good bye maine, hello high seas!

autumn in maine ++++++++++++++++++ camden from mt. megunitook

goodbye maine. i'll miss you! ++++++++++++++ the crew

cricket in matinicus island

some of the last lobster bouys of the trip +++++++++ a little k-12 school on matinicus

a lobster dinner aboard cricket!

after a bit of provisioning, gathering of our small crew, and a few more jobs and sea trials to do on cricket we were off to sea, for the long haul south west from rockland, me to our old familiar chesapeake bay. we’ve made it to nantucket island after three days and two nights of exhausting sailing

i took cricket out for my first solo run! we (cricket and i) headed across the beautiful penobscot bay, around a few of the smaller islands that surround vinalhaven island, and back to our little mooring in rockland. it felt amazing to be able to sail this boat by myself, and the weather cooperated quite well. cricket did an amazing job, and i never felt like things were out of control thanks to the great way she sails! i even was able to get her to the mooring under sail! fantastic!

while in rockland i had a rental car for a few days, so i took advantage of it by driving to some beautiful spots in the area, and taking walks to soak in maine’s beauty one last time. i even got a chance to hike 1,385 feet up mount megunitook to soak in the awsome vistas of camden harbor, and west penobscot bay. it was good to keep some semblance of being in shape.

kurt joined the crew about a week and a day ago. kurt is a good friend that we met in deltaville, and is brave enough to go this long haul with cricket and me. while we were still in rockland harbor we got to experience what the weather can do in the fall, in these parts and waited for a good blow to blow by while we were at the mooring. sad to say, cricket was rocking and rolling enough to make me terribly seasick, and i had to give up the coffee i had drunken into the sea... this wouldn’t be the last time of this trip that the ocean would receive my previously ingested food. kurt was feeling a bit queasy too. what a fine crew we were going to make! we both put on little sea-sick patches behind our ears and got ready to gut things out with the waves. the patches seem to work better for kurt than for me, but hopefully in a week or so we’ll both get our sea legs (and sea guts).

we did have a very nice shake down sail across the bay to the fox island thorofare, around to seal bay for lunch. we even got to watch a sweet seal swim right past the stern of cricket while we were anchored for lunch! nice! we were met with contrary winds on the way back, and the sun was about to set, so we prudently decided to anchor for the night in a sweet little spot called pulpit harbor. we then motored our way back to rockland to have the last little bits of work done before we set out for the big one.

we waited for what we thought was a good weather window, and set out on the first leg . we sailed 10 or so nautical miles to the south to take a mooring on a cute little island called matinicus. this is a small “working man’s” island full of lobster boats. we got to the island just as the island’s working crew were pulling their moorings out of the water. we picked up a mooring that would have been pulled out within an hour of our arrival! what a stroke of good fortune! we talked to the harbor master, josh, from the deck of cricket to the deck of his lobster boat and arranged for him to bring us a couple of live lobsters for dinner that evening.

i went ashore to explore a bit. it was fun to walk the little gravel roads and see the one small church on the island, and the tiny school house in which all the island kids attend (k-12). it’s amazing to think about what life must be in this small community. when i got back kurt had the lobsters all cooked up and we had a great feast! kurt not only is wonderful crew, but is turning out to be a genius cook as well (even though he would humbly deny the fact).

from matinicus it was the first long haul southwest to nantucket 162 nautical miles, as the crow flies, away. of course, we couldn’t go the way of the crow... mostly on account of the wind blowing... yup. you guessed it... southwest! we beat to wind for the first day and night, making very little way. it’s kind of discouraging to make only 50 of those miles in the first day and a half. but noaa promised that the winds would build, and become west, and sure enough they did! we were still beating into wind, but now we were at least beating in the general right direction! wow! the winds were heavy, blowing between 25k-32k, and the seas built themselves up to 10-15 foot waves! cricket was a trooper! she danced and pranced her way through, but her crew was a bit green around the gills. a full day, and a full overnight, and a full day was enough to tire us out. we would take 4 hour shifts over night. 6-10 was kurt’s. 10-2am was mine. 2am-6am was back to kurt, and 6am-10am was me. it’s pretty light sleeping when the boat is a rockin’ and a rollin’ in those waves. it was quite an awsome sight to see the moon shining on those 15 foot waves! very humbling. we were happy to get to the harbor in nantucket just as the sun was setting! the sea seemed to try to keep us from going into safe harbor by piping up real good while i tried to take the sails down. whew! it was a lot of work pulling the wildly whipping main and staysail in in 32 knots of wind and 8 foot seas! but we finally made it into harbor, but the wind wasn’t done with us yet! it seemed to say, “if you want some rest, you’re going to have to really work for it!” it took quite a few tries to catch a mooring in those kind of winds! but finally we had cricket safe on a mooring, and i can’t tell you how relieving it was to know we could get a solid night’s rest! and now we’re waiting for the next weather window (looks like tomorrow), and while we wait, we rest, knowing that the next leg is even longer. we’ve got our clothes out on lines drying out in these 20-30 knot winds. nantucket is a beautifully, historic island, but we’re simply watching it from cricket on a mooring, taking it easy for a day.

note: it’s been wonderful not to have to worry about our electrical system, which we had worked on by ocean pursuits in rockland maine. it’s been working flawlessly! but i must say... i totally miss the best captain there could ever be upon cricket. i miss cap’t pam!!!

ten ten ten ten

one of the amazing views on the way

a covered bridge

i bought some eggs and whoopie pies from these lovely women

the iconic adirondack chair

10:10, 10/10/10

it's about 10:10pm, on october the 10th. as i sit here on thestern, my first night back to our lovely, floating cricket, i wrap my new foulweather coat around me tighter to repel the cold and gaze to the east out past rockland's round, ample harbor. i look over thebreakwater wall with it's little lighthouse rotating every four seconds or so. way off in the distance i can see three red lights flashing inunison. these i now know very well. they are the familiar lights atop the wind generators on north haven island, 10 or somiles away. i have seen them not only from this port, but also from gazing eastward from camden's port, also theybeamed outward to us one night as we sailed back and forth far south of them to avoid lobster floats until morning light(unsuccessfully). looking even farther eastward i notice three stars in a vertical row risingtogether. could those be the stars that make up orion's belt? sure enough! there are his two shoulder stars, and his left footis above the horizon now, with his right soon to rise. strange to see this constellation now. this is known as a winterconstellation! i guess it's time to head this good ol' boat southward, which is the whole reason why i'm now here.

i've been traveling from minnesota eastward for a few days to get here to rocklandmaine. it was an absolutely awesome experience to drive, wander, and camp through the allegany and adirondack mountains! theautumn colors were perhaps just past their peak time, but seeing such immense hillsides ablaze withsuch colors was beyond breathtaking! it was an amazing time to cross over and through the appalachian mountains,even though the nights were a bit cold. it felt good to cozy up to the campfire each night, turning myself around like amarshmallow on a stick to toast all of myself, all the way round.now i’ve gone and found yet another place to someday come back to and further explore!

but tonight here on the boat on the bay there can be no such fire. i’m just beginning to feel the cold northeast wind that will most likely intensify and drive me farther south to the land of warm. deep down there are feelings of apprehension, but further down, looking at the incredible sea world that i am allowed to be a part of i feel comfort. there are embers there that warm the heart. i will toast myself around those coals tonight. good night orion. time to crawl into my fluffy down sleeping bag. i’ve been sleeping on the solid terra-firma en route to here, but tonight it will be wonderfully strange to feel my bed move gently with the fluid waves. the feeling is a definite... 10!

facing sailboat mecca

here we are in one of the sailing meccas of the usa. the island of martha’s vineyard. i am realizing now that we could’ve spent the whole summer visiting this area, and still wouldn’t have had enough time to get all the exploring out of the system! no doubt we will have to come back here with time to explore, and explore.

the little islands we were anchored near last night (the elizabeth islands) were mostly unpopulated. a new, refreshing sight after seeing so many houses along the waters of connecticut. it was wonderful to see rolling, grassy-rocky hills with nothing build upon them. these islands gave me the feeling i get when reading about the old times in new england, or ireland, in little fishing villages. i could picture sheep grazing on the gentle, barren slopes, and simple folks mending there nets near the rocky shores. i would have loved to stop and explore these wondrous islands, but we were dead beat by a good, long day of sailing, and were here for just the night to rest and move on... we’ve got to get going if we’re going to be able to explore maine at all!

last night was a windy, windy night at anchor in cuttyhunk. we were anchored in a spot that was well protected from the waves, but not from the wind. the land upwind was not hilly enough to block any of it’s force. after being seasick for most of the day, i was beat, so i conked out on the settee early in the evening, but when i woke it was blowing like crazy out there! i knew the winds were over 17 knots because i could hear the rigging whistling. thought i’d better check to see how cricket was sitting and went outside (pam was asleep in the bunk). whew! my bed-head hair was undone in a moment, transformed into windswept hair. i flicked on the chart-plotter to check the wind speed: 23 knots. 20 knots. 24 knots. 20 knots... never under 20. a hefty, steady blow. on the chart-plotter it looked like we’d moved a bit at anchor, but the boats around us appeared to be in the same place (hard to tell in the dark). into bed i got. got up a couple of other times to see if i could quiet those banging halyards. they like to start swaying in the wind, get going at certain frequencies, and bang against the mast and the shrouds. ting, ting, ting, ting... i can usually sleep through the noise, but i couldn’t sleep through it ‘cause i knew pam couldn’t possibly sleep through it. but after going out a couple of times i realized all the fuss was in vain. there was no quieting all the noises out there. just one of those nights...

waking, we found we HAD dragged anchor, quite a ways! we were well watched out for because not only did we drag in a relatively safe direction, but our anchor had rehooked on something solid down there and stopped us from dragging all the way to deep water, and to the open sea (or into a neighboring island). whew! thank you Lord!

it was just as windy when we got underway. as we motored out of our little bay the wind whipped up the seas into a frenzy! the waves were 7 feet tall, and at such a frequency that our dear cricket began to look smaller and smaller on these big seas. she was tossed way up to the top of a wave, and then plunged down into trough between waves. cricket was not complaining, even though it was quite a ride (roller coaster’s got nothing compared to this!). up and down. crash, splash! up and down, crash and splash! wow! salt, sea spume everywhere. on the decks. on the dodger’s windshield. on my glasses. on my face. amazing thing to experience! amazing to think how big cricket seemed when she was on the stands, out of the water, in the boatyard. how high we had to climb to get onto her deck, but now how small she seemed. small, but tough. tough and brave. she is taking very good care of us, for sure!

but poor lila! had no idea what was coming her way when we left anchor! early in the morn she was at her usual post, helping me winch up the anchor (which was stuffed full of weeds when i finally hoisted it up to the bowsprit), then lila her position on the foredeck to enjoy another day of sweet sailing... i was at the wheel, piloting through the amazing, wind tossed waves, when after a little while of these “bow up the hill, bow down valley” here came poor, wet lila stagger-running back into the cockpit. i would’ve liked to have scooped her up and hold her, but i needed to stay at the wheel. she was in a panic! her whole world was erupting into an unpredictable, uncontrollable chaos! she ran to her favorite hiding spot, under the kayak lashed to the deck. but this was no better than where she’d been before. up and down. splash, splash, splash... this spot had always worked before! back she came to the front of the dodger. i could see her meowing for help. pam waited for a moment when the waves allowed her to get little lila from the foredeck, and put het into the cockpit. she stagger-ran down into the cabin and went to her other place of refuge... a little locker by the bow bunk... even though this was drier than outside the boat, it was a far rougher ride than anywhere she’d tried yet! the bow of the boat was leaping up ten feet, and down ten feet at a time. poor lila! all her refuges where no good. she was crying out in misery. finally we pam was able to put her midships, on a settee, with pillows surrounding her to keep her from being flung around. she rode out the waves there... we’ll have to teach her that the stern of this boat is the best place in heavy seas. it is there that there is the least heaving motion. we’ll build her a little safety nest in the stern berth, and she will learn that this is a comfort zone for her in heavy seas.

once we rounded the corner, and went with the waves things settled down a little bit, and then when we got under the protective, windward shore of martha’s vineyard island, the waves settled way down, and it became a glorious morn/afternoon of sailing!

we’re now anchored in “vinehaven.” a lovely harbour, full of lovely boats, and a fullish moon giving a silver lining to the tattered clouds up there in the heavens. all is well. after some sailboat watching, a little salty swim, and a game or two of cribbage it is time to be rocked asleep by the hand of God.

tomorrow we’ll take a day to explore martha’s vineyard : )

a few days at sea brings us to nyc

here's a few sunsets from our days at sea:

and one sunrise:

ok

i know it’s been a few days, and now i’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but i can explain...

when we were out at sea for a few days the waves kept coming and coming, and being newish to this sailing thing (at least this year) my inner ears were telling my brain and tummy that all was not ok. in other words, i was a little bit seasick. not terribly seasick, but just enough that if i were to try to read, or do a blog it would have put me over an edge i was unwilling to step over. my sealegs will come to me more and more as the summer progessses.

we are right now sitting on the deck of cricket right smack dab in the middle of new york, new york! it’s great fun being here, and was great fun getting here! in spite of being a bit seasick for a couple of days, i was able to very much enjoy being out at sea! it was an amazing couple of days of awsome (i admit that it was sometimes nerve wracking) wind and waves, usually with no land in sight. the moods of the sea are an amazing thing to behold! i will expound more on the trip later...

but in the meantime, here’s a few notes i took while at sea:

we've been sailing for three days and two nights now.

been feeling on the edge of sea-sick so i haven't blogged until now

july 3rd after visiting the farmer's market we left yorktown under motor

turned off motor when we poked our nose into the atlantic sea

sailed away from the sunset

at first it's always a bit nerve wracking to start with but we couldn't seem to get the auto-pilots to work, and our ais wasn't showing up on the screen

good winds from astearn, good sized waves for beginners

God is providing us with perfect testing grounds! just on the edge of our comfort zone

it's amazing to lose sight of land on this vast, vast sea

made it through to the morning, figuring out our issues as the night progressed. by morning they all seemed solved

working out our shifts

...july 4

fireworks

bigger seas 3-6 foot waves

atlantic cities lights stayed on the port beam all night long. i wonder about all the people there. are they gambling? partying? sleeping?

ships

by morning things settled down to calm seas and almost no winds

so calm i made coffee!

a dragonfly passenger landed on my hand it's amazing that there are bugs flying this far out at sea

i sit at the wheel waiting for the breeze to decide which way it's going to blow, but in no particular hurry because we don't want to make sandy hook at night.

it's 56 miles off

now trying to calculate the best way into sandy hook by morning light

i took my first atlantic dip! amazingly clear. could see cricket's whole hull

connected our honda generator

waiting for 4 to ssb with dick & ann on chinook wind

huge norwegian cruise ship coming and pam bravely hailed them on the vhf

beautiful, calming sunset

our first sail!

yes! cricket sails!

today we had the extreme pleasure of having our good friends anna, david, jason and becca vandewettering visit us aboard cricket! after jason kayaked anna out to the boat (in his own kayak), and pam kayaked david out to the boat (becca had to go to work for a while) we went for a most loverly sail! first sail of the year! and cricket loved it, and told us so! she danced and pranced in the waves, and sailed upwind with gusto, and sailed on beam reaches like she's been waiting all winter and spring long to do just that! we were making 7 and a half knots on 15 knots of wind... beating! the sun was shining. the temperature was a perfect low 80 something. and the kids, david and anna have a great time learning to sail a big boat, each of them taking several turns at the wheel. jason (dad) also loved to sail with us, learning a few things along the way as well. jason loves being on the water, and we sailed back and forth and forth and back, up and down the york river, passing by his place of work, where he wasn't today! jason works at the coast guard station here on the river.

the kids released a couple more of mark mettler's homemade, "sailing lake calhoun" boats, and that was great fun. (watch my youtube video, "on the wing of a gull") it took anna and david a long time to pick out just the right little boat for each of them to set free into the sea. david picked one of the littlest of them all, and anna picked out the largest. both beautiful, of course. we decided to wait for a launching moment when the winds died down a little bit, so that we could watch them sail away longer. when the right moment came each went to the stern pulpit and dropped his/her boat down to the water. anna's big boat went down and sailed off like a dream. it was large enough to watch it drop astern for a little while. but when david's boat dropped down it went sail (feather) into the water and the little keel just wasn't heavy enough to right her sail side up, and the tiny boat quickly disappeared into the distance... david kept a very good attitude about the "unsuccessful" launching. we sailed and sailed a few more times up and down the river. probably a couple of hours worth, and many miles when all of a sudden david yelled out, "there's my boat!" we all looked out in disbelief that he could've spotted the tiny thing again on such a big body of water after so long, but sure enough, there it was! and not only was she there, but the little craft had righted herself, feather-mast up, nad was cheerily sailing on a perfect beam reach just like all the other mark mettler boats launched thus far on the chesapeake! huge smiles on all the cricket's faces! wow!

after a little lunch on board, some ice cream ashore, a little swimming time at the beach, and some sweet, quality time with becca (who'd gotten off work now), it was time to load jason's kayak onto there car, say our good-byes, and be off. as the vandewetterings drove away in their car, pam and i set off from the yorktown dock back to our mooring to be rocked to sleep by the Hand of He Who keeps us afloat.

we've checked the noaa forecasts, and it looks like it's off to the mouth of the cheapeake bay tomorrow, and out into the north atlantic!

i haven't forgotten the pictures i've promised. they're coming... and some movies too! ...

happy anniversary baby, got you on my mind!

i'm sure pam updated you on all the details from yesterday, right? well here's a few of mine:

we had a very, very lovely 2nd anniversary! cricket was happy at her mooring, so we got to sleep in late, laze around in the morning singing,

"...We got everything

We need right here
And everything we need is enough
Just so easy
When the whole world fits inside of your arms
Don't really need to pay attention to the alarm
Wake up slow, yeah wake up slow..."

after finally rolling out of our cozy bunk we did a pile of chores on cricket to prepare us for our long sail to new york (like putting on the sails ; ) and then we hitched the next kayak to yorktown for a wonderful anniversary lunch at a cute little historic restaurant called "the carrot tree" and a wonderful walk through the bamboo forest and historic downtown. a few "business calls" while sitting in the shade, some more walking then a dessert of blackened tuna at a bar near the shore. then it was back into the kayaks, back to cricket, with lila greeting us with many meows, which meant, "where have you been! i've been worried about you! i missed you! i'm sooo glad you're back! you can feed me now! and fresh, running water if you please."

we lay down in the cockpit of the boat around 7:30 to take a short nap. i said to pam, "i race you to sleep," and then next thing i knew it was the next morning! i won!

our new craftiness

ahhh, yorktown virginia! a lovely place to stop. tonight, just before writing this blog this evening the drum and fife corps played a long, wonderful set of greatest hits from the 1770’s! the music was wafted over the water from the nearby treed hills as pam, lila and i had a quiet paddle in our kayaks around cricket in the mellow orange glow of the evening sunset. there were more thrilling kayak paddles earlier today, but this evening on the water is of storybook proportions.

this morning i boarded a bobbing, jumping kayak in order to add a line to our mooring, which we thought could use a little more security in the wild wind and waves. we love how the kayaks bob like corks, and respond to our slightest finesse with the paddle to maneuver around. it’s not necessarily a dry ride, but at least it’s a fun ride without drowning. and the little water craft glide through the wind and waves without all that much effort on account of the low profile and less wind resistance. we were a little worried about getting in and out of them from cricket’s deck, but i think our vast past experience with canoes helps us with the balancing act required.

today, as mentioned, we used the kayak to add a line to our mooring ball. we also kayaked to the dockmaster’s office to pay for that mooring ball. it was somewhat of a frenzied ride, but lila came with us in pam’s kayak and did a fantastic job riding in it! last year owen hated riding in the dinghy even though he liked the shore leave at the end of the rides, but lila seems to absolutely enjoy riding with us on the water! as a matter of fact, when we reached the docks and put her ashore, she tried to jump back into the kayak! pam pulled back on her leash so she made it only halfway and soaked her stern most parts, but she was unperturbed. and you can imagine all the looks she got from the passers by on their way to their sailing tourboat ride!

our paddle back to the boat a couple hours later was much more tame. as a matter of fact, lila decided it was tame enough to ride on the small, curved deck on the bow of the kayak! more looks, comments and smiles from the shore. she hasn’t fallen in the water yet, but her day is coming. we want to help her respect the wetness and drownedability of the water in a controlled setting, so soon we’ll give her a little shove, and then a little rescue.

we tested lila this evening with our evening paddle, leaving her behind on cricket to see what she would do. she followed us around with her eyes, and walked to the part of cricket that was nearest us. she never seemed like she was about to dive in after us, but i think she was quietly meowing to us. when i returned to the boat she walked around to my kayak and jumped on it to join me for a nice last paddle of the day. we both enjoyed the ride greatly!

the breaking of a blogfast in yorktown

it’s time to break the long blog fast for ben!

my excuse for not blogging for so long was that this is supposed to be a sail blog, and i wasn’t sailing... lame, yes, but true... but today my excuse is dissolving into the salty sea water under the wake of our beloved cricket. technically i could continue the blogfast, because we didn’t sail at all today, but we did leave a 35 mile long track line on our new garmin

chartplotter, but all under motor. technically i don’t have to blog, but i will.

we are now officially done at deltaville boatyard & marina after one last unexpected $500+ bill to replace our old autopilot display. argh! but now we are free! free at last! thank God almighty, we are free at last! free to wander! free to roam!

after our favorite marine electrical technician, mike, mounted our new surprise purchase that we had sent overnight from california (shows how desperate we were to get gone), after he connected the wires, after we quickly tore the lines off the moorings to go out for a short sea trial and a few tweeks, we literally did a quick touch and go on the marina dock just long enough for mike to jump off cricket. a quick u-turn and some sweet navigating out of jackson creek by our beloved captain got us into the chesapeake bay major. we bee-lined cricket south to yorktown with barely any drama. t’was a beautiful day in the wind and waves. we could tell lila was a wee bit nervous, but took her new moving, bobbing home with a good attitude, sleeping much of the day away in a few of owen’s old cricket haunts. she’s often follow me around the deck of the boat, taking comfort (perhaps false) that i knew what i was doing. lila was a very cute ship’s cat today! when it came time at the end of the day to pick up a mooring she walked to the bow of the boat with me and leaned over the gunnels with me as i reached out with the boat-hook to catch the mooring. felt like i had a little kid with me!

we’ll spend the next couple of days here preparing to go on our north atlantic voyage to new york city!

we are now pleasantly bobbing up and down at our mooring. over to our starboard stern yorktown’s revolutionary war memorial is lit up on a hill on the nearby shore. over our port stern, further away the big bridge over the york river has many, cheery lights reflecting on the rippling water. with a lovely cool breeze blowing through our hair, ready with sleeping pads in cricket’s cockpit, ready for a very satisfying night’s rest.

pictures tomorrow : ) ------------[}-

new visitors, and some old friends

this cute little hitch-hiker won't get very far on our hull in the next few days, but it was fun to watch him scurry across crickets underbelly, just below the waterline.

and our old friends "the jellies" are back!

the dipping

new pictures from today on facebook!

sunday... a perfect day of worship and fellowship! we had a very lovely time in church, then went visiting several new found friends around the boatyard and around the town. a very lovely, and interesting time. t'was a hot day, so we went to our friend, keaton's beach and swam in the bay, enjoying the day with the various birds around.

here's a few samples:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=723072638&aid=174905&s=80&hash=0d97d66cc7542e0053847d083eb9a0db

pictures on the ol' facebook to appease for now ; )

sorry about all the blog silence...

guess i'm sorta waiting to get in the water, and get sailing before i'm "really" blogging...

excuses, excuses!

there's some great, new pictures on my facebook of much of the stuff pam's been blogging about!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=174905&id=723072638&ref=mf

later...

getting wired

today; a lot of fiddling with the electrogizmos. i think the yard is considering actually working on our boat. we even had a couple of yard workers do a few things to cricket, and to crickets mast. nice! we’re filling our minds with wires and diagrams of wires, and various ways of connecting wires. also we’re considering creative routes to run wires and all the myriads of stuff that wires can carry within their veins. but when all is dreamt up, and put into it’s proper place it will be a very pleasant thing; sailing around without often running into things!

after all these wirey matters we enjoyed a very fine evening upon the water upon our dear friends darrell and nancy's boat, makarios. they had the pleasure of launching their lovely center cockpitted boat today, and are anchored right out there in the harbor. there was no way we were going to say no to an evening of dinner and stories afloat with our good cronies darrell and nancy and kurt and michael! can't even begin to describe the warmth of friendship we experienced as the cool, torrential rain tried to drown out our conversation upon the bimini's canvas.

check out my facebook for a few more pictures (i'm finding that this blogsight doesn't do these photographs justice ; )

early to rise, early to bed

if i use a large font, that is not black, and a few pictures of the day, would i then be allowed to use less words for this entry?

up early to roll on a gallon and a half of our ol' friend, bottom paint. did i mention how great it is to have such a joyful helpmate to roll along with?

the new stuff, although it is supposed to be great at keeping the little critters off our big, fat hull was a little thinner, and thus a little splatteryer than the stuff we'd been working with, so we were wearing a bit more of it when we finished "earrrliie in th' mornin'"

so we both showered and scrubbed, and scrubbed because neither one of us fears the possibility of barnacles growing on our arms as much as the thought of poisoned paint lingering on our skin membrane.

then ed and nola came!

and then we had a lovely afternoon swapping tales, showin' 'em round the town, eating seafood and ice cream, and just plain being with each other. --------------[}- : )

there is something very special about biking to church! we were singing a little hymn we’d learned some time ago, to the beat of our feet turning the peddles, cranking the chain, turning the wheels... “we are biiiking in the light of God, we are biking in the light of God,” ding-ding on the little bike handlebar bell, “we are biking, biking, we are biking, biking, biking in the light of God,” ding-dinggg!

we parked our bikes outside and found the sanctuary of the phillippi church abandoned, so that they could fill the fellowship room with folks sipping coffee at long tables for the “informal" worship service.

we all started with the singing of a heart filled “what a friend we have in Jesus...” twice, because the pastor felt passionately moved by it, since we were singing it in memory of a beloved member who had passed away a couple of years back. today not only happened to be the day before memorial day, but also this “regular saint’s” birthday. we all felt passionately moved to sing it again. even the kid who handled the c.d.’s of our “virtual organist” didn’t mind switching the disk back into the c.d. player! that set the stage for a very lovely service that consisted of a sermon in which there was quite a lot of good, meaningful dialogue between the preacher and the congregation, a time of freely sharing joys and griefs among the people, more hymns and communion.

we stopped at the little coffee cafe on our way back to cricket.

we’d planned on putting another coat of bottom paint on her, but discovered some spots that were in need of more scraping, sanding and priming. these areas had been previously covered up by the stands that hold cricket upright on the hard. the stands have been intentionally moved to different locations on the hull when we were moved closer to the water in the boatyard. it was grrreat to have a partner to do this work with! so good!

it was a hot day, so when we’d finished up with the dirty, dusty work we showered to rinse off the bottom paint, and then treated ourselves to an ice cream and an iced tea from the ship’s store here at the marina. we went out to the end of the fueling dock to enjoy our treats, enjoy the sight of all the memorial day weekend fun on the water, and enjoy each other’s company. it was fun to capture some of the bay activities with the new canon camera.

after a few visitors on the boat we went out for a couple of beers with my new sailboat friend graham and his author/actress wife lydia. a very lovely time.

some of our views

the view off our starboard stern

off the starboard bow

pam is crocheting bottle socks so our glass doesn't go crashing to pieces in the big swells

kurt has coffee with us in the cockpit almost every morning

meet michael

yesterday we had our “trip to the bahamas” by way of a meeting with michael in the marina lounge. he’s an 80 something year old gentleman who’s been taking his little sailing catamaran, “wind in the willows,” to the bahamas every winter for the last 30 years! he is a new, huge inspiration in our lives.

michael became a widower fairly early on in his life, and has raised two fine, upstanding children as a single father. now he very much enjoys his grandchildren, and, of course, takes them sailing when he can.

we’d met him a few times since he’s been back here in the bay from his last trip down to those beautiful, tropical islands. he arrived sometime last week and has his quaint boat anchored a ways up the creek, just west the marina docks. as pam and i were kayaking past his boat a few days ago he came out and invited us aboard for a cup of tea. we gladly accepted, and enjoyed his company and a tour of his humble home on the waters. a 26 foot catamaran that’s been going to the bahamas as long as michael has been going there. wind in the willows has the look of a boat that has been well used and well loved through the decades. not luxurious by any means, but bright, comfy and the cabin is full of the reminders of all those adventures she’s been through. practical and simple. lovely!

michael is much like his boat. you can tell by the skin wrinkling around his warm smile that he’s been through all kinds of weather. by through, i mean IN all kinds of weather, not in the house with the weather going on outside, but right out there under the sky and whatever it contains. his body is crooked in every place with arthritis and he is bent over with scoliosis. no complaints. it is quite a chore to get around for michael, but get around he does! slowly, with great courage and grace he moves from his boat to his dinghy, to the docks unloading his gear, carrying it to his ford, and driving it to visit his children and grandchildren for the weekend. he graciously accepts help, but you know that without it he would still plod merrily along at his own pace and get done whatever it is he is doing.

talking with michael is pure pleasure! his gentle voice coloured with an enviable english accent is satisfying enough, but the tales of life that are carried by that voice are wonderful to hear. stories of sailing to and fro and stories of life’s triumphs and challenges. never a complaint. but michael has good ol’ ears to, large and weathered, ready to listen to the experiences you have to share.

as we met met with him his voice took us from the biscayne bay in south florida across the straights of florida to the bimini islands of the west bahamas. we sailed eastward to nassau, south to the large andros island and eastward again to great exuma island and beyond. always reminded to take our time and explore the amazing beauty of this special place. michael was always very patient to answer any questions we had for him. his fond descriptions of various achorages and reefs and cays have installed a great excitement in our hearts to experience some of what his bright eyes have seen!

after he’d finished another, younger sailor, dave (he appears to be 50 something years young) took us on another tour down the east coast from norfolk, va to the various bahama staging/launching areas in florida. a good, complete “workshop” in how to get there, complete with all the places to anchor and provision and tour. whew. after three + hours our notebook and brains were full!

(i believe pam's blog has a picture of our little meeting)

pam's here with me!

my best pal and wife has joined me for a little less than a week now, and sharing life here in deltaville upon cricket with her has made this stay much, much more of a joy than it already had been!

pam and i have already been working on the boat together, kayaking together, meeting and making friends together, walking together, biking together, road tripping together, farmer’s marketing together, dancing together... whew! and much more... together! it is said that joy shared is twice joy. true!

this morning when we woke up lila was just getting back from her night of carousing. she replaced us on the bow bunk and went straight to sleep as we got up and started our day. pam took a shower and headed to the office, while i made coffee, scraped a few more of our wooden blocks to prepare them for varnishing. it’s nice when the wooden block workshop and pam’s office are right across cricket’s cockpit from each other. i’d look up from my prepwork to take a sip of coffee and see pam at her laptop with a backdrop of the boats anchored in the little bay near us!

now that’s good working conditions! our friend kurt came up the ladder to join us for the last of our morning coffee in the cockpit. nice morning!

i took one of the deltaville marina bikes into town to get a few things for the boat while pam continued to work in “the office.” i may or may not have snuck an ice cream sandwich in on my way back from town.

later we both hopped on the bikes and took a lovely tour of sting ray point, the end of the peninsula we are now living on. we biked through a cute little camp ground, waded on their beach and admired some of the unusual and quaint setups for folks to live the “camper life” like the old camper with the big screened in porch attached, or the old pilot house attached to a camper with a huge screened in porch attached, or an old motorboat blocked upright with a big protective roof built over the whole thing and a big screened in porch attached. you get the idea, i think. we also stopped at a cute little rental house with a sweet beach to look around (the sign in front said to come on in to see), and while we were there the owner showed up in

her car with her two wiener dogs and greeted us with warm smiles and invited us in to check the place out. keaton gave us the tour of the place, which was very lovely, but her personality was even more lovely. she’s a retired biology teacher living a simple life on the bay. she loves her place and her grandkids, which we could already tell by the playful way the place is set up with toys and places for kids to adventure and make little discoveries around this tiny piece of heaven.

this evening we met in the marina lounge with our good friends from last year, darrell and nancy to take a virtual tour from chesipeake bay all the way up the coast to nantucket island. they’ve been this way quite a bit, and this is where we’re planning on going this summer, so it was great to hear of all the places to see, spots to anchor, currents to avoid and routes to take. with their charts spread out on the table, and our boating tour-book right next to it, and darrell and nancy telling tales of their adventures it was almost like being there... almost. oh my! there will be soooo much to explore this summer and fall! yipppeee! it was great to have already gone there tonight!

tomorrow morning at 10:00am we go to the bahamas!