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.

20090625: skating away on the bay

we do love that annapolis, don't we!?
it was back there once again this morning for a few things at target (they've got a escalator for shopping carts there!), and to the grocery store for provisions for the next couple weeks. yes, couple weeks! yippee! that's cause pam and owen and i are going gunkholing until annie and jason come to gunkhole with us some more. i think they'll be here july 6th or so! we will be dropping papa jerr bear off on the hard in the morning, and then will go where the wind takes us. it's nice to have guests, but we are both very much looking forward to having some time alone!

after our successful shopping trip we went to the old city dock and had sweet iced cream. t'was a rather hottish day, so the iced cream had no problem finding it's way into our mouths and on down to our innards.

when we'd stowed all our new gear and provisions onto cricket we slipped our slip at herrington harbour (not without a little windy, launchy drama... almost taking the gps reciever off her stern). headed over to pump the gunk out of our holding tank (did you know that you can actually see your little turds pump through the sucker device? pretty cool!). then it was out to the bay (herring bay), just around the corner. just 4 miles or so down the shore, and down the anchor. beautiful spot! we'd gotten the idea to stay here when we'd seen others doing the same when we came back to herrington last time. great spot with an expansive view of the bay on one side, and lovely views of the shores trees and cliffs and houses on the other. we all three had a cool swim around the boat (cricket looks so happy and beautiful from the water!). owen came out from the cabin, and was checking out the surroundings, even to the point of poking his head over the ladder! perhaps he wanted to have a little swim too? i doubt it, but he sure didn't seem to hold any grudges from being thrust into the water last time. he's been an amazing ship's cat!
we've been watching "skates" swim all around us this evening. skates are a form of a sea ray. they swim near the surface sometimes, and when they do they stick the ends of their two wing like fins up out of the water, and it looks like a couple of dancing sharks going by. very fun! the golden sunset behind the shore was so serene, with the silver sliver moon following close behind. amazing! as the stars were poking out we went below for one last game of cutthroat cribbage with jerr bear.
and now, to the sound of water gurgling around cricket's hull, i will go outside and gaze at the lights on the shore, and the lack of lights on the big water of the bay, and the twinkling lights of the heavens and breath some thankful breaths.

20090624: today's adventures

pam and i are a bit red faced being here, back at herrington harbour. it seems a bit like, "here we go on our big adventure..." "here we are, back to the comforts of luxury." i know the true adventurers are thinking, "aha! they can't hack the real stuff! look at 'em crawling back with their tail tucked between their legs, just two days after they left! whimps!"

well, let me just say to you true adventurers, "you are wrong! we ARE true adventurers, just like you (however, less judgemental)! we came back for the sake of OTHERS! we came back for the sake of jerr bear, and his friends, joe and fran. we came back, so that papa jerry could get some ice and vodka. we came back so that we could take joe and fran out on the bay, so they could have their own little adventure on cricket. and besides, even though we came back, we still adventured plenty good. yeah! for instance, when we were out in the middle of the bay, and the wind died down, we swam with the jellies! yes, risking getting stung, and all of the oogly feelings associated with swimming with slimey, underwater things. and we've got 3 witnesses. and if that weren't enough adventure to prove our brave adventuring spirits, we took owen the cat, claws and all, into the water with us! so now HE's as much an adventurer as the rest of us true adventurers, huh!? AND, now that owen is one of us, he's adventuring himself right off the boat, down the long dock, and to the grassy shores. so not only are we true adventurers, but our true adventure aura is rubbing off on our cat!
and finally, our tails are not tucked between our legs. they are wagging, happily as ever."



so now that we've established that, let me just say we enjoyed a hot tub, a swim in the cool pool, and a nice shower... laundry tomorrow.

20090623: time ain't money. time is time, sweet time!

cricket has this cool little device as part of her electronic gizmo colection called "anchor watch." this nifty little feature allows you to sleep better because it will set off an alarm when your boat starts to drift when it's supposed to be anchored to whatever stuff makes up the bottom of the sea under your boat. around here the bottom under our boat is most often slick, silty mud. this is bad and good. not so good to hold a heavy boat that really wants to drift in the wind, but good because if you do go aground, it's softer than a babies butt, however, harder to get off of (i'm not 100% sure this is true, since i've never been stuck on a babies butt, but i have seen some stuff come from them that looks alot like the stuff that drips off our chain and anchor when we heave it up!). anyway... last night around 3am our anchor watch alarm woke pam and i up. we popped out of bed and got out on deck in a flash, expecting to find cricket drifting across the little inlet on a collision course with the most expensive boat she could find. we found no such thing. all we saw were the stars shining sweetly upon a shore that was staying right there where it was supposed to be. standing out there reminded me of the fire drills we'd have every now and then at school. like you'd be out there saying, "there's mr. ben's class, and there's mrs. pam's class, but where's mr jerry's class?" guess he knew it was just a drill, and had more important things to do in his classroom. mrs. pam and i went back to our classroom and did more important things too.

we had another wonderful sail today. we headed back to herrington harbor because we're meeting with some friends of papa jerry's tomorrow, and that is where p.j.'s borrowed car is located. we started out tacking here and there to avoid this and that, and did all this tacking like regular sailors! pretty soon we won't have to season our own finger food, we're getting so salty! we had a long time when the wind died to a dead calm, and we sat out there in the middle of the bay for hours waiting for a breeze. i loved that! i'd sit in the shade of a sail and read, or blog, or daydream, bird and boat watch, or look up at the clouds. there was no hurry. nowhere we had to be. and it's hard to run into anything when you're not moving! wonderful!

...we eventually motored to the marina, and (yippee!) pam did a fantastic job of docking the boat! great way to end a great day!

o. and a shower too.

20090622: why be crabby?

we woke to a lovely, cool breeze blowing over the waters and into the hatch of our little bow cabin. the anchor chain runs out from the bowsprit (the pointy thing stickin' out in the front of the boat), so when you are at anchor your bow is always pointed into the wind (i'm sure you can work that one out in your noggin ; )... so, since our cute little hatch (that's the openy thing on the roof of our cabin) is pointed forward, we get a nice breeze throught it! nice, huh!? anyways, when i went up on deck it was an amazing view of the water (there you go, nola, i'm talking about the water ; ) of the bay with a jelly our two lazily drifting by. over to shore there were a few cozy cottages surrounded by green lawns and billowy green trees. i think it is very kind of folks to allow us to camp out in their beautiful, watery backyards. kind of reminds me of canoeing down the minnehaha creek with erick and anders last spring. over the stern (back of the boat) and across the water a ways there was a wildlife refuge with inlets and penninsulas(sp?) all along the unpopulated shore. best of both worlds! our Creator's nature and people's God given creative abilities.

we decided to head over to st. micheal's to check out that quant, historic port, and eat some crabs from "the crab claw" restaurant, which some friends from herrington harbor suggested. they said you really haven't toured the chesapeake until you've had a pile of crabs dumped on your table by the waitresses there. however, we had to wait for favorable tides to go there, so while we waited we took care of a few chores around the boat, one of which took me to the top of the mast. that was great fun! papa jerr bear and cap'n pam took turns hoisting me up there by way of the main halyard (that's the line (rope) that you hoist the mainsail up with). quite an unusual and fun veiw of cricket. i'll post some pictures on facebook, if i can find a way.

in the afternoon we left our anchorage and headed south to st. micheals. i'm not ashamed to say that we "ran aground" in the good, goopy chesapeake mud on our way to more open waters. there's a saying amoung sailors (especially chesapeake bay sailors) that goes something like, "there are two kinds of sailors. those who have run aground, and those that lie and say they've never run aground." we proudly joined that first group today, and had a fairly easy time getting off the bottom. we had a perfect tail wind and were able to sail "wing on wing." mainsail off to the port side (left, facing forward), and our big jib (sail in the front of the boat) sticking out on the staboard (right side of the boat facing forward). cricket did wonderfully, once again! it's amazing to me when you simply adjust this and that, and the wind and water's Masters and cricket do the rest! what a deal! we even learned a few new tricks that'll come in handy when pam and i make the big sailing trip.

we eventually found another cozy anchorage, and took jimminy (cricket's little dinghy) to town, observed how sweetly cozy the streets in town were (very), and got our fingers and faces full of crab goop. we even managed to get a little crab meat into out mouths. we'll definately be going back to that port to check out the town when we've got more time. we dinghyed back to cricket in the dark of night, and only bottomed the outboard out a couple times in the mud. exciting times.

when we got back to cricket we found three things. one: our anchor light doesn't work (that's a light on the top of the mast to let other boats know you're there in the dark of night). we'll have to look into that later. two: the boat had swung 180 degrees while we were gone. no big deal. just interesting... sort of. and three: and best of all, dear owen came out to greet us when we pulled the dinghy up to the side of the boat. couldn't have had a better welcome home!

20090621: smooth sailing and gunkholing

supremely happy! all 4 of us.
what a grand day of sailing. you know how completely happy stories make for the most boring tales? if i were to tell you all about all the details of the day today you would sit there pretending to be interested, while all the while yawning your brains out within. so let me just say two things. one; check out the new pictures on my facebook. two; cricket and her crew (including owen) did a job to be very proud of! today was true sailing into some fairly good winds, and we got the sail configuration just right, the trim just right, and The Lord and sweet cricket did all the rest! sailing up the bay, with the bow cheerily splashing up the bigger waves every so often. wow! wish you coulda been here with us today! and one of the best parts is that at the end of the day... no docking!! just slip into a quaint little bay, anchor up, and enjoy the evening! a little swim ( with just a slight sting of a jellyfish tentical), a little reading in the sunlit breeze, bbq in the stern, a pipe, trying to catch a crab, light conversation, beautiful sunset, and now the stars are coming out! you're bored now, aren't you? bored, and perhaps a little jealous, huh? someday come and join us! life is good! God is good!

o yeah. i haven't forgotton. i'll get to the less boring story of a couple of days ago soon. on a day that requires less soaking in.

20090620: a little about yesterday and today, a lot about turds

alright... as promised, i'd better address yesterday's happenings before i completely forget them (gettin' old!)... darn. too late!

just kidding.

as i said, we did go for a bit of a sail yesterday, and there was quite a lot of joy in being out on the water (finally! pinch me!), however, there were some moments of frustration, and one moment of sheer terror. let me just say this now, and all you sailors will totally be able to relate i'm sure; it's too bad that a perfectly lovely day of sailing has to end in docking procedures! it's too bad you can't dock at the beginning of the day to get it over with, and then end it with a big fat smile upon your contented face, sailing in the roomy, wide open spaces of the sea. but, no. until we are in heaven, every voyage must end with trying to squeeze your big, fat, expensive, slow to respond boat in between two other boats (usually more expensive than yours) and a few unyielding pylons. but i'm pumping a head before i crap here (a little nautical humor. hee, hee ; ) let me back up...

actually... it's late again, so please allow me to continue this story tomorrow.


but for now i will briefly recall today's news and hit the bunk:
we did a great job of keeping owen awake yesterday, so we actually got a great night's sleep. now if we could only figure out a way to keep his poops from being so stinky our dreams would have a better chance of being sweeter! our ship's head (fancy nautical term for toilet) is basically a part of our sleeping quarters, and we keep the kitty litter box in there, so our rapid eye movements can be disturbed whenever our noses perceive owen's not so rapid bowel movements. that poor kitty has been having a wee bout with diarrhea. it's not his fault. all i can say is thank God for ziplock bags and little breezes from overhead hatches!

i hate to harp on a subject, and i don't want to bore you, but i need to pump this out of my mind's bilge, so if your done hearing about owen and his litterbox skip down to the next paragraph.
owen has been a fantastic ship's cat. we could find no better. he's patient. he doesn't freak out with the many, many changes he's gone through on this trip. he doesn't hold any of his life's inconveniences and discomforts against us, though we are primarily responsible for them all. he is very fun to watch exploring the boat and his surrounding. he's friendly and very affectionate. and he's smart too. very smart! figures out tough cat puzzles all the time. but he's not so smart in one little area of his feline life... the little guy just can't figure out how to bury his stuff under the litter! maybe he's missing the poop-n-pee burying gene. maybe his mother allie (bless her heart) didn't get a chance to show him the skill before she disappeared. but for whatever reason he just doesn't have what it takes to do this seemingly simple task! and it's not from lack of trying. oh no! he claws and paws and scrapes and scratches in his litterbox for long periods of time (while we're trying to sleep in the same tiny room). but we'll hear him stop for a brief moment to smell if the job's done, realize it is not done, and continue to paw and paw and paw the walls around his kitty box. yes, the walls! he has no idea that must paw the litter. keeps right on with the walls as if that was the main idea. i've tried to help him, short of crapping in the box myself. i've even taken his paws and helped him bury his dodo, but he just doesn't get it. finally, from the bed i can hear him give the walls one last burst of pure frustration, and in one motion scrape and leap out of the box, then jump upon the bed and look at us with his cute yellow eyes as if to say, "i'm sorry. i just don't get it... oh, and sorry about those little bits of litter i just got on your bed" typically i will lay there for a bit in pure wonder of owen's disability. then i try to tell myself that i can sleep with the scent lingering heavily in the air, and finally get up, and with the scoop cover owen's poop myself... does this make me an enabler?

wow. that took a bit of telling.

anyways, as i was saying... we got a good night's sleep, and woke up to the offer of papa jerry buying us breakfast. who'd refuse that? not us. so we jumped in his borrowed caddy and went to a local cafe. very nice to fill up on pancakes, eggs, potatoes, and sausage. pam had "shit on a shingle," as jerr bear called it. oh, and coffee too, of course.

then we sat in the ship's cabin and scratched our heads for a long time as to why the tachometer for our engine won't work. it still doesn't work. then we drove to annapolis for boat stuff, groceries, weatherstripping, and ice cream.

showers for all tonight because who knows when our next one will be because... we're off gunkholing tomorrow! yippeeee!!!

20090619: cricket sails!

we had a wonderful little sail on the bay today!
we are all a little redder of face and wiser of mind.
lots of sun, lots of lessons.
i hope you don't mind if i fill in the details tomorrow.
tired.

20090618: moving on the water

this evening we were cruising upon the water! finally! we went up and down our little inlet of the bay. we went into some water that was 4 feet deep, and cricket has a 6 foot draft! then we went under a bridge that had a clearance of 25 feet, and cricket has a mast that is almost 60 feet off the waterline! good thing for us we were not in cricket, but rather or little dory, which actually floats! it was fun to cram the three of us into little jimminy and move about the water.

earlier today jerr bear and i ran bunches of errands, while captain, cook, boatswain, cockswain, and purser pam did bunches and bunches of necessary bookwork down in the belly of the ship.
we (ben and jerry) went:
-to the dinghy on the hard to repair the mouse hole
-to the hardware store for this, that and the other thing (actually, they didn't have the other thing)
-to the liquor store for some ship's grog
-to the gas station for gas for jimminy
-to the grocery store for the other thing
-to the marine store for some line (a fancy boating term for rope... there is no rope on a boat, just lines)
-to the bathroom for... wait. i guess i don't have to go into every detail...

we all went and had a lovely visit with our friends upon the sea-wing, john and vern. they have a big motor boat that has a real living room with couches, floor lamps and big pictures in frames on the wall, and a 747ish cockpit and another cockpit and a 90+ year old sleeping down below. wonderful conversation. lots of learning about life on the chesapeake. the walsh's are very fine, giving folks! papa jerry shared his pickled fish recipe with them, and they fishing tips with us.

then we went to put the dinghy together, launched her four feet down from the sea wall, watched in nervous support as papa jerry mounted the outboard, checked the oil in her, filled the fuel tank (and a little of the bay) with gas, and pulled and pulled on the chord to try to start her, all on a tiny, unstable, inflatable rubber boat. oh my. he really wanted to do all that. he was more excited to get that little thing going than i was! it was all worth the trouble when the three of us were putt-putting down the river, waving to all the folks, waving to us from the unwatery shore!

20090617: rock-a-bye-baby on the sea top

when the wind blows, the cradle will rock.
and the wind is definitely blowing! so we will be rocking to sleep tonight.
but that must mean... yes! we are finally in the water!
cricket is so happy when she is in the water, and so are we. she is not stuck unmoving upon the solid ground, but is freed to float and bob with the wind and waves.
today the big boat moving crane contraption came and put it's huge belts around cricket's belly, lifted her off the blocks on the ground, and slowly led a little parade down to the boat launch. the parade consisted of a guy to direct traffic in front, the bbmcc with cricket, and then pam and jerry and i following in the rear, with our hands out in front of us in order to catch the boat in case she fell. but she didn't fall. cricket was lowered gently into the bay, and while i jumped on board to make sure she wasn't sinking, some dock guys were yanking on ropes from the shore to pull her along the harbor wall.
we're happily in a slip at the marina tonight listening to the wind whistling through the rigging of a couple hundred other sailboats, and the halyards (ropes) clanging and clattering against masts.
earlier today i was unfolding our little inflatable zodiac tender boat (which we are considering naming "jimminy") i found a couple mouse nests. the dinghy has been stored in kell's shed for a couple years now, so this wasn't too shocking. no mice ran out, so i hope they didn't abandon ship in the toyota car deanna is driving now, but perhaps deanna is in for a surprise by a couple of cute little stowaways! anyways... as we were inflating the boat we discovered that the mice had nibbled a hole through part of the rubber. those little rascals! as we were about to patch it, mike, a friend of jerr bear's showed up. we had a very nice visit, and a delicious dinner out, but the hole is still there now at 10:30pm... we'll patch the hole tomorrow.
sleep now. good night all. | )

20090616: cricket sinks

today we worked on cricket's sinks... well, her faucets anyways. and we discovered what a great ship's store fawcet's is. and bacon.
owen has self taught himself how to climb down and up the ladder to the boat! he's so proud of himself, and happy to be freeer.
we've got a leak in the forward fresh water tank : (
we had a nice visit from our new friend john (vern's husband)
cricket goes in the water tomorrow!!! yippee!
tired. going to sleep.

20090615: like the trees lining the winding road

cricket's got a name! well, she's had a name for a while, but today she's got her name tatood on her beautifully curved hips! i will attempt to post a picture of her new lettering on my facebook before i fall asleep. it's nice to have our home port of grand marias, mn proudly displayed for all to see. hopefully cricket'll make it there someday!

we hear it's bad luck to change a boat's name, so to counter that "curse" we are hanging the sweet blessing of a gift up in cricket's cabin. it's a medalion of st. francis (patron saint of traveling) given to us as a bon voyage from rebecca s., and it looks lovely hanging over the salon setee (that'd be sailor talk for a dining room bench ; ) thanks rebecca!

also today we have cleaner water tanks, a bilge fresh and clean as a whistle, and new oil running thru cricket's veins.

another great time in annapolis. we found out that there are folks who are not only friendly and cordial in boat stores, but also folks who actually know what they're talking about! hurray for jerry and fawsets marine! --semilong plumbing story attached here--
did i mention ice cream? : )

20090613: papa jerry's here, now let's get to work

great day! clicking off things on the to do list... clean water tanks, install stereo, get supplies, change oil, scrape and paint below the waterline of the hull, organize all the stuff... blog on the end of the dock so as not to get eaten alive by mosquitoes... keep owen awake to get revenge on him for keeping us awake last night (and to hopefully keep him from the same tonight ; )
we are enjoying having jerr bear with us. good help and good company!

pam is the best helpmate in the world. just wanted to say that. : )

20090612: bye deanna, hello papa jerry

we had a great time this morning scoping out annapolis, md. we found the most conveniant spots to get stuff for this and for that. pam and i both absolutely love old town annapolis! it feels like history. we walked deanna thru there for one last goodbye, came back to the boat, and off to connecticut (sp?) she went. we were stranded without a car for a full hour or two! then papa jerry came to the rescue and became our second overnight guest. he'll be with us for ten days. yeah! time to get cracking in earnest on boat projects tomorrow.

20090611 location: 38*46.502' -76*34.070'

this morning we had our first boat guest besides deanna... he was a boat electrical expert guy named ryan. he was a very nice young man, but... well... it seems appropriate at this moment to exlain what the standard monetary "boat unit" is. one boat unit (1bu) = $1000.00. this should make it much easier to explain some facts of boat ownership in the future. back to ryan now. ummm, let me continue that subject on monday, when he gives us his price estimate for fixing our depth gauge.
owen update: owen is our ship's cat. he is black. he endured the car ride wonderfully, and is now happily exploring his new home, like a trooper! only problem is at the moment, the boat is on the hard (on land), and owen is getting in the habit of walking on the very edge of the deck. this could prove to be a big mistake once we are in the water, and things start rocking a bit.
one last thing for the day today. we visited kell's (the amazing previous owner of this sweet craft) wife, (also amazing)! we picked up a few things for the boat. we saw their beautiful home and land (i've been sworn to secrecy as to how many acres it is) which is in the east area of the apalacian mountains, and we had a very lovely visit!
time for bed!

over the hard, on the hard

after well over 20 hours over the pavement in car jammed full of stuff, a traffic jam in chicago, plenty of toll booths to help us get more used to traveling slower, another traffic jam in dc, a few imaginative turns leading to our nation's capital, and a sweet gaulking at the library of congress, we finally arrived! deanna (our daughter), and pam and i are resting for the rest of the day in the belly of our beloved cricket.

more to come

follow us for our adventures on cricket

for pam's blog go to "sailcricketpam@blogspot.com"

later!