2009 Log
5/16 to 5/31/2009
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.
We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to history; pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!
Updated on 06/02/2009
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5/16/09 - High overcast at 7am with virtually no breeze. Rain started mid-morning, not steady but often enough to keep us at home. Showers passed through all day so we stayed home. Our excitement for the day was down to watching ship traffic and reading. After dusk we had movie night (DVD) and retired. 5/17/09 - The diesel is running this morning, charging our battery bank. This is the first time we've had to do this since I got our solar hooked up last fall. We're in a bad environment for alternative energy, no sun and no wind. Bummer! Our Raymarine ST60+ Wind instrument is being creative today. We have wind direction but 0.0 knots of wind even though we can hear it howling through the rigging. Surprise, it started indicating wind speed mid morning - 25 knots. We had another movie day. I've also been working on the internet, actually going to school on web design issues. I have an idea for a site I want to build. Thanks to the weather we still haven't gotten to see Miles and Laureen. I called and invited them to come out to the anchorage for "Rain downers" but they respectfully declined. We snuggled in and turned on the furnace. 5/18/09 - Strong winds and cold... we must be getting close to WI. SkyMate reports that Rich & Carol Wellman on The Great Catsby are within hours of us, trailing. We talked to them on the phone, they plan on passing by tomorrow around noon. We want to visit Ariel but the wind is keeping the river too riled up for us to cross. I spent the morning getting our website passwords debugged and replacing the last of our halogen lights with LED's. Though it is overcast the combination of wind and solar did a full recharge today without the engine - whoopie! The wind kept us at anchor all day. The forecast for tomorrow is looking more promising. 5/19/09 - Grey morning with the sun trying to pole through. Still windy. I wrote and submitted an article this morning... we'll see how that goes. At noon the great Catsby pulled up alongside us to talk. Good to see Rich and Carol again. They were headed north to Old Point Comfort for the night. By 2pm the wind had died down enough that we could venture over to see Laureen and Miles - finally. After talking a couple of hours we all went socializing (grocery shopping). Then back to the boat for e-mail and food storage. We've been here anchored so long I'll need a baseball bat to knock the barnacles off the anchor. 5/20/09 -Cool morning, the diesel furnace ran all last night; fortunately the wind was down to 9-10 knots. We started north to the Chesapeake at 8am, Ariel started a little later and overtook us before we got to the bay. Leaving Norfolk we passed a submarine pen with two smaller, diesel?, subs. First time we'd seen that. Otherwise it was the miles of containers ships at wharfs and a wide variety of navy vessels ranging from tugs to aircraft carriers. Many tax dollar live here. We motor sailed a couple of hours before the wind died and switched to dead ahead. The bay was as smooth as I've ever seen it. Enroute we talked to several Loopers including M/V Golden Lily. We were traveling in a northbound flock of at least 25 boats. Speaking of north bound, Sampatecho is already in the Erie Canal We motored into Deltaville in tee shirts around 3pm, anchoring behind Ariel. Not a bad day's run, about 50 miles. Very easy going. We finished the day with dinner on Ariel - very nice closing. Finally some quality time with Miles and Laureen. 5/21/09 - Ariel headed for Annapolis with the rising sun. Miles has a stainless project he wants to get scheduled and they want to spend a week with Don & Suzy of Silver Girl. Last spring Miles, Adrian (S/V Squander), Ruth and I had the opportunity to sail in Norfolk with Richard, Pin and family on their newly acquired vessel, the S/V Ring Andersen. This classic vessel was built in Norway in 1915 as a North Sea fishing vessel, rebuilt in '47 to serve as a lumber carrier, finally converted to a luxurious yacht in '79-'81. Richard and Pin planned to sail her to Thailand for a complete refitting before cruising her with their 3 children. After a few months we lost track of them and the Ring - we always wondered how their dream had played out. A few weeks ago we came across this dated plea on the internet. Ruth & I decided to find out what became of the vessel. We found it in the CMR yard (where she reputedly sank) undergoing replanking and refastening before heading to France. We never got the whole story. The employee working on the vessel said she was beautiful inside, a real treasure. After "sinking"? Based on the work we saw she should be good to go for several more decades. The test will come when they (new owners?) sail her across the Atlantic later this year. 5/22/09 - A balmy beautiful morning greeted us when we slid back the companionway door. We decided to stay, do our wash and chill out. Yesterday we'd taken a bicycle ride around Deltaville. Ruth and I both love this little town that has more boats than folks. It's history as a ship and boat building center adds to the appeal. We had lunch at Cocomo's next to the Waldon yard where we usually haul AA for bottom maintenance (not needed this time through as the Micron 66 is holding up well). We did stop at Waldon's to check the progress made by a young couple who are totally restoring a sailboat. They weren't around but we saw they still have a long way to go. Of course we did a West Marine stop, picking up a few items including a new stainless steel dinghy motor lock (can't have our car getting stolen). After lunch we lazed around reading. Hedonistic! But nice. In fact, it was too nice to do anything. Dinner of marinated pork chops, peas and mashed potatoes left us feeling full and blessed. 5/23/09 - Another perfect day, light breeze from the south, warm and sunny. Time to go sailing. We headed for the Potomac River after a short navigational error that sent us up the Rappahannock River... hey, I'm human. Enroute we had our first chance to fly the repaired gennaker; it looked great. Then the wind angle changed and we had to become a real sailboat again. Nice run, speeds up to 8.4 knots over the ground. Our destination was Olverson's on the Yeocomico River just off the Potomac. We arrived at 6:30pm and made a sloppy downwind landing, bending a stanchion because we routed a mooring line wrong - it happens. Olverson's is a kewl family marina, by family we mean it is owned by a family and it is full of families. 5/24/09 - Gray morning, light sprinkles every now and then. We borrowed a courtesy car and went into Tappahannock (19 miles away) to find the Wal-Mart and refill Ruth's meds. During the mandatory 2 hour wait we picked up a few groceries - about $200.00 worth. They sure have the pharmacy wait thing figured out. We're enjoying Olverson's. It's a laid back back-water VA family marina. The rates are very reasonable and the people are friendly. Kids play on the docks with chalk and row under them. 5/25/09 - We made sure we filled our tanks as we'd heard Fred's 400' deep well produces the best water we've have seen in months. The water did taste good. After fueling and pumping out we sailed very slowly across the Potomac and up St Mary's River to the college of the same name. It was a pleasant little jaunt up a wooded waterway about the width of Little Lake Butte Des Mors. We anchored in Horseshoe Bend overlooking the college for the night (the bend has held a couple hundred sailboats at anchor on race weekend). We initially shared it with one other boat. Late afternoon a sailing club joined us, 4 more boats. After discussing rafting up they decided to anchor individually, dropping their anchors and letting out rope for short scope sets. Ruth marinated the last of her King Mackerel and pan cooked it for our dinner. Delicious! 5/26/09 - By 8 only two boats remained with us. I was watching a menacing dark gray wall of clouds rapidly advance from the NE and decided this was a good place to spend the day. Strong winds were soon howling over our canvas. I heard an outboard engine whining and stuck my head above deck to see a couple racing from one boat to another. Both boats were dragging down on us (or were we dragging up-wind again - hate it when that happens). I started our engine and drove forward on our anchor chain in time to allow the closer boat to pass behind us. Then I let the wind set us back on the anchor to give the second boat room to retrieve their anchor and motor away leaving us with the anchorage all to ourselves. We snuggled in our nice warm cabin and listened to the rain dancing on the deck while we read. Winds from the east in the 20's all day would have made for rough travel so we read and played scrabble. Ruth won 3 out of 5 so she's still the Scrabble Queen. Late in the day a couple of big (56 foot plus) boats joined us at anchor for the night. 5/27/09 - Fog settled in last night, we could hear the moisture dripping off the rigging. Our harbor mates left in soup around 8am. We stayed until 10, then left when we saw the fog thin. There was no wind so it would be a flat water motor trip to Solomon's, about 44 miles away. We arrived a Solomon's Landing about 4 pm. It was sunny and warm, tee shirt weather. We threaded our way to the end of Back Creek and anchored. Lots of company here, this is a major sailing center on the Chesapeake. We had our own air show tonight, jet fighters, A WWII bomber and a couple of Blackbirds - way cool. I talked to Miles, he has his stainless repair job in someone's hands... doesn't know when it will be done, hopefully this week. Our replacement stanchion should arrive in Annapolis Friday or Monday so we're in no hurry either. Don and Silver Girl finally arrived home today after being held up by weather for over a week in Charleston and another day in Solomon's. 5/28/09 - We woke to another foggy morning... by 9am it was lifting. Most of the boats around us had left - rushing to somewhere (like a sailboat can rush anywhere). We ran about 40 miles to Rhode River where we tucked in for the night. Lots of trees and a very quiet anchorage. The weatherman was wrong again, it didn't rain until we were cooking dinner. Lloyd's baby back original recipe ribs on the grill with mashed potatoes and French style cut green beans... doesn't get much better than that. We're only 11 miles from Annapolis. Ruth is listening to the frogs while I watch the Osprey... very nice night. Talked to Pat, he sounds great, definitely on the mend. 5/29/09 - Another still foggy morning. I worked most of the morning reworking an article I'd submitted to Good Old Boat while Ruth talked to her sister Sue. I think I finished before she did. By 1pm we were in Annapolis, anchored in Spa Creek. The city has expanded their moorings and there is precious little room left for anchoring. It should be interesting when we return for the the boat show in October. We are in sight of Ariel. One of Ruth's projects today was to track down supplies for our Soda Club soda maker. With the demise of Boaters World we haven't been able to find a single source with both CO2 and soda concentrate supplies. We finally found that Kohls has the concentrate and William Sonoma has the CO2 cartridges - whose wet dream is that distribution system? It's really a shame because the system is ideal for a boat. A band of nasty thunderstorms passed through late afternoon. Just north of us a cell produced 70 knot winds and white-out conditions. We could hear the radio traffic as people announced their positions so others wouldn't blunder into them. 5/30/09 - We're still here. What a beautiful cool morning. Guess all the very severe storms missed us. We discovered the Annapolis transit system. It is great. We got to the mall in less time than a cab would have taken, got what we needed and returned to the boat. All for 3 dollars. Back home (the boat) we stowed our purchases, settled down, and read. A totally relaxed night. Ruth did a great shrimp dinner. It was fantastic! 5/31/09 - Surprise, it rained about 5am... woke Ruth and she closed the overhead hatches. I slept through it, fit right in with my dreams. Miles called on the cell to note there was a farmers' market at the waterfront; we joined them there. Didn't find anything we needed/wanted but we did score ground coffee at Starbucks so we came out ahead. Ruth spent some time working on scheduling guests. We are really looking forward to visits from Evie, Amy, Tom & Lofton, and Bill & Jill. It is so neat to share this experience with people you love. It's a Sunday, we spent the afternoon reading and doing nothing else. I was fidgeting just because I have a little type A left in my blood - I should have been doing something productive. For supper Ruth created a great shrimp and scallops dinner - items we'd bought in Oriental and recipes from Maine. Wonderful! Ruth's culinary expertise is fantastic. |
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Massive Norfolk Southern coal loading docks
Loading coal for China
Ships run on fuel - lots of fuel
Two container ships loading
Another of the large Norfolk container docks
Your tax dollars at rest
Red ran right home - yup, just the way boaters memorized it
Miles surveys his domain - Deltaville
Stern of S/V Ring Andersen, the vessel Ruth, Miles, Adrian and Barry sailed in Norfolk last spring.
Ruth shot this aft quarter overview
Starboard side shows new rib partners and planking
Bow view shows the classic lines of this tall ship (note Barry, yellow shirt) standing to the lower right of bow) - biiiggg boat
The blue dot and line reflect the repairs we made on the gennaker thanks to John & Nell's gracious lend of their dining room. We'd torn the top right off the sail last year on the Chesapeake.
Boating center at St Mary's College, a liberal arts school charted in 1840, currently attended by 2,000 students.
College dinghy fleet
A sailboat joins us in the wooded St Mary's River anchorage at Horseshoe Bend.
Some Solomons landing boats
Offshore warping facility and storage tanks on land
A scene from our Rhode river anchorage
Trawler Puffin anchored in the Rhode River - We've crossed her path several times the past few years.
Buddy dinning on her favorite - chili, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy |
View our 2009 Logs