summer doldrums

Where is the wind?  The reputation for this area is that there is no wind in July and August.  But I have typically found good wind through much of the summer - until this year.  I've been watching the forecast for this coming Sunday for four days now.  Tuesday the forecast called for steady wind nine miles per hour.  By Wednesday it was down to six.  Then up slightly to seven yesterday.  And this morning it is down to two.  

Last Sunday the winds started out light, and fell off from there.  That's fine.  I drifted around, cleaned up the boat, talked to some cruisers from Australia, read the paper and took a nap.  I'll have wind next weekend, I told myself.  But maybe not.

My wife mentioned to me that she really misses our Outer Banks vacations.  I do too.  For fifteen years, sometime between mid-July and mid-August, we took a family week-long vacation to the barrier islands.  Just one of those vacations was on Hatteras, the other fourteen were spent on Ocracoke.  

We live just off of the Chesapeake Expressway, the road that leads to the Outer Banks.  Every weekend as we do our errands we share the road with suv's, station wagons and motor homes loaded down with kayaks, fishing poles, lawn chairs and coolers.  In the southbound lanes there are bright cheery faces filled with anticipation for the coming weekend.  Northbound lanes have cars that have been packed quickly, pillows and beach toys stuffed in the back seats, tired looking people steeling themselves for the hours of driving back to Maryland, Ohio, New York and Canada.  

That weekend traffic reminds me of our trips.  We stayed in a house on a canal, the same one for fourteen years.  Our kids grew up referring to the house, called Carolina Winds, as our Ocracoke house.  But it was of course just a rental of course.

We planned for the Ocracoke trips just like I plan for sailing trips.  We would start discussing possible menus months in advance.  We had our favorite meals - greek/thai shrimp on angel hair, prosciutto and pasta dish with thin slices of hot pepper and crunchy slices of garlic, crawfish crabcakes and a "steamer night" with locally caught clams and shrimp - buying much of the food, save for the local seafood, and bringing it with us.  Wines were carefully selected, as were chocolate toppings for ice cream sundays to be eaten on the top deck of the house at sunset.

We would bring along a stack of books too, each of us going through three or four books during the week.  When I look back at my list I favorite books I notice that many of them were read on Ocracoke.  I wonder if the books were really that good, or maybe it was reading them on the island, during an afternoon break between visiting the beach and sailing, that made them seem so good.

We had taken my last boat, also called Spartina, to Ocracoke several times.  But the new Spartina made it down to Ocracoke to sail just one time,  it was the first year that I sailed the Pathfinder and the last year that we made our annual trip.  The girls had grown up, started working summer jobs and found themselves with busy social schedules.  We no longer had time to make the annual trip.

But now the girls are saying that they too miss Ocracoke.  I think we'll try to work our a Thanksgiving trip down there this year, a nice break from college for the kids.  It will probably be too cold to sail so I won't take Spartina.  But the island should be quiet and peaceful, perfect for long walks on the beach.

Spartina did pass through Ocracoke one other time since our last vacation there, that was on the way home from the Skeeter Beater.  Bruce and I trailered the boat from Harkers Island to Cedar Island, taking ferry to Ocracoke and then catching the Hatteras Island ferry north from there.  We were on the island just long enough to have dinner with friends.  Spartina arrived and departed Ocracoke on the metal decks of big boats.  

Driving to Ocracoke for a family vacation, that's something I'll put on my list.  And sailing there from somewhere on the mainland - Hobucken, maybe - that is on my list too.  

steve

the coast of summer

I'm rereading The Coast of Summer, Sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod.

It is the most gentle of cruising books.  Anthony Bailey and his wife Margot, who live in England, come to the US each summer to sail Long Island Sound and Cape Cod on their Tartan 27 "Lochinvar".  Care free days, relaxed sails, faltering winds, good friends, quaint towns along the way - it is my kind of sailing.  The book is the story of one summer's sail.  Mixed in with Bailey's description of the trip are the history and geography of the area, stories of past cruises and anecdotes of an interesting life.  The writing is beautiful, just what you would expect from a long time staff writer for The New Yorker.

If I was a writer, that is the kind of writer I would like to be.  If I wrote a book, this is the kind of book I would like to write.

steve

---------

Just heard on the stereo......

"I want justice, but I'll settle for some mercy."  

                                                                                                                              - Kris Kristofferson

Sultana

Our Back to the Island sail ended on a perfect note.  On day nine we sailed past our final destination, Rolph's Wharf and headed to Chestertown just around the corner of Primrose Point.  As we tacked off the point I noticed to two masts above the tree line.  It was the schooner Sultana.

We knew our arrival coincided with Chestertown's Tea Party waterfront celebration and the Sultana, based in Chestertown, would be part of the weekend affair.  I hoped we could at least sail by her docked on the waterfront.  But here she was heading our way.  At first she was under power, then the sails were raised. It was a beautiful sight.

We sailed alongside her for a while, Bruce up in the bow shooting all of these photographs.  We exchanged waves with her crew and passengers, tacked away then tacked back towards her.  It was a treat to share the wind with Sultana.

Finally we decided to head for Rolph's Wharf to get some lunch.  As we tacked away from Sultana we heard a shout of "Ahoy!"  It was the captain calling us.  We turned back.  "Are you a wooden boat?" was shouted across the water.  "Where are you from?"  Yes, the boat was made of wood.  We said that we had left days earlier out of Onancock.  The details of our trip were lost over the distance on the water, but they could understand that we were on a small boat journey.  Smiles, waves and well wishes, Spartina headed for the dock while Sultana sailed down the Chester River.

Later that evening we were having dinner with our friends Fred and MaryLou at The Fish Whistle on the Chestertown waterfront.  As we finished our meals we looked out the window to see Sultana coming in from her last sail of the day.  We walked down to the pier and watched her tie up.  After the passengers were off Sultana I asked one of the crew if I could say a quick hello to the captain.  He walked over to greet us.  I introduced myself, said we were on the small green yawl they had seen earlier in the day.  The captain's face lit up.  He took the rope off the gangway, said "Come aboard!  We are tired and the crew needs to get home for some rest.  But anyone with a wooden boat like yours gets a full tour."  So MaryLou, Fred, Bruce and I spent a good while with the captain - he said his name was Drew and described himself as a relief captain - looking over every inch of the ship.  Drew went into great detail about the original Sultana and her history, then took time show how this replica ship was true to the original design with only a few modifications.  I love ships, I love tall ships and this was a great chance to get a good look at one.  I won't go into detail about the ship, but you can read about it here and here.

It was the perfect way to end the day, the perfect way to end our trip.  We thanked Drew for the tour and his time, I'm sure he was worn out from the sun and wind on three sails that day.  As we were leaving Drew and I exchanged contact information.  He handed me his card.  I looked at it to see that this "relief captain" was in fact the president of the Sultana Projects.  He had been deeply involved, I read later, in the concept, design and building of this beautiful boat.  I should have known that just from the pride showed as he talked about Sultana.

Drew asked if I had ever heard of Sultana before seeing her on the river that day.  Yes, I had seen her on some of the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Races.  Drew laughed and shook his head - Sultana will never be considered the fast schooner in the race.

I also mentioned that I thought the father of a friend of mine had been involved in building Sultana.  My friend, I said, was from New Jersey.  "Was his name Wagner?" Drew asked.  Yes.  And once again another connection.  Drew pointed at the rigging and said "Jim Wagner did just about all of this."  And then he pointed to a boat nearby and said that boat is named after him.  Jim, who passed away a few years ago, is well remembered in Chestertown.  Just how much do you need to do to have a boat named after you?   (BayDog, also known as Dave, tells me the name of the boat on the website above is a typo.  His father's name was James W. Wagner, and that is also the correct name of the boat.  Dave ought to know.)

Sailing with Sultana, then getting the tour from Drew was the perfect way to end our trip.  I'll remember that day for a long long time.  And I'll look forward to sailing with Sultana again some day.

The weather looks good tomorrow, clear skies and mild winds.  I should be out on the water before nine.

steve

collecting

I like to collect those euro-style bumper stickers that seem to decorate just about every car on the road.  I don't put them on my car.  (The only stickers that go on the jeep are from my daughters' colleges, I like people to know where both my daughters and my money go.)  But I do put the euro-stickers on the pvc guide posts on the boat trailer.  Between sailing trips in North Carolina and on Chesapeake Bay it is getting to the point that I'll have to start overlapping new stickers with the old, but that's fine.  I like looking at them now and then, each one brings back a memory.

Above is the first sticker we found on this last trip.  It was in the post card rack at Sting Ray's, the gas station/gourmet restaurant (I'm serious about that) at the southern end of the Eastern Shore.  We always stop there for a breakfast sandwich on the way to the ramp.  The first day of the trip was in Virginia waters, so I'm glad to have found this one.

It took a little work to find the Onancock sticker.  We saw the stickers on several cars but could not find the source.  Bruce took off in one direction on the main street, I took off in the other, stopping at stores and asking for them.  Nobody seem to know where they came from.  We even stopped at the town office where a nice lady said she did not know where they were sold, but she wished she had one too.
Finally at a pharmacy I was told they were sold at the gardenArt shop on King Street.  We went there and sure enough the owner said she has designed and printed the stickers, selling literally thousands of them.  Good for her.
I put one sticker on the counter and Bruce tossed one there too.  The second was a gift Bruce soon gave to the nice lady at the town office.

We also added the third "TI" sticker to the post.  There are TI stickers from Tangier Island, Tilghman Island and now Taylor's Island.  I wonder how many more islands on the Bay have names that begin with a "T".

I wanted to get a sticker from Chestertown but could not find one.  The closest I could get was the Schooner Sultana sticker above.  This is the best kind of sticker for two reasons.  One, it was free - they give them out at the schooner's office.  And two, we had an interesting exchange with the crew of the schooner that was a special part of the trip.  That is something I hope to post about this weekend.

steve

summer storm

a circumnavigation

Here is a very rough chart of the Delmarva circumnavigation that Bruce and I are talking about.  The idea circumnavigating the peninsula is not a new one, I read about a man named Washington Tuttle making the trip single-handed in a small catboat.  I wrote about "Tut" here.

Bruce and I have tossed around the idea a few times over the years.  He brought it up again in our phone conversation yesterday.  So here is what we are talking about.  We have already sailed the portion marked in red, a combination of the Back to the Islands (spring 2011) and Crabhouse 150 (fall 2009) trips.  The next leg (yellow) would be up over the top of the peninsula, though we would probably start the trip somewhere lower on the bay than Rock Hall.  Maybe Cambridge or as far south as Rumbly - whatever would give us a nice relaxed seven or eight day trip to Lewes, Delaware (with a side trip to Cape May, New Jersey thrown in).

The last leg would be (in white) from Lewes down the eastern side of the Delmarva, around the southern tip and up the bay to Onancock.  The seaside version is very roughly drawn here.  Some of it would be inside the barrier islands, some would be outside on the ocean.  

The next leg won't be until the fall of 2012, I'll look forward to doing the planning for that.  And the final leg would be the year after that.  In the meantime I've got to put some more thought into this fall's trip.

steve

solo

It looks like I might be sailing solo on the fall trip.  Bruce and I compared schedules yesterday and they were not compatible.  Work has me locked in to a narrow time frame for a cruise, Bruce has some family commitments.  Things may change, in fact I don't need a firm commitment until early September.  But as it looks right now I will be doing a single-handed cruise.

Most likely I'll be returning to the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay, sailing north from the bottom of Tangier Sound to Oxford and/or Tilghman Island on the Choptank River.  It will be similar to the cruise I did last September.  Here are a few of my reasons for returning to the same sailing area...

• I like fall sailing on Chesapeake Bay.  I have wanting for awhile to evolve into a pattern of spring sails in coast North Carolina, fall sails on the Bay.
• Weather is typically very nice, the heat of the summer giving way to the first cool fronts of the fall.
• Fishing is excellent as bluefish and stripers begin to school.
• There is a lot of good sports on the radio from the DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia markets.  NFL should be (hopefully) in full swing by then, major league baseball should be having their playoffs. When sailing solo the radio can be great company.
• Tangier Sound, the Honga River, the Little Choptank River and the Choptank River offer countless places to visit.  In three trips through the area I have just scratched the surface.

So I'll get out the chart book, begin tracing the path.  Great Fox Island?  I haven't been there since my first sail in Spartina in '07.  Crisfield?  It has been a while.  Rippons Harbor at the south end of the Hooper Islands?  I've only seen it from across the Honga River, never took the time to visit.  Maybe I will this fall.  The Little Choptank River?  I've just explored the mouth of the river, I need to sail back into Fishing Creek and Madison Bay to have a look around.

While Bruce was saying he could not make it this fall, he did suggest we think about completing our circumnavigation of the Delmarva Peninsula over the next couple of seasons.  Right now we have covered Onancock north to Rock Hall.  Next fall maybe we'll sail from Rock Hall north on the Bay to the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal, then south on Delaware Bay to Lewes.  The following year, sail down the ocean side of the peninsula from Lewes to Cape Charles, then up the Bay to Onancock.  That sounds like a plan worth considering.

steve

cool comfort

I said yesterday there were three conditions that would stop me from daysailing - high winds, high temperatures and severe thunderstorms.  This morning, as I trailered Spartina to the ramp, I wondered if there should have been a fourth condition - rain.  The drizzle began not a half mile from the house.  It lightened up, then started again.  At the ramp it stopped, then started sprinkling.  That far into it all I decided to continue rigging.  I'm glad I did.

The dredge that has been working the river for the last month was right downtown.  Two weeks ago it was at the mouth of the Western Branch, last week it was at Hospital Point.  By next week it will be out of my sailing area completely.  I know the dredge needs to keep the channel clear, but it is noisy and the booms behind it reach across the width of the river.  I will be glad when they are gone.

I've got to say I was tired this morning.  A busy week, both at work and at home.  I needed some rest.  So after sailing down Town Point Reach on the Elizabeth River, rounding Lambert's Point to Craney Island Reach, I sailed over to the shallows and dropped the anchor.  Then I got out my CGEAR sand free multimat.

This is a 6x6 mat that I read about last winter on Kiwibird's blog.  It is a mat designed for the beach, it keeps you sand free.  That was interesting, but what caught my attention was the video that showed it could also be used as a shade.  Just what I needed for hot, sometimes windless days of summer sailing.  With a birthday gift card from my Mom (thanks, Mom!) I bought one.

You can see Kristen using hers as a sand mat here.  But I had not gotten around to trying it as a shade until today.

It worked perfectly.  Less than ten minutes to set up, I was able to use already existing hardware - jib sheet cam cleats, reefing hook, reefing cleat and inverted hooks for the boom tent (that all sounds much more complicated than it really is)  - to put the mat in place as sort of a boom tent/shade.  That is the sun, below, peaking through the double layer mesh of the tent.

To give it a true test I took a nice long, well-needed nap.  It was perfect.  Plenty of shade, yet plenty of air circulating through the cockpit.  The mat was enough to block the sun yet open enough to breathe.
I did not realize how well it was working until I slipped out from under the mat into the aft cockpit. The clouds had cleared, the sun was beating down and the decks were burning hot.  Napping away under the mat I had no idea how hot it was. (Just now I'm checking the CGear website and see that the mat provides 90% uv protection.)

The mat will be part of my standard day sailing gear for the summer.  It fits up under the foredeck, snugged away by bungee cords (where the boom tent resides for cruises).  It will be perfect on those days when there is no wind - I can anchor out it Crawford Bay, have a nice lunch and read the NY Times in comfort.  This will be cool in more ways than one.

Thanks Mom for the gift, thanks Kristen for the idea.

I saw one interesting boat today, Sandwhistle out of New Zealand (great name, don't you think?).  I could not get close enough to get a photograph.  When I used binoculars to read the name of the boat I saw that they were looking back at me with binoculars.  I wonder if they realized the New Zealand connection of a John Welsford Pathfinder.  They would not be the first Kiwis to recognize the design.

Happy Fourth of July.

steve

midsummer

I once read a short story about a small southern town, the kind of town with a courthouse square and streets lined with crepe myrtle.  In the sweltering heat of the summer the town's residents rolled up their windows and locked their cars.  They were not worried about theft, crime was not a problem in the small town.  But they did want to prevent a kindly neighbor from filling their backseat with all the extra squash and zucchini that came out the garden.  

It is midsummer and we're getting a steady supply of veggies from the neighbors.  The cucumbers, squash, zucchinis and tomatoes arrived from across the street just moments ago.  It is that time of year.
We will enjoy them and look forward to the next batch.

I'm growing some vegetables and fruit.  My tomatoes are behind schedule, the pomegranates (above) and figs (below) are doing fine.  I should have a dozen or more pomegranates by September (Baydog, you've got to give me some ideas on how to use them).  The figs will ripen late August.  In the past I used netting to keep the birds from the figs.  The trees are now so large and productive that there are plenty of figs for both the birds and myself.

 With midsummer comes wind out of the southwest.  Below is the locator map from sailflow.com that I use to get my hourly forecast.  I rely on the Lafayette River weather station for my daysails on the Elizabeth River.  That is the white arrow with the "3" at the bottom of the chart.

Below is what I got this morning when I click on the forecast linked to that arrow.  This is typical for summer, steady wind out of the southwest, temperatures in the high 80's and low 90's.  The heat is not a problem as long as there is wind.

A friend asked me last week if I watch the weather forecast and go sailing when the weather looks good.  I said no, I watch the weather forecast and go sailing anyway.  I like to get out for a daysail each weekend, pretty much regardless of weather.  There are three exceptions to this.  If the wind is over 20 mph I don't go - I can sail just fine in that sort of wind, but launching and retrieving the boat at my ramp is difficult to the point that it is no fun.  If there are severe thunderstorms forecast I do not go.  But I will go sailing if it is the typical "chance of thunderstorms", a very common forecast in the south.  And if the heat index is over 100 degrees and the forecast calls for light wind I do not go - it is at best uncomfortable and, at worst, dangerous.  I have gone out in light winds and 90 degrees, with plenty of water, long sleeve lightweight shirt and a broad-brimmed hat.  At 100 degrees I stay home.

Tomorrow looks to be a nice day on the water.

I'll try out a new snack, to go along with my sandwiches, tomorrow.  They are organic Mashups, 3.17 oz (how did they come up with number??) of fruit puree.  Think baby food made out of fruit.  Bruce brought along similarly packaged apple sauce on our last trip, we both enjoyed it as a great afternoon snack.  I wish we had brought more  Maybe these will be as good.  I'll freeze them tonight, by tomorrow afternoon I'm hoping for a slushy fruit snack.

steve

the Russians are coming

I was out at the Naval Station in Norfolk when the Russians came in this morning.  It was the Admiral Tchabanenko, an anti-submarine warfare ship.  The ship had a very dark grey hull and what struck me as a 1960's design.  Officers wore broad brimmed hats, enlisted men wore bright blue uniforms with small caps.  She was in town to take part in a exercise with ships from the US and a few other nations.

I like boats, I like ships.  I like being around the water front.

At first I thought that was the new Russian flag (I'm not much of a historian, but even I knew that the hammer and sickle design went away when the Soviet Union broke up).  But no, it is the Russian Navy Jack.

I did not get much of a chance to interact with the sailors.  But they seemed very friendly, very excited to be in a US port.  Very few of the sailors spoke English, but I heard talk of the beaches and amusement parks.  And hot weather.

It is hard for me to think that I was raised in the 60's and 70's with the notion that these people were our enemies.  Maybe they are our enemies, I'm always a bit naive about that sort of thing.  But on a personal level, these seemed like good people.  And I was glad to have met them.

steve