From The Wind in the Willows:
"Believe me, my young friend,
there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats."
As I noted in my anchor research, I've become a fan of Drew Frye's Sail Delmarva blog as well as some of his books and articles.
Anyone who's ever owned a boat, has heard this quote from The Wind in the Willows hundreds (if not thousands) of times. As Drew points out in the introduction to his blog, this is frequently cited as a reason to ditch life here on land and head out to sea, but he goes on to explain that the water rat who receives the advice, considers a sea life, but is unable to explain his compulsion to his friends and eventually "regains his sanity". (Read it on Drew's blog at the link above... he's better at expressing this.)
Drew goes on to explain...
"What most of us need is a miniature adventure. It suits the time available. More to the point, it fits our priorities. We have families ashore. We have friends. We have shore-bound interests at least as important and valid. In other words, the myth, yea the fantasy, of casting all aside and following the winds across an ocean isn't something we're avoiding out of cowardice, but rather because it makes no damn sense to us. For heaven sake, we're land animals and we like it that way."
This really spoke to me. I've long been a fan of SV Delos, Sailing Uma and others (such as Harry Dreckel) who are crossing oceans, sailing around the world and doing all sorts of adventures. But while I like to view and read these exploits, I have personally never craved sailing out on the ocean. In fact, the one experience I've had on the ocean for two days, didn't really excite me - in fact it had be contemplating how I could return Seas The Day 315 during this delivery trip. So Drew's blog seemed to be saying that... you know, it's OK to just get out on the water just to "mess around".
In fact, that's what I've been doing all summer so far. I don't really have any sailing goals... just enjoy the fact that I have this boat and the ability to mess around in it, but in the end, "real life" (and a very good one at that) awaits me back on land.
And that's what I did this weekend.
There was a lot going on at work on Friday and I wanted to stay near a good connection since some last minute calls extended after 5:00 and in the end I decided to stay at home reading Drew's book on single handing.
I left early Saturday morning for the weekend (intending to stay overnight and possibly Monday as well). As I walked out on the dock, you couldn't help but notice the dark clouds just a bit to the northeast. Were these the fading remnants of a previous storm, or warnings of what was to come? My radar app seemed to indicate the former, so I unloaded and quickly went out.
It was a beautiful day. Winds were in the 10 - 15 kt range with gusts into the high teens.
An error I made with Otto had me uncomfortably close to Sol Searcher (a commercial charter boat which is in a nearby berth on B-dock). Getting so close makes for a great iPhone photo once my heart restarts.
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| Joe out with some guests on Sol Searcher |
I set up and was close-reaching across the bay (just enjoying a beautiful day as shown in the two videos below).
I did notice that there was a really weird steampunk-looking thing off in the distance towards the bridge. I watched as it got closer and realized it was something being towed. My AIS indicated it was the Justine Mcallister and of course I was heading towards it. The AIS inbox also showed that she was slowing down. I tacked away, and she sped up and when I tacked back (thinking she had passed), she slowed down again. My memory wasn't good... she wasn't in the channel... did she have the right of way or did I? In any case, I hailed her on the VHF Ch13 and let her know I was aware of her and would just be tacking back and forth but staying out of her way. The good captain thanked me for the call and resumed his track.
As she passed, it appeared that he was towing the front part of a submarine of some sort. The marine traffic app indicated she left Norwalk, VA (home of much of the Navy's shipbuilding on the East Coast) and was headed to Groton CT (home of the US Coast Guard). I'm thinking it's part of some sort of research submarine - the Coast Guard does a lot of neat environmental research.
Saturday was also the trip where I tested our new SailRite electric winch handle. Both Vicky and I have experienced shoulder pain after periods of sailing. I just had a visit with the doc Friday afternoon (why my work ran overtime). The winching might be a cause and I decided to add this capability. It works great for furling and unfurling the jib... you still need a normal winch handle for fine adjustment. (Note that the self-tacking jib has many more blocks that the jib sheet passes through, so it's not possible (at least for me) to just haul out the jib by yanking on the jib sheet. It always requires it to be winched out and the new handle will make this easier. Above you can see it being used to quickly crank in the jib as the winds picked up from a squall to the south.
With what looked like a storm over the mouth of the Chester River, I decided to head in. The track was a simple motor out to Green #3, then sail across, tacking back and forth a few times and eventually taking a nice beam reach back to the east before motoring up north to Swan Creek. So yea, just messing around in a boat. (And I have to agree... there is nothing half so much worth doing!)
After grabbing an incredible brisket sandwich from the pool bar & grill at Osprey Point, I spoke to Joe from Sol Searcher and learned that frequently the charter captains do just the same thing - motor down to Green #3, sail out a bit and back and then motor north to come in.
I also saw this beautiful Kady-Krogen coming back and walked out to help Anne & Dave tie up.
The rest of the afternoon was just relaxing. I was making the bed and stowing stuff as the water for dinner was heating up when I realized that I forgot my CPAP machine (a device that helps me sleep better without snoring). I realized with an hour or so before sunset, that I had to quickly make a choice between a good night's sleep by heading home or dinner on the boat. I quickly abandoned the water, shut off the gas and closed things up before heading home.
I'll head back later in the week for the holiday weekend!
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