Change of pace.

Last week I flew to Maryland to join Lori and help take her boat to Florida. Theoretically it is post-hurricane season, but you can’t tell these days. On one nice day, we drove to Mount Vernon to tour George Washington’s estate and mansion.

Mount Vernon, from the front. It looks like it’s made of stone, but it is really a wooden facade carved to look like stones.
Mount Vernon, from the side. The big porch on the back of main house overlooks the Potomoc River.

Mike left over the weekend, driving the car to Florida so it is there when we arrive. We spent a few days in the slip at the marina at Solomon’s Island waiting for some bad weather remnants of Hurricane Zeta to pass. On a rainy, freezing, blustery day, we cooked some meals to freeze for easy prep underway. I even grabbed a quick geocache, my first in Maryland. Tuesday the 3rd looked good for our departure from Solomon’s Island, Maryland, and so we did.

Day 1, we froze, with temps around 40 F and a very chilling wind around 15 knots. Nonetheless, we made our way south down the Chesapeake, anchoring in a lovely spot. It turned out to be the only day we were able to sail on the bay.

Point No Point Lighthouse on the west side of the Chesapeake Bay.

Day 2 was windless, but WARMER! So we motored 9 hours and anchored in a beautiful spot inside Mobjack Bay by ourselves. I even put out a crab pot overnight.

Sunset of Day 2

We saw dolphins, the water must be getting saltier, and lifer birds.

Day 3 started with a beautiful sunset, and when I pulled up the crab trap, we had a wee one! We let him go, but it was fun to catch something. Today is windless, again, but warm enough to take off jackets. The bay is as smooth as glass. The only thing we have to battle are the tidal and river currents going against us. This afternoon we will exit the Chesapeake Bay and anchor at Norfolk, Virginia.

Tomorrow, Day 4, we will start down the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway for a few days.

Clean, clean, clean!

We went out to the boat today!!!  And, oh, lord, did the old girl need some TLC.  I couldn’t bring myself to take a before picture.  It was bad.

But, after about 3 hours cleaning the topsides, she looks mahvelous.  At least one day this year, my boat will be clean!

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Pretty boat.

Over the weekend, we took out Nirvana and Cupholder at the same time.  Monte wanted to get some photos of the catboat underway.  Kurt came along to steer while I stood on the bow and took photos.  The light was lovely, with a slight northerly breeze.

Taking 4 years to build, starting in 2000;  launched in Lake Travis in 2004; heavily sailed and thoroughly enjoyed for years; hauled out in 2012; driven to the coast for its saltwater christening and to sail the weeklong Texas 200 in 2013; lovingly restored over the course of a few more years; relaunched on Lake Travis in 2019.  Monte has taken great pains over the years to keep her looking and sailing like new.  A pretty boat, indeed.  Also, still the best dancefloor on Lake Travis.  🙂

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A wee sailboat.

An Ace original!
An Ace original!

One of the most well-padded packages I’ve ever received arrived today, containing a lovely gift from friends Teri & Jim… a hand-made sailboat ornament.  L.O.V.E. I.T.!   🙂

Here’s to friends, family and fun.   Embrace them all, every day!

To the lake.

Starboard jib sheet.

To celebrate the first day of Fall, we spent the night on the lake 🙂  Well, we’d do that any night, but it does happen to be the first day of Fall.  There were no winds to speak of.  Plus, our main is at Bartlett’s Sail Shop getting a new luff tape.

We set anchor in Arky south, where there are, apparently, several billion gnats that have just hatched.  Most of which were trying to find a place to spend the night on our boat.  It’s usually not buggy out on the lake.  Must be because of the recent rains.

Been a long time.

Taking Nirvana out for the first time.

It’s been thirteen days since my last post here.  So, this has been my longest break in posting since I started this photoblog over 2 years ago.  I’d better catch you all up.

The week before last was busy with work.  Monte was working on a project in the woodshop.  I had to travel to Raleigh for all of last week.  A very long week, indeed.  I brought my camera with me, but given my work schedule and meetings every day starting early and ending late, the only interesting subject matter to capture ended up being TV screen shots from the Olympics (especially the women’s gymnastics team gold).  I decided to spare you and skip posting those.

While I was in Raleigh last week, Monte closed on the boat.  I got home close to midnight Friday night, so Saturday morning I was anxious to get out to the marina.

We moved in Saturday afternoon and slept on the boat for the first time Saturday night.  On Sunday morning we took Nirvana out for the first time together.   The winds were very light to non-existent, but we had a blast.   We raised both sails and ghosted along for a while.  Getting Nirvana was a big step for us, but I am very excited about this next phase of our sailing-life journey together.   This is a shot that monte took of Nirvana from the water.

At the end of the day we stopped by b-dock for a float.  By the time we got home tonight we were both pretty exhausted but somehow found the energy to split up cooking duties to make lamb chops (monte) and risotto (me) for a delicious dinner.

G’nite all!

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