Nice? I thought so, not my picture, taken by the organizer of the “Downrigging Weekend” in Chestertown, Maryland, an annual event for wooden boats and tall ships. I like the remains of the morning mist drifting off to the right. Continue reading “Maritime Picture for the Weekend”
My second entry to the photo competition
Front end of Sandy has blown out of the creek, the storm is still about 1500 miles wide so the back end will not arrive until later. (tomorrow maybe?)
The storm went right overhead a cat 1 hurricane merging with a big low pressure trough.
About ten inches of rain according to my rain gauge and no power since early Monday pm.
I had planned a blog about a local event that is usually well worth a visit and in preparation I moved the boat about 60 miles on Friday, about 30 miles on the Bay and 28 miles up the Chester river to Chestertown, Maryland, an interesting little town of some character. The event is the annual Downrigging Weekend which marks the end of the working season for many sailboats, the event attracts a large number of original and replica sailing craft, ranging in history from The Kalmar Nyckel a replica of the ship that established the first Swedish settlement in what was to become Delaware in 1636 through the Schooner Elf built in the 1880’s and still afloat. My personal favorite and a winter resident of Chestertown is the schooner Sultana a replica of a colonial revenue cutter built ten years ago from original lines taken off the ship when she was bought by the Royal Navy in about 1770.
We got in late on Friday and anchored opposite the Chestertown waterfront in time to see the firework display. After that things got dark and interesting (well it is close to Halloween). A gale of wind and heavy rain descended, forcing the few of us who were anchored out to seek out the more sheltered local creeks to ride out the storm. Saturday came slowly, bringing with it gale force winds and driving SNOW. So far all the Saturday events have been cancelled together with my plan to take lots of good pictures of the various ships under sail. The forecast looks none too rosy for tomorrow either but we will hang here in this creek and see what happens. More later.
You know how it is when stuff is free. It feels mean not to avail yourself. People have gone to a lot of trouble and it would be rude to refuse.
It was our first all-inclusive hol and there were drinks, all the food you could want and free watersports. Well, obviously booze and swimming don’t mix. Neither do food and swimming for that matter so that was mostly for the evening.
I’m not one of those “alarm clock” sunbathers who turn themselves regularly beneath the roasting Caribbean sun to create that lovely mahogany tan so beloved of Peter Stringfellow which will inevitably turn into briefcase leather at around 65 years old. Continue reading “Windsurfing”
Technically it was a delivery run and not intended as a vacation, which would require an even longer and more boring post (want to see some holiday snaps?).
For those of you who missed the whole thing you can read all about it here or not as you wish.
The trip started at mile 803 of the ICW at Palm Coast, Florida and ended 199 miles north of mile zero (Norfolk, VA) at the boat’s new home. Total distance from the charts 1002 nautical miles, and allowing another 40 nm for deviations to find overnight anchorages the distance traveled was around 1040 nm or 1200 statute miles. (well I did warn you this would be boring).
Continue reading “A terminally boring post on the minutiae of a long boat trip”
Cape Fear, the name is enough to scare you, why call it that unless someone was really scared by it, anyway we have to get around it to head north so off we go.
It was a nothing, the sea was almost calm and the wind and tide were both with us, about two hours in open water and then back into “The Ditch”
Continue reading “Fear This?”
Boadicea's Chariot 
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