Sunday, August 17, 2014

Life Is Good

        First things first.  Tomorrow is our Grandson Cole's 5th birthday... where has the time gone?


                     HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE....GRANDMA AND GRANDPA LOVE YOU!!!!


I see my kids read my blog.  Kent's comment on my "mother- in- law house" thought was, "sorry mom, not enough room in my backyard", but he was sure Cory could accommodate me as his back yard is MUCH bigger!  (Now we'll find out if Cory is reading the blog too :-)  )

We left St. Michaels and headed for Oxford last Sunday.  It ended up being a wet blustery couple of days  there on the hook but Gary got his chance to once again check out Cutts & Case boatyard, where they work pretty much exclusively on wood boats.  It is very, old school and should I say Quaint?  You can easily imagine it as it was 30 years ago....because it is like it was 30 years ago.  But interesting because of it.

We got a surprise tour of a Pacific Trawler when coming upon it anchored in Oxford. We stopped to ask what brand of boat it was and they invited us aboard.  Mary and Bill were heading back to their home in Rhode Island from Florida.  The boat was a 1975 Pilot house trawler that was in fabulous shape.  They said they had been going between the Tennessee River and Marathon for the past few years.  Now they were planning on spending the winter in Rhode Island (Brrrrrr) and then head to Canada for summers there the next three years.  
It's interesting to us to hear other peoples stories since to some people we seem to live a life style that is 'out of the norm', and granted it is, but talking to other boaters who spend a LOT of time aboard we are just a big happy family of normal people who love the water, love to explore and have chosen to pursue our dream!  

We have been waiting patiently (well I am never patient, but I try), for my crown (tooth, not Tiara), in Solomon's.  So we decided to stay in the East side of the Bay as long as possible.  It is a totally different vibe over here, not so busy.  We anchored in Trippe Creek off the Tred Avon River near Oxford for one night as it was a "new" anchorage that was highly rated.  Once again we were looking at lovely, not homes, but Estates. 

The following two Tidewater Mansions were my top choices.  They were definitely old wealth, not new wealth.  Nothing as gauche as a mother in law house....suites, dahling,suites...that also works for me :-)



We once again anchored in Leadenham Creek, (thanks Gwen & Walter for that tip) heading west since we would be crossing the bay to Solomon's on the first good weather day.  Leadenham has become our new favorite, even surpassing the Wye River north of St. Michaels.  As you get a little farther into the creek there is a beautiful rural area with big acreage farms and a lot of undeveloped waterfront.  Such a pleasant change from the 'I've gotta build it bigger' attitude that is taking over this area.  We were the only boat anchored on the creek for two days.  Then on Friday a few sailboats anchored in Little Owl Creek where we had anchored on our last stop here. 


               We look a lot closer to shore here than we actually were.

                                                         "Flood Zone Osprey Nest"

So we have to pass the time somehow and after reading a gazillion books I decided it would be a good time to get some work done.....groans abounded.

My theory being, when you live aboard you still have to find time for maintenance before things go from maintenance to a complete refinish....this was a perfect time to take care of some sun damaged panels that badly needed refinishing.  The forward cabin was getting to the "point of no return" since it gets a lot of sun from the deck hatch.  It took us a little over 2 days to refinish two doors and three sections of wall. The sanding made a huge mess but the result was worth it.





                                                                           Voila......

We had planned on crossing today, Sunday, but the wind forecast changed and yesterday appeared to be the best day.  It was perfect!  No wind, calm water AND we traveled with the tide instead of our usual against it.  We ended up getting some great fuel consumption numbers to add to the ships log.   We could see the white buildings at the Patuxent Navy Air Base near Solomon's from across the bay it was such a clear beautiful day.


I got so excited about the refinishing project that on the four hour trip across the bay I decided to tackle the next area needing some love....the companionway (which are the steps down into the 'saloon', pronounced 'salon'), silly I know but Hairdressers and couturiers have salons....sailors have saloons...it's a guy thing.

I must be gaining some arm strength from all of my Yoga.  I was tired after four hours but my arms weren't fatigued like they used to get.  Yay for the Yoga!


Last night we anchored in Mill Creek off of the Patuxent River with, you got it six sailboats.  I often wonder what they think of us in the middle of the pack.  When we drop anchor they probably think oh NO, generator noise to come.  Since we got our awesome solar panels we seldom have to turn on Old Genny..........well except to vacuum up sanding dust!


                            '1st ( and only) mate'.. jobs... rinsing the sticky mud off of the anchor chain. I know, I'm                                                            lucky, I could be hauling up the anchor!


and my absolute FAVORITE  (definitely not)...Laundry...2 weeks worth

                     .....if only he'd get me an electric start for the motor I could be my own taxi.....

although laundry is a giant BORE-chore....I am making the best of it by getting this blog posted!!!!!!


So the dryers have buzzed, the blog is done, and the first coat of varnish will be done by the time my taxi arrives.  Life IS good!!!

1 comment:

  1. Jann & Gary,
    Look in to getting an 'inverter' to run your vacuum and any other 110 volt things. It would work good for charging cordless tools too.

    ReplyDelete

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