let the buying begin

I've started dropping an extra item or two into the grocery cart each week when I'm out shopping.  I my budget works best when I spend five bucks each week late winter and early spring to buy supplies piece meal.  I seems less noticeable than when buying all the food, supplies, batteries, etc at once.  Same amount of money either way, but this works well for me.

Below you'll see a McCormick Steakhouse Seasoning grinder.  It has a few different kinds of peppercorns, sea salt, garlic and dried pepper in there.  Seems like all that, freshly ground, would go with just about anything.  And next to it are a batch of two-gallon size freezer bags.  I find the two-gallon size to be the most practical for boat storage.  They work great for food, charts, clothes and eventually trash storage.

And below are granola bars and instant mashed potatoes.  Granola bars are part of our standard breakfasts on Spartina, along with a cup of fruit. (Breakfast is not a big deal on the boat, we'll eat while we are cleaning up and packing the night gear away.)  And you can get a good side dish with the instant mashed potatoes in just about the time it takes to boil a couple cups of water.  A nice thing about the packets of mashed potatoes is that they will keep throughout the year.  They would work fine on any of the four trips I hope to make between Spring and Fall.

I'll buy a little bit of the food/supplies each week through March or so.  In April I'll start buy the cups of fruit and crackers.  Then in May I'll look at getting the fresh foods that we bring on board.  We'll have to wait and see what will be on the menu.  In the past Bruce has worked during the off-season to come up with new menu items.  On the Skeeter Beater Bruce made pork with garlic/shallot/white wine sauce, on the Crab House 150 he made kung pao chicken, and on the Tag Team he came up with (one of his best ever!) shrimp tacos with black beans and guacamole.  

One thing I will need to buy this soon are new trailer lights.  I got about five years out of this set, a "sealed" light with a dozen l.e.d. lights inside.  On one side just three bulbs are lit, five on the other.  I took one apart today to find that the salt water had eating through the plastic coating over the bulbs.  I think they are still legal, but barely.  I'll shop around and see what I can find.

I meant to say more about Curt's very nice Drascombe Coaster "Annie" yesterday but got sidetracked.  Here is a nice set of photographs of Annie both under construction and on the water.  And here are some specs and links for the design.  A very nice boat, perfect for coastal cruising.  And that's a great hull color on Annie.

steve

the ripple effect

 Webb Chiles called it a mutual ripple effect in a journal entry a few days ago, the actions moving out like ripples from a stone dropped in a pond with distant and unknowable consequences.  The ripples, it seems, keep on coming.

Yesterday, a cold winter day with clear blue skies, one day too many with ice lining the creeks, I was trying to remember what it was like to sail in hot weather.  Spring seemed like a distant dream.  I get back to the office to find an email from Curt, of St. Augustine, Florida, that reminded me of warm weather, small boats and good sailing.  That's Curt above (I'm guess he is the one on the right) in "Annie,"his wood Drascombe Coaster.  Curt came across this blog and wanted to say hello.  He mentioned he had read one of my favorite books, Spartina.  He had also enjoyed the adventures of Webb Chiles.

Notice the similarities?  At the top of the post is Curt's Coaster, a lapstrake yawl.  Above is Webb's Drascombe Lugger Chidiock Tichborne, a lapstrake yawl.  And below is Spartina, a lapstrake yawl.  There are differences of course.  The Drascombes are longer than my Pathfinder.  Their mainsails are loose-footed.  Curt's Annie has a cabin.  But still I can help but notice how similar they all are.  I sometimes wonder if I chose the Pathfinder design subconsciously recognizing design elements from Webb's books that I had read over a decade earlier.

And the ripples continue to come.  While emailing about trips and boats Curt mentions that he had once sailed a boat single-handed from the Chesapeake, Virginia (where I live) to St. Augustine, where he now lives. He bought the boat, he told me, from a man who had sailed her from New York City to Chesapeake.  When he bought the boat she was tied up at the Great Bridge Locks on the west side of the bridge.

I told Curt that that reminded me of a man I had come across here in Chesapeake in the late 1980's.  I did not know him directly, but had heard that he had sailed south from New York with his family.  The wife wasn't happy with the voyage.  She was miserable and did not want to go on.  Coming through the Great Bridge Locks they saw a house with a "for sale" sign on the west side of the bridge.  Tied the boat up, walked into town to find a lawyer and bought the house.  And sold the boat.

That, Curt confirmed, was the same boat he bought.  What a small world.  There is Curt in the boat, below.

So Curt tells me now he is headed for some sailing in a couple of my favorite places - Oriental and Ocracoke.  He can't go wrong with that.  His trip reminded me of our cruises down there in North Carolina.  And just the idea of the trip warmed a cold winter day.

I doubt that I will see Curt this year.  Bruce and I will be sailing on Chesapeake Bay about the time that Curt is on Pamlico Sound.  But maybe later we will cross paths.  Who knows?

The ripple effect, stones dropped in a pond with unknowable consequences.

Fair winds, Curt.

steve

many happy returns

Well, really just two returns.  I am glad they worked out.

In tough economic times, but really any time, I want to make sure I get full value out of my purchases.  I had a couple of pieces of gear fail last year and decided to contact the stores and see what they could do for me.

My West Marine Third Reef foul weather pants started to delaminate last fall.  A similar thing had happened to my jacket during the skeeterbeater trip.  On day four of that trip we sailed into a thunderstorm and I felt the water coming through my jacket.  Bruce showed me the delaminating material and said I ought to ask for a replacement.  I took the jacket to West Marine and they handed me a new one.

So this year some panels in in my bib overalls started to delaminate.  The exterior shell was fine, the interior lining was in great shape.  But the waterproof lining inside the shell was peeling off.  I emailed West Marine's customer service and they said take them to a store, with the receipt, for replacement.  I no longer had the receipt so the customer service people emailed me one.  The pants were out of stock for much of the Fall, but I got a call today that they had a pair for me.  Dropped by and made the exchange.  Can't beat service and support like that.

That's a nice photo by Bruce, below, showing me trying to figure out where we were on the Crabhouse 150.  In the background you can see James Island, we were crossing the mouth of the Little Choptank River on our way to Tilghman Island.  We had had heavy rains all night, a steady mist all morning.  About an hour later the skies cleared.  I remember how nice it was to take off the foul weather gear and enjoy the bright, warm sunshine.

The other item I had a problem with was the griddle on my Coleman stove.  While cooking dinner on the Bay Days trip I heard a metallic pop and the griddle shifted on the stove.  I soon found that the aluminum griddle had warped.  As such it no longer sat squarely on the stove and rocked back and forth.  Annoying to say the least, unsafe (when you consider how hot the griddle gets) at worst.

I emailed Coleman.  They took nearly a month to get back to me but when they did they asked for details of what happened and a photograph.  I responded with the information and within four or five days I had a new griddle.  That's the new griddle, right, with the old griddle on the left.  The fact that they had raised the new griddle about 1/4 inch higher off the stove makes me wonder if this was a design flaw with the original griddle.  The newer, raised griddle will let heat escape a little easier.  I'm not sure if that was the problem or not, just glad to have a new griddle that will fit better on the stove.

The cool thing about dropping by West Marine today was that I had to wait a couple of minutes for them to go into the back and get the new foul weather gear.  While waiting I glanced over at the magazine rack and found some copies of Small Craft Advisor No. 67 on sail.  A nice surprise!  I finally got to see the article about our Tag Team sail last June.  On a cold day with snow in the forecast for tonight, it was nice to be reminded of a great summer sail.

steve

blown away

Temperatures in the 20's, wind in the 20's with gusts to the 40's and a wind chill in the teens.  We were at the dock at dawn but the captain said gale warnings were in effect for the day.  No fishing.

But our dinner at the beach condo the night before was a success.  Steaks, potatoes, mushrooms and appetizers including eastern shore oysters.  

We've had bad luck on weather the last couple of years.  The good news is that since we are using a boat out of nearby Rudee Inlet we'll be able to schedule a make-up trip.  Hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

steve

past performance does not guarantee future results.....

The Mid-Atlantic Rockfish Shootout is going on right now.  The last day is tomorrow.  We'll head out on our trip early Sunday morning.  Reports from the tournament are good.  Lots of fish.  And some some big fish. If I'm reading the reports right there have been stripers up to 44 inches long, some weighing over 80 pounds, brought back to the dock.  From my point of view the 130 boats fishing out there right now are just doing some scouting for us. 

We'll leave out of Rudee Inlet on the Gannet.  My guess is we'll head south toward the Virginia/North Carolina line.  All the fishing will be within three miles of the beach.  That is based on laws, but I'm not sure if that is state or federal rules in effect here.  Doesn't matter.  All I know is that it gives us that narrow stretch of water off the beach to look for fish.

Weather forecast is good.  Clear and cold (what else do you expect in January?).  But as for the fishing forecast, who knows?  

Fish on the line or not, we've always had a good time.  That is something we can count on.

steve

spotwalla

Spent some time this morning creating a spotwalla account.  In the past we've posted a link to our SPOT tracking page to give family, friends and readers an idea of where we are during a cruise.  But I've always wanted to post the map itself right on the blog.  Spotwalla seems to be the way to go.

It was simple enough to create the account and then link to my SPOT tracking page.   Now I need to figure out if I want to put the map in as a gadget in the column at right (see above) or as a blog post (below).  The gadget might be too small.  The post-sized blog would certainly be easier to read and navigate (a viewer can scroll, pan and zoom in or out with the map).

It was simple to add the embed code for either place.  I did need to adjust the horizontal and vertical measurements in the code itself, changing the defaults from 600 to 200 for the gadget and 400 (I think) for the post.  There are some other options I still need to figure out such as the navigation controls and number of days to post.

I'll give it a try on some test sails this Spring, hope to have it all figured out for the May trip.

steve

fishing gear

 I had to dig into the equipment closet this morning to get out some gear for this weekend's fishing expedition.  It felt kind of good to rummage around in there, almost felt like I was gearing up for a cruise.  But cruising is months away.  I just needed a few things for charter trip out of Rudee Inlet.

The closet was an unused closet in a extra bedroom.  I've got two big tubs in there, one for pieces of gear and the other, now empty, for the food supplies I'll start buying in a few weeks.  The food jars, camera case, rubber maid tubs, hats, stove and all that gear are in there too.

 Today all I needed was sleeping gear.  We've rented a two bedroom condo (or something like that, not clear on the details) in Virginia Beach that won't have enough beds for everybody so I'll sleep on the floor or the couch.
The charter boat itself is only thirty minutes from the house, but half the fun of the trip is the cookout/party the night before.  There'll be steaks and cigars, bourbon, beer and a bunch of middle-aged guys acting like teenagers.  Plus we've got an nfl playoff game to watch and that will be fun.

I also broke out the Wanchese slippers, the ubiquitous rubber boots worn by commercial fishermen.  I got my pair at the old J. P. Tawe's Brothers Hardware in Crisfield on the way to Tangier Island for some work.  It was Viv, the fantastic mate on the charter boat Sinbad, that told me what they were called down in North Carolina.  What else are you gonna wear in a fishing village like Wanchese?

I will leave behind my own fishing tackle.  That's my favorite lure, above, for trolling on Chesapeake Bay.  It's good for stripers and bluefish and I've had some nice luck with it the last couple of trips.  But we are looking for a larger class of fish on this trip and the lures will be three or four times larger than this.  Below is a 37 pound fish I caught on our last really successful trip.  I wouldn't mind one or two like that on this trip.

We have been blown out by weather the last couple of years, plus the fishing was slow down at Oregon Inlet.  But I'm reading fish reports that are showing good numbers of 30 and 40 pound fish are being caught off the Virginia Beach ocean front.  I hope those fish hang around a few more days.  The forecast is decent.  I can't wait.

steve

a peek under the bunk flat

Cool, gray and rainy outside.  But warm enough in the garage to get one more coat, after a sanding with 220 grit sandpaper, on the mast.  That makes six coats.  I'll do at least one, maybe two more with a sanding before each coat.

I finally got around to taking a look at the space beneath the bunk flat using a camera and a strobe.  Above is looking on the port side forward through frame number three (foreground) towards frame two.  The strobe is over on the starboard side with the light coming through the ventilation holes in the spine at the right.
Below is the starboard side, looking again from frame three to frame two.

This area, beneath the bunk flat, has very little access.  I've always worried about moisture build-up and mildew.  There are "water tight" deck plates on the thwart and bunk flat.  But even with the o-ring seals some water - not much - seems to find its way down below the deck.  Particularly on cruises, with being out on the water in the rain or spray for a few days at a time, a couple of tablespoons of water (or more) will be down there.  Under the thwarts it is easy enough to sponge out.  But I've always worried about up forward in the areas I can't reach.

From looking at the photographs things seem to be in pretty good shape.  Much of this is due to John's design.  He drew in holes in all the frames and spine for excellent air circulation.  Plus after all cruises, and sometimes after just a day sail, I put an eight in diameter fan face down in the deck plate opening and force air through this space for an hour or so.  That seems to be working pretty well.

steve

bon appétit

It will be served with wide egg noodles, a little butter and lemon sauce and frico.   Come on by!

steve

fish, fishing supplies and a fifteen cent book

A half cup each of salt, sugar and brown sugar mixed in two quarts of water.  Marinate a 2 1/2 to 3 pounds salmon filet, in this case organic farm-raised salmon from Ireland, for 4 to 6 hours.  It is not part of recipe, but I coat the salmon with fresh ground pepper and then add some thin slices of lemon and jalapeno peppers.  Put on the smoker for 2 and 1/2 hours.  It is good hot off the smoker, might even be better chilled the next day as leftovers. 

The salmon is in the smoker right now, should be ready about six tonight.

We finally got some warm weather so I'm daydreaming about sailing - but that is still two months off.  It was warm enough to get another coat of varnish on the mast, there are five coats on there now.  Two more to go.

And I've started to focus on the Spring trip a little bit more, looking at distances, anchorages and weather.  I haven't cruised on the Chesapeake Bay in the Springtime for about four years now, so I took a look at the wind rose for May, below.  Looks pretty good, winds out the the SSE to SW, average 12 miles an hours.  Should be just right for a northbound trip.

My friends Jim and Jim dropped by yesterday to pick up the Nissan 3.5 outboard.  The mechanically oriented Jim is going to rebuild the carburetor, change out the fluid in the lower unit, put a new water impeller in place and give the outboard a general cleaning and lubrication.  It is about eight years old and is due for some work.  This past summer I noticed it was running warmer than usual, and late in the summer it idled very rough.  Both the temperature and the idling indicate that the carburetor needs some work.  I can change out the spark plug, impeller and lower unit fluid, but that is about my limit.  After several years of use I'm glad to have an expert like Jim give it a complete tune-up.

Browsing Amazon.com for used books - about the only kind of book I can afford these days - I came across a used copy of With Hemingway, A year in Key West and Cuba by Arnold Samuelson.  At 15 cents it was my kind of price.  Of course there is the $3.99 for shipping but I can live with that, any good book for under $5.00 is ok by me.  I'll tuck it away for one of the cruises.  I've been a longtime fan of Hemingway and have particularly enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea, To Have and Have Not and Islands in the Stream.  I think this will be a good read.

And below are the fishing supplies for next weekend's trip.  You didn't expect hooks and sinkers did you?  The Archer Farms dried tropical fruit is a staple as snacks when I'm out on the boat.  I get it for about $7.00 at Target.  The fruit is great and the plastic jar makes for great storage on the boat.  I've got four of the empty jars now - they'll eventually replace the taller gallon jars that I've used for food storage in the past.

And the Maker's Mark, that's for the cookout the night before fishing.

steve