Dan and Jaye's cruising blog: Kumatage (reflections on the water)

the leaning lighthouse at Sharp's Island Next day was sunny and breezy - HERE was the perfect sailing day I was dreaming of! We pulled off the dock without mishap and glided along in the sunshine, to set anchor at Mill Creek off the Patuxent River near Solomon's just at 5:00. I'm not much of a lighthouse collector but just love the leaning one at Sharp's Island, which we passed around lunchtime. Just as we were coming in to anchor, the cellphone rang. It was a business call that Dan had to take. What a piece of inconvenient timing! A half-hour earlier, we would have been in open water and I could have handled the boat alone while he talked. A half hour later, and we would have been stationary, securely anchored. But here we were in a situation that required both of us to navigate. I couldn't go ahead alone, so instead, I held the boat on station, essentially marching in place, slowly turning circles while Dan answered questions. He explained to his caller why he wa...

Remember going on driving trips as a kid, you got so excited whenever you crossed a state line? It's like that for us when we pass from one chart to the next. We're now 4 charts south of Annapolis, anchored off the Great Wicomico River near Reedville, VA. Gorgeous little cove surrounded by trees ... some of which are showing fall colors! Yes, we're glad to be heading south. Today was a very long day, 43 nautical miles. The sky was gray and it was so chilly I had on long underwear, a fleece pullover, a fleece jacket, my foul-weather gear, and hat and gloves. (photo coming tomorrow). But the prediction for the next couple of days is wind, rain, and cold so we wanted a good spot to wait it out. Before we left Annapolis we didn't have time to sort and stow all the provisions. So we've been moving lots of bags and boxes back and forth - into the V-berth by day, and out into the salon at bedtime. It'll be good to have a rainy day at home to find places to s...

We brought the docklines aboard on Monday afternoon, and started our great adventure! Details are in our blog called Life Afloat . Today we're anchored at Solomons, MD - it would only take an hour or so to drive here from Annapolis, but it was a day and a half by sail. Feels like forever ...

We have to go now ... we announced it to the world, check out this month's SpinSheet on p. 56 http://issuu.com/cdeere/docs/sept09ss/57?zoomed=true&zoomPercent=100&zoomX=0.026946107784431073&zoomY=0.2365988909426987&noteText=&noteX=&noteY=&viewMode=magazine

Coming to work on my last day - Joy at her guard post. The whole wonderful gang. It's been a real pleasure to work with such a group of smart people who believe in what they're doing and have a passion for science. My boss, Lloyd, and the office chief, Katherine, picking on me for the last time A USGS benchmark - very, very cool honor to receive. This is one piece of brass being added to the boat that I won't mind polishing. My amazing secretary Brenda. We spent many Tuesday mornings at oh-dark-thirty comparing review schedules. She gave me this lovely clock as a retirement gift. It has NO ALARM FUNCTION - guess I'll be sleeping in from now on. Frances getting goofy - never trust a geologist with a knife! The cake was really good ... in addition to being a major sugar buzz!

Welcome aboard!! We're looking forward to our trip and looking forward to sharing stories with you. Jaye's pretty excited that she'll be blogging about the trip for the Annapolis Capital newspaper online, in a blog called " Life Afloat ." That should be the first place you look for news of us; it's also accessible from the right-hand bar of this blog ("my other blogs"). This blog, for friends and family, will be for anything that doesn't quite fit in the public blog, either because it's too long, too many photos, or too personal. Thanx for reading!

Most of my photos are of individuals who graciously, and proudly, posed for me showing off their work, but this is to give you the idea that there were LOTS of people in each "group." This "road piece" was a major crowd-pleaser. Our Arubian friend H. told us that peacock feathers cost about 2 florin (about $1.15) EACH, so this guy's committment to Carnaval, both in time and money, really shows. Our liveaboard neighbor S. jokes that he wants to do something like this next Halloween. (or maybe just photoshop his face into this picture???) Startin' 'em young - even the kids get into the act, as this junior beauty queen shows!

Carnaval season officially begins on November 11, at 11:11 am - but as you can see from the intricacy of some of these costumes, work actually begins almost the day after the previous year's carnival ends! The parade, which also featured LOUD live music and bands, took over 5 hours to pass the spot where we stood watching.

This is the place we'll be posting all our adventures that don't fit Life Afloat , the blog Jaye publishes in our local newspaper, the Annapolis Capital .