2009 Log
10/15 to 10/31/2009
This is the current period of our log for 2009. At the bottom of the page are links to this year's pass weeks; our earlier voyages are in Prior Voyages.
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Updated on 11/03/2009
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10/16/09 - Rain, wind and grey skies greeted us. Whoopie! While Ruth pursued paper sales I worked on the stack-pac getting it about half done. Now I need a dry day for a test fitting. Buddy has gone from being alone most of the day while we worked the show to having us around all the time. With the cold and the rain we're pretty much confined to the boat... can you say "cabin fever". 10/17/09 - Woke again to rain and cold. Enough already! Sure am glad we didn't have this for the show; I feel bad for the folks that rented booths and trucked in their exhibits. The show is done in a fair format with tented booths along open aisles. Miles called, he and Laureen are stuck in Norfolk. He's getting itchy to get moving too. Bradd & Maeve were going shopping and we begged them to take us along. We just wanted to get off the boat. $190 later we had picked up a few groceries we needed... hard to believe Ruth got the whole list on the back of a business card. We had supper on Sampatecho with Rich & Carol from The Great Catsby; we all had a great time and the chicken was fantastic. 10/18/09 - The rain finally stopped early this morning. I really feel bad for the exhibitors at the power boat show - glad we weren't among them. The sailboat show was a record show for Cruising Solutions; sure makes the hours worth while. I did a test fit of the stack-pac on Sampatecho, looking good. With Ruth's help I did the final cuts and edge seams. With luck we'll finish it tomorrow so they will be ready to sail Tuesday. We've been eating a lot of chili, feels great in this weather. Today it was only 8 degrees warmer than Appleton, brrrrr. Buddy is sitting on my shoulder editing as I write. For you Ariel fans, they are still in Norfolk waiting for 30 knot winds to abate. The Great Lock on the ICW just south of them was closed today because the wind had backed the water over the gates. We might catch up with them yet. 10/19/09 - Beautiful brisk sunny morning, not a cloud in the sky. We'll be spending the day sewing a stack-pac for Sampatecho's mainsail so when they trip the halyard, the sail will fall and flake itself into the sail cover. We're finding that the boat isn't long enough for jobs like this so we'll have to buy a longer vessel! (Yah right) It is sooo wonderful to have sun again! Buddy loves sunny days just like us so she's been happy and jabbering all day long asking us "what cha doing?" along with a couple of Uh, oh's. News flash......our heater FINALLY turned off thanks to the sun coming out! T-shirt weather today. We should be finally heading south tomorrow. It'll feel good to be moving again. So there'll be the 2 of us; Sampatecho and Another Adventure trying to chase down Ariel and The Great Catsby. 10/20/09 - Again a beautiful morning, after all the rain we feel blessed. I finished the stack-pac and we mounted it on Sampatecho, looks great. Ruth and I went into town to pick up a few items after learning that UPS had shipped the alternator we're waiting for to Ontario, CA. Who know what goes on in the minds of shippers. Anyway its due here tomorrow. It shipped the 15th with an overnight premium... hummm. Should be free! We had pizza for lunch in Annapolis - finally found a crust better than Frank's. Delicious pie. 10/21/09 - The sun rises late in Spa Creek due to the tree covered hill east of our anchorage. 8am feel like 7:30. I woke to another in a short string of beautiful days. The alternator came in so Bradd was able to deliver it. We caught the 4:00 opening of the Spa Creek bridge, stopping for fuel and water before anchoring off the naval academy. Sampatecho joined us half an hour later. We were now staged for an early departure. Dinner was served on Sampatecho; prime rib with all the trimmings. Didn't seem quite right that they made dinner on their anniversary and Maeve's birthday, but that's what they did. 10/22/09 - We hoisted anchor at 7:30am and headed south on the Chessie with a beautiful day. The wind was pretty much on the nose the first few hours so we motored. Around 11 the wind clocked 10 degrees and we were able to motor-sail for a couple of hours before it backed and we were again motoring. Ruth noted that we were in pelican country again. We saw several flocks as we made our way south to the mouth of the Potomac where we anchored off Tanner Creek. 61 miles today. 10/23/09 - Up with the sun, actually we underway when it came over the horizon. The wind that was forecast to be out of the west (nice sailing) actually was out of the south (motoring time) until about 2pm. Then we unfurled the genoa and romped down the bay. We met the coast guard escorting a large "whale" up the bay. They were enforcing a 500 yard security zone around their charge. I have no idea where what appeared to be a nuclear missile whale was heading up the Chessie. By 5pm we were anchoring at Old Point Comfort between the freeway and the fort. We invited Bradd & Maeve for lasagna, they brought their signature salad. Great way to end a 69 mile day. 10/24/09 - The wind blew 15-20 knots from the south all night. We beat the sun again heading into Norfolk past the row of naval vessel. Bradd had customers to care for before we headed to the Great Dismal. Enroute we stopped for fuel at Portsmouth Boating Center. Whoops, they were out of diesel. We waited until noon for the fuel truck. Ruth observed wind gusts above 30 knots while we were tied to the fuel dock. Bradd had a short stop at Hospital Point to install and alternator. In 20 minutes we were again motoring through Norfolk enroute to the Great Dismal Canal. Radioing ahead we learned the the docks at the Deep Creek lock were full so we anchored below the lock for the evening. 10/25/09 - The wind went calm around 3am before clocking 180 degrees, blowing from the north. When we got up for an 8am locking we could feel the temperature falling as the northerly wind remained steady. Our first few hours on the canal were stunning as the swamp's fall foliage glowed yellow and brilliant red under the morning sun. It almost overwhelm our senses. We ran the length of the Dismal by 1:30pm with no hits' locking through at South Mills and proceeding to Goat Island where we anchored for the night. 10/26/09 - Up and moving by 7:30am. Arriving at Elizabeth City we missed the 8:30 bridge and had to wait for the 9. Worked out well though because a few boats had left and we scored adjacent slips at the city dock. Farm Fresh Supermarkets offers boaters free shuttle service to their market. We utilized it, leaving a couple hundred at their registers. The service is great, typical of the city's welcome for boaters. 15 to 20 knot winds and drizzle moved in just before we went to the Rose Buddies Meet & Greet. It's a chance for the boaters to all get together with wine and meet the volunteers and dock master that make the whole show work. After a little wine and a lot of gabbing we walked to the theater for dinner and the movie "Where the Wild Things Are". We enjoyed both, it's neat to phone your order in from the table and be served in the theater. Just as you finish eating they start the film. 10/27/09 - The wind died overnight while fog snuck in. Daylight revealed a mass exodus as most boats took advantage of the smooth seas. We were traveling with a herd of about 15 in fog with 3/4 mile visibility. By the time we reached the Albemarle the fog had lifted and the wind rose to 15 - 20 knots apparent giving us a charging ride across the sound. Doesn't get much nicer! We ran about 72 miles, anchoring at 5pm at the south end of the Alligator-Pungo canal. Ruth wanted another movie so we watched "Midnight Express", a great oldie. 10/28/09 - By 7:30am we were moving. The barometer had dropped and the temperature had risen... it was a nice travel day. We sailed and motor sailed all day. The wind was gusty and variable making trimming interesting. We grounded just past the Hoboken Bridge, hard, any barnacles on the bottom of our keel are goners now. Good thing as we get hauled for bottom cleaning and paint on Friday. We were in Oriental by 3pm, anchored in their small harbor. Luckily we got there early or we would have had to move on. We went to the seafood processing plant and bought 5 lbs of frozen shrimp, our semi-annual treat. We called West Marine learning that the paint we'd ordered a month ago hadn't arrived and they had no idea when it would. We called Bock Marine and they said they would have it by Friday. I suspect West is having problems with cash flow and it's hitting the stores... too bad after the death of Boater's World. One of our semi-annual Oriental events is the shrimp buy. We scored 5 lbs of frozen locally caught shrimp at the processing plant, stowing them deep in the freezer for future meals. We are anchored next to another Looper, a cabin cruiser named Drake's Dream from Breckenridge, CO, Met them briefly before supper. Tonight was another steak and movie night. The meat we bought on sale from Safeway was unbelievable... they have us sold! 10/29/09 - A beautiful balmy morning greeted us. Bradd & Maeve had business in town which allowed us a leisurely cockpit breakfast. We talked of the thousands of gulls whirling around us and how it contrasted with the lines of pelicans gliding low over the water with the feathers at the tip of their wings occasionally throwing up a fine spray. Our beautiful morning grayed as it approached noon. We headed to Bock Marine at noon, arriving at 2pm for our haul-out. After an exhilarating backing up-steam and cross current we were in the well for the travel lift. By 3 they had the hull pressure washed and the boat on jack stands. We pulled the propeller, replaced the shaft zincs and scraped off the remainder of the barnacles before calling it a day. The Micron 66+ was pretty clean where it adhered. It was pretty much spent on the forward third of the keel, the top third of the rudder and at the bow. Those were our barnacle farms though they were readily scraped off with a plastic putty knife. I'd use the paint again, putting more layers in these areas; that said we are putting on a cheaper paint, Micron Extra. 9/30/09 - whoops, correct to 10/30/09 (my brother says you turn back the clock, not the month) - A beautiful day for working in a boatyard. Light breeze, sunny and not hot or humid. I sanded the bottom with my orbital disk and by hand, removing barnacle glue spots and loose paint while Ruth cleaned the bootstripe and transom with FSR (fiberglass stain remover - magic in a jar) before applying a coat of wax. By 3:30 we were both shot but Another Adventure had clean sides and a first coat of paint on all areas where I'd sanded down to the barrier coat. Bock Marine is a great place for working on AA... they are efficient and strongly customer oriented - most of the time they seem to anticipate your needs. We went to a Halloween costume party hosted by some of the boating community in the yard. Some of the vessels are going through extensive refitting and folks have been living at the marina for some time. It was a great party with some amazing costumes coming from the holds of these vessel. 10/31/09 - A clear day, great for the first coat of Interlux Micron Extra. I went down one grade as I wasn't that impressed with the performance of the more expensive Micron 66. Too many critters on our bottom after 18 months (and two diver scrubbings). It also seemed to erode at a faster rate than Micron Extra. By noon I had a coat of paint over the whole bottom. One coat to go tomorrow, then jack-stand pad areas on Monday... should be back in the water Tuesday. |
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Autumn arrives in Spa Creek
Stack-pac layout
Final steps, zipper installation
Sampatecho sports her new stack-pac sail cover
Sampatecho in Dismal color
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy... corn on the cob
It's a routine, looper dog know the game
Oriental harbor just after sunrise
Part of the Oriental working fleet
Fishermen on ICW
Towers at the bow for spotting Mullet. They catch them for their roe which is sold overseas
AA after sanding and spot painting
Halloween at Bock Marine, thar's creatures about the yard after dark
And different folk, like Scott from Seattle
Everyone got in the spirit
Val the infamous (and only)French-Canadian pirate
I think she said ballet dancer... I may have misunderstood
On All Saints Eve a little protection is a good thing
We said we wanted a picture of the Greeks... that's G-R-E
that's more like it
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