a quiet sense of satisfaction

  from Webb's journal...    

       Not able to reach San Diego before dark, I hove to last evening at about 7 PM eight miles SSW of Point Loma which marks the entrance to San Diego Bay.

        I went to sleep early, woke at 10 PM to find we had hardly moved.  Woke at midnight to find us being blown west at two knots.

        I got up, got into my foul weather gear, and started sailing back east.

        I set an alarm for 3 AM and dozed some at Central, but woke before the alarm went off.  I trimmed and retrimmed the sails to put us just off Point Loma at first light at 4:30 and we were.

       There was a quiet sense of satisfaction as we rounded Point Loma and entered the bay.

        In smoother water I fit the Torqeedo, which started as it should, dock lines, and fenders.

        I thought it odd that several sailboats passed us heading out, motorsailing with main up, until I reached the Customs dock and found it almost full of boats returning from the Ensenada Race.

        I also found on the dock a small unexpected welcoming party of friends who had seen our Yellowbrick position.  

        It was a hard passage.  Hard without any severe weather.  Hard with windless wastes beyond my experience or imaginagtion.  Hard with the last 1500 miles hard on the wind.

        I will write more in time.

        I have numerous emails to respond to.  I thank you all now generally for your congratulations and will individually when I can.

        This is a significant day in my life:  the end of the second part and the beginning of the third.

        November 11, 1941.   November 2, 1974.  April 29, 2019.

circumnavigated

Congratulations!  Welcome home.

getting close

Six hours between each mark, not far away.

music

finally!

deflating

Music festival, Something in the Water, was a bust yesterday with high winds arriving midday and a series of thunderstorms that lasted from early afternoon through the evening.  Sunny and clear today.  Should be a great day on the beach.

#sitw

Something in the Water, big time musical festival down at the Virginia Beach oceanfront this weekend.  Weirdness began before dawn this morning.  Should be fun.

sole spectator

SPARTINA served admirably as the spectator fleet

for last night's races on the river.

One more day on the river and it is back to work.

sunday service

The crew on the TEMPUS FUGIT waved.

The choir at the waterfront service

sang the gospel blues.

The guys on the ketch from Chile, up here by way of

the Caribbean and on there way to New York and

the Europe, gave a thumbs up.

The Russian girls working the counter at the

downtown diner smiled.

It was a great day on the water.  Back for more

tomorrow.  Happy Easter.

Chestertown Life

MaryLou was nice enough to send this photo from the Chestertown Life facebook page.  I believe that is SPARTINA on the right.  At first I thought it was from a down rigging festival but now I'm am not so sure.  Maybe this past fall?  Anyway it is a nice photo and my thanks to MaryLou and photographer Jamie Kirkpatrick.

It's a good reminder that the next time I sail in to Chestertown I want to spend a day or two there.

update on Webb

Webb passed near the southern tip of Baja California in the last day or so.  Light winds out of the north right now.  Winds will strengthen but stay out of the north so we should be tacking his way up the coast.

still morning

at the ramp

Peaceful morning, non-existent breeze.

Only boat at the quiet ramp.

SPARTINA, with new spring coat, slides into the water.

Breeze arrives about noon, wonderful sailing.

#30footpaintjob

Stand a few feet away and paint looks ok.

Add an instagram filter and it looks better.

White deck paint next week.

maintenance, big and small

SPARTINA is ready for her new spring coat.  Hopefully that will go on on Wednesday when the high temperature should be about 70 degrees.  The bottom paint might wait until after the spring cruise.

----------------------------------------------------------------

About a dozen miles away maintenance takes on a much larger scale with the VIRGINIA.  Above is one of her two masts.  It was cut in two and rebuilt with multiple laminations, a job I don't even want to imagine.

And while on the water the VIRGINIA'S transom was removed and is being completely rebuilt.  I'm not sure if it was a design issue or building technique, but I have heard for years that the transom was slowly separating from the hull.  Very glad to see the problem resolved.  

Still lots of work to do on the schooner's masts, rigging and transom, but he captain says no problem having her ready for the first sail of the year in a few weeks.