stow it!

I know I used this photo before (we've got to get out sailing so we can get some new photos to put on the blog!!!) but I wanted to show it here so you can visual what Spartina looks like fully loaded with gear and supplies.  That is Bruce at the tiller, we were headed out for six days on the water but had supplies to last 9 or 10 days.

It was too cold and rainy to sail yesterday, so I spent the afternoon sorting food, putting it in bags and storage bins.  Then I started sorting through the clothes, hypothermia kit, sleeping bag, etc.  And then I started wondering where all this stuff would go.  That pile of stuff didn't even include Bruce's gear.  I know it will all fit since we have done it before, but to put my mind at ease I drew up a packing layout.  Here it is (excuse the handwriting please).

Basically I keep my personal gear on the starboard side of the boat and Bruce will keep his on the port side.  The rest of the gear, food, supplies is spread about the boat, neatly tucked away.  Here is a rundown.....

• Bungeed up under the foredeck will be the polytarp boom tent, two self-inflating sleeping pads, two Bivy's and maybe two camp pillows.
• On the starboard side up under the foredeck will be a hammock style net that holds onions, peppers and other veggies.
• On the port side up under the foredeck will be a hammock with bilge pump, sponges and cleaning supplies.
• On the bunk flat beneath the foredeck will be the porta pottie, anchor and rode (all in bucket tied to the mast), 2 and 1/2 gallon fuel tank.
• My duffel, with clothes, sleeping bag and hypothermia kit will be tuck under the coaming on the starboard side at the aft end of the foredeck.
• Camp stove, wrapped in a polytarp bag, is bungeed along the starboard side up against the hull planks and under the coaming.
• Aft of the stove is the cook kit with pots, utensils, olive oil and seasonings, tucked up against the hull under the coaming.
• Underneath the the bunk flat on the starboard side in the watertight storage area are 4+ gallons of water and the tool kit.
• Beneath the starboard coaming on top of the thwart will be my foul weather gear and a propane tank.
• In the starboard thwart watertight storage area will be three gallon jars of food, a few two gallon freezer bags of food and some extra clothes. 
• The forward storage area under the starboard cockpit seat will hold AA batteries, extra line and first aid kits.
• The aft storage area under the starboard cockpit seat will hold flares and other emergency gear.
• A 6 foot oar will be bungeed beneath the starboard coaming.  Tucked behind the oar will be an plastic envelope containing our charts and notebook.
• The day storage area at the aft end of the cockpit will hold the vhf radio, sunblock, knife, binoculars and rigging tools.
• Underneath the day storage area will be spare parts and tools for the outboard.
• Bruce's duffel will be tuck up under the coaming forward on the port side.
• Bungeed aft of that up against the hull and under the coaming port side will be a boat fender.
• Aft of that on the port side will be a box with candles, lights, notebooks and matches.
• Underneath the port side of the bunk flat will be 4+ gallons of water.
• Underneath the coaming and on top of the thwart on port side will be Bruce's foul weather gear and some extra bits and pieces of line.
• In the watertight storage under the thwart on the port side will be food, in jars and bags, and camera gear (in watertight bags).
• In the forward storage beneath the cockpit seat port side will be cleaning gear and toilet articles.
• In the aft area beneath the cockpit seat port side will be fishing tackle.
• Underneath the coaming aft on the port side will be the boat hook.
• On the transom will be two fishing poles.

Wow.  That seems like a lot of gear.  I still can't get over how much stuff fits just under the foredeck.  But I consider all of it necessary.  My feeling is that any piece of equipment must "earn" its way on to the boat.  Our one luxury is food - we could do more backpacking style food and save some space and weight.  But the Pathfinder can carry all this and more.  So why skimp?  The funny thing is that with all this gear, there is still room for more.  Lots of space in the Pathfinder (my thanks to John Welsford for that).

I'll laminate this drawing back to back with a sheet of info about marinas, hotels and some other material and tuck it in with our charts.

-Steve

a well-fed crew is a happy crew

Less than two weeks until the trip so it is time to start thinking seriously about food. Above is a photograph Bruce shot of me fixing dinner on Core Sound. Meals, particularly after a long day on the water, can be a highlight of the day. For dinner I had always used a combination of boiling bag rice (cooked in the pot on the right side of the stove) and onions, peppers and fish (salmon or tuna in a foil packet) grilled on a griddle. Bruce, when he joined me in the fall of '07, saw some room for improvement. He hasn't done much sailing, but he has done a lot of camping and has experience with camp meals. He'll be taking charge in that area.
All spring I've been tossing an extra item of two into the grocery cart for the trip. This past weekend I did a little census to see what we've got. Here's the count (this is for a trip that will probably take, depending on wind and whimsy, 7 to 10 days).

• 24 breakfast bars (a variety of granola and other high fiber bars)
• 32 fruit cups - mandarin oranges, peaches, pears, tropical fruit mixture
• 14 tuna fish and cracker lunch packs
• 3 asian dinners in boxes that include noodles, sauces and chopped peanuts or something along those lines
• two boxes of cous cous
• 4 packs of instant mashed potatoes
• 1 pack of spaghetti
• 1 pouch of pasta sauce
• 4 foil packs of salmon/tuna
• 1 boil in bag rice
• 2 heater meals (self heating meals that come in handy when I'm too tired and/or wet to mess with cooking.
• two cans mixed nuts that will be divided up in to zip lock snack bags
• big box of raisins that will be divided in to snack bags
• bottle of olive oil
• bottle of Cajun Sunshine hot sauce
• bottle of blackened redfish spice
• bottle of olive oil
• 20 packs of those little peanut butter snack crackers

That will be the basis for our food. It may seem like a lot, but it doesn't take up much space and there is plenty of room in the watertight storage areas under the thwart on Spartina. Items above that are in boxes will be taken out of the boxes and put in zip lock bags. Different groups of food - main courses, side dishes, snacks - will be grouped together in two-gallon zip lock bags or one of the one gallon plastic jars. Each evening we'll do a mix and match to see what looks good for dinner that night. As we get out the food for dinner each night we'll also pull out food for breakfast/lunch/snacks the following day. We'll have plenty of onions and peppers on board, they reside in a net hammock up under the foredeck on the starboard side.
Our biggest change this cruise will be the addition of meats and sauces - that's what Bruce will be taking care of once he is in town. We'll use a soft cooler and dry ice to keep things fresh (don't know how well this will work, but we'll find out). Bruce says he has a camp stew he wants to do the first night. It involves beef, several veggies and wine (normally there is no alcohol on the boat, but we'll take a small box of wine along for cooking purposes). It takes some time to cook, he says, and that is fine as the first day is a short sail from Engelhard to Wysocking Bay. Plenty of time to relax, get organized and enjoy the smell of a nice stew cooking away.
The other fresh food we hope to have available is fish caught along the marshes. Those are filets from a nice speckled trout that I caught on Caffee Bay near Swan Quarter. Grilled with onions and peppers and served on top of the rice with juice from a fresh lime, it was a great meal. I have fished off of beaches and power boats for years, but I'm still learning how to fish off of a sailboat. It takes a little practice to get the boat in the right spot, and it takes some experience to recognize the right spot. Speckled trout and puppy drum (called redfish on the gulf coast) will be the fish we are after.

I've sorted through my fishing kit to get ready for the trip. I don't take too much gear, maybe a couple of dozen soft lures that are slid on to hooks with 1/8 oz. lead heads. I'm trying out the Storm lure on the left for the first time this trip. It is a larger soft lure (as opposed to the hard bodied mirrorlures and such) with two treble hooks. If you look close you can see that I have pinched down on the barbs on the hooks. With a fish flopping on the line I want to avoid getting myself snagged. Last time I did that it took a doctor and two nurses to get the hook out of my hand.

Air and water temperatures on the rise the fishing is certainly picking up. I keep an eye on the fishing reports at Cape Lookout Charters to see what is happening down there. Fishing looks good, so maybe there will be trout or blackened redfish on the menu.

-Steve

odds and ends

Here are a couple of photos showing the gear I mentioned in my last post in use on Spartina. Bruce shot the photo at the top of me wearing my pfd/harness with polypropolene tether. This was crossing the Neuse River on a nice reach. The wind and waves felt stronger than what it looks like in the photo. You can see I've loosened the mizzen sheet a little. Normally I keep it sheeted in tight for a nice balance in winds up to 12 or 15 mph. It was blowing more than that on this sail so I've put a little slack in there to keep the sails balanced (the ability to balance the sail plan is one of the things I really love about the Pathfinder and yawls in general). You can also see our two fishing poles mounted on the port side of the transom. I've got a stainless steel permanent tube mount for one fishing pole, and I just used electrical cable ties to add a second pvc tube along side the permanent one for the second rod.
And there is the anchor light below on a breezy evening at Great Fox Island on Tangier Sound. I used to clip it to the lazy jacks at night when I slept every night under a boom tent. On nights now without a forecast of rain we'll sleep in the bivy sacs and not use the boom tent. So I've moved the anchor light forward to the bow stay where it doesn't interfere with the view of the night skies that we'll get looking up through the bivy's bug screen.
When anchoring in a place, near Wainwright Island on Core Sound for example, where there might be some waterman zipping around the corner late evening I hang a second anchor light to the boomkin. Just want to make sure everybody sees us.

Back up to the top photo you can see Bruce's gps sitting on top of the chart book. One of our first jobs when he gets back here will be to import my waypoints in to his gps. We've both got Garmin gps's and I think they use the same MapSource software, so that should be easy. We'll spend some time on the computer the first night he is in town working on waypoints, buying our NC salt water fishing licenses and also updating our Spot profiles online. The next day will be food shopping, junk on the bunk (Bruce's army term for laying all our gear out on the floor and marking it off on a check list) and then packing the boat and jeep. We should be headed south by sunrise the next morning!

Just noticed Bruce posted a test photo from his cell phone. That's pretty cool to be able to do that.

Steve

It Works

Well I must say I am impressed with what technology can do today. I took the picture of my car at the car wash. We are getting ready for a trip to Canada tomorrow. Steve had asked me to see if I could take a picture with my phone camera and post it to the blog. Well, I can. We are going to do a little of that kind of photo posting on our trip. Simply amazing, who'd a figured?

Bruce

the dollar store and other expedition outfitters

Days are flying by and the trip is not that far away. Time to start pulling out some of the gear to check it over. As I sort through the bin of equipment I'm pleasantly surprised by how much of it came - at a very reasonable price - from such places as the Dollar Store, WalMart, hardware store or grocery store. These tall, wide mouth storage jars are a good example. I carry six of them on Spartina. They stand vertically in the storage area underneath the thwart, three on each side of the centerboard trunk. A lot of the food goes in there, I marked the contents on top of the lids so I can open the watertight port and quickly locate what I need. You see fruit cups on the left, breakfast bars on the right. These jars cost $1.00 each at the Dollar Store. While building the boat I had sketched out a list of supplies and made note of Nalgene storage jars. But those jars - colorful and made of high impact materials - run $17.00 EACH. These $1.00 jars do the job I need.

I always have a Rite in the Rain all weather notebook nearby when I'm sailing. I use it to jot down quick notes throughout the day that will be the source for my log book in the evening. If you can make out my handwriting (the nuns would cringe at how the Palmer Method failed me) I was approaching the inelegantly named Clump Island and Great Fox Island on Tangier Sound, trying to locate the channel that separated the two. I find these books here and there, sometimes at hardware stores, sometimes in little shops. They do cost a couple of more bucks than a regular pocket note book, but the writing and pages hold up very well even when soaked by rain or salt spray.

My anchor light came from WalMart for less than $10. It is a simple LED lamp that uses three AA batteries. It is not designed to be waterproof, but this lamp had been out in heavy rains with 30 mph winds and keeps on glowing. I keep two on board, one to hang up in the rigging, typically on the forestay, at night. The other I use as a reading lamp. I've looked at other waterproof, multiple LED lights at camping stores but can't see a reason to spend $25 for them.

I made my tethers based on a description in a John Welsford sailing story. I think it is 1 inch diameter polypropolene line with a carabiner at one end and a quick release clip (that came from a boat shop) at the other end. The line is easy to find because of the bright color and it floats too. I did some eye splices on each end. My splicing skills are not as good as Bruce's so I wrapped read electrical tape around the splices to clean it up a little. Bruce and I each have a tether of the same design and clip them on to some very nice, safe self-inflating pfd's with built in harness that Bruce was kind enough to donate to the boat. We'll skimp on a lot of gear, but we won't skimp on safety gear.

I made my boarding ladder out of an old piece of nylon line using a design from Hervey Garrett Smith's The Marlinspike Sailor. I leave it hooked on the deck cleat on the starboard quarter with the ladder itself inside the boat tucked behind the forward end of the boomkin. It sits there out of the way ready for a swim or an emergency. From outside the boat, and I've tried this out, I can reach up and pull the ladder over the side for use in boarding. I've used it a couple of times while swimming. I have never used it in case of a knockdown or man over board, but I'm glad to know it is there.

Bruce just called from the west coast to go over some equipment details. He is gearing up too.

-Steve

Tangier Island

I was thinking about Tangier Island today as I had to go over to the Eastern Shore of Virginia (hey, I get paid to do this sometimes!). I was surprised by the amount of development along Highway 13, the main route up the shore. Shopping centers and hotels. Even a new bridge under construction out to Chincoteague Island. I got to wondering about Tangier Island. I haven't been there since the cruise I mentioned in yesterday's post. While making the 100 mile drive I remembered that I had been there earlier and took some photographs on the island, thought I might post them here. I wonder how it has changed since then. Is the old skiff still there in the marsh, or has it been carried away by the tides? Crabbing is the main industry and crab pot markers decorate a sandwich shop at the ferry dock. You'll see the markers spread out all over Tangier Sound, the hum of diesels of deadrise crab boats is a constant during daylight hours. Fog surrounded me early on the second day of my Tangier Sound cruise. It was only by following a line of crab pots (this was in my pre-gps days) that I could find a course from Great Fox Island to Watts Island.
This is the beach on the southwest shore of the island. Beautiful white sand looking out on Chesapeake Bay. The fence in the dune is to help minimize the erosion. But with an island that is just a foot or two above sea level erosion is hard to stop.

The main gut (I would have called it a channel or a creek, locals call it a gut) runs through the island as lights glow on the homes on the west ridge. The road on the west side of the island has homes, a couple of bed and breakfasts (well worth a weekend vist ) and the small air strip.

And this is part of the marsh at Port Isobel, a small island just east of Tangier. The buildings in the distance are part of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's center.

I didn't take these pictures on my cruise - I had my hands full on that trip. I took them a couple of months earlier when I visited the island. I rode out on the mail boat Courtney Thomas out of Crisfield. But this is the kind of place that you can see on a cruise, places on the edge, places that are seldom visited, places that don't change quickly. But they do change. I'm glad I get to see these places before they change too much.

-Steve

an anniversary

Today was my only day off for the week and we had thunderstorms rolling all around as cool dry air to the north battled with warm moist air to the south. Not a good day for sailing. Decided to take care of a few chores. I emailed with Chuck at Duckworks. He had mentioned that he was setting up a page at his website where people could post their Spot tracks. I believe the idea is that you can go to his site and see multiple cruises in progress real time. That sounds pretty cool. Chuck said the programming was more difficult than expected so it is still a work in progress. He'll have a basic version set up for his Texas200 in early June. In the meantime he asked for the url for my Spot track and gave me the site for his Spot track. I tested my Spot tracking today and also added a link here on the Skeeter Beater page (you'll see it off to the right) for our Spot track. If you look at it now you'll be able to track me looking for tomatoes and peppers for the garden this afternoon. By late May we hope to have a more interesting journey on there.
Looking at the calendar I noticed that it was two years ago this week that I took Spartina out on our first cruise, a four day visit to the islands on Chesapeake Bay's Tangier Sound. Above is the boat loaded for a week (I always pack for a week just to have a cushion in case of bad weather or whatever) for one person. It will look pretty much the same when Bruce and I load it up for two people for up to ten days. I'll have a larger duffel than the one you see here. That is a 20 liter, I'm now using a SeaLine 35 liter backpack style bag. It fits up in the same spot, just a little larger in diameter. Bruce will keep his duffel on the opposite side. Those two grey boxes are Rubbermaid three gallon Rough Neck storage boxes, about $9.00 each at the hardware store. I drilled small holes in the handles and ran a loop of bungee cord through the holes and over the lid. The cord keeps the lid in places and also makes for a nice spot to tuck a piece of gear or bottle of water. The boxes are held in place by small pieces of nylon line and clips that connect to eye straps. The port box contains my log book, flash lights, anchor lights, matches, candles, etc (all separately bagged). To the starboard is my cook kit with cooking pot, utensils, bowls, olive oil, spices and the like. They work great. They are not "waterproof" but with the design of the lid I have never gotten a drop of water in either of them.
That's Spartina tied up at the public dock at Somers Cove Marina in Crisfield, Md. The small harbor opens out on to the Annemessex River which leads to Tangier Sound. Due west of the river entrance is Smith Island, a place I've always heard about but never visited. We'll take care of that this fall as Bruce and I will sail out of Crisfield on our way north to the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival. Our first stop will be Smith Island. I can smell the crab cakes already.

That is the beach at Watts Island. Decades ago the island was large enough to support a plantation. It has since eroded away to the point that it is just a narrow, wooded strip of land, a nesting area for thousands and thousands of sea gulls, herons, osprey and terns. It was one of those great cruising moments, just walking around on a tiny island with bits of sun bleached driftwood, birds squawking and gentle waves rolling up on the shore.

And there is Spartina anchored on the sand flats between Tangier Island and Port Isobel. In the background you can see the church steeple and water tower of the village on Tangier. It is a very interesting, quaint little island. It has been so isolated for so long that the locals still speak a brogue that I'm told is related to old english. Get two or three of the old waterman talking together and you'll be lucky to pick out a few recognizable words.

And this is my first experience in small craft warnings in Spartina. Quite a ride across the Sound. I learned to trust John Welsford's great design. In fact I believe that the weakest thing about the boat is the guy at the tiller. Spartina has taken me on some great trips. I can't wait for this next one.

-Steve

the forgotten coast

Don't have much time to post today, but thought I would mention the story in the NY Times about the Florida circumnavigation path. It goes from Big Lagoon State Park near Pensacola to Fort Clinch State Park near the Georgia border. The trip is divided up in to 26 segments so you can look at individual stretches of the coast line. Plenty of room there to dream. I've got a trip from Ocean Springs, Mississippi to Cape San Blas in Florida on my list. This will help me out with the last half of that trip.

...someday

-Steve

we didn't just pull the name out of a hat

Anybody who wants to know why we are calling a sailing trip "The Skeeter Beater" need only take a look at today's post on Kiwibird's blog. This is the third and final post about a exploratory trip she and SandyBottom made as they prepare for the fall NC Challenge 2009. Here is a quote....

"...we could hear… the humming of a thousand—possibly more—mosquitoes, inside our tent flys and out—starving for blood—as big as sparrows. And I am not exaggerating.

...we speedily donned paddling clothes and pushed off the beach, still wearing our headnets. (The next day Dawn e-mailed me at work to report she’d counted 300 bites all over her body—I had much fewer, but where I had been bitten turned into large red lumps.)"

The marsh-lined sounds of North Carolina are a beautiful place. Great sailing, excellent fishing. Countless creeks, bays, inlets and....... mosquitoes. Bruce and I had a great time during our '07 trip down there but the fly in the ointment was in fact mosquitoes in the sleeping bags. Take a look below and you'll see Bruce sleeping in the early morning with the can of bug spray nearby.

Bruce contended that the mosquitoes got on board Spartina at Harkers Island and just came along for the ride, terrorizing us each night. I believed that the mosquitoes arrived each night from whatever marsh we had anchored near. This was a nightly debate, mostly because the debating took our minds off the mosquitoes biting.

That is our solution just above, the Outdoors Research Alpine Bivy. I bought mine the winter after our '07 trip and used in twice in '08 with great success. The key is the bug screen (you can see it against the white interior) that can be zipped over the head/shoulders area.

We typically anchor, depending on the location, anywhere from 30 to 50 yards off of the marsh. During the daylight hours mosquitoes are not a problem (at least offshore - if you were to stand in the marshes then yes, they would be a problem all day long). Anchored out, my experience is that the first few skeeters show up within a moment or two of the sun dropping below the horizon. The trick is to have the bivy set up in place. I'll read and relax until the sun goes down, then at the first buzz of a mosquito I'll slip in to the bivy and zip up the bug screen for a good night's sleep.

The bivy now is required gear on the boat. Bruce picked his up a couple of months ago. We'll put them to use in three weeks!

-Steve