sometimes it IS the destination

Cruising, at least for me, is about the journey, not the destination.  Getting from one place to another in a small, open boat.  Dealing with the wind, the weather.  Trying to find the geography, marked so clearly on the chart, in that faint tree line along the shore.  Holding the course, getting the most out of the sails, coping with the the always changing wind and water.  I do enjoy the towns we visit along the way.  Oriental, New Bern, Bath, Tangier and Engelhard.  They are all great places and I enjoy them, but just for the night.  Then it is back on the water before dawn to continue the journey.

But the ChesBay 150 will be a little different.  It won't be just about the journey.  It will be about the destination too.  We'll be sailing in to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival.  Lots of people, lots of boats. (I have to wonder how that will feel.  When I see lots people I typically head in the opposite direction.)

The festival will be at St. Michaels, Md on the Miles River.  It is a nice little waterfront town.  I visited there about 20 years ago and the museum is the dominant attraction there.  There is a nice restaurant too, the Crab Claw, with a patio that looks out over the river.

It has been harder than expected to get information about the festival.  There is no separate web site, it is just a notation on the museum's schedule of events.  So I've been talking to Kevin, builder of the Navigator Slip Jig, and my neighbor Jim (who is in mid-build on a Navigator himself).  They both have attended the event several times.  I also found a schedule somewhere on the web for last year's event and I'm sure this year it will be very similar.
From what I've read and what I've seen on youtube (here's a typical video, there are plenty of them on youtube about the festival) there will be all kinds of boats.  Sailboats, power boats, old and new boats, wooden boats, fiberglass boats and canvas boats.  Classics, built by skilled craftsmen, and new homebuilts made by amateurs like me.  Kayaks, canoes and who knows what else.  

Bruce and I intend to meet up with the annual gunkholing overnight trip to the nearby Wye River on Thursday.  Friday we'll sail in to St. Michaels, get cleaned up and join in the informal cookout and listen to some bluegrass music from the band Bitter Creek.

Saturday is the big day with all sort of demonstrations, lectures, tours, etc.  The schedule says "judging" starts at 9 a.m.  I'm not sure what that is about.  Who needs to be judged?  (Hey, can't we all just get along??)  I think we'll slip our lines instead and spend the day on the water enjoying all the boats in the harbor.

This should be a great trip - an adventure sailing up the bay to St. Michaels and then a weekend of admiring some really great boats.  I can't wait.

Steve

a day for reefing

There was a Commonwealth Nations feel to Crawford Bay Sunday.  Of the four cruising sailboats anchored there, one was from Canada (very common) and two were from Great Britain (not so common).  That is Delphinus from Dartmouth, England.  The other boat was Shiver (great name I thought) from Cowes.

The forecast for light winds was wrong, it was blowing pretty good out of the northwest for most of the day.   I had rigged and launched Spartina in the wind shadow of downtown Norfolk, but as I got out on the river I could feel the wind and see the chop on the river.
So I tied in a reef.  I've finally gotten it down so I can put the reef in and still have a good, smooth set on the main.  The white line is the main's outhaul, the green is for reefing.  I used to tighten that reef line all the way down, the end result being an unfortunate crease across the sail.  But now I leave enough slack so that the grommet on the first set of reef points is six inches above the boom.  That gives the sail the nice smooth surface (below).  It looks better, but more importantly the reefed main is much more efficient and I can sail very well to the windward this way.
I've been thinking a lot about Onancock, Onancock Creek and Tangier Island since my visit there last week.  Our original plan had been to launch at Crisfield, Md, sail to Smith Island and then head north.  If I can rack up some extra hours this summer for an additional comp day or two I'll see if we can leave out of Onancock, sail to Tangier and then on to Smith Island before heading north.  I'll have to see what Bruce thinks when he gets back from Alaska.
I've always wanted to anchor overnight down at Cod Harbor.  My one sailing trip there the wind was out of the north and north east, the Cod Harbor anchorage would have been too exposed to the wind.  So maybe this next time the winds will be more favorable - it would work fine for winds out the south, southwest, west or even northwest.  Not really a harbor, it is really a long spit lined with beautiful white dunes.  Clear, shallow water - I think it would be a great place to spend an evening.

-Steve

Tangier Island

Had to run over to Tangier Island today for work, sometimes my job is pretty good to me.  It was a nice chance to revisit some places I have enjoyed in the past, plus do a little research for the ChesBay 150.

I've written blog posts about Tangier Island and the sound twice before, here and here.  But I had such a great time today I thought I would mention it again.

Tangier Island is one of two populated islands on Tangier Sound about halfway up Chesapeake Bay.  The other populated island is Smith Island just a few miles to the north of Tangier.  Both are known for clinging to their traditional way of life.  The islanders made news several years ago when they refused to let Paul Newman and Kevin Costner film Message in the Bottle on the island.  The production would have brought a lot of money and free publicity to the area, but the islanders did not like the drinking and swearing in the script.  So they told Hollywood to just go away.

Access to the islands is limited to boats or airplanes - no bridges to these places.  I took the ferry from Onancock, about hour and 15 minute boat ride.  
Just the ride down Onancock Creek made the trip worthwhile.  It is a winding four and one-half miles of tree lined creek, one of the more scenic rivers I've come across on the Eastern Shore.  I don't know why I have never taken Spartina up there for a day sail or an overnight trip.  There is a very nice, free ramp right at the town wharf and plenty of free parking.  I'll make sure Onancock Creek is high on my list for a three day weekend.  It makes for great kayaking I'm told.  The folks at Southeast Expeditions run trips, including a kayak winery tour in the area.  That sounds like fun.
As for sailing, I could see launching in Onancock in the afternoon and sailing down the creek to overnight in the protection of Parkers Marsh Wildlife Refuge, seen below.  There is a beautiful white sand beach and I could pick out a few well protected coves and creeks as we passed by on the ferry.  From there it is a quick trip around Ware Point out on to Tangier Sound.
Tangier is of course known for its crab houses, below,  built on stilts along the entrance channel.  The crab houses have the shedding tanks where waterman watch for the blue crabs to shed their hard shells.  Once they lose the hard shells the soft shell crabs are put on ice and shipped off to market.  (I like my soft shell crabs soaked in a little buttermilk for a while, rolled in corn meal and then fried lightly.  Served with lime and a good salsa, they make for an excellent meal.)
Today's trip reminded me that I really need to do more sailing on the Chesapeake Bay and, more specifically, Tangier Sound.  It is a beautiful, isolated area.  The water feels different from the Carolina Sounds, maybe because it is so deep.  A lot of the water is 20 to 50 feet deep, and in some areas it is over 100 feet deep (vs. the 20 foot or less water in Pamlico Sound).  So the waves, even when it is windy, tend to be farther apart.  And the clear, blue water is beautiful on a bright sunny day.  

Which do I like better, Tangier Sound or Pamlico Sound?  I really can't say - they are just different and I like them both.  But after four cruises in North Carolina, I'm ready to sail the Chesapeake Bay this fall.  

-Steve 

where's Waldo?

I mean where's Bruce??

Each day I get one or two Spot OK messages from him.  Here is this evening's email.

Alaska is great and we are having a good time. Everything is OK. 
ESN:0-7417967 
Latitude:55.7403 
Longitude:-132.2592 
Nearest Location:not known 
Distance:not known 
Time:06/23/2009 20:30:02 (US/Pacific) 
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=55.7403,-132.2592&ie=UTF8 

He is with friends on a nice boat fishing the waters of Alaska.  He's done this trip a few times and it does sound like a really great experience.  I'm sure he'll post a blog about it when he gets home in a week or so.

I've never been to Alaska but would like to go someday (during the summer of course).  One of my favorite books on the shelf, one I picked up at Books to be Red in Ocracoke years ago, is"Alaska Blues, A Season of Fishing the Inside Passage" by Joe Upton.  It is a great account of the author spending four months fishing along the coast of Alaska.  Interesting life style, interesting people.  I'll loan it to Bruce as I think he'll enjoy it, but not before I read it again.

There are a couple of other Alaska books I've enjoyed over the years.  "Passage to Juneau: A Sea and its Meanings" by Jonathan Raban is a favorite.   This is a nonfiction and very personal journey.  A little painful at times, but an interesting mix of personal and physical geography ( I've always enjoyed his travels by water books, everything from "Old Glory: An American Voyage", a fascinating trip down the Mississippi River, to "Coasting: A Private Voyage", a nonfictional trip about sailing around England and its fictional counterpart "Foreign Land: A Novel".  Those last two books make an interesting comparison of how a writer looks at a non-fiction journey and uses it in a fictional book. ) 

The other Alaska book is "Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic's Edge" by Jill Fredston.  That book is a great read, I could not put it down.  

But back to Bruce.  I'm sure they are catching a lot of fish, they always do.  He keeps telling me they catch enough to eat well on the boat, plus send lots of filets home for grilling out in the backyard.  It is interesting to me that Bruce figured out how to use dry ice to keep meat cold on our trips for days, yet he hasn't figured out how to use dry ice to ship a filet or two back to me on the east coast.  We'll have to discuss that on the next trip.

-Steve

chesapeake float

I received an email and some nice photos from Kevin, builder of the John Welsford Navigator Slip Jig.  He and his sailing friends got together for their 15th annual Chesapeake Float.
His report was short and to the point....

2 Marsh Cats, a 16 ft melonseed, a sea pearl, a crabbing skiff, 1962 celebrity one design, and the Navigator.   Rain squashed one day of sailing but a good time was had just the same 

Sounds great.  I really like the photo of the fleet.  That looks like the Sea Pearl on the left and Slip Jig on the right.  Have to guess at which is which in between - they all look like great boats.
I've emailed with Kevin a few times over the last several months, have never met him in person.  I'm guessing that that is him on the left.  My neighbor Jim, who is in mid-build on a Navigator himself, met Kevin up at the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival.  He got a good look at Slip Jig last fall and says it is one beautiful boat.  Sounds like Kevin knew what he was doing when he built the Navigator.  I'm looking forward to meeting him this fall, getting my own look at Slip Jig.

Nice boat, nice float.

-Steve

father's day

I heard Dad coaching me as I backed the boat trailer down the ramp this morning.  "Put your hand at the bottom of the wheel, move your hand the way you want the back of the trailer to go."  He wasn't there of course.  Dad passed away a few years ago.  But I can't launch the boat without hearing him.

He never got to sail Spartina.  His last summer we built the masts and the gaff jaws together.  He couldn't stay around for the launch, yet he is always along with me.  Under the main mast is a Liberty Quarter from 1926 (eagle side up - he was an aviator), his birth year.  As his life-long friend Jim observed, a Liberty Quarter from 1926 is probably worth 25 cents.  A Liberty Quarter from Dad's birth year under the main mast of a boat he helped build......priceless.
I left the ramp and found myself in the thick of the Cock Island Race pre-start.  I had forgotten it was this weekend.  Lots of boats, both racers and cruisers, all bigger than mine.  But I decided to join in with the fun.  I gave myself a headstart of maybe twenty minutes.  The leaders caught up with me soon and I watched the fleet, with full crews and high tech sails, pass by.  
It was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed trying to keep pace with the racers.  Lots of thumbs up, shouts of "beautiful boat!" and well wishes from all the crews.  After rounding the mark the wind picked up and I stayed ahead of the last few boats for a while.  But of course they caught up with me.  

As I rounded to Town Point Reach a boat cut me off at the coal pier.  Maybe they were sailing by the rules of the road, maybe their tactics were appropriate.  But it would have been nice if they had left me a little room so I didn't find myself in irons with a pier just yards to my lee.  Their motive came clear as the boat passed by and the skipper shouted "Thanks for making sure we didn't finish in last place!"  I guess there is room in the world for high-fiving and chest thumping on 35' boats with a crew of six that beat out a 17' 4" home built boat with working sails.  I just didn't know it.

I didn't have the heart to tell them I wasn't registered in the race.  Last place was still firmly in their grip.

Dad would have enjoyed that.

We had a great day on the water.

-Steve

anti-what??? powder

Sailing, relaxing, cooking, reading, it doesn't matter.  On a small boat we spend a lot of time sitting.  The seats are hard, clothes are damp.  Things can get rough if you know what I mean.  So on the next trip we'll be carrying some Anti Monkey Butt Powder.  

Sure, you can get your gold bond this, your baby powder that.  But I can't see having anything other that AMB powder on board.
And speaking of better living through chemistry, we'll also be taking some GU Energy Gel along with us on the next trip.

A day on the water saps my energy.  It doesn't matter if it is a hard day of sailing or just the weather, we both found that by late afternoon our energy was sagging a bit.  I've read that the Watertribe kayakers use something like this for a boost.  We'll have a few packs on board to see if it helps get us through the late afternoon.

-Steve

planning for the Bay

It's just a little piece of string, but cut to match a scaled 20 nautical miles on my ADC Map of Chesapeake Bay it gave me a rough idea of what we could cover in a comfortable day of sailing.   It confirmed the plan I had sketched out was practical.  The stops along the way could include Smith Island, the Honga River, Choptank River, Annapolis, Rock Hall and the Wye River.
Some days we might do 15 nautical miles, others we might do over 30.  It just depends on wind and weather and what we feel like doing.  There is a lot of give and take at this point.  The Honga River, seen above, is a good example.  That could be our anchorage on the second night of the trip.  It is 10 miles long with plenty of small coves, marshes and creeks on either side.  So we've got lots of options and more than 10 miles of choices before dropping the anchor.  That is pretty typical of the Bay's rivers.
As for food, we are talking about taking the same kinds of food with us that we had on the Skeeter Beater 126.  We'll just take a bit less of it (we had plenty leftover after the last trip).  Bruce promises a repeat on his great meals.  The trail mix snacks, beef jerky, cups of fruit, tuna salad lunches and peanut butter crackers will all be on board.

The soft-sided cooler with dry ice worked very well on the last trip so we'll do that again.  I found a "12 pack" soft sided cooler that nests perfectly in to the larger cooler we used last time.  There is room in the 12 pack for dry ice, a few frozen bottles of water and at least four one-pound packs of frozen meats.  Put the 12 pack inside of the larger cooler and I suspect it will keep the meats frozen or at least cold for five or six days.
Bruce wants to improve on Spartina's cook kit.  My kit is made up of odd pots and pans that I found around the house or at the dollar store.  He says he's found the perfect nesting, light weight camp cook kit at REI and will bring it back for the fall trip.  Fine by me.
Planning for this trip seems pretty straighforward to me now.  We've got a good boat, the right gear and a little bit of experience.  Just need to resupply our food, get new batteries and spend some evenings looking at the charts.  That should leave plenty of time for day sailing this summer (like tomorrow maybe!).

-Steve

Cruisin' Alaska Style

I am going to be heading up to Alaska next week to join some good friends and do some fishing and relaxing. I was thinking about the cruise Steve and I just finished and it reminded me of all the many different types of cruising I have seen in Alaska waters.

There is of course the traditional cruise to Alaska on board the big cruise ships. There isn't even a rock or roll on these babies as they move up the inland passage. See all the people getting fat as they are treated like royalty.

Then there is the trawler style cruising, perfect for fishing and exploring the thousands of bays and fiords of Alaska.

For the more adventurous there is always the kayak and paddle. This is an excellent way to get in close and see the wild life.

Here are two seals on a cruise of their own.

This big fellow is happy cruising these local waters and giving all the other cruisers a thrill.

This boat can't decide if it is a sailing or motor cruiser. Probably really happy doing both. Here they were trolling for king salmon.

Now these guys were cruising for the big ones. It was slow this day so they would be happy with about anything.

Some more daring like to cruise both the seas and the skys. Great views of the fantastic scenery.

This fellow likes to bring his sky cruiser along on his sea cruiser. Actually this is a commercial boat that goes around to the other commercial fishing boats and picks up their catch for processing and freezing. This way the commercial guys can stay out longer.

Now this is just one classic sail boat. A real beauty and probably available for charter. Just a tad bigger than Spartina.

Alaska is an amazing place, there is so much to see and do. A real outdoor-person's playground. So I'll be back shortly and I know Steve will keep the home fires burning.

Bruce

daily logs

Some folks have mentioned that it takes some work to read the daily logs in post form as they are shown in reverse order.  I've made a daily log list of links off to the right, below the ChesBay 150 map, starting with the first day and ending with the final day.  I hope that is easier to follow. 

-Steve 

back on the river

First daysail after the Skeeter Beater today.  Summer is here, hot and humid with wind out of the south.  Left the ramp about 8:30 and looked forward to seeing all those snow bird boats anchored out in Crawford Bay on the Portsmouth side of the river. 

I kept seeing these little "wakes" here and there across the river.  They seemed out of place until I saw the grey fins breaking the surface.  About 20 dolphins were moving in two or three pods.  I hadn't seen that many dolphin on the river in a long time.  It reminded me that we did not see any dolphin at all on the Skeeter Beater.  I've seen them every other trip on the Sounds.   
I talked with the folks aboard this 1974 John Alden Bristol design, they were from Oriental, one of my favorite towns in North Carolina.  I told them we had been there a couple of weeks ago and tied up at the public dock.  They laughed and said "public dock, that's free!!"  My kind of sailors.
And this lady below was on her way back to Rhode Island from Key West and the Bahamas.  I asked if I could take a picture because she looked so relaxed and peaceful.  She said she was about to ask me the same thing.
Wind was lighter than forecast, but that was fine with me.  Sailed up Scott's Creek, a narrow winding waterway through an old Portsmouth neighborhood.  Saw a beautiful yellow crowned night heron on the shore.  Bruce would have had a great time photographing the bird and the dolphins.

I sailed back to the Elizabeth River only to see the thunderstorms showing up earlier than forecast.  So I headed for the docks.  I made it to the ramp before the rain hit, but got soaked as I took down the rigging.  Tomorrow I'll dry out the boat.
Nice to be out on the water again.

-Steve

mapping out the trip

I'm still trying to figure out google maps so this is pretty rough.  But this is the first step in planning the fall trip.  Click here to open the map in google maps.  The starting point is Somers Cove Marina in Crisfield, Md.  It costs a few bucks to get a permit, but it is a good ramp and the parking lot is right next to the Coast Guard station so I think it is a safe place to leave the tow vehicle.  The first day's sail will be a short one, just over to Smith Island where we'll stay at an inn (Ewell Tide Inn, I think).  I've been to Tangier Island several times, but have never been to Smith Island.  I hear it is a nice place to visit and there is a good restaurant there.   From there we'll head up the islands of Tangier Sound and into the Honga River.  It looks like there are two cuts through Hoopers Island out to the Bay, not sure which one we'll use.  Then we'll sail north past Taylors Island and across the mouth of the Choptank River.  We could, depending on time, go in to Oxford (that's not marked on the map) or more likely go to Tilghman Wharf.   Then it is across the bay to the West River, Annapolis and then back across the Bay to Rock Hall.  Then south through Kent Narrows to the Wye River (where I hear, but have not confirmed, there is a sail-in the night before the Small Craft Festival).  Then it is on to St. Michaels for the festival itself.   I know there are a few places to stay along the way, plus we'll anchor out a few nights.  When we get a chance Bruce and I will skype and talk over the route.  I know he had some input that worked very well on the last trip.  So I'll see what he thinks.

Steve

Great Expectations

I was looking at John's website today to catch up on some of the Pathfinder projects underway around the world when I accidentally hit the link to The Pathfinder. I'm not sure if I had ever read these particular paragraphs John wrote as to what his objectives were in designing the Pathfinder. But as I read them, I thought about our recent cruise and how Spartina met his design expectations...

"I had in mind a really serious cruising dinghy. With full buoyancy, lots of storage...there are lots of dry storage spaces for camping gear and stores..."


"...really capable in a head sea ( a weakness in almost any small boat) and capable of making some sort of progress in really nasty conditions..."


"... A boat still really well adapted to exploring an estuary'... cruising along a sunny coast or even just knocking around the bay..."




"... My experience in sailing Navigators led me to strongly favour a rig similar to the yawl rig so popular on that design..."

"...One really good point of this rig is that the main lies straight down the middle of the boat when you are putting a reef in, much easier than a sloop where the boom invariably hangs over the side... for me the versatility of the yawl is hard to beat..."

"...The shape forward should mean she is a dry boat, and the big foredeck and wide side decks will help the crew to stay out of the spray..."


"...This boat has a very high power to weight ratio, her extra length over the 15 ft Navigator means a lot of extra sail carrying ability and still having the fine lines necessary for speed and comfort, I really like the rig, the gaff headed main is very controllable and the extra spacing between the main and mizzen will help the boat point well. She’ll be a rocket reaching and running and I suspect that it will take a very good boat to get away from her upwind..."

John Welsford, Designer

I know Steve thinks Spartina is a great boat and is proud of her and loves relaxing on board and enjoying a quiet evening sunset.

I am not necessarily any kind of expert to make conclusions about the capabilities of any boat, but I can affirm that Spartina lived up to John's design objectives, in spades. John, I salute you!

Bruce