Fully Crewed

Still Pond MD, N39 19.975 W076 28.521, June 27, 2006

Well here we sit in Still Pond, one of our favorite anchorages. The difference is that now we have David (my son) and Bobby (Dave's son) onboard. Wow this is great. Libby has been waiting for more than a year for this day.

Yesterday morning, another Westsail 32, Helen, came past in Georgetown Harbor. She swung around to come back and raft up with us. We swapped Westsail stories with Debb and Bill. They had just launched Helen after working on her for four years in their yard.

Around noon Libby and I went ashore to wait for our noon pickup by Enterprise Rent-A-Car. 12 o'clock past, then 12:30 then 1:00 and still no pickup. I was frantic. I called their office every 10 minutes but there was no answer. Finally I got through to them on the phone. The man there forgot that he was supposed to pick us up. Anyhow, we got started toward Newark Airport almost two hours behind schedule. We were supposed to be there at 17:00, and we actually made it at 17:15. Luckily, Dave's plane was even later than we were. It arrived at 17:40. The reunion was great. By the time we drove back to Maryland, and ate dinner and bought groceries and rowed all the people and cargo out to Tarwathie, it was midnight. We slept well.

This morning when I got up and looked out, there was a sailboat coming into Georgetown with a completely ripped main sail. It had one of those fancy sails that rolls up inside the mast. It appeared that the sail fouled halfway up the mast, but the crew pulled it out anyhow. The bottom third and top third of the sail were deployed while the middle third remained inside the mast. That must have been an expensive mistake, costing the owner as much as $5,000. It is also a reminder of why one doesn't want fancy gadgets for offshore sailing. If the mainsail failed like that at sea, the trip in to get it repaired could be very long indeed.

Today, we had intervals of fair weather and wind interspersed with rain showers. I lost count on how many showers rained on us today, six or seven times. Never mind. Dave and Bobby got a least of taste of sailing on Tarwathie. Dave turned out to be one of those speed daemons. He heeled us over 50 degrees and thought that it was great fun. Bobby wasn't so sure that was fun, so Libby gave the order, "No more heeling more than 20 degrees for the rest of the day." So even if it rains for the rest of the week (which it may do), at least we had some good sailing hours.

Tomorrow we head back to Georgetown and Wednesday night or Thursday morning we'll start driving up to Vermont. Libby and I rented a mooring for Tarwathie so we won't have to worry about her.

Bobby and Dave send regards to Cathy.

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A Sailor's Joke

The skipper spent an evening of hard drinking with his sailing buddies. After midnight the drunken skipper returned to his boat. He was determined to sneak aboard without waking his wife. He managed to get into the cockpit, opened the hatch and started to climb down the steep ladder. Alas he slipped and fell off the ladder landing on his rear with a whiskey bottle in each back pocket. Still he managed to avoid a scream and there was no sound from his wife.

Wounded from the broken glass, the skipper looked in the full length mirror. His butt was covered with cuts and bleeding profusely. He went into the head, found a full box of band aids and returned to the mirror. With pants around his ankles and bending over to look behind him, the skipper bandaged the cuts one by one until all were covered. Then he snuck into bed and in and was fast asleep in an instant.

The next afternoon the hung over skipper got up and confronted his wife. "You drunken sot, I'm disgusted with you." she said. "But how did you know?" said the skipper, "I didn't make any noise." "Well," said the wife, "It could have been the open companionway hatch. It could have been the blood and the broken glass on the floor. But the final straw was the bandages all over the mirror."

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Another Repair Day

Still Creek MD, N39 19.975 W076 28.521, June 20, 2006

There's a stationary front near us that's maddening. It is so stationary that I could see it across the bay for much of the day. It constantly threatens rain and we hear thunder. The radio keeps talking about flash floods all around us. Yet, we've remained dry all day yesterday and today. I hope this dang front moves on before David and Bobby get here.

It was also a little bit cooler today. Yesterday I swam five times to cool off but today only twice.

We did an oil change. Cleanest one yet. We're gradually getting better at it. The numerous bottles of transmission leak stopper that I put into the transmission in the past year also appear to have done the job. We now have over 400 hours of engine use with zero decline in the transmission fluid level. I'll keep trying with the main engine. I put one bottle of oil seal conditioner/stop leak in but perhaps repeated treatments will work better. It leaks about a cup of oil,and burns (I think) another quart of oil. per 100 hours.

We also cleaned and did repairs for most of the day. I fixed the batten pocket. Libby cleaned.

Tomorrow we head for Georgetown where I reserved a mooring. Monday at noon Enterprise Rent-a-Car will pick us up and we'll be on the way up to meet Dave and Bobby. I hope that they're not late. There are not much excess hours in our schedule.

There's a big flock of soaring birds here that we have been watching. I counted as many as 23 riding the same updraft. We've been debating about whether they are hawks or eagles or turkey vultures. It's hard to tell when flying. When sitting on a perch their heads look like eagles but their bodies are fatter and rounder than I expect. We have bird book, but it does not have eagles or vultures. How does one tell them apart at a distance? Why is is that we admire eagles so much while we despise vultures. They are both scavengers.

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100 Degrees

Still Creek MD, N39 19.975 W076 28.521, June 22, 2006

The thermometer says 100 degrees F (38C) there's no wind and it feels very hot.

This morning, anticipating the heat we sailed back south again to Still Creek. The anchorage here is nicer and the water is clean and fine for swimming. Swimming is the only way to escape this heat. I swam twice so far and Libby one. Tonight we'll sleep on deck again.

I haven't managed to transmit email via sailmail and the SSB yet. I'll try tonight with this message.

It's pretty still in Still Creek, but across the bay is the US Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground. They test weapons and munitions there. Both times we sailed by we were startled by numerous very loud explosions. Our son John would love to have a job there. Come to think of it, any red blooded man would love that job. Blowing things up day after day. Come to think of it, our friends in Sweden would love it especially, Swedes seem to have a natural affinity to dynamite, perhaps because of the Nobel connection.

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Georgetown

Georgetown MD, N 39 21.825 W 075 53.534, June 21 2006

We came up this creek looking for a place to get a mooring and to get a rental car. The choices are here on the Eastern Shore or Havre De Grace on the Western Shore.

It took me until today to get the new computer working with the SSB radio. The hang up was a driver for the USB to Serial adapter device I have inline. When I installed it, Windows kept asking to search the Internet for a driver. I don't have a net connection out here. I was stymied until I found a CD ROM with the driver in my archives. Whew.

When we got here I reserved a mooring for next week, and also a rental car. I was shocked at the price of the car. Last year I rented a car from Enterprise at Jacksonville for $18/day. Now they want to charge me $60/day from a nearby town. Not much I can do about it, Enterprise is the only one who will pick me up from the marina which is about 35 miles from the rental office.

Met a couple of cruisers from Scotland in the harbor. They've been cruising for 3 years including one year in the Mediterranean. I asked if they ever heard of the village of Tarwathie in Scotland. Alas, they said, "No."