As i write this I hear Otis outside telling ben something or other about the roles and responsibilities of being the 'mate'. I do know that one of the mate dinghy mantras is ' last in and first out' which ben has been diligent about. He just follows Otis around all day long chattering behind him. I cannot get Ben to leave O's side even if i bribe him with ice cream!
I awoke this morning to Otis telling me that we can't make coffee anymore, too many amps. This was not a great way to start the day and overall it took a while to recover. To clarify why O was up, we take turns getting up with the kids or as we call being on 'earlies', it is a system we have followed since Ben was Sam's age and it works very well. Anyway, Otis was having a bad amp morning which flowed down to me. It ended up being a false alarm(kind of) while it does take a lot of power to run the coffee machine once it's brewed the amp usage scales back. I am sure i will get some feedback for saying this, but there are just some things that are non-negotiable such as coffee, warm showers(not long or scalding showers mind you, but a quick warm one) and nice wine glasses fall into that category. Getting back to the point, the amp obsession continues....
We had a great weekend with Rach and Mike. However when they left on sunday the weather was nasty. We had to bring Indy around to Annapolis and anchor by the Naval Academy to drop them off but the wind was gusting up to 35 and the anchorage was not protected from the swells or the wind. When I dropped the anchor it free spun and I couldn't get the brake to stop it. It seemed as it if had jumped the windlass. Otis ran out onto the foredeck and we grabbed the rope and regained control. We(I) had about 150 feet of anchor chain out. O and I worked together to bring it up with the rain and wind just hammering away at us. After we pulled it up and fed it into the locker, reset and took a deep breath my hands were shaking and my heart was pounding. However it felt good that we worked together as a team. So, instead of launching the dinghy we called the water taxi and they picked Rach and Mike up. We pulled anchor asap and went back to Mill Creek where it was flat calm and protected from the wind(no wind generator whirling but peace of mind). The rain continued all day and eventually the wind clocked around and invaded our anchorage. We dragged anchor and had to reset it again, in the rain and wind. When I recalled this experience to my mom recently she said it sounded romantic or exciting......my response is that dragging anchor is about as exciting as driving a car with no brakes. Sorry mom but I couldn't resist!
So here we sit in our nice little anchorage. I actually provisioned today while we still have the car. O hung out on the boat with the kids. It's much easier bringing back provisions when the significant other is not onboard. On a boat it's not like you can just whisk the stuff away because almost everything has to be repacked. All meat has to be separated and repacked in zip ock bags(I buy in bulk). All things in boxes must be taken out of their boxes(due to bugs and space) and repacked in zip lock bags and a home must be found for it all. So there is plenty of time for the significant other to check out the wares. I try to ignore the 'wow, we have more' comments but sometimes they make me chuckle because I know that they are coming even before I get onboard.
Now that we are not on the dock we have to carry the stuff down to a dock from the car load it into the dinghy and onto the boat. Normally I would not let the cardboard onto our swim platform but it was getting late and the kids and mosquitoes were hungry.
Rach is coming again this weekend which is great. And there is even a rumor swirling that mom and john will be making an appearance in the very near future! We will be making our way north within the next coupls weeks as soon as the car has sold.
I interviewd ben this mornig on the life of a first mate onboard Indy and will transribe it tonight and post tomorrow.
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Comments [2]
Well the time has come for us to leave the dock. I am sad to leave as I have really settled into this dock life and the community we have formed. But, the people that usually have this space are arriving this weekend so we are off. What is the plan....that is the big question. It's is still a little cold to be heading north so we will cruise around here.
We had the old(I use that word loosely as she is only five years old and I would hate to be held to that standard!) girl out for a few days this week as all systems are up and running. Having the We Genny up was a learning experience. Whenever we tack she gets stuck on the forestay so i have to go up on the foredeck and push the sail through. I don't really like this set up and don't understand why it gets stuck but we figured out that if we roll it up a bit and then tack she will come around. If anyone has a suggestion as to why this is happening I would love to hear it(unless it is disparaging to our sailing ability). It just does not make sense to me. Also, our autopilot keeps going on stand by which MUST BE FIXED or figured out( by Otis of course), I like to come in and critique at the end. Hey, we all have our strengths.
As i write this I am waiting for Rach and Mike to arrive i can't tell you how excited I am to see them. i feel like a kid a Christmas. We will take them for a sail and then anchor, grill, swim and kick back....it shouldn't be this good fun.
On our sail the other day we went up to Wye river which was nice but a little eerie. Don't ask me why I just had a strange feeling there. I know there were better places within the river to anchor we just missed them. The area we anchored off of was low marsh and it was really hot and strangely quiet, maybe it's is the NYer in me, but when things are that quiet I get spooked out.
Otis was telling me that he heard the Japanese government said that if they had the Chesapeake they could feed the entire world barring China because of the ranges of the salinity in the water using acquaculture. Fascinating, huh? However there could not be the development that is currently there. Don't get me wrong it's not built up like Fla or CA but there are houses that dot the coast. Some of the houses date back to the Colonial time and are just stunning.
Gotta run
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this past weekend we had our friends and their two kids here. We went to a little anchorage around the corner which was nice, quiet(at least everyone else there was) and the water was clean(as clean as a mud bottom body of water can be!). The kids did really well swimming. I was pleased to see that Ben was eager to get in and swim. Sam just laughed, kicked and tried to blow bubbles.
Otis loved being on anchor because he could really check out the amps usage with all those people on the boat(he was pleased0. The water usage was a little harry but a) our friends did try to watch their consumption but not like someone that NEEDS to watch the consumption b) we will have a water maker once we leave the chesapeake c.) did i I mention the watermaker??. Yeah, we went through a tank of water in 30 hours.....not great, but there were eight people on the boat. Needless to say, it would be hard to beat MY water conservation, but then again that's a given..
WE didn't get any sails up because there was not a breath of wind on the bay. Iwas just like glass. Actually, the only wind was that created by our motor!! Given that it was memorial day weekend the bay was packed! I hate navigating around when it's that busy because you have people coming at you from everywhere and they don't know what they are doing, they are drinking etc. I was horrified to see people pulling their kids on an intertube in the middle of a busy channel. Are they just crazy!!!It never ceases to amaze me how careless people are sometimes. Anyway,...
We arrived back Sunday night about an hour before a vicious storm moved in kicking up fifty mile an hour winds, heavy rain, thunder and lightening and then just as it had moved in it was gone. I am amazed by the severity of the thunderstorms here. They always seem to pack high winds on the turn of a dime.
Today the rigging guys were here installing our new roller furling! They are suppose to finish in the morning so we can take off for a few days before my sister and brother in law arrive on Friday!! I can't wait to see them! It will be nice to take them out, anchor, swim, bbq and just have some laughs.
Tonight we went to the pirates place(Mike and Emily) for Chesapeake crabs which were delicious! I had never had them before so it was a learning experience. I am an instant convert. the kids played in the pirate area, digging up treasure while we all dissected what seemed like the entire chesapeake crab population.
I am provisioning the boat to head north. I have it all inventoried and will track what we eat to help me perfect the provisioning before we head down island where things get really expensive.
The plan is to leave here in about ten days. It;s bittersweet as I have really enjoyed myself. What a wonderful place to have the family acclimate to life onboard not to mention we got all of the work done that we needed to do.
Did I mention in my last entry that I bought new fabric for the headboards and settees in the cabins? The headboards look great. I went with a funky preppy theme but as my friend lara pointed out, I am funky preppy so it's not too far of a stretch. Oh well, they look great. Before all the rooms had the same fabric which had anchors on it. I know I am on a boat I don't need anchor fabric to tell me that. I am trying to find someone to make the settee cover for under what seems like an exorbitant amount of money. I may just have to wait until Maine where it is a little more reasonable.
Hopefully we will be off for a little family time tomorrow.
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Joe
