Still trying to get back in to the swing of things after the holidays and visit to San Diego. Sailing on Mission Bay in San Diego in 70 degree weather was a nice way to end the holiday trip, but it has been quite an adjustment coming back east through a blizzard in Chicago to the cold temperatures on the east coast.
The only bounty we picked up at the REI store in San Diego was a camping cutting board, nice lightweight and small enough to fit in to the cook kit. Perfect for cutting up onions, peppers, garlic or whatever. We used to use the top of the cook kit (a rubbermaid storage tub) as a cutting board, but that was too large. This will be simpler. I guess the good news is that we found we are pretty well equipped, we've got just about everything we need for safe, comfortable cruising.
I also picked up a small waterproof flashlight at another store, one to tuck away on the boat. It uses aa batteries, I think just about all the cruising gear from SPOTS to gps to strobes use aa batteries. Nice to have the gear standardized.
On a visit to a kayak store in San Diego Bruce and I did stop to look at a kayak bilge pump. I've got a West Marine pump on board now but I've never been completely happy with it. We don't use it all that much, a sponge works best for the typical spray or rainwater that gets in the boat. But the kayak pumps we looked at seemed to be better built, smaller and they come with a floatation ring built on to them. Reasonably priced at $15 to $25, it might be worth getting one this spring.
I looked at
TownDock, Oriental's on-line news site (almost said online news
paper but that doesn't make sense) and found a photo of
Graham Byrnes and a couple of other circumnavigators. The caption said they were celebrating Graham's 25 years of teaching boat building at Pamlico Community College. I could not find a story to accompany the photograph but maybe one will show up soon. I have never met Graham but I enjoy his boat designs and hope to meet him someday. When we first sailed in to Oriental a couple of years ago it was some of his former students who helped us out with rides and information. They were huge fans of Graham.
And lastly I had been thinking, at the suggesting of
Barry (thanks Barry!), of creating an on-line photo album at
Picasa. As I explored the site I found I already had (but did not know it) three albums on the site . I guess all the photos from the blog are automatically uploaded there. Cool. Now the next step it to figure out how to load all of the full rez photos from the cruises to the site.
Grocery shopping this morning I paused to look at some food for the next cruise, but it is too early for that. I'll wait until March and then start buying our food supplies bit by bit.
steve
Well I don't know about the "libre" part but I am in Cuba trying to catch a ride home. The only flight coming to Guantanamo Bay is out of Norfolk where there is 12 inches of snow on the ground so I'm not sure it will take off. If it does get here it is scheduled to carry us to Pennsylvania where the weather is not much better. 
I'm looking at using the marina for a weekend trip maybe in May. This is a great location for two or three day trips with Rose Bay, Judith Island, Swan Quarter Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, Great Island and Juniper Bay nearby. 
Just heard I might be on a boat bound for Cape Lookout by this time tomorrow. Not for fun. It would be the USS Bataan, stopping by Camp LeJeune pick up a couple thousand marines bound for Haiti. Details are fluid right now, but if I don't post for a while that is the reason.
I was over in Newport News today and stopped by the Bass Pro Shops to check camping and fishing gear. I picked up a couple of heater meals, self heating meals that run about $6 each. We always carry two of the meals on board for cruises - this time I got "mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes and beef" and "green pepper steak with rice." The meals come in very handy on days like day two when we got to Punch Island Creek (I love that name) with a forecast of one inch of rain. The rain wasn't there yet but could arrive anytime so we set up part of the boom tent (above) just to be ready.
The rain came in later that evening and I have no doubt we got the full inch of predicted rain. That was fine. We were dry and comfortable under the tent and in the waterproof bivy's. Below is a photo from the start of day two, a crisp clear morning, you can see Spartina tied up at the dock behind Ruke's at Smith Island. Quite the contrast to the grey evening with dark clouds moving in twelve hours later. But I enjoyed both morning and evening. The constantly changing weather is one of the joys of cruising.
Speaking of weather we did have a minor heat wave of 40 degrees yesterday. I got out and sanded all the epoxy work I did on the rub rains and coaming. Now I just need to wait for the next heat wave to do some varnish work.
I looked at TownDock, Oriental's on-line news site (almost said online newspaper but that doesn't make sense) and found a photo of Graham Byrnes and a couple of other circumnavigators. The caption said they were celebrating Graham's 25 years of teaching boat building at Pamlico Community College. I could not find a story to accompany the photograph but maybe one will show up soon. I have never met Graham but I enjoy his boat designs and hope to meet him someday. When we first sailed in to Oriental a couple of years ago it was some of his former students who helped us out with rides and information. They were huge fans of Graham.
And lastly I had been thinking, at the suggesting of Barry (thanks Barry!), of creating an on-line photo album at Picasa. As I explored the site I found I already had (but did not know it) three albums on the site . I guess all the photos from the blog are automatically uploaded there. Cool. Now the next step it to figure out how to load all of the full rez photos from the cruises to the site. 
