underway

There's my ride coming in to take me out to the research boat in Solomons, Maryland.

Got on board just in time for a quick lunch and then saw some of the research working going on. They've been working at this station for three days and this afternoon will raise anchor to head south on the Bay.

steve

farewell to a legend

Well, not really. My trusty Garmin etrex Legend (below left) is just going into semi-retirement. I'll clean it up, take out the batteries, seal it all up in a double plastic bag and tuck it away with my safety gear. It will serve as a backup to my new Garmin etrex Venture HC.

I had mentioned a few posts ago that I was planning on upgrading my gps this winter, the Legend is probably five or six years old. With a nudge from my Mom (thanks Mom!) I decided to go ahead and get the new device for the fall trip.

I've been busy and haven't had time to look at the Venture HC, but I know I'll enjoy the improved color graphics, increased memory and better connectivity (usb) with computers. (But why can't they make their software Mac compatible???) I can't wait to starting importing waypoints for the fall trip. A big plus is that I'll enjoy knowing I've got a solid backup on board.

A couple of weeks ago my SPOT registration renewed automatically. I have the basic service plus unlimited tracking service. This evening I went online and added the SPOT Link for maritime service. I've been a BoatUS member for years, both my boat insurance and towing protection (for both Spartina and the boat trailer) are through Boat US. What SPOT Link does is create a link so that if I push the "HELP" button the message goes directly to BoatUS. (Just to clarify, the "HELP" button is a request for assistance - i.e. need fuel, mechanical difficulties, etc. It is not an emergency request for rescue - that would be the 911 button.)

In the past my "HELP" button sent a message to some family and friends asking them to contact my brother and make sure he was contacting BoatUS. Now that message goes directly to BoatUS saving time, effort and concern for everyone involved.

I was over on the other side of the James River this afternoon and photographed the fishing boats above on the Phoebus waterfront as a cool front brought some thunderstorms through the area. The boats reminded me of one of my books for the cruise, David Payne's Gravesend Light. I read the books years ago and can hardly remember the story line but I do recall that a fishing boat like those above play a crucial part in the story.

And I also received another one of my cruise books in the mail, David Grann's The Lost City of Z. The cover blurb describes it as a "Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon." What's not to like about that?

And lastly, the answer to that age old question: Scratch a statistician and what do you find? Statistics, analysis and good information. Plus some pretty nice photographs. That what I expect we'll see on DanceswithSandyBottom's new blog Dawn Patrol. DWSB, aka Paul, and his wife Dawn were of course our sailing partners on the Tag Team 200. Paul just launched his new blog which will focus on Dawn Patrol, their Core Sound 20, and cruising adventures. I can tell you from experience that Paul is a great sailor and his analytical nature really leads to some well thought out decisions on the water.

I know the blog will be a lot of fun to read and I'll look forward to checking on it as Paul and his sailing partner (and son) Alan get ready to sail Dawn Patrol in September's Watertribe NC Challenge.

Wow, talking about September tells me summer is almost over. But it also tells me that the fall sailing season is just about to start.

steve

journeys

Here is a sailing trip that I think might be worth following during the next couple of days. Steve, who describes himself as a Welsh guy in Plymouth, will be sailing his John Welsford designed Navigator Arwen along what I think is the south coast of England. (I say "think" because I'm a product of U.S. schools and all we learn about here is, of course, the U.S. and I dont' know anything about the rest of the world.) Steve has a nice blog called Arwen's Meanderings that I have mentioned before. He built the boat in the last couple of years and is just now starting to explore small open boat cruising.

He certainly has some interesting cruising territory. This trip is from Plymouth to Salcombe, overnighting in Salcombe before sailing back to Plymouth. You can see that he will be sailing along the coast of the English Channel on some wide open water. He has details for the trip here. All my trips have been on bays or estuaries, I wonder what it is like to sail along a rugged coastline with tides and currents. I'll check out his trip as he goes, he has posted his SPOT track here.

Below is one of the islands along the planned path for his sail, Burgh Island. Doesn't it look like a beautiful shore?

I know he is ready for the trip, he mentions in his most recent post that he has "butterflies". I know I get butterflies before every trip (and even some day sails too). Have a great trip Steve.

I've been thinking a lot about Day Four of the Tag Team sail (that's the great thing about cruises, lots of memories to look back upon). It was the longest sail of the trip, both in terms of hours and miles, and it was on the summer solstice, longest day of the year too (how appropriate).

Below is Spartina on the Neuse River, sailing wing and wing, a nice shot from the Dawn Patrol crew, after we left Oriental at 5 a.m.

And there are the cat-ketch sails of Dawn Patrol moving into the anchorage behind the marsh at the Swash some 12 hours (of good wind, no wind, strong wind, heat, thunderstorm, lightning, blue skies) and 48 miles later. We crossed eight bodies of water, counting rivers, bays, canals and sounds, and experienced just about everything you might get on an open boat cruise. It was like a few days of sailing all packed into one.

And speaking of journeys, I've got one coming up this weekend. They found a spare bunk on a research boat out of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and have invited me on board for a few days. Where are we going? Somewhere on the Chesapeake Bay but I don't know any more specifics than that (I get an invite like that I don't ask too many questions, just say yes, where do I meet the boat). I know it will be an interesting time.

Good luck, Steve (Welsh guy living in Plymouth), have a good safe trip. I'll look forward to the reports.

steve

light and variable

Light and variable winds, at best, today on the Elizabeth River. Hot and humid with a thick fog in the early morning.

I was out on the river by 9 a.m. as a little breeze kicked in. Sailed by Arden, a sailboat that has been anchored out in Crawford Bay since spring. The owner told me back then they he was working on the boat this summer, getting ready to head south in the fall. Seeing her today made me realize fall is not that far away. I wonder when she'll leave.

I also talked to the skipper of Isabella, a very classic double ender I've seen around for years. I've seen her in the distance when sailing or sometimes on the waterway when crossing over a bridge. Traffic was so light on the river today he motored over to say hello. Beautiful boat. He described her as a "Finnish Trawler", said most of that design were made of wood but his was fiberglass (with plenty of brightwork).

By noon that light breeze died out completely. So I floated around for a while and eventually cranked up the outboard to head back to the ramp. (In the distance you can see the turn of the century homes of the Swimming Point neighborhood on the Portsmouth waterfront.)

Not the best sailing day I've had, but a nice day on the water. A good chance to get out, check out the boat and think about things I need to do to get ready for the fall sail.

steve

and for those who love hot weather

Check out SandyBottom's Annual Vacation to Hell, a fifty mile kayak paddle from Cedar Island up the Neuse River and then down the Harlow Canal to Beaufort. Dawn describes it as "hot, humid, buggy and long."

She and her kayaking friends left Cedar Island this morning, there is her SPOT track. If you want to follow along you can see the track here.

Dances with SandyBottom, aka Dawn's husband Paul, asked me a few weeks ago if I might be interested in sailing with him this weekend along a similar path, or possibly down the Core Sound side, to meet up with the kayaks in Beaufort. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) my schedule didn't have room for a weekend trip. It would have been fun, but it would also have been hot, humid and buggy (but sometimes it is dealing with all the challenges that makes it fun). Thanks for the invite Paul, maybe we can all go to hell together next year.

steve

nice boat Tom!

Browsing the web last night and I came across these photos of, I think, Tom Williamson's Pathfinder at the Small Reach Regatta. You can see the photos here.

Beautiful boat, I really like those tan bark sails (I think those may be from Dabbler Sails).

I hope to get out for a day sail tomorrow. Hot and light winds but that ok, it's that time of year.

steve

just thinking out loud

This is what I get for having a slow day at the office (and spending too much time looking at the photo of Ocracoke Light last night).

steve

a busy river, a couple of books

I was over on the Portsmouth waterfront this morning, a grey, humid summer day. Lots of traffic on the very industrial/military southern branch of the Elizabeth River. Three tugs, maybe four, backed the guided missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke up the river to a shipyard on the north shore. The tugs of course have all the modern communications equipment, but they still signal each other with toots of their horns. I could hear but could not understand the call and response of horns as they backed the ship down and turned her into a berth.

I don't sail much on this stretch of the river, too industrial and busy for me. But I can see it from where I sail on the main branch of the Elizabeth less than a mile away. That big crane to the right, locally known as the hammerhead crane, is part of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The history there dates back to colonial days when it was known as the Gosport Shipyard. The ship Merrimac was scuttled in that stretch of water during the civil war only to be raised and rebuilt by the confederates as the ironclad CSS Virginia. The Virginia went on to have her famous battle with the Monitor about 15 miles away on the James River.

Am I history buff? Not really. But it is hard not to see history on the water around here.

I haven't been sailing in a couple of weeks, travel and work got in the way. But hope to get out this weekend. It will be hot and winds will most likely be light. But that's what we get this time of year. I'll enjoy it anyway.

I got one of my books for the fall cruise in the mail today, David Payne's Gravesend Light. I read it when it came out several years ago, a really great southern novel that takes place on the fictional Little Roanoke Island of the Outer Banks. As far as I'm concerned this books and Payne's Ruin Creek are the best novels from coastal North Carolina.

I got the book, a used hardback first edition, through Amazon for about six bucks, four of those bucks for shipping. A good deal I think.

As I said the book takes place on fictional "Little Roanoke" island. When I first read this book years ago I had thought the village was loosely based on Wanchese, the commercial fishing village at the south end of the very real Roanoke Island. But I'm starting to wonder now if it was based on Wanchese or maybe a mixture of Ocracoke Island with a little bit of Wanchese thrown it. Look at the lighthouse on the book cover, above, and compare it to the Ocracoke Light I photographed on a day sail years ago. You can't see it from my photograph, but the Ocracoke Light has a light keepers house and a picket fence just like on the book cover.

Regardless of location, it is a great book and I can't wait to read it on the fall cruise.

Another book that has caught my attend is Four Fish, The Future of The Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg. It is a story about fishing, history and our relationship with nature. It got a great review in the NY Times. It is definitely on my reading list. It will fit in nicely with a couple of my favorite books about food and history including (don't laugh at the title) Cod, The Biography of Fish That Changed the World and The Scents of Eden, A History of the Spice Trade.

We are what we eat (and sometimes it is pretty interesting how we get what we eat).

steve

mid-summer

The first of August, roads here at the Virginia/North Carolina line are thick with cars, vans and suv's carrying bikes, kayaks, boogie boards and whatever else might be needed for a week-long vacation in the Outer Banks. If you live anywhere in the midwest or up north you'll drive very close to my house as you head for Duck, Kitty Hawk, Nags Head or points south. (Summer weekend traffic here used to be a nightmare until they added a toll road to carry the vacationers a few years ago.)

We used to do the annual summer vacation down in Ocracoke. There are my wife and youngest daughter on Spartina for an evening sail/swim just north of Ocracoke's Oyster Creek. Below is Spartina behind my old Cherokee and to the right is my wife's Honda Civic on the Hatteras to Ocracoke ferry. Between kids, food, beach stuff and sailing gear we had to take two cars. (My wife at one point suggested we put the bikes in Spartina for the drive down. I explained that Spartina was a boat, not a bike rack.)

We don't make the summer trip anymore. Jobs, boyfriends and social activities keep our daughters too busy for a summer trip (but we are hoping to start a tradition of a fall Ocracoke next year).

(My sailing plans for either next year or the following year include sailing to Ocracoke - but that is another post for later. Interested in joining us for that trip, Dawn Patrol?)

It has been a very hot and dry summer so far, in fact one of the hottest month of June on record (including the very hot weather of the Tag Team 200). Both the dwarf pomegranate (above) and figs (below) are thriving in this weather which seems closer to the weather of their Mediterranean and Middle Eastern origins. The trees, three figs and one pomegranate, are bearing more fruit than ever and should be ready for the picking in just a few weeks. Nothing better than a fresh fig right off the tree on a hot August day.

Cloudy cool and rainy today so I passed on sailing. Did some maintenance including changing the lower unit oil on Spartina's Nissan 3.5 two stroke outboard. I change the fluid about every 18 months. I try to keep up on maintenance, replacing the water impeller last year. Soon I'll probably have to get the carburetor cleaned (but that is beyond my skills, I'll have to find a good shop).

I also went by my favorite expedition supply shop - Walmart - and picked up some fruit in cups, quart-size freezer bags and shops towels. I use freezer bags, the quart-size and two gallon-size seem to work best, for storing just about everything for a cruise. Food (you can see a Simply Asia meal tucked in a bag below), batteries, safety gear, clothes all end up in a bag. A lot of the stuff will be double bagged just to make sure it stays dry.

As for the shop towels, that was Bruce's discovery in Oriental on the Tag Team 200. I had forgotten to pack paper towels. We walked to the marine supply store in Oriental to find they did not stock paper towels, but Bruce spotted shop towels. I think they work better than paper towels and will now be standard gear on Spartina.

steve

dept. of redundancy dept.

I got my old vhf radio back from the ICOM repair guy in South Carolina. The radio, which I've had for eight years, died the day before the spring Weekend Walkabout (I'm really glad I turned the radio on to test the batteries as I was packing up the boat). I did not want to go on a trip without a vhf radio so I ran to West Marine and picked up a new ICOM vhf 150 (at right, below).

The idea of having a backup radio on appealed to me so I sent the old radio off for repair. Got it back for a few days later for $80, a fair price I think to have the second radio (below, left) on board. I'll probably put batteries in it, seal it in a bag and then tuck it away in the emergency back or hypothermia kit bag.

The other piece gear I would like to have a as a backup is a gps. On the first day of the Walkabout I dropped my garmin legend etrex a few inches to the deck and the screen when blank. That caught my attention. Fortunately is was just a battery that jarred loose (I think). I had planned on upgrading to a Garmin Etrex Venture GPS this winter. When I do that I'll tuck the old gps in with the old radio.

(Quick question: Why do they always make the handheld radios black? My SPOT is orange, the current gps is a clear aquamarine, the new gps will be yellow. How about a nice bright color for the radios so they are easier to fine?)

I've also been doing the pre-trip shopping, picking up some food here and there when I do the regular grocery shopping. I'm in good shape on breakfast bars and lunches. And I've got a pretty good start on fruit cups and dinners. I also stopped by the Bass Pro Shop to pick up two Heater Meals, I always like to have those on board in case of rain (don't want to use the stove with the boom tent in place) or if I'm just too tired to cook.

I'm about six or seven weeks out from the trip and all the planning seems to be on schedule.

steve