Wehave not been able to get to our boat at all since last Saturday'sblizzard.   While we were still buried under a mountain of snow, Mother Nature began dumpinganother 20 or so inches on us. Another storm is expected on Saturday.We don't even have anyplace to put any more snow if we could move it.Shoveling it is like trying to empty the ocean with a teacup.I cleared off our porch this morning, then cleared off the cars and shoveled a little around them, and in the length of time it took me to do that, another 2 inches accumulated on the porch.  I just heard on the news that we have had 72 inches so fa this year, and that there has never been conditions like this in this area in recorded history.  Sigh....  Lance goes out every couple of hours to plow to stay on top of it, but at some point there will be no place to push it to.

Lance's 60th birthday was yesterday.  Going out for any kind of celebration would not have been wise.  It had already started to snow hard by 4:30 and visibility coming home was almost zip.  We had 2 dinners/parties to go to last weekend, both were cancelled.  We are supposed to go to a Valentine's dinner/dance this Saturday, but it will likely be cancelled as well. To say that we are getting cabin fever would be an understatement.

Since Sojourner is on the hard in a yard that's sort of "out of theway" in the country on the Chesapeake, it will likely be a very longtime before a snow plow gets near it and we are able to check on it.  Wehave a 4WD Jeep with a snow plow on the front.  We tried to get to it last Sunday, but it was not possible. It will now be less possible. Thank God she is in a sturdy cradle and shrink wrapped. We worry a bit less than weotherwise might have. I can't even imagine if she were in the waterright now. A lot of folks at our marina opted to stay in this season.Who could've known this was coming.

In a moment of insanity 7 years ago we moved to Maryland from SanDiego, where we could sail all year and I don't think they even sellsnow shovels. As I look out my window and see nothing but white covering everything, I can't even entertain theprospect of the idea of sailing. It seems like an unattainable dream atthis point.  Spring cannot come fast enough. 

"Fair Winds and Following Snowdrifts..."
Becky

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  Well, we're back at the Baltimore Yacht Club.  The newest members, all seniority lost.  We are back at half dues now, pending a slip assignment, but that elusive permanent slip is even further away now that we've lost almost 3 years of seniority.  And they say what you don't know can't hurt you.  Hah!! 

What we didn't know, what the dockmaster just told us after we rejoined is that if we had waited until late May or early June, after everthing settled out and they saw who had failed to bring a boat into their slip, we most likely would have gotten a temporary slip again this year.  He said July at the latest even the newest members were bringing in boats.  That would have given us 2 more months of sailing than what we had this year.  (For those of you who have no idea what I'm babbling about, see the previous entry, "Goodbye to the BYC")

I guess, if we are honest, we'll admit that we're a little hurt that no one tried to retain our membership by explaining this to us at the time we resigned.  The information we got was that all slips we're full, SORRY!!.   But we'll get over that and move on, with maybe just the tiniest twinge of resentment from time to time over what we lost.

We did manage to launch our boat in September for just a month.  We had her in a temporary slip at Maryland Marina.  They are super nice people there, very professional, and their yard services are without equal for quality and timeliness, but the slips and facilities, not so much.  Don't want to be there.  Looked at numerous marinas in our area, and could not find one that could match the amenities, convenience and facilities of the yacht club.  And it's 2 miles from our house to boot. 

We toyed with the idea of buying a small trailerable daysailer that we could keep in our yard and end our dependence on marinas and boatyards once and for all.  But we're a little boat-spoiled at this point, and at this point they idea of shifting our weight to keep from ending up in the drink just doesn't sound like our idea of a good time. Then we thought it might be worth it to sell the 28 and buy a smaller boat with a shallower draft which might give us a better chance at a slip.  But after hours of agonizing discussion and going back and forth about it we have finally come to the conclusion that we are just not ready to give up on our CD-28 yet.  We had wanted her for so long and have worked so hard to make her into the comfortable beauty that she is, and we've only had 2 partial seasons to enjoy her.

So we'll wait it out this year, and next year, and maybe even the year after that.  Hopefully we'll get to launch by June.  But we'll take whatever portion of the season we can get and use the time we  spend sitting in the yard waiting to finish work on the upgrades she still needs.  We have a gudgeon shoe that needs to be reglassed, and deck cracks to be filled.  Our forward hatch needs to come off and be cleaned.  The plexiglass window(?) in the cabin top has black mildew under it so that needs to come off and be resealed.  Deck hardware needs to be rebedded.  The cockpit locker covers need to come off and be painted on the inside and the hardware replaced.  The sliding companionway hatch needs to come off and be painted inside and out, a job best done while the shrink wrap is still on. 

There's a million and one things that maybe wouldn't get done at all if we were able to just plop her in the water and take off sailing.  Could be it's a blessing in disquise.

Oh heck, do I need to change the title...........

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family and fun and prayers of thanks. 

"Fair Winds and Following Seas...."

Becky

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  Saturday - September 5, 2009

It's almost 11:00 pm and we have finally knocked off for the night.  It has been a full day of commissioning work, and we are ready to get underway tomorrow.  The sails are on, the boat is rigged, the ice box is stocked and the boat is cleaner than either our house or our cars.  (In the mind of a sailor, that means our priorities are just as they should be.)  The remaining gear we need is all sorted and laying out in the dining room ready to load in the morning. Destination - Rock Hall.

The slip we have at the Maryland Marina for the rest of the season is really tight quarters, but we have a very nice boat neighbor who seems content with the fact that we have placed 3 fenders between his boat and ours.  It's not an ideal situation and not one that would want to make permanent, but considering the fact that we thought we would get to do NO sailing this year, it's a gift, especially at such short notice. 

Sunday morning we have everything loaded aboard and are ready to go. 



The sail to Rock Hall was pleasant and uneventful.  The weather was extremely nice and the wind cooperative.  I guess that sounds bland.  It's anything but.  What is it about sailing that pulls us in and holds us fast?  People who don't get it really don't get it, and people who do get it can never get away from it.  Even when it's uncomfortable it's rewarding, and when conditions are right it can be almost spiritual.  There is that magical moment after the sails go up and when hear that snap as the wind fills them and they start to draw.  Then you cut the engine and everything goes silent except for the sounds of waves lapping against the hull and the occassional flapping of the canvas when it momentarily loses the wind.  Throw in sun sparkling off the water, a cooler full of sandwich fixins and cold drinks and your perfect partner to share it with.  Divine.



My perfect partner.........



There is a very long shoal that stretches for about a mile outside the entrance to Rock Hall Harbor.  You have to swing well south of it to enter without danger of going aground.  Thank God Lance is an excellent navigator.  He has never failed to deliver us safe and sound to every destination.  A couple of boats we passed outside the harbor were not so lucky.  They were stuck hard aground, and later we watched as they were pulled off the hard with the rising tide.


 We had called in advance and made arrangements to spend the night in a slip at North Point Marina.  The folks there are as nice as any you'll find anywhere.  The were ready on the radio to guide us into our slip and when we pulled into it there were 2 dockhands standing ready to catch our lines.  The wind was, of course, working against us and was blowing us down fast on the boat to our port, but with those 2 extra pair of hands and Lance and I scrambling like crazy we got her secured without incident.  If it weren't for entering and exiting slips, sailing would be, for the most part, "a breeze".



After we got everything tidied up we set out for our traditional walk around the docks.  We never tire of looking at all the different boats, their hailing ports and the characters that sail them.  As we were walking down the dock we looked over and to our shock and amazement saw a 50' catamaran blowing down hard and fast onto a new 42' catamaran that was at the dock with a young couple and their baby aboard.  We learned later that the young couple had just purchased the boat and were planning to set out on the cruise of their life. So we could imagine the horror they must have been feeling as they faced the prospect of their dream coming to an abrupt end.  The larger boat had broken free of its anchor.  They owner was in town shopping and there was no one aboard the boat.  Apparently the skipper of the wayward boat had been warned early in the day that his anchor was dragging, but he chose to ignore the warning and now the young couple on the 42 footer was facing the consequences. . 



Lance quickly sprang into action and joined several other men from thedock as they jumped aboard the smaller boat to fend off the 50 footer. Unbelievably they were successful in holding off the big cat until helparrived to pull it back out to the anchorage



The owner plopped the anchor right back down again in the same spot andwent about his business.  We gave a silent thanks that we were notanywhere in his path should he break loose again.



After all the excitement was over, we headed over to The Harbor Shack  for a nice dinner and some live entertainment.  We enjoyed conversation with our neighbors to port.  We find that you can learn more about boat neighbors in one evening than you can about your neighbors ashore in a year.  Another benefit of sailing, instant friends.

Monday morning the marina served donuts and coffee, free gratis to all the boaters.  We had some and were soon on our way back home. The sail back was as pleasant as the sail out and we were back in our slip by late afternoon.

A great weekend.

"Fair Winds and Following Seas....."
Becky

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We're pretty sure we've just experienced some divine intervention.

We didn't launch Sojourner this summer.  We had one helluva year.  Family drama, new jobs and house repairs have kept our heads spinning. In the spring, fully expecting to have a slip for the season, the Baltimore Yacht Club didn't have room for us.  Out of frustration we decided to sell Sojourner.  But when it came right down to it we couldn't bring ourselves to part with her, so we decided instead just to leave her on the hard for the year, devote ourselves fully for this summer to all the million other things we had going on, and deal with trying to find a slip next year.

The summer passed and with the exception of the occassional drive by the boat yard to make sure she was still safe and sound, we basically didn't pay her any mind.  Then a couple of weeks ago we got the bug.  We wanted to get her all cleaned up, varnish the wood, wax the hull and then shrink wrap her for the winter so that in the spring we could just cut the plastic off, splash her and sail away. 



So last Saturday, brand new buffer in hand, we set off to wash and wax the hull.  We plugged in the buffer, no power.  We checked the boatyard bathrooms, no power.  We checked the paint shed, no power.  Finally we linked together 7 extra long extension cords the entire length of the boatyard and got power from the back of an office bldg that houses the boatyard offices long enough to get our waxing done.  But we were starting to get a really bad feeling.  We asked around the boatyard and no one has seen the owner around for awhile.  We called about a dozen times in 4 days trying to get some information, even to his personal cell, but he doesn't answer and he never calls us back.  Last night at around 6:00 Lance decided to swing by the boatyard to see if he could catch anybody there and there were several people he had never seen before in the office going through all the files and books.  When he went to open the door they motioned that he needed to go away.  Now it's officially panic time.

Finally this morning I called a marine contractor who used to have an office at the boatyard (seeing his office emptied out increased our suspicion that something was definitely wrong).  He said that the boatyard was going under, bills weren't being paid, the owner owed back taxes, that likely the place was in foreclosure and we'd better get our boat out of there before someone slapped a lock on the gate and the boat got secured along with everything else.  Yowza!!



I figured that was good advice, but if the owner won't return your calls and you can't find him anywhere, who's going to launch the boat?  He filled us in on where to find the guys dad.  He says that the dad used to run the boatyard and that if we could track him down, he might launch the boat for us.  Next problem, where to take it.  The season is almost over, and in an area where slips are generally hard to find, we figured everything would be full.  But as luck, and God, would have it, we had immediate success finding a slip and a spot for winter haulout as well.  Lance tracked down the guys dad after work today.  Within an hour the boat was in the water.  An hour after that it was sitting in it's temporary slip in Frog Mortar Creek.  (To give credit where credit is due, the owner of the boatyard was super nice about the whole situation and got us a jump off his portable battery charger when we discovered that both our batteries were dead.)

Any number of things could have happened differently and we would have been none the wiser that things were going bad at the boatyard.  But everything went the way it went and we not only got our boat out, but we will get to enjoy a month or so of sailing before we haul back out for the winter.  This was an unexpected development and pretty much makes all the drama worth it.  Just in time for a 3 day weekend too. 


  Tonight when I logged on I saw that it has been 148 days since my last entry.I have had blogger's malaise pretty much ever since we bought Sojourner. Last year I told my self it was because we were too busy refurbishing and sailing the boat to have time to write about it.  During the winter it was too cold to think about boats.  No boat thoughts, no blog entries. Then our grandkids came to stay with us for a few months, then Lance changed jobs, then we thought we were going to sell the boat, then we changed our minds, then.... then.... then....

The fact of the matter is that I have just been lazy about blogging this year and that is unfortunate because the boat has undergone a tremendous transformation.  And we took some really fun cruises last summer.  I outlined a hundred blogs in my mind while it was all happening.  I took pictures of our projects with every intention of sharing them.  I took lovely photos of sunsets from anchor and lighthouses we passed and lightening over Baltimore.  I just never found the time or the energy to sit down and hammer them out.  Maybe this winter I'll manage to fill in the blanks......if I'm not too cold.


"Fair Winds and Following Seas"
Becky

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THE TANK

The other option, and the one we will be going with, is made by Ronco Plastics. Cape Dory 28', 30' and 36' sailboats all use the same tank so a group of Cape Dory owners got together some years back and had Ronco tool up a mold for them. They still sell the tank, it is listed as an 18 gallon tank (I have no idea where Kracor hides the other 6 gallons as the dimensions for both tanks are within a knat hair of being identical). It is ...<< MORE >>

May 27, 2008

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This weekend was pretty much devoted to trying to identify and get rid of things that stink. << MORE >>

After everything was organized and we had had all the necessary conversations about how we were going to exit the slip and basin, we both said a short prayer for the trip and our future with the boat. We then gathered in the dock lines and backed out of the slip without incident. It was 11:39 AM and we were on our way. << MORE >>

After a week of anticipatiing our shakedown cruise from Pasadena, MD to our boats' new home at the Baltimore Yacht Club in Essex, we awoke this morning to a disappointing weather report.<< MORE >>

Saturday, weather permitting, we will be sailing her home. << MORE >>

We hope this is our final boat purchase. This time it's our dreamboat instead of another shipwreck. << MORE >>