drosophila melanogaster.

the common fruit fly.  WHY does this pest merit a blog entry?  as we approach fall and the harvest season and if you live anywhere near a farm that grows cantaloupe or tomatoes, you will have fruit flies.  WE have fruit flies.  sigh...  when we first moved to deltaville late in 2008, we did not encounter them until the next year around harvest time and we wondered what we did to merit this infestation!  as it turns out, it is common enough and folks were pretty blasé about it (just cover your wine glass, etc.)  i doubt that i could EVER be blasé about ANY bugs though.  granted, fruit flies do not bite or sting but STILL!  don't have any bananas lying around - these guys love them.  they go right through your screen doors.  they are tiny.  i once watched, fascinated, as a little fruit fly squeezed itself through one of the regular open squares on my screen door.  grrrr....  they sell traps at the hardware store but you can make your own easily enough with a soda bottle. cut the top off, load the bottom part with bait - wine, rotten bananas, orange juice, etc. and put a drop of dishwashing detergent to break the surface tension then put the top back on upside down after removing the cap.  but the secret is to put your trap OUTSIDE your home.  if the little buggers can squeeze through the holes in your screens to come inside, they can do the same thing to go outside.  keeping the trap on your kitchen counter to get the flies that are already inside only guarantees that you will attract more flies from outside.  put the trap OUTSIDE and they will leave your home.  anyway, that is my two cents.  we thought we got away from the fruit flies when we left deltaville a couple of weeks ago.  no such luck - they had them in solomons and they had them in cambridge.  bugs are bad enough to begin with but when they deliberately defy the screens on my doors and windows, i seriously take offense.

okay.  on to cruising.  the original plan was to leave cambridge early in the morning and pick up some fuel at calvert marina in solomons before dropping the hook and relaxing the afternoon away.  this did not happen because of the strong winds that morning.  this is typical of cruising.  weather dictates everything and every cruiser knows this.  the winds died down around noon so by the time we got to solomons, the fuel dock was closed.  no problem.  we dropped the anchor, took consuelo out in the dinghy, had dinner, etc. etc.  i actually went to bed early for a change!  so tired...   the next morning, consuelo woke us both up at 6:30 and as soon as we were ready, we pulled up the anchor and headed toward the calvert marina fuel dock to tie up there and wait for it to open.  as it turns out, the fuel dock attendant called in sick and no one else could take his place until around noon so we went over to the solomons yachting center's fuel dock instead.  more expensive, so we didn't pick up as much as we had intended to.  we will be back anyway on our way up to annapolis next month but well, the best laid plans....

headed back to deltaville as i write this.  well, at least that is the plan. gonna be a long day plus we still have to cross the mouth of the potomac.  every now and then, i have to remind myself that we don't HAVE to be anywhere specific.  we can stop wherever tonight and make deltaville the next day instead.  ahhhhh.... the cruising life!