to light, ussually on our tail, which was nice for a change. our plan is to keep heading south, river by river until we get to the mouth of the bay, and then if we have time and wind (oh boy oh boy) we will venture out into the big atlantic ocean! the next river down is the famous potomak. you know, the one with george washington crossing in that little boat, and the one that washington dc is on. then the rappahannock river is the next river south. we hear there's some beautiful places there, and a good marina we may winter cricket over at. then famous york and james rivers. the "birthplaces" of the usa. historic sites, such as yorktown, jamestown (ahhh, thus the names of the rivers!) and colonial williamsburg. looking forward to seeing a few of those places, and having becca (used to be steinmeier) and jason and anna and david vandewettering visit the boat down there!
today we are in a town called solomons landing. we are anchored in a tiny offshoot of the river in what feels very much like the backyards of some residents of the town. we dinghied jiminny over to a spot to get... yup, you guessed it, ice cream. it's a bit of a funny thing because when we were on the hard we were constantly driving on a long, well used road called "solomons island road," and now here we are. we went around this tiny-tiny little, scrubby, uninhabited island held together on all sides by timbers. the only island around, so we figure it's got to be solomons island. very underwhelming! there must be more to the story than we know.
i hear crickets chirping for the first time on this trip. nice!

20090717: a new rope ladder of old line

today is a day of rest! woa! can we ever rest! yes, pam too. she can be taught! for me resting comes easily, and is often a good quality... sometimes it can wander into the "lazy zone," but can very often linger in the "patient zone," which is where it's at today. the wind was deader than dead this a.m., so rather than sit in the middle of the cheapeake bay, we're sitting in our cozy little cove off the mouth of the little choptank river. a thin peninsula is to our east, lined with pine trees and sand. a lovely veiw! it is a beautiful thing to live by God's weather!
funny, pam mentioned how it was a bit difficult to sleep last night on account of it being so still! now there's a change! we're getting to be true sailors, eh!?
we read, napped, read and worked on a cute little ship's ladder made of rope. the aluminum ladder we've been using works great, except that it is super hard to fold out, and fold back in. so we decided to try to make a ladder from the instructions given in a book we have aboard called, "the marlinspike sailor." it's a very fun, salty book about how to make all sorts of nautical items mostly out of rope (line) like turk's heads and monkey's fists and such. pam is amazing at figuring out knots and such! she has quite a knack for that good, practical stuff. she's got a lot of what folks call "c.s.," (common sense, which is not at all so common, far as i can tell!) and i truly appreciate those gifts! it was fun making the ladder, and it looks excellent! we feel all the saltier for putting it together, and will feel saltier yet when we get proficient at using it. we tried it out, risking jellyfish stings, and found that it will take some practice to use well, but it is a great addition to cricket's supplies. read pam's blog to hear a great story of her and the jellyfish today (i'm not qualified to tell it as it is too "personal."
a small storm blew by this afternoon, consisting of a good blow and a little rain. no anchor dragging. no other drama.
i'm going to see if i can get Pam to play a game of cribbage or two in this evening. we're driven below by the evening mosquitos, it is a bit stuffy in here because the wind is dead calm again. the oil lamp burns with a sweet glow, maybe warming things up even more down here, but it's sweet glow is worth the tenth of a degree!

20090716: sailing in the morning, sailing in the afternoon, sailing in the evening

i've decided that on the days i'm either too lazy or too busy to post i will simply put my little list of notes to fill in later (i've been saving them, but not publishing them) i can edit them later...


20090716
windy night
fueled
sailed
sailed
sunset
anchor

20090715: touring the academy

i've decided that on the days i'm either too lazy or too busy to post i will simply put my little list of notes to fill in later (i've been saving them, but not publishing them) i can edit them later...

20090715
showers
coffee shop
navy academy
dinner at ??? & ruth's

20090715: yet more pictures

cute, condemned house with the bugs

pam and jiminny on tighlman island

cricket in a happy little bay (typical of our anchorages : )

chesapeake bay veiw

horseshoe crab

owen happily on dry land

20090715: some more random pictures worth 1000 words

city dock in annapolis

papa jerr bear joins us on the hard in june

our "true sailor's" bimini

20090714: walking a lot, and a little riding too

once again i woke to the early morning callithump of naval callisthenics, and owen scratching on this and that. he's got us trained now for the morning. he knows how we love our lovely woodwork so he'll start scratching on one of the locker doors (wood), and then typically pam will yell, "hey! owwwen!," and he'll know she'll be awake enough to jump up on the bunk and cuddle into one of our faces, purr, and begin nibbling on an earlobe or loose neck skin. this morning when i heard him beginning his morning attention system coinciding with the calls of the navy ranks i decided to try to relieve pam of her morning bawl and get up to take owen outside on the deck. so owen and i collected a few blankets, a pillow and my down sleeping bag and headed out into the early morning sunrise, closing the hatch behind us... i ended up getting warm, cozy and snoozy enough to forsake the important task of watching the cadets working their tails off and dropped off to sleep while they were running their "company run," and dreamt of giant centipedes.
after pam finally woke me up from the stern of cricket we took jiminny to city dock. we disposed of our ship's garbage, finally found a place to bring our ship's recycling, and then we took a long walk to an annapolis fire station. we wanted to properly dispose of our old fire extinguishers. the fireman at the firehouse door didn't sound like they typically did this, but kindly took them from us when he'd heard that we walked a ways to do the right thing.
our walked continued, and after a brief stop at a coffee shop we passed a humane society with a sign announcing kittens... who could resist looking at cute kittens, even knowing that you have a slight tendency towards shedding tears in such places?! up the driveway we went, and saw many, many cats and kittens waiting for someone to sweep them off to a loving home. amazingly, that someone was not us. not at this time. i don't know how we kept from completely melting from the warmth of those pleading eyes, but somehow made it out of there without a kitten. (could you please do me a favor and go adopt an orphan kitty today? it would help me feel better. thanks! : ) i said we didn't melt from the cat's eyes, but i didn't say anything about the dogs... when my eyes started to water over looking at the pups, i knew it was time to move on. (could you please do me another favor?) it took a while of walking to dry the ol' lids.
our walk continued. always away from jiminny at the city dock. we finally made it to our destination... west marine store. as captain of jiminny i was tired of dumping gasoline all over him, and into the bay everytime we needed to fill his petite tank, so we decided it would be good to install an external tank. you know, the kind with the long rubber hose with the little hollow rubber ball to squeeze the gasoline to the motor? anyways, we found just the guy (giff) to help us because of two reasons:
1. he'd just gotten back from circumnavigating the world (our ultimate goal in cricket). did we ply him with questions and distract him from his job? you bet we did! and we've got his websight and contact info too.
2. when we didn't know which fitting to buy he gladly drove us to the city dock after he got off work! wow! we tried to pry as much information out of him as we could while we rode on the bench seat of his old pickup truck.
i am pleased to think that jiminny, the sea, and my body will be smelling much less of fossil fuel!
when we'd been deposited once again at the city dock we walked across the street to have a couple pieces of pizza and a couple bottles of ibc root beer. when we were almost finished eating glen (the guy from yesterday) walked by, and we hailed him fully knowing this could be a while. it was. he apologised about the dirty shirt he'd been wearing yesterday. the shirt he was wearing looked ever so slightly cleaner. we told him that was ok (we haven't showered for a couple of weeks now). glen went on to say that he'd been thinking and we probably didn't have to listen to his favorite preacher on the radio anymore because he didn't believe a lot of what he said, and that he would just take the parts he knew were true in his heart, and not worry about the parts he knew weren't. he said he decided not to be stuck on any certain date that Jesus would return. way to go glen! the talk then changed to how cold the winters were in annapolis, and how very, very cold they were in minneapolis (glen will NOT be moving there). he talked about how his old oil burning furnace was a crap shoot as far as it's working this winter. we mentioned to him that we'd been thinking of him while we were visiting the humane society that morning, and that we thought he might have a good time volunteering there giving attention to those cats n kittens. he sounded interested, and asked a few questions about it. well... he said he didn't want to interrupt our dinner, and turned around and walked off down the street. God bless glen!
we then walked to the naval academy, and had a lovely time looking around the grounds at the beautiful historic old buildings, monuments, and trees. we stopped to watch the evening formations. salutes, swords, orders being yelled loudly, marching, drum beats, about faces... all very formal and impressive! paul, you would love it! we sure did.
from there we walked back to jiminny and took him up spa creek, under a draw bridge, past lots of sweet historic houses and boats on docks and moorings and little parks and church steeples, and more houses and boats farther up the creek to a little party on a sailboat. we'd been invited to join them earlier by an employee of the local marine supply store (fawcetts). it was great fun to sit in community with 8-9 folks in the cockpit of a sailboat on a city creek talking about sailing the world and living in this world. good folks. the owner of the boat works for the dock master here, and gave pam and i a couple of tokens for showers here at citydock (a little hint? things were a little tight in that boat). after a little 3 day homemade sauce and spaghetti it was goodbye and back to jiminny.
back up the creek in the faint evening glow, past the house's lit windows, past the drawbridge's green and red lights, past the big boats and fancy restaurants, across the waves and back to cricket's welcoming decks, with owen standing on them, glad to see us return (purr, purr, purr), and back to our warm bunk in the bow.

20090713: glen

well, i should be covered for the blogging for the day because of the pictures i posted previously. you know, a picture paints a thousand words and all that, but i know i can't get off that easy.

this morning pam was up with the naval acadimy cadets around 0615, but although i heard them begin their hour of p.t., i continued counting sheep and sawing logs in and out of the cadence counting. when i got up at 0715 they were cheerily marching off the feild to their breakfasts.

pam and i headed jiminny towards the city dock and over to citydock coffee house, complete with wifi. it was sure nuff pleasent to sit at a coffee house through a redeye (coffee with espresso) to wake up, a couple shots of espresso straight up to keep going, and an iced coffee for lunch. i like coffee shops.

back at cricket we got a few "no pressure" chores done. pam swabbed th' sole (cabin floor), and i put up the tarp and replaced 3 fire extinguishers. we hailed the holding tank pumper boat on channel 17, and got the poop pumped out for only 5 bucks! i pulled the hose off the boat a little prematurely and had to wash shit out of the scuppers. phew. but hey... i'm a true sailor now!

we went back into town this evening so that pam could wifi-iron some aslis work stuff out. we brought owen along since he hadn't been off the boat in well over a week. he doesn't love being handed over the rail and into the dory, but all in all he enjoyed bring on land, once it stopped pitching for him. he and i walked to the maryland capitol building (which was once our nation's capitol building for a short while) and sat on a bench beneath a frowning forefather statue. owen enjoyed chasing a few fireflies as evening came. he gets lots of comments and attention when you walk down the streets with him on your shoulders or walking at the end of his leash!

after pam met us, and hung out at our little happy spot for a while, we walked into the citydock business area for ice cream. enter glen. he's a thin man sitting on a bench in rags and peppered whiskers. he said in a very raspy voice (ever heard of tom waits?), "i've never seen a cat go walkin' round here." we stopped. he told us through his bad teeth (one of them sticking straight out) about the old days in the 70s when his ma n pa had a dozen or more cats, and they didn't have any mice problems and the cats could sleep in the basement in the winter, and they'd cover the davenport, but now ma n pa n the cats is gone and he's got lots of mice runnin around th' place, and he thinks they get in thru a certain spot and his friend steve is coming soon to help him hook up a tv, if glen won't chicken out and blow him off this time, and, and... i think he needed someone to listen for a while, so we did. for over an hour. off he went about this guy he listens to on the radio who used to say the world would end in may of 1993, and when it didn't he sort of dissappeared, but is back now preaching that Jesus'll come back in the summer of 2011. he wasn't sure whether to believe him this time, but couldn't help listening to him, and pondering the things he says. i know from what i'm saying that glen doesn't sound very bright, but he was bright in spirit! (and he actually made some very intellegent metaphores through his ramblings). i like glen. he said if we really knew that Jesus was to return in 2011 it'd be reason to rejoice, because then we could get our ducks in a row. i said it's ok if we don't have our ducks in a row because God loves us with crooked ducks, and gives us grace. i don't know if he heard me, but i know i heard him, and will rejoice because we're given time to realize who the Great Duck Arranger is! no matter who we are, and how confused we feel about who's right! glen had to quick use the public restroom before it closed, and we had to get our ice cream before they closed. glen said no thank you for the ice cream, but if we wanted to listen to this preacher man, he'd be on the radio about now, as far to the right as the radio dial could go. 

20090713: just another sunset?

from papa jerr bear's visit. it's a lovely thing to sit on the deck in the evening! breezes, waves, fishes and crack (irish for conversation).

20090713: picture?... picture!

photos on our blog!
a coffee shop in annapolis, wifi, and viola!

20090712: back to the old city

not a lot to report today.

we woke this morning in our beautiful boat in a beautiful little cove. there were a few things we could do in annapolis so we were thinking that was a possibility, but when we discovered our holding tank (where all the poop goes while near land) was most likely full, going to annapolis became a sure thing.
so we up anchored. this morning reveiled the muckiest anchor chain yet! the gooey stuff just stuck to the chain like thick tar. i ended up actually diving into the water to brush the mud off the chain at the waterline, while pam winched it in from above. typically i hoist a sea bucket on a rope up to the deck to wash the chain, but today it would have taken dozens of buckets, and i'd rather have the lower impact workout of swimming rather than the "gold's gym" upper body calisthenics.

the sail today was nice, with some motoring necessary late in the afternoon. some decent winds in the morning, but nothing like the blow we got yesterday. a nice break from all the excitement.

we spent a lovely evening walking the town, eating out and sitting with alex haley at the end of the city docks.

looking forward to waking with the navy!

good night.

20090711: goodbye j&a, hello lots of water

this morning we (pam and i, not annie or jason) were awakened by what i thought was a nearby anchored boat with it's uhf radio blasting way, way too loud. turned out that it was a guy on a megaphone calling out orders to hundreds of naval cadets on the field of the u.s. naval acadamy. we were anchored right off from there. we groggly woke up and sat comfortably on the stern of cricket and watched them do there early morning workout, complete with every calethstenic known to man, a 1.5 mile run, and lots of loud chanting.
soon afterwards jason and annie woke, and we dinghied them to the annapolis city dock to drop them off to wait for us as we sailed back to the little bay a little ways down the big bay. annie's tummy could not take any more sailing, so pam and i arranged to leave them there, anchor the boat near the car, and bring it back to them in annapolis. it was a very good thing that annie's tummy didn't come along! it was a fantastic morning if great sailing in good winds! we felt bad that jason couldn't've been there with us, but it was very kind of him to keep annie company for the rather long wait!
the sailing taught us more again. we were beating, mostly (sailing against the wind), through some pretty heavy traffic, with some pretty heavy winds. some of the traffic consisted of biggish, grey, navy vessels, a couple of giant cargo ships, and lots of sail and motor boats. whew! pam did a fantastic job of piloting and navigating! we may have been carrying too much sail... but cricket is a fine boat, and very forgiving. there was one moment when i was piloting, and the wind gusted, and i came fairly close to laying her on her side! exciting! not a great big deal, because cricket's heavy keel will bring her right back up, but still a little disconcerting with a boat this size. well, wouldn't have been as much of a deal if i'd've remembered to close her portholes! water came gushing into the cabin, soaking of settee (seat) cushions, and waterlogging a good number of good books on our bookshelf. they will all dry, but the books will be thicker than they once were : (
we eventually made it back to our anchorage near the car, took jiminny to the car, picked up a&j, took us back to jiminny, and said our goodbyes. it is sad to see the kids go. we'll miss them. t'was great to have them be part of our summer adventures!
it's nice, however, to be back to the original crew. pam, owen, cricket, jiminny and i are looking forward to whatever adventures the second bit of the summer has in store for us!

20090710: breaking radio silence

allright... time to break radio silence. sorry about the lack of bloggation the last couple of days. with annie and jason here it's been a little socially busier than usual, and i haven't figured out the socio-journio balance just yet.
even tonight it's a bit late for me to spend too much time on this, so allow me to give a breif outline, of which i shall fill in the details once we send our sweet guests on their way tomorrow. there really hasn't been much in the way of seafairin' tales the last couple days, unless you call dinghying in jiminny "sea fairin'." we've been trying to avoid them with annie's propensity toward heaving sea-n-gut syndrome.  

today: 
> motoring to annapolis, with sail drills but no wind
> annie's bout with the face of green, then red
> anchoring in the big city / bad timing fir engine troubles
> a day to the city with jiminny, fawcetts, restaurants, cabs, theaters and jiminny.

yeterday:
> a day going to visit becca, david, anna, and jason in gloucester, and yorktown.

day before yeterday:
> a fun day in dc

hopefully there'll time tomorrow! good night.

20090707: our youngest visitors

annie and jason arrived this morning! it's so fun having the younger ones aboard! i love seeing this boat through their wonderous eyes! we had a great time in annapolis, then a wonderful, jellyfish free swim, then back to annapolis. we found it more adventurous than we thought trying to find a place ashore to park the car for a couple of days. we ended up with the "i'd rather ask for forgiveness than ask ask for permission" principle.
jason and i did some bowsprit jumping! fun! poor annie's equalibrium is not behaving itself, thus making it neccessary to find cures for the common motion sickness. ginger cookies, ginger candy, ginger pills, and extra ginger ginger beer... plus the usual dramamine. and this is only at anchor.

it's off to do some obama spotting tomorrow!

20090706: here they come!

today we are staging ourselves for an exciting antisipation of annie and jason coming out to visit! they were somewhere near chicago when we called this afternoon. we are crossing the water of the bay to get somewhere closer to annapolis, so that when they come it will be easier for them to meet us. we tried to sail it today. according to noaa (national oceanographic and atmospheric administration, the weather dudes) we were supposed to have north north west winds from 10-15mph, shifting to the east as the day progressed. ha! the wind pretty much took the day off. we made something like 8 miles in so many hours. mind you, we don't mind sitting still on the water, but if we were to sail around the world at today's speeds it would take us at least 20 years of continuous sailing. we had to motor quite a bit at the end. all in all it was 12 hours of sailing and motoring today for 29 miles. i hope jase and annie are moving a bit faster, in spite of chicago traffic ; )
now we're tucked away in a spot with sweet little, forested islands around us. we have several sailboat neighbors. we think some folks took the week off for the fourth of july.
snug. sun drenched. tired.
good night.

oh yeah! we had a skater gliding right beside us today while under sail! beautiful! look up skaters on chesapeake bay in wikipedia. they're a form of a sea ray.

20090705: sunday

sunday... day of rest. and rest we did.

we did manage to take jimminy into a nearby town. about two miles away or so. owen stayed to guard cricket while we were gone.
the town of tilghman is very much a working boatman's town. lots of crab, and oyster, and fishing boats. tilghman is set on a long peninsula where there is a narrow cannal (nap's narrows) for boats with a shallow draft to cut through (saving them 6-7 miles). a nice town with a cool bridge that swivals up to allow taller boats through. it was fun to explore. we even explored an interesting old, abandoned house, inside and out. the doors were open. who could ressist?when we were snooping in the upstairs we felt something tickling our ankles. when we looked down our feet were covered, and i mean covered with tiny little black bugs, making their way up our legs! thousands of the little buggers! we got out of there double quick, and quickly brushed the things off. weird! i'm glad the ground around here isn't like that.
we ate out at a little tiki style restaurant on the canal.
owen greeted us when we returned. so nice to have the little rascal with us!   

20090704: a joyful depend-dance day

tis july the fourth. a day for us to remember He who gives us true freedom from the burdens of this world! to give thanks for the wonderful gifts we have been given, including this amazing place to live. and a good day to reflect on the reality that we are wholy dependant upon the love and grace that freely flows from The Creator!
"america, america, God shed His grace on thee,
and crown Thy good with sisterhood (and botherhood)
from sea to shining sea!!!"

ah, yes! the sea!
we had an amazing day upon the sea! we left our sweet little harbour this morning, waving goodbye to our new friends as we pulled anchor and headed for the narrow channel. darrell and nancy gave as a happy little toot on their airhorn as we embarked on the day's journey.
the plan was to head northeast from latrappe creek to dun cove in harris creek 9 miles away, as the crow flies (with no prevailing winds). the forecast called for northeast winds, so this was going to be a day of tacking and tacking (something we haven't been the greatest in, in the past). however, that is in the past! tacking is going back and forth at angles into the wind. it has to be done on a sailboat, as a sailboat can not sail directly into the wind. generally speaking, you have to sail at least 30 degrees from head on winds. obviously this means you have to go much farther to get from point a to point b.
but it is much fun, once you (we) get (got) the hang of it! it is wonderful to look at our course lines on the gps plotter. our tacks were not only nearly perfectly executed, but they were all very well timed! i'm not bragging, i'm just feeling mighty fine that we've come a long way in learning the craft of sail. cricket and Somebody has taught us well, and has been taking very good care of us, in spite of ourselves. one word... grace!

we are now anchored in the snuggest little cove we could imagine! in our view there is a pretty farm, and pine trees lining the shore. not a lot of wiggle room in here, but our anchor seems set quite well, and there is plenty of protection from both wind and waves.

earlier, as were finding our way into this little bit of paradise, a motor boat hailed us to say their batteries had died, and they couldn't get their boat started. we were in a very narrow channel, and couldn't stop to help at the moment, but as soon as we were securely anchored, we dinghied over on jimminy to see if we could assist. they appreciated the offer, but said someone else could help. so we thought, "why dinghy straight back to cricket, when we could let jimminy help us explore this sweet cove?" turned out to be a great idea, because we found an amazing camp/picnic sight just up the cove from us. so we headed back to cricket, pam packed a wonderful picnic dinner, we took a quick dip to cool off, we grabbed owen and took off for our shore lunch/supper. the spot had beautiful huge oaks, pines and even some holly trees (prickly leaves on the ground!). there were two picnic tables, a swing, horseshoe pits, a little grill, a lovely wooden swing hanging from the oak's high branches, and even a little tree fort! we had a great walk across a couple of young corn feilds, and over to the main part of harris creek bay. owen loved the place! he loved feeling dry ground under his paws, and walked a long ways with us on his leash. we even took a little nap together up in the little tree fort.
back on cricket now, i hear distant fireworks popping off, see the nearly full moon rising to the east, and have a grateful heart for all the blessings of the day!

oh yeah... and i got some pretty cool footage of jellyfish swimming around this evening! i'll try'n figure a way to post 'em in a week or so.

oh, oh yeah... pam and i played backgammon this evening too. i won't say who won more games. that would be bragging.

20090703: owen's adventure on jimminy

owen had his first adventure on the dinghy today. he wasn't too thrilled with being passed over the railing and into jimminy. so much so that he lept up high out of the dinghy, and onto cricket's deck four feet above. i helped him back into jimminy, and into pam's arms for comfort. we motored over to a nearby sandy, shelly shore to explore. owen did what his mother, allie did when confronted with a completely new terrain. he found the nearest ""cave" (in this case some dense bushes) and holed up until he could observe his surroundings for a while, and then slowly venture out from there. he didn't naturally want to come too near the wavy shoreline, but was happy to explore the grass and bushes and sand a few yards back from it. he enjoyed watching pam and i explore the shoreline for nice rocks and shells and driftwood. he found a perfect sandy spot to dig and pee. his first time peeing outdoors this trip. i figured, as a guy, this must have been very enjoyable to him. he covered his business up and i thought, "yeah! he does know how to do this. he just needed a primative setting to trigger his instincts (see the earlier blog on pooping). then he continued to dig, and dug up what he had just done, and i thought, "o well. never mind." once, when pam went around a corner, and i stayed behind with him he started to try to follow pam and meowed in great worry, just like my old dog henry would have done, which warmed our hearts completely (only henry whined instead of meowed, of course). we had owen on a leash, so he couldn't go far, so i went through grass and under bushes so he could find his beloved mother in an adjacent beach. i found an old glass pepsicola bottle! i love old bottles! treasaarrre! pam found a good small pile of polished white and dark stones with which to play backgammon with. i also found a nice twisty piece of driftwood that looks like a snake. we brought all our booty back to the boat. owen was very happy to upon his beloved cricket once more, and immediately went below to hunker himself into a cozy nap.

also today we had little baths from the side of cricket, between the jellyfish. this evening we went over to our neighbors boat and enjoyed some good conversation in thier cockpit. there was another boat who was having great trouble anchoring, so we went over to help them. wow! i've learned enough now to help somebody else!

tonight is the 3rd of july, and i could hear a nearby town's fireworks, and see a very little bit of them over the shores treeline. i am going to sleep out under the stars tonight, on cricket's deck! yeah! pam is in our berth just below me, so it's like bunk beds again!

20090702: boat healer, ice cream, and cards

today i am very pleased and proud to announce that pam and i successfully docked cricket with no pressure, no mishaps, no bad feelings! the dock we docked upon was into a fairly narrow opening, into a cute little river that extends up into the town of oxford. it is lined on both sides with boat docks. lots of pretty boats. lots of not so pretty boats. sail boats, motor boats, pleasure boats, work boats. plenty of reason here to feel the pressure, but we took plenty of deep breaths beforehand, and drove in, and docked her. it took two passes at the dock, but we both knew we'd finallize the docking procedures when we were good and ready to do so! yeah for us!
the reason for docking the boat today, instead of simply finding another easy anchorage was not simply for the practice, or to make us feel better about such manoeuvres. nope. we really wanted to figure out our electrical issues once and for all! we pulled up to the dock, walked to the oxford marina buildings, found the offices (more challanging than it sounds. everybody there says, "it's in that blue building over there," but all of the buildings are blue! and the office doesn't say "office" anywhere on it). anyway, when we entered we were greeted by a great big rottweiler dog, with a long string of drewl hanging down his starboard jowl. a very nice greeting, as far as we were concearned. we found out later that this dog's nickname was nettles, after the long stringy nettles jellyfish all over the bay. we were directed into a room with a couple of chairs, a desk and a man behind the desk. as soon as he spoke, we knew we were in the right place! not only was he friendly, and interested in hearing our whole boring story about our electrics, but he also had the best english accent. could listen to it all day, and we did get to hear quite a lot of it, because he took plenty of time with us to explain in patient words we could understand all about how our electric system works. wonderful! he also tested this and that, and fixed a few things that have been annoying us, and causing us to be very electrically "shy." at one point he had his head buried in one of the spots with batteries, voltage regulators and the like, and we saw him pull out his wire cutters and heard "snip." pam and i both gasped, and he said in a very cheery voice, "don't worry! i'm a professional. this won't hurt a bit!" he was right. our battery, the one that didn't start our engine in a crucial time of need was soon charging up like it should have been. it was great to find a competant, friendly, wholistic boat healer.

we celebrated with a pint of homemade ice cream each, and motored our way to nearby latrap river. that is where we are now, anchored in a pretty little "lagoon." there are three other sailboats sharing this harbor with us with their anchor lights shining on the tops of their masts, reflecting on the water.

earlier this evening we had a lovely visit from our news friends, the urban couple, who are also anchored in this bay. we laughed, told stories, and they taught us how to play cannasta. such amazing community on these waters! we are blessed!

20090701:

anniversary

paul a martin

cemetary

oxford, ice cream, author

jelly pictures

storm

20090630:

who knew when we woke up with the breeze blowing through our little bow cabin that the wind would waft us to such lovely encounters with the kindness of God's good folks! you never know what gifts are in store for you each day. and a good thing too. i love surprises.

the adventures of jimminy:
a proposal was made some time ago, and was overwhelmingly agreed upon by all hands of the ship's crew that pam should, at all times, be the captain upon cricket (until further review, discussion and agreement). the reasons for this decision are many, but they mostly have to do with things such as safety, sound judgement, common sense, etc... it was recently agreed upon that, in fairness, i shall be the full time captain upon jimminy, our dinghy (aka: tender, dory, zodiak). jimminy is a little foldable, inflatable boat made of rubber, with a little outboard motor (a tohatsu 4 stroke), and two oars with aluminum shafts and plastic blades (unbeknownst to me, totally useless as oars). she... ooops, i mean HE has been happily tetherred to cricket, and bobs along behind us as we make way here and there. cricket draws nearly six feet of water (her heavy keel is six feet under the water), which hopefully most often, keeps us from visiting about 1/4th of the chesapeake, on account of 1/4 of it being shallower than six feet. enter jimminy. he draws less than 1.5 feet. he will take us into much of the 1/4 of the bay that cricket shouldn't, such as some town docks, little irresistable bays, streams, and rivers, etc. so being his captain is no small responsibility!
this morning we employed jimminy's skills to take us into the town of oxford. we began heading around a point of land towards town. as soon as we rounded the point, and were in sight of the docks and such sputter, sputter, putt, putt, cough, silence... oops! i was kind of thinking before we left that i should have checked the gas tank, but i forgot. oh well. we still have the oars. and how romantic for me to oar my love into town.

marina/rascal ii

paul a martin

daryl and nancy

20090629: wonders and miracles

pam is in the cuddly berth below and i am sitting on the deck of cricket right now. a gentle breeze is playing with my dirty, salty hair and keeping the bugs away. owen and i are just aft (towards the back of the boat from) the mast (the big stick that holds the sails way up in th' sky). right behind me is the main sail's boom (a smaller stick that holds the bottom of the sail out from the mast). it is an absolutely lovely night, with the quarter moon shining over the water, and it's sparkly reflection dancing from the shoreline all the way over to cricket's shoulder, as if asking her to dance along. cricket is more than happy to move in step with the sparkles and the wind. it is a lovely thing to be allowed to ride piggyback in the middle of this lovely dance!

cricket was in her glory today, as she carried pam and i to this beautiful place north of the little choptank river mouth. we're now well in the big choptank bay, up the tred avon river, near a sweet little historic town called oxford. there is another beautiful town nearby called cambridge. i'm no scholor, but do you think this area had any brittish influence in it's history? pam and i are very excited to take jimminy a mile or so to the city docks tomorrow and explore cambridge on foot. we have not set foot upon land for a few days now, so it will be interesting to feel the ground pitch up and down.

we're learning more and more that cricket loves a good wind, and she takes very good care of us in wind and waves, now that she's taught us how to handle her lines. she sails surprisingly well in light airs, but give her a decent blow, and she'll skip up or down the water with real purpose! we're feeling better and better about sailing blue water (open oceans) in cricket! she's truly winning our hearts the more we sail her.

after our great sail in the hot sun today, and our uneventful anchoring (yippee!), pam and i were looking forward to a possible dip in the water to cool us off. when we looked in the cool, brackish water (part salty sea water, part fresh river water), shiver me timbers! jellyfish everywhere! they are a brand of jellyfish known around here as stinging nettle jellyfish, and they live up to their name, so i hear. they are a whitish, translucent color, like little ghosts floating by. the range in size from an inch round to six or seven, with various lengths of tenticals flowing behind them. there were dozens and dozens of them visible near the boat. hundreds and hundreds out there, all flowing in with the tide. no swimming today... i managed to scoop a couple buckets of jelly free water to dump over pam's head, so she could cool off and wash her hair. then while pam stood jelly watch i climbed down our little boat ladder and dunked myself under a couple times when there was a rare break in the jelly flow. after the welcome cool off we posted ourselves facing westward on the deck and watched an incredible sunset!

o. i wanted to mention that pam discovered glowing plankton as she flushed the head (ship's toilet, which uses sea water) in the dark! if that isn't exciting enough, the next night i was out on deck in the very dark bay, and thought i noticed a little glowing in the water. so i took our wooden boathook (a longish stick with a brass hook on the end for reaching and grabbing lines out of the water, or off of posts and such) and swished it around in the dark water and... no way! the water glowed wherever i swished it around! way cool! biophosphoressence!! i hear that when we sail the sea on dark nights we'll see the wake of our boat glowing behind us. can't wait! but for now a stick in the water is plenty good enough!

o my! where'd the moon go? ah, there it is all orange on the horizon, and setting now. must be late! i think that i will lay back for a while and look up the mast towards the skyfull of brightening stars. wow. good night.

20090628: day of rest

such a nice setting for such a lazy day. a little bay with other little bays sticking in here and there. penninsulas with pine trees growing up on them. a few houses dotted sparsely along the shores. a few jellyfish drifting by. waterfoul flying by us.
sunday today. a day to rest and see God's bountiful creativity. a day to bob at anchor, read some bible verses together, pray together, and sing together on the stern of cricket. a great day! spending it "in the southland of the heart, where the saints go lazily." bruce cockburn

ps: i finished yesterday's blog

20090627: sailing, sailing, then a bit of drama

it's getting to be a bad habit of mine to be too tired to blog at day's end... i did finish yesterday's blog tonight, so refere back to that for now. but i'm too stinking tired to write about today. it's a grand tale, which i shall set about the telling of tomorrow...
i'm sure you've heard a bit about it from pam's blog tonight, but you'll get my take tomorrow.

after pouring over the charts (sea maps), and pouring over the good advice we recieved from our good friends that know this bay, we decided to head out on our wonderful gunkholing adventure for good! we decided to head east south east to the little choptank river. this spot is all the way across the bay (you can't see one side from the other at this point of the bay), and a little north. the winds were blowing pretty well when it was time to leave in the morning, so we decided to try for the first time to leave anchor without the use of the diesel (real sailor like!). if you would have been on board you might have had quite the amusing time at the little comody of errors going on while i tried to hoist the anchor, and get the sail up at the same time! we are true sailors, but inexperianced true sailors as of yet. this time we were working with just two crew, so i didn't have time to wash the anchor chain as it came up. sounds a bit silly, but it isn't just a matter of persnicketty "ship shape and bristol fashion." the chain comes up all mucky gooey from the bottom of this bay, and if you don't wash the lion's share of it off it goes right down to the chain locker, which is one little cabinet door away from where we sleep. if too much gets in there it can begin to get a bit smelly, like sleeping in a swampy swamp. but today there was no one to wash the chain as she came up (papa jerr bear had been helping with this before) , and my hands were getting muddy from handling the chain. there is a manual winch to heave the anchor and chain up with, but inevitably one must help it with the hands. but now i need to use these same hands to handle the halyards (the lines [ropes] that pull up the sails. you don't want to handle these lines with muddy hands because it gets into these expensive lines and prematurely wears them down. so i had to throw our little sea bucket on a rope into the water, and hoist up water to rinse my hands. all the while the boat is pitching, and as soon as the anchor is off the ground, cricket is begining to move i think that's enough explaining so you get the idea. i'm sure you're wondering at this time where pam is in all this mess? well, she's at the wheel trying to keep us from going too far astray into shallow water, or into another boat, or into someone's crab pot buoys, etc. she's got her hands full too, especially when we don't have steerageway ( the boat's not going fast enough to steer her)...

anyway... after we'd finally gotten off, and tacked (zig zagged) here and there to dance around a lot (and i mean a lot!) of saturday boat traffic (i think Pam counted at least 100+ boats behind us when we were clear of them all), and tacked to avoid shallows, and got heading in the ultimate right direction we had a wonderful, smooth, slow sail. the winds died down for quite a while, but we were in no hurry. there was usually just enough wind to go in our intended direction. sometimes we sat there bobbing like a cork waiting for the wind to pick up, and today it always did. it was so nice to be out there trimming sail, navigating and just being! there was a good long time that i sat on the bowsprit, in the shadow of the jib reading the last of "kon-tiki." fantastic!

long about 6:00 we were just about to turn the engine on because we were at our "drop dead" time to make 5-6 knots, or anchor in the dark, when a beautiful wind swept up and pushed us along at a great speed! for the last leg into the choptank river we were making 6-8 knots, and cricket was cruising along very cheerily! it is so fun to be sailing like that! healed over, moving like the wind!

we rounded the corner, sailed up the river, picked out where we wanted to spend the night, and got to where we needed to start our engine in order to safely make it to anchorage. it turned the key and the starter twirled once and quit... oh no! dead battery! i tried again... nope. o boy. now what do we do? turn off all electronics ( including the nav instruments [yes, this will come into play soon]), so thatcthe batteries can hopefully recoup soon. guess we'll have to do it the old fashioned way and sail all the way to anchorage. things were going fairly well at this, when all of a sudden our bow swung around for no apperent reason. she had run into some mud on the bottom, and was now grounding herself up in some shallows! without words we both said short prayers, i doused the sails, and we decided to try the engine... she started! i tried to back her out. no go. tried to push her forward and around to get out of the mud. she came around a bit, but we couldn't get her off. the wind was pushing us in further and further. right then we heard a man calling from the channel. we looked over, and there was another sailboat with a man and a woman aboard. he called, "how much do you draw?" i called back, "5' 11" " he said we'd better do something to get us out quick, and suggested that we bring him a line in our dinghy. like lightning Pam began to tie a bunch of our docklines together, and i hopped in jimminy to get him untied and started. by the time i did pam had the lines ready, so she handed them to me and i motored to the channel. it was quite a chore to drive the bobbing dinghy, controling her outboard with one hand, and trying to keep our wet docklines in the other hand, and try to get to the other boat! the lines didn't seem long enough, but after he'd made a couple of passes i was finally able to grab his dinghy, and pull myself up to his boat boat. he took the line and made it fast on a cleat, and started to pull. his little sailboat pulled and pulled until finally cricket began to suck out of the mud, and was pulled free into the channel!

we both anchored near each other, and pam and i went over to their boat ,spellbound to thank them again. pete and pam are their names. they were so gracious! they invited us aboard, gave us some good wine, and we had a wonderful conversation! he made a few suggestions that i'm sure we'll follow. a few places to see, and a few things to consider for cricket. when we headed back in jimminy it was dark, so we had our headlights on (flashlights you wear on your head). it was very cute to see two little yellow eyes shining back at us from cricket's deck. owen had come out to greet us!

20090626: lazy day in the bay

what a nice, mellow day! pam and i decided that today could be a day of rest, even though it is not sunday. we've been doing this and that and going here and there every day since we've arrived. it was time for a rest...

this mornng we were awakened to the anchor alarm going off again, we sprang up to find papa jerry sitting in the stern of the boat soaking in his last moments aboard. we didn't appear to be dragging anchor, but that got us going for the day. we made ready, pulled anchor, and headed for the docks one last time; this time just long enough to drop jerr bear off at his car, and bid him fare well. he'll be visiting a few friends around here for the next couple days, and then fly back to his home in florida on sunday. pulling up to the dock went off without much excitement (a very good thing). only little bit of excitement was that owen waited to be near the dock and then bounded off the boat, which was very brave of him. he got to the dock and didn't really know where to go from there, so it was easy to "catch" him again. he walked with us on his little kitty leash. we said goodbyes at the car, and then in good midwestern style, said goodbyes a second time at the boat (he'd forgotton a few things, and came running up the dock before we left). thank you papa jerr bear for your help and your company these last 12 days!

now it is "me and you and a dog named boo," exept it's not a dog, it's a cat, and his name isn't boo, it's owen. when we left the dock the wind had died down to near zero, so we decided to take it super easy and simply motor out to the bay around the corner, where we'd been last night. it was nice yesterday, it'll be nice today! so it was down with the anchor, and soak in the surrounding seas.

[going to bed... i'll finish this post in the morning... good night]

we had a lovely, easy afternoon and evening. t'was a rather warm one, so we swam twice, and i figured out how to attach our little tarp (kell called it a bimini, but i don't see how to use it as one... yet). however, as a camper i have learned to absolutely love the invention of the tarp! there have been many hours of pleasure in the boundary waters canoe area when i've put up the ol' tarp, taking lots of time to adjust this rope and that rope, on this tree and that tree to get it perfectly over the fire grate, so that we could sit there in the pouring rain, with a warm fire burning with narry a drop to wet us as we cheerily chatted the storms (or when i'm alone to read and dream the rain away). so it was pure joy for me to figure out how this here piece of white canvas would fit on cricket. i fiddled with this and that line to my heart's content. it was blissful to realize i had all the "trees" one could want to tie the lines to in the form of stays ( the wire lines that hold the mast in place). in a couple of hours we had a sweet little tarp hovering over us, not to keep us out of the rain, but rather to shield us from the sun's intense rays. we didn't have a campfire under it since it was too hot already ; ). the tarp will work very well for shade on hot days when we're anchored, but not while we're under sail. we're finding that the sails themselves work well enough for that. most boats have a bimini over the cockpit to shade those under it. our good friend john of the "seawing" told us that we'd soon be real sailors, and real sailors don't use biminis. we're finding that when you're sailing on this boat you can get the sail trim just right, put on the auto helm, and keep watch anywhere on the boat, thus being able to sit under the shade of a sail (as long as there aren't too many other boats around to run into). sweet huh! anyway... back to the subject of the tarp... we sat under our new discovery and had a lovely dinner Pam had prepared while i played with the thing, and read, and talked, and didn't get a severe sunburn.

in the evening dark clouds moved in, the sky turned stormy purple and pink colors, lighting bolted around us, and the winds began to blow up. cricket made a 180 turn around her anchor, and we watched as we dragged anchor and chain here and there until the wind decided which direction to blow in, and then the anchor set itself in the mud once again. we weren't too concearned because we had given her plenty of sea room in all directions. then came the rain. it was nice to have the rain fall once again, as we haven't had any for well over a week. we welcomed the little storm. i took down my little tarp, because i'm not sure how much wind it can take (or how much wind we would get), so pam and i sat in the stern with our new umbrellas (which we bought to shade us from the sun... but still no bimini, so we're still "real sailors!") as long as we could in the rain. as we watched to storm move to the east into the darkness of night, we watched the boat lights move across the bay, and listened to them talk on the marine band radio. the clouds began to break, and stars began to appear. another great day. even though the day was fairly lazy, we felt plenty tired enough.