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!

less is more

i made a new friend today. there’s this wonderful, little sailboat at the docks i’ve been admiring everyday as i walk down there to stare out into the watery world. she’s maybe 20-25 feet long, with sweet old fashioned lines, a simple, straight forward rig and a cabin that could be big enough for one bunk and perhaps a small galley and no more. her name is “madcap” and it’s looked like there’s been someone living aboard her. at night i see the the light on in the tiny cabin. i’ve felt a strange longing to meet the person who would own/live on this beautifully simple boat.

today i stopped as i passed madcap and had a nice conversation with skip, the owner! great little conversation. we talked much about sailing in maine, which he has done quite a bit of. someday we’ll sit together and pour over charts to hear tales of the seas and harbors of that area, which skip loves. also we discussed a lot about how nice it is to live life simply. he said he’s got a pendant from his family that he’s going to fly from the boat as he sails her. it says, “less is more.” amen to that!

the ironic thing is... he is a yacht broker who sells a brand of sailboats called island packet boats... i took a look at one docked a few boats away from his. he even let me board it to take a look around the very roomy cabin. huge! luxurious. 650+k of luxury... i said that owning that boat didn’t seem like it’d be much like simplifying. he smiled and said, “it’d really simplify your bank account.” too true. as i walked away i told him i’d rather own madcap than the island packet. he said he would too.

shaken, not stirred

more work on the hull today. are you getting used to that sentence? t’was applying the real stuff though. yup. bottom paint. filled in all those spots i’ve been scraping, sanding and priming! nice to get to the final kinda stuff for that. the old can of paint i was using recommended that i take it to a hardware store and have the heck shaken out of it, so i got me a trusty (yup, you guessed it) deltaville marina bicycle, threw the heavy can of paint in the front basket, and pedaled over to the local hardware haunt. after the bumpy ride i would guess the paint was already pretty well shaken! but the guy there was more than happy to attach the can to the ol’ paint shaker machine and give it a double dose of “shaken, not stirred.” no charge! really? yup! and here’s a couple of stir sticks to boot! nice!

after i got done with all that work stuff i grabbed an iced tea from the ship’s store at the marina, and sat on the dock to watch the waves on the bay (super windy day). along came a new friend, graham. he’s got a sailboat newly put in the drink, and docked right where i was sitting, unbeknownst to me. he invited me aboard and we chatted for a while, while he worked on a few things. he’s got a lovely english accent. a very personable, friendly guy. he even invited me to his home in richmond. i declined this time, but hopefully pam and i’ll get a chance to visit.

guess what?

i’m going home next weekend! yup. and i don’t mean minnesota as “home.” nope. even though that is where i’m going. by “home” i mean i get to see my best pal and wife! that’s home! the reason i’m heading west is that my good buddy danny, ho happens to be my bother, is getting married! and i get to watch the whole thing take place! he’s marrying his good pal karen. i’ll be flying back on friday, going to the wedding in wisconsin on saturday, hopefully getting to see deanna graduate from mcad in the afternoon, savouring hanging with pam on sunday, and flying back early monday morn.

this evening lila was sitting on the ground near cricket, meowing up at me. i knew what she wanted... she wanted me to take her for a walk. something we’ve made a bit of a habit of doing in the evenings. she’s so cute. she explores all day (and often all night), and yet she loves it when i go with her on walks! we walked down to the docks, and she tentatively, but bravely joined me there. a good way to wind up a good day! i think she’ll make an excellent ship’s cat!

under the wing of a gull

forgot to publish this to my blog a while back...

ah, deltaville!

time has been nonexistent in this sweet place! don’t get me wrong, there’s been a-plenty to do. working on cricket’s belly, her water system, working with the boatyard on all the electronics to be done, ordering this and that… all that stuff, but there is no defined deadline. we would like to be on the water in early to mid june, but hey! we’re sailing now, and you do what you can, you don’t stress, and go with what the “wind” gives you each day ; )

this morning after i woke up, and was just about to make my morning cup of coffee i excitedly remembered that the cute, little coffee shop in town was reopening today!

so i walked over to the bike racks, grabbed a deltaville bike and peddled there! t’was fun to get coffee in a coffee shop (they’re rare in these parts... i miss my dunn bros. coffee back in the ol’ hood!) and sit for a small spell sippin’ me brew and readin’ me book! it was also nice to meet the new owners of the place, and tell them i’ve been missing them, even before i even met them!

today the wind blew in some time to epoxy up a couple of little holes I opened up on crickets cute little hull to rid ourselves of a few small blisters (kind of like little fiberglass zits that need to be popped). I discovered the perfect epoxy mixing and spreading tool! a ice cream bar stick!

also I crawled on my belly on the gravel for a few hours to put some primer paint way down on the very bottom of the keel. there was only a few inches of space between the bottom of her bottom and the ground, so it was tight brush work. i also put another coat of varnish on a few wooden blocks (pulleys). also met with mike. he’s the guy who’s gonna help with all the electronics work to be done soon!

in the evening i offered my “on the hard” neighbor, curt to go kayaking with me on the bay, and he did! fun! it was his first time in a kayak, but he said he loved it, and was thinking about possibly getting a couple for his wife and himself. it’s nice to pass some of life’s joys off to the folks around you!