like a heat wave

With a day off and temperature soaring to the high 40's I got a little boat work done today. Did some epoxy work on the tiller and put some paint on the cheek block spacer (the cheek block is to hold the center board pendant). Also expoxied the drain hole I drilled under the mizzen mast step. While it was a relatively warm day I used the heat from a light bulb to speed up the curing process on the epoxy. The faster the epoxy cures, I've found, the easier it is to work with.

Had some time and birthday money from the girls yesterday and went to the Bass Pro Shop across the river in Hampton. Got a nice inshore salt water fishing rod - an ugly stik - and a sunblock shirt for sailing. I'm about all set on clothes now - two pairs of pants nylon pants with zip off legs, a pair of shorts and four or five nylon sunblock shirts. That should be plenty. If anything, Bruce and I have talked about carrying less on the next cruise. A couple pair of pants and a few shirts should do it.

The fishing rod is really light weight, probably the nicest one I've ever bought. Should be perfect for trout and puppy drum. The rod is guaranteed not to break. But no guarantees on catching fish.

I was looking over the blog from the CrabHouse trip and found this photo of Bruce on the Wye River. Bruce wrote....

The wind had dropped off considerably so we had a very relaxing sail. For the first time on the cruise we had time to talk and share our thoughts from the past week. The sun was warm and it was a great afternoon.

He was exactly right. We had our hands full with small craft warnings, strong winds and waves for the first several days of the trip. It was nice that day just to relax and catch up. The SkeeterBeater trip had more calm days (with a few pretty good squalls mixed in) and we spent a lot more time kicking back and visiting about friends, family, work and just about everything else. We've had long discussions about camping, sailing, religion and even (watch out!) politics.

Each of the three trips we have done have had their own character, each with a different rhythm and feel for wind, weather and sailing. I wonder what the next trip will be like.

steve