A Fellow Blogger

LaTrappe Creek
N 38 37.903 W 076 07.131

We are back in the place that we said before is our favorite anchorage on the whole east coast. LaTrappe Creek seems to embody the best of Chesapeake charm and beauty. The anchorage is in a little cove near the mouth that is well sheltered from all directions. The holding is good, the surroundings are beautiful. What more could one ask for.

Yesterday, we had a very interesting visit with Doug Campbell on board Doug's Westsail 32 Ranger. Doug is a blog fan who contacted us a while back. As it turns out, Doug is also a writer for Soundings Magazine, and he writes the blogs on the soundings web site. So, in addition to this blog, you can read Doug's blog about our visit.

We have a lot in common with Doug in our outlooks, ambitions and past experiences. However, he's still not a full time cruise. Doug's wife isn't quite ready for that yet. We also had fun discussing the ins and outs of W32 ownership.

However, Doug does have one thing that we and all other cruisers can envy. He earns his living writing for Soundings from his floating office on board Ranger. That's what I call a dream job.

Ranger is docked at Oxford Boat Yard in Oxford Maryland. Doug didn't choose that by accident. For obscure reasons that date back to the famous Hinkley yachting family, Oxford is the home port for all kinds of celebrities and sea farers just bursting with interesting stories to tell. For example, Walter Cronkite's boat was in the slip just across from Ranger. No doubt, whenever Doug comes up dry for ideas for his next article, he can just hang around the docks and pick up a good story in short
order.

Leaving Oxford, we had a very brisk 20 knot head wind. That makes two days in a row with strong winds on the Chesapeake in July -- a rare event. Luckily, we had lots of room to maneuver so we beat our way upwind all the way here to LaTrappe. However, we reluctantly had to intrude Tarwathie in to the middle of a Oxford Yacht Club youth sailing race. I usually like to keep a long distance from such races so as to not disturb them. However, our intrusion to the middle of the race gave us a close-up
view. The racers were 10 year old boys and girls, each single handing a pitiful little Optimist sailing dinghy. These kids were so amazingly skillful and obviously confident in their abilities under difficult weather conditions. One can not help to admire those kids and the youth sailing programs that teach them. On Lake Champlain we've seen 14 year old kids sailing tiny boats in 30 knot winds and steep waves, and doing it so skillfully that they demonstrate complete mastery of the situation.