Somebody Bumped the Weather Machine (Seeking Motivation With Harry Heckel)

As I walked out the dock on SUNDAY to a bracing cold 50-degree drizzle, I had this thought... "Somebody bumped the weather machine".  I chewed on that for a while and then shared the above photo to the other slip-holders asking our manager to please double check the weather machine in the office... someone had clearly bumped it to "Mid-November" and it should be reset to "Memorial Day Weekend".

After the extreme heat last weekend, I was looking forward to this weekend which was supposed to be cooler.  As the week progressed, however, it became apparent that it would not just be cooler, it would be cold, wet and nasty - with temps in the low 50s, lots of wind and "real feel" temperatures (the modern equivalent of "wind chill") in the low to mid-40s.

Um, NO!

If you had told me in mid-April (when we first launched) that I could go sailing but we would experience mid-50s and wet weather, I'd have gladly packed my parka and headed out.  This late in the season, I decided, my time was better spent Friday evening and Saturday watching YouTube videos with Tom Tursi showing me how to dock.  

I also spent the time reading "Around the World in 80 Years" by Harry Heckel Jr.

I first heard about Harry some 12 or 15 years ago when my friend Carl (who was close to retirement at the time) came into our church's Men's Group with a long face one day.  

Upon questioning, he shared that he had to leave right after the meeting and race down to VA to (I kid you not) "Take the keys to the boat from his FATHER before he tries to sail around the world".  Carl was deadly serious and I expect my face registered complete bewilderment because the other guys broke out laughing at my expression.  (I thought... surely if Carl had a father, the old gent was just dreaming of escaping his nursing home.)

In the ensuing discussion, I learned that this was indeed very serious... Carl had a father in his early 90s and in a phone call the night before he mentioned going around the world AGAIN.  It seems the gent had the means (he lived on a boat), the knowledge and a habit of sailing around the world - having done it twice in the last 15 years.  Carl was worried because he didn't know if Harry was just beginning to think about getting ready to sail around the world, or was he all provisioned and ready to cast off???

Harry's book came out a few years later detailing his two circumnavigations.

Mini Book Report:  

Harry retires as a PhD Chemist at 55 years of age, and after a few years living on their sailboat, builds out a custom boat (from a hull... videos here and here courtesy of Barry - the guy who purchased her) and he and his wife, Faido, take as a maiden voyage a spin around the Pacific (down the coast of CA into mexico, across to the Marquesas, Tahiti, other islands, may have hit New Zealand, before heading back up to Hawaii and back to San Francisco).  They find their way to the East Coast and set off across the Atlantic but she finds out she has breast cancer and they have to return to the USA for treatment.  

She dies a few years later.

Partly in grief, Harry (mid-70s by now) becomes a single-handed sailor, goes through the Panama Canal and begins to retrace their first voyage.  Around New Zealand, he decided to continue west and completes his first circumnavigation at I think 78 years of age (taking 2 years to do it).  After a year break, he decided to cross the atlantic and goes around the other way... this time taking 10 years, getting rammed by a Chinese fishing boat in the South China Sea, welcomed as a hero in Japan, becalmed in the northern Pacific and rescued by a freighter (before a side trip to Hawaii).  He finished the 2nd circumnavigation at age 89.

I'll be honest with you.  It's a nice book, but not the most captivating reading.  The book is basically his travel notes edited by his daughter with a chapter contributed by his granddaughter.  It IS a charming story, relatively short, and VERY inspirational (especially how he dusts off his grief and goes on living).  

I especially like how by sailing, he befriends people from all over the world.  It's also an interesting capture of the cruising lifestyle back when people had to communicate by snail mail being forwarded to different countries, ship to shore radio, and the like (so different from today where a boat like Delos carries it's own high speed satellite uplink).

I found this photo of Harry, Idle Queen (the boat he built)
and Barry (the guy he sold it to) on Barry's blog.

Harry sold the boat to Barry who (as of 2019) still sails Idle Queen and writes a blog.

I needed inspiration (and turned back to Harry's book again) because I've been feeling a bit "glass half empty" lately.  Vicky is still "trapped" in China (it takes her almost a month of various quarantines, etc., to get back over there) making it really difficult for her to be able to return home.  I had been looking forward to her return in time for our "shutdown week" of forced vacation next week, but with the recent outbreak of COVID in Guangzhou, it looks like it might be a long while before she can get back.  (Her family are all safe for now... fingers crossed.)

So it looks like next week will be a single-handing tour of some Chesapeake destinations... hence my interest in Harry.

While reading Harry's book, I decided to sample some more of the fare at Osprey Point.

Sunday dinner - Filet
(The broccoli was out of this world!)

Monday breakfast - Quiche was the hot dish.

After breakfast on Monday, I did finally get out on the water.  The "weather machine" was reset and I had a pleasant outing.  

But speaking of weather machines... I swear that the button on Seas The Day's cabin that winches out the mainsail also calms the wind in my general vicinity.  As soon as I pulled the sails out, the 12 knot wind dropped to 3 knots.  After bobbing around for a while (you could hardly call it sailing), I pulled in the sails and motored around, this time exploring a bit closer to the Rock Hall waterfront.  Of course, the wind picked up as I made my way back into Swann Creek.

I ended the day with lunch from the poolside bar and grill.  Captain Gary had gushed about their burgers last summer, but with COVID (and nobody really wearing masks around the pool) last year, I had not had a chance to sample it yet.

WOW!  This burger was a work of art... 1/2 pound... smothered in bacon and cheese, perfectly done (medium to medium well) with fresh real fries.  

Sunday Lunch - Bacon Cheddar Burger at the poolside bar and grill.

It was NOT low calorie.  In fact, I'm still full at 8:00 PM not having had any supper.

Note that I did stop in Chesapeake City for a little ice cream.  It's hard to believe it has been 10 years since my Horizon Creative Photography Workshop that was held there on Memorial Day weekend in 2011.  (I credit this course with much of my photography success.)  There's no sign of Steve's operation any more at their old building, but Chesapeake City was thriving.