hailstorm.

so far, we have been having a very pleasant stay at drum point marine despite the fact that we are here because we are broken.  there is a west marine within walking distance so tom has managed to get some projects done.  no excuses since supplies are readily available.  gary, drum point marine's owner, is himself working on replacing our circulating pump at the current time.

yesterday evening at about 1700h, we had some weather come through.  tom had been watching the radar because we wanted to run over to west marine to get some non-skid tape and didn't want to get caught out in the rain.  i asked about closing up the cockpit enclosure and he said that we had time.  i no longer listen to him about not bothering to close the overhead hatches when we leave - i ALWAYS close those. it doesn't matter if there is NO chance of rain, they will be shut no matter what.  living in deltaville all these years, we have gotten used to seeing weather cells on the radar approaching and then splitting up and leaving a clear window right over us - i don't know why this happens but it often did.  the northern neck of VA would get slammed and those of us on the south side of the rappahannock river would be just fine (except, of course, for the tornado in 2011 - EVERYONE felt that one!).  in any case, this is not what happened.  we did make it back from west marine in plenty of time before the wind and rain arrived and then we got blasted with hailstones as big as marbles!  this went on for a while and i have to say, it was really quite alarming.  i've seen hail before - pea-sized and lasting for a few seconds - but nothing at all like this! the racket was horrible.  the water was boiling. the whole thing was nerve wracking.  after what seemed like a really, really LONG time, it stopped and all was quiet. the wind died for about a minute and then it started up again, this time going the opposite direction and then came the torrential rain.  it didn't last long and when it was over, the sun came out and it was like nothing had happened - except for the fog over the creek created by the ice falling into the water and mud and run-off cascading from the land into the creek from the rain.  we stepped outside to check up on things and  aside from being seriously plastered with leaves, the boat was fine.  in the meantime, gary and crew were out fishing at the mouth of the patuxent river and i was a bit worried about them. they came in a couple of hours later and they were fine, too.  it was really something.  scary even when you think about it with that wind changing direction like that, like there was some kind of circular vortex going on.  i'm glad that we were tied up at the dock instead of anchored for this one.

tom took a video while all of this was happening and here is the link to it: 

hailstorm

i took a not-very-good photo through the window:  

hailstones! 

so much for planning.

we stayed in oxford for a week.  or rather, consuelo and i stayed in oxford for a week while tom was gone to martha's vineyard over the weekend. it was very relaxing and campbell's town creek marina is a really neat place.  it's small but very comfortable. when we left, the plan was to cross the bay heading south and then make a decision about where EXACTLY we were going to spend the night depending on how things went. it was really a nice day, great weather, and both the choptank river and the chesapeake were pretty flat.  that always works for me.  i don't enjoy the banging and the crashing, listening to my dishes rattling in the cabinets, watching consuelo be terrorized, etc. etc.  we decided that instead of staying a night in solomons and picking up the anchor and moving again the next day, we would just head straight to smith creek on the potomac river and then sit at anchor for a couple of days.  about six miles south of the patuxent river, i asked tom a question, the answer to which was to be found in the engine room.  lucky thing because when he opened the hatch, he discovered a lot of blue coolant fluid in the oil pan under the engine.  now, tom is mr. safety himself.  he had crawled all over the engine room checking on this, that and the other before we left oxford, and if there had been a leak then, he would certainly have noticed it.  the leak must have just happened so it's a lucky thing that he had an excuse to go down there.  anyway, he filled up the coolant overflow container and started checking around.  he found the leak and his provisional diagnosis was that it was the circulating pump.  anyway, we called drum point marine in solomons.  these are the people who repaired tadhana's engine after we got hit by lightning in 2012.  their top technician is a girl named katie.  ok, i am going to digress a bit here.  diesel mechanic is kind of an unusual profession for a female but my theory is that because she is a woman in a man's world, she simply has to be better than any of them.  that's how it usually works.  katie and i got along great and tom was very impressed with her.  i think someone asked us back then if we had a problem with a woman working on our engine.  WHY would we have a problem??  the bottom line is that the work gets done properly, no?  the added advantage was that katie was NOT messy - you know how some mechanics leave greasy fingerprints everywhere?  they are usually men :)  as it turns out, katie's pretty well known in her profession and not just because she's the only rose among the greasy thorns.  in any case, i just happened to have katie's personal cell phone number.  it's who you know, you know.  tom spoke to her a while and then we turned around and headed back north to solomons.  for some strange reason, now when i look at the hairpin curve track on the chartplotter on my computer, i just find it amusing.  tom had the kitchen timer set for every 10 minutes to remind him to open up the hatch and look at the overflow container to see how much coolant we were losing and how quickly.  when we ran out of coolant, he just ran fresh water through the system.  we went slowly and limped in to solomons. katie and gary, drum point marine's owner, both met us at their service dock.  they couldn't have been nicer or more helpful. katie confirmed tom's diagnosis and so it was just a matter of available replacement parts.  and so, here we sit in a boatyard again - at  least this time we don't have to be hauled out.  after we got settled in, i went back to work and when i looked up from my computer, i thought my  view was very pretty.  drum point marine's yard is at the head of back creek.  if you don't look at the boatyard itself, which, i'm sorry to say, is a disaster - it looks like a junk yard - the cove that it is in is very nice to look at.  tom suggested that i take a photo of "the view from my desk" at every place we stop.  he said i'd have quite a collection and i thought that was a really neat idea so i'm starting this collection with back creek as my first photo.

the circulating pump will not be installed until friday, two days from now, as they are waiting for the part and tomorrow afternoon, drum point marine's employees are scheduled for a fishing expedition.  that is fine.  if one is going to be stuck for a while, solomons island is far from a bad place to be stuck.  both tom and i are getting work done.  we have electricity.  we have water. we have wifi and it is easy to get consuelo off and on the boat.  grocery store, west marine, post office and restaurants nearby and as long as i'm facing my computer, i've got a terrific view with lots of action  - ospreys, great blue herons, mallards...  and the bickering barn swallows seem to like to hang out on tadhana's railing, too, so i get a close-up of them every time i look up.

as an addendum, i would like to reiterate the cruiser's definition of cruising:  "cruising is doing boat repair in exotic locations."  we got our baptism of fire early on in the course and it wasn't even that fiery either.  let's hope it stays that way! 

planning.

one thing about cruising is that you can't always make a plan and then stick to it.  you have a general idea of where you want to go and when you want to be there but there is a good chance that the plan will change. in fact, you MUST expect that the plan WILL change.  that's sort of how it is and you have to be flexible.

we had to leave tangier island because i have to work and i can't do that without internet so it was off to crisfield.  then we had to stay in crisfield one more day for favorable weather and after that, we crossed the Bay to solomons island where we spent one night and then crossed the Bay again to the choptank river.  we spent one night in la trappe creek across from cambridge (lots of good memories in that place - it used to be one of our favorite spots from when tom and i both lived in annapolis.) actually, the original plan had been to go straight to oxford, spend one night on the hook and then take a slip at campbell's town creek marina, but while i was busy working and not paying attention, tom decided to surprise me and change the plan.  when i looked up from work and checked the chartplotter, i noticed that we weren't taking a direct route to the tred avon river and quickly figured out where we were going.  it was a nice surprise.  it was a perfect evening, too, until consuelo decided to pee on the bed at about midnight!  she slept in the cockpit that night - i was so upset with her.  the next day, we left for oxford, where tom's brother lives, with the plan for TADHANA to sit at the marina for a week so that tom and henry could drive up to martha's vineyard over the weekend for their father's memorial service.  the timing of our arrival was perfect because we had some weather come in again and we were in a good place to sit it out, not to mention doing some major laundry and buying a new mattress pad.  oh well, obviously, it is not only the route planning that changes. 

i'm not exactly sure where we will be next week but the general plan is to be at the southern potomac the last week of this month.  you know, whatever...  the main constrictions are an internet connection, whether it be via wifi or a strong signal for our USB modem, and close to a place where consuelo can stretch her legs and do her thing.

speaking of consuelo, as i had mentioned prior, she has been having some little old lady issues, i.e. "accidents," so that is an adjustment as well for us.  but the fact of the matter is that she is a part of our family unit and we do our best to work around her little problem and find solutions.  in any case, she has been banned from our bed forever - i simply can't trust her little incontinent bladder.  poor consuelo has to make adjustments, too, and so far, the past two nights, she has been unable to figure out a way to get back on the bed at night, try as she might. it is hard to watch sometimes but life is all about change. she will be fine.

the other thing is that we found out that milton had been choppered out again to the mainland for a pacemaker site infection. the last we heard was that he had to have surgery for the pacemaker removal and a replacement at a different site.  we will be back in tangier island in a few weeks to check up on him, as well as to participate in the island's clean-up-the-bay day. 

in any case, oxford is a lovely town and while tom is away, i have a friend coming over from cambridge to visit. the boat is clean and sort of organized (i am thinking about throwing a blanket over tom's desk area to hide it haha). today is my day off from work - it is quiet and relaxing and i am just enjoying the day and good weather.  i was looking over the tentative schedule that tom had written out and i can see that, ambitious as it is, it will all go very quickly and we will wonder where the time went.  hey, i really like this cruising thing!  :) 

take two.

05/09/2014.  ok, NOW i am ready, i think.  we left a little after 8:00 a.m., headed for tangier island in heavy fog.  we were very much looking forward to seeing our old friend, milton parks, who owns and runs parks marina on the island.  much has been written about milton in various chesapeake publications and anyone who has ever been to tangier and has had the good fortune to encounter him WILL remember him forever so i'll just leave it at that.  i first met him in 2005 when consuelo and i went to tangier island on our own "i am woman" adventure on my former boat, the rosborough.  tom wasn’t even a blip in our radar yet then but the next year, in 2006, consuelo and i returned, bringing tom with us, and since then, except for 2007 and 2008 when we were based first in SC and then NC, the three of us have gone back to visit at least once every single year.  it has gotten to where milton considers one of his bulkhead slips OUR slip and kicks people off it when he knows we are coming.  he will be turning 83 this july and just got out of the hospital a few weeks ago – he has a lot of fans and he had us all very worried.  he isn’t just our friend.  we LOVE tangier island but quite honestly, we love milton more.  both are one of a kind. 

tangier island's shoreline is slowly being eaten away by mother nature.  the waterman's way of life is becoming a thing of the past.  and, well, milton is going on 83.  visiting tangier as often as we can has become even more important.  

i found this photo of milton on facebook.  i'd give credit to whoever took it if i knew who it was.  when i showed it to him, he laughed and said, "i think i was a lot younger when that was taken!"  no, i think he is timeless, but then again, i am one of his adoring, rabid fans   :) 

sur-reality

it is going to take a while to let it all sink in – that we are actually FREE to go where we want, WHEN we want.  the first cruise of the season was to reedville as tom had some stuff to do over there.  it was kind of anti-climactic  because i was just so tired and burnt out from two weeks on the hard, then cleaning, plus my job, and on top of that, working on my days off because there was so much work and they needed backup!  at the same time, we had put off celebrating tom’s retirement because we were still at the boatyard, painting, and i was kind of feeling guilty that we hadn’t done ANYTHING special at all for it.   the timing was incredibly bad.  this cruise was supposed to be a celebration of spring and tom’s retirement and our freedom and all i could think about was how unprepared i was for any kind of extended cruising!  the fact is that i was trying to squeeze a normal (for me) work day into all of that celebration, tired to begin with, and then to not have a reliable internet signal which is essential to my work,  i was extremely stressed out and it put a damper on everything.  i put up with two days of iffy internet before i lost it and it took me a while to recover from that even after we had picked up and and moved to little bay.  stress does not simply go away even when whatever was broken is fixed.  and with the beginning of the cruising season, after sitting for a few months, one really needs to ease into it gradually.  i can’t say how many times we said, oops we forgot this or we forgot that  - things that one didn’t even think about at the end of the season because they had become automatic.  basically, the main problem was that tom wanted to go go go and me, i wanted to start with a clean and organized boat before we finally got going.  tom’s and my threshold for “clean and organized boat” are at two distinct levels and after two weeks of the “limited ability to wash” scenario, i wasn’t thrilled about being separated so soon from the tap.  however, it was really the iffy internet on a working monday and then tuesday that did me in, i.e. YOU may be on vacation but i am NOT.  in retrospect, maybe i should have taken the time off, which i really can’t afford.  better yet, we should have waited to leave on a friday rather than sunday (i work on Sundays).  in any case, after a night at lovely little bay, one of our favorite anchorages, we decided to go back to our slip in deltaville, do what needed to be done, re-provision and start all over again on friday and head to tangier island to see milton parks who just had a pacemaker placement and scared the heck out of all of us.  so much for wherever we want, whenever we want.  we will get it eventually. we are (i am) allowed to be ungraceful in the beginning.  

LINKS:  

back to little bay 

sunrise at little bay

the reality, part two

for the uninitiated, cruising and living aboard is NOT like camping -  tadhana has all the comforts of home!  however, this all changes when the boat is hauled out and blocked in a boatyard's gravel parking lot.  there is dust - lots of it - and because it is spring, there is pollen and it is EVERYWHERE.  you simply cannot keep anything clean plus your ability to wash is limited when the boat is on the hard.  this is when living aboard becomes very much like camping and if camping isn't really your thing, then you are in for a mostly unpleasant experience.  not to mention the fact that the boat feels dead - the movement that you have been used to is gone.  it is really only tolerable for a few days.  on the first day out, not surprisingly, one is mostly discombobulated.  your boat has become a treehouse and getting on and off is a production made all the more complicated by the presence of a dog who needs to do her business outside and cannot get up and down the ladder by herself.  consuelo ABSOLUTELY detests being carried and for the first few days, we were having some real problems with her cooperation until i figured out to turn the ladder around so that when she was carried, she would be facing the swim platform on the way up. dogs, apparently, also have control issues!  who knew?  everything is disorganized, stuff is misplaced and everything gets dirty no matter how hard you try to keep it under control.  you can't really cook because you can't really wash.  we ate a lot of fried chicken and take-out chinese and used paper plates.  quite frankly, the best solution is not to live on the boat AT ALL while it is being worked on, however, that option is reserved for people who have the $ to spend on such luxuries.  as it was, we were already doing our own work to save money.  in any case....

it took 12 days from haul to launch - glass bead blasting to bring tadhana's bottom to bare fiberglass,  four coats of epoxy and three coats of bottom paint.  in the meantime, the weather did not cooperate.  we got rain and wind, mud and pollen.  everything was dirty - the boat, consuelo, and us.  painting got done in between thunderstorms. we were constantly tired and sore and out of sorts. in the middle of all of that, my work computer died and i had to do an emergency purchase.  the new machine was delivered quickly but no one was around to sign for it so that got delayed and then there was the matter of setting it up, configuring and customizing.  i hardly needed that inconvenience on top of everything else.  let me just say that the whole experience was miserable, and though i understand that it's all a matter of perspective, i.e. we weren't sick, hungry, homeless or dead, it was, nevertheless, a relief to get back in the water with our now bullet-proof bottom that will, hopefully, not need too much in the way of maintenance for a while.  oh, but wait!  once we got back to our slip at regatta point, there was the big cleanup yet to do!  at the end of the day, trust me, ibuprofen helps.  

the following are links to photos of the bottom work done that i posted on facebook. 

the haulout

tadhana in a skirt

bare bottom

first coat of epoxy

and it is done!

the reality, part one

spring is here - we think.  there are fabulous, shorts and T-shirt days when the hibernators start showing up at the marina armed with hoses, rags, brushes and cleaning solutions.  then mother nature says april fool's and throws us temperatures in the 30s, high winds and torrential rain.  i guess we're not quite THERE yet but we are moving in that direction nevertheless and part of the reality is preparing the boat for the season.  unfortunately, last fall, we discovered  a nasty surprise with tadhana's barrier coat failing and the bottom paint peeling off in sheets.  it is always something, i know, but this one is MAJOR.  the plan is a haul-out, soda blasting to get all the old paint off, a new barrier coat(s) and then several coats of bottom paint.  aside from the expense (considerable), there is the  inconvenience of living aboard while on the hard for god-knows-how-long, i.e. no showering or washing of any kind until we are back in the water. did i mention getting consuelo on and off the boat via ladder while we're blocked?  consuelo is our aging 13.5-year-old beagle who ABSOLUTELY detests being carried (she finds it undignified and the little drama queen consistently gives me a hard time about this).  i can't say that i blame her, however, HER reality is that she is going to have to be hauled up and down on my shoulder like a sack of potatoes for however long it takes before we are launched again.  i am so not looking forward to this!  MY reality is that on top of all of the noise and dust of boatyard living and the deviation from my daily routine (i am an old stick-in-the-mud), i still have to worry about work and the availability (or lack) of an internet connection which might require me to work somewhere other than at my own desk (no!) - for sure on the day of soda blasting, in any case.  tom's reality is that he is going to be doing some seriously hard labor underneath the boat.  yes, of course, it is all still worth it, but we are allowed to whine.  regular folks have work done on their homes which can last a lot longer than a few days.  at least i don't have to deal with workmen tramping through my home - just underneath it.  i have to remember that part and suck it up.  in any case, tomorrow, april 21, 2014, is haul-out day.