journeys

Here is a sailing trip that I think might be worth following during the next couple of days. Steve, who describes himself as a Welsh guy in Plymouth, will be sailing his John Welsford designed Navigator Arwen along what I think is the south coast of England. (I say "think" because I'm a product of U.S. schools and all we learn about here is, of course, the U.S. and I dont' know anything about the rest of the world.) Steve has a nice blog called Arwen's Meanderings that I have mentioned before. He built the boat in the last couple of years and is just now starting to explore small open boat cruising.

He certainly has some interesting cruising territory. This trip is from Plymouth to Salcombe, overnighting in Salcombe before sailing back to Plymouth. You can see that he will be sailing along the coast of the English Channel on some wide open water. He has details for the trip here. All my trips have been on bays or estuaries, I wonder what it is like to sail along a rugged coastline with tides and currents. I'll check out his trip as he goes, he has posted his SPOT track here.

Below is one of the islands along the planned path for his sail, Burgh Island. Doesn't it look like a beautiful shore?

I know he is ready for the trip, he mentions in his most recent post that he has "butterflies". I know I get butterflies before every trip (and even some day sails too). Have a great trip Steve.

I've been thinking a lot about Day Four of the Tag Team sail (that's the great thing about cruises, lots of memories to look back upon). It was the longest sail of the trip, both in terms of hours and miles, and it was on the summer solstice, longest day of the year too (how appropriate).

Below is Spartina on the Neuse River, sailing wing and wing, a nice shot from the Dawn Patrol crew, after we left Oriental at 5 a.m.

And there are the cat-ketch sails of Dawn Patrol moving into the anchorage behind the marsh at the Swash some 12 hours (of good wind, no wind, strong wind, heat, thunderstorm, lightning, blue skies) and 48 miles later. We crossed eight bodies of water, counting rivers, bays, canals and sounds, and experienced just about everything you might get on an open boat cruise. It was like a few days of sailing all packed into one.

And speaking of journeys, I've got one coming up this weekend. They found a spare bunk on a research boat out of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and have invited me on board for a few days. Where are we going? Somewhere on the Chesapeake Bay but I don't know any more specifics than that (I get an invite like that I don't ask too many questions, just say yes, where do I meet the boat). I know it will be an interesting time.

Good luck, Steve (Welsh guy living in Plymouth), have a good safe trip. I'll look forward to the reports.

steve