blue

Just another wonderful day on the water, this time the Elizabeth River.  Maybe 10 mph wind in the morning, warm and comfortable.  Afternoon the wind dropped down below 10, and at the end to say it was 5 mph would be generous.  But a warm and sunny afternoon, blue skies - I'll take it.  

The usual traffic, a couple of tugs with barges, snowbirds like the fine ketch SURPISE, above, and of course sleek black hull of the schooner VIRGINIA, below.  Winter sailing is just around the corner.

perfect

A wonderful day on the Pasquotank River.  

winter harbor

Some really fine words and photographs from Barry, just a wonderful story about crossing over, leaving every day life behind and just getting away.  An island with vague directions, a harbor and an old farm house.  Sailing in a soft breeze as the evening approaches.  A painter's supplies, fresh baked apple pie.

Perfect reading for a fall evening.  I've enjoyed the first piece and will look forward to more.  Thanks, Barry.  I'm very envious.

time to use those year-end comp days

The wind forecast is not great, but sunny and warm so

I told the boss I needed to take those last couple of comp 

days I had coming.  Maybe Betsy Town, maybe here in

town, maybe both.  We'll see.

Spartina deconstructed

A few times over the years people have mentioned that Spartina appears to be well organized.  I think it is, I could not imagine sailing - whether it is day sailing or a week-long cruise - any other way.  Below are three photographs from day nine of the fall sail where I have labelled the gear where it typically resides on the boat.  

A lot of the gear in the third photograph is stored under the thwart and bunk flat.  Some moisture always works its way in there past the "water tight" hatches.  I cleaned it out on Queenstown Creek to air out the storage areas.

1. Spare life jacket
2. Oar.  Standing in the cockpit facing forward with the tiller between my legs I can paddle at the speed of one knot.  
3. The lanyard is for the gps which I keep tucked under the coaming hidden from the sun.  Every gps I have had has at some point gotten a little moisture inside and sitting out in the sun the window fogs over.  Keeping them in the shade seems to make them last longer.
4. ACR personal locator beacon in a pouch on my pfd belt.  I just re-registered it with NOAA, something that is done every two years, with my information, emergency contact numbers and a description of the boat.
5. Inflatable pfd with harness, set to manual inflation (pull a cord to inflate).  I wear it most of the time when cruising, though if the breeze is light and water calm I'll take it off.
6. ACR C strobe attached to pfd.
7. You can barely see the am/fm radio mounted up against the transom.  I enjoy sports radio when out sailing.  There is a watch attached to it, it's easy to lose track of time on the water.
8. One-inch polypropylene tether clipped to my pfd/harness.
9. Pelican watertight box with solar panel, storage battery and battery chargers.  Everything inside is kept in a watertight freezer bag.  This last trip I finished with 60% + power in the storage battery.
10. Chart book.  That one is for Chesapeake Bay and is about nine years old.  It has a couple of years left in it.  The North Carolina chart books are made of lighter page material and do not last as long - maybe five or six years before they start to fall apart.
11. Throw line, never used but glad to have it on board.
12. Soft-sided insulated lunch box, with all the food and snacks for the day.  The insulation makes sure my food doesn't "bake" inside the box on hot sunny days.
13. A container of Wet Ones hand wipes.  There is alcohol in the wipes and on hot days it is nice to wipe down my face with the towelettes, the evaporating alcohol acting as a cooling agent.
14. Two fishing poles, one for trolling and one for casting.  This last trip was one of my more successful trips with several stripers caught and, for the most part, released.
15. SPOT locator beacon, their original model and probably nine years old.  Keeps on ticking.
16. Tether to pfd/harness.
17. Rubbermaid Roughneck storage box.  Two on board, the one to port has notebooks, books, flashlights, bug spray and a few other odds and ends.  The one to starboard that can't be seen has the cook kit with jet boil, MSR pots, utensils, olive oil and spices.  I drilled two small holes in the handles and use a bit of nylon line and bronze clips to fasten them in place on the bunk flat.  I also run bungee cords over the top to keep the lids in place, and if you look close you will see the bungee cords also hold water bottles in place.  The boxes are not watertight, yet have never had a drop of water get inside of them.  Books, etc are all stored in waterproof freezer bags.  
18. Dock line.  I carry about six different lines for docking, a couple tied in places where you can't see them and a couple that are generally tucked near the storage boxes.
19. Boom tent in a storage bag.  Love that boom tent.
20. Five pound mushroom anchor that is clipped to the top of the anchor chain as a sentinel.  Tied to the mast when not in use so it doesn't slide around.
21. Two-gallon gas can, tied to the mast so it doesn't slide around.
22. Main anchor and anchor line in a bucket, tied to the mast  when not in use so it doesn't slide around.
23. Thirty five liter dry bag with clothes and shave kit
24. Twenty liter dry bag containing freeze dried meals.  
25. ACR C strobe on pfd
26. Pfd/harness 
27. SPOT locator beacon
28. Freezer bags, each containing one day's meal except for freeze-dried dinner.  A bag typically contained breakfast bar, three individual cups of fruit, canned Italian tuna (Tom Head of the Pathfinder First Light introduced me to Italian tuna.  Try it, you'll like it. ), box of raisins, bag of dried fruit (mango strips, pineapple, kiwi fruit, strawberry), bag of homemade nut mixture, maybe some beef jerky and a couple of other treats tossed in.  The bag that contains one day's food becomes the trash bag for the next day.
29. Foul weather gear held in place by bungees behind the coaming
30. Spare book, double bagged
31. Boat US membership card, there are three or four on board in different storage area.   I've never used Boat US while sailing, but with the broken axle on the way home the free tow to the marina in Easton made the membership fee seem like a great deal.
32. Boom tent in storage bag
33. Twenty liter dry bag with hypothermia/survival kit
34. Gallon bottles of water.  There's room for eight gallons under the bunk flat.  I plan on one gallon of water per day, refilling the bottles whenever, wherever I get the chance.
35. Rubbermaid storage tub containing notebooks, books, flashlight, etc, with two water bottles on top.
36. Boat sponge.  I carry two and they stay up forward under the foredeck or, if it is raining, in the cockpit footwell where I use them to sponge out the water.
37. Safety tether.

Looking back over this list it seems like a lot of gear, but it is really not.  All tucked away I hardly notice it.  And I am glad to know where to find something when I need it.

a walk in the park

It wasn't until a friend commented about the photograph in the most recent post, the bicyclist riding by the Norwegian tall ship on a rainy morning, that I realized how many of my favorite photographs I have taken at or near Town Point Park in Norfolk.  I go their often.  It could be morning, noon or night.  It is near my office.  Sometimes I go to walk.  Sometimes I go to have a glass of iced tea (early in the morning the second floor balcony at Waterside is delightfully empty).  Sometimes I take a camera.  Here are a few photographs taken along about 1,000 feet of the waterfront.

on the waterfront

Rainy morning on the waterfront. 

That's the 100-year old Statsraad Lehmkuhl,

training ship for the Royal Norwegian Navy.

a recent history of me

I've added these photographs, and a few more, to the boat, stormy, and calm posts which can be found at the top of the column on the right of the blog layout.  I had not looked at those collections of photographs for a long time.  I found it interesting, when scrolling through them to add the photos from the fall sail, that I could remember the moments surrounding each of those images, some a decade old, often being able to recall what I was thinking about while taking the photograph.  Seeing the pictures together in the collections, remembering each of those moments, told me something about my life that I was not completely aware of.

day fourteen - St. Michaels

Up early, courtesy of the deadrise alarm clocks.  Two or three workboats heading out of the creek before even a hint of dawn.  I'm up breaking down the boom tent when one deadrise passes by so close I can say "Good morning."  Sail off anchor before 7:00.

A south wind pushes out of the creek and past the channel markers.  We round up for the sail to St. Michaels.  Making 2.1 knots as the sun shows above the horizon and casts a warm light.  

Wind slacks, then fills in again.  Making just 1.8 sailing close to the wind.  Deepwater Point at 8:45, 2 knots.  The morning goes from cool to warm to almost hot.  More wind off St. Michaels, 3.4 tacking across the river then coming about to head into St. Michaels.  Birds dive on schools of feeding fish.  I make a pass along the waterfront, passing the old Hooper Strait lighthouse, a skipjack and a deadrise.  Docked in time for a nice lunch in town.   I see some friends and say hello.  

The journey is done, 325 miles on the gps.

Fine sailing, people, weather, food.  Escape.

I smile.

day thirteen - formal wear

The wake from a deadrise passing nearby brings me out of a deep sleep.  Cool, calm night.  Heavy dew on the boom tent.  As I break down the tent I see the deadrise is working three trotlines that surround Spartina.  I leave the tent hanging from the boom as I put the long lens on the camera to photograph the waterman working in the light mist hanging over Shaw Bay.  

Sail off anchor just before 8:00, I'm getting lazy these days and sleeping in.  We drift for a while then motor at idle speed, catching a light wind on the Wye River.  Blue skies and a few white clouds.  It is a fine day for a day sail.  I could easily be in St. Michaels for lunch but instead I want one more day on the water.  Wind comes and goes, monarch butterflies flutter along with the sails.  More wind and steady sailing at 3.6 knots approaching Parsons Island, I reel in a small striper.  

We sail on towards Crab Alley with a nice south wind.  I see a yellow shape just underneath he surface of the water.  I expect it to be a ray until the largest sea turtle raises its head then dives quickly.  I did not know they had sea turtles this far up the Bay.  We come about off the marina at Crab Alley, passing back behind Parsons Island where we drift in the wind shadow of the trees.  It is becoming hot.  

Wind picks up in the afternoon, probably the finest wind of the entire trip.  We tack up the Miles River at 4.1 knots.   An eagle makes two low passes over the river.  On the third pass it reaches down with huge yellow talons and grabs a fish, a fish big enough the the eagle struggles as it flies towards shore.  

I hook a striper on the trolling line, maybe the largest of the trip, putting up a fight and making me think is is 30 inches or more in length.  I work the fish in towards the stern of Spartina.  The fish heads to the starboard side where I have to pass the rod around the mizzen.  Doing so I leave some slack in the line and the fish slips away.  Good fight, but I would not have kept a fish that large, it would have been a waste.  

Nearing Deep Water Point I know that St. Michaels would be in sight just around the corner.  I turn downwind towards Tilghman Point, following the channel into pretty Tilghman Creek. 

Anchor down I straighten up Spartina and get ready to fix dinner.  I hear the rumbling of a diesel engine, look up to see a sailboat with men wearing various versions of tuxedoes.  I tell them they did not need to dress up on my account.  "We always dress up for a fine lady," one man responds as he gestures towards Spartina.  They also confess the tuxes are for the last evening race of the season in St. Michaels.  I wish them a good race and say goodbye.

Dinner, then a peaceful evening on the creek with countless flights of geese passing overhead.

day twelve - south

Calm and clear overnight.  Up before the dawn, a light NW wind.  Sail off anchor at 6:46, tack towards the marsh, come about and follow yesterday's track back down Hail Creek.  Two terns make a splash as they dive in the creek, then fly away quickly as more terns arrive to try and steal their catch.  A gentle sail at less than 2 knots towards the Chester River.

More of a breeze out on the river, 2.8 knots on a tack towards Kent Narrows.  It's just a few miles and we enter the channel under power for the 9:00 lift.  The tide is ebbing and the narrows are choppy. I hold alongside of the channel at the visitor center pier then cast off, idling out in the current until I hear the bells announcing the bridge lift.  A friendly wave from the bridge tender, Spartina is the only boat to go through.

It's mid-morning and I decide lunch at the narrows would be good.  It's too early though so I sail in the light breeze and watch a couple guys in a small boat setting out and retrieving crab pots.  A little to the south a waterman is setting out his trot lines.  We tack up into the coves and just relax on the pretty morning.  I tie up at The Jetty before the restaurant opens, the waiters saying Spartina will be fine there as I head out for a nice long walk.  Then back as the restaurant opens for a nice salad in the shade while I charge my phone.

We cast off from the dock early afternoon, no wind so we motor and troll south on Prospect Bay.  The wind comes and goes near Parsons Island, sailing now in the light wind and casting to schools of stripers breaking the surface.  A small striper brought into the boat and quickly released.  St. Michaels is not too far away and I could easily be there by evening.  But I want to have some more time on the water.  

By 4:00 headed to the Wye River, rounding Bennet Point with schools of striper feeding at the river's mouth.  Cast and bring in another fish, again released.  At the end of Bruffs Island we sail southeast into Shaw Bay, we have the anchorage to ourselves.   Anchor down at 5:30.