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

Posted: December 13, 12:33 pm | (permalink) | (0 comments) Every community has their holiday traditions, and the boat community is no exception. At our marina in Annapolis, the boaters get together every year for a holiday party. “White Elephant” gifts with a nautical theme are exchanged (over the years we’ve seen a stuffed lobster that sang Jingle Bells; nautical charts 20 years out of date and hence guaranteed to get you lost; a battered, dented air horn; even a kit to build a ship model in a bottle). There’s a table set aside with craft supplies and plain ornaments. During the party, each person hand-decorates an ornament with the name of their boat and the date, and hangs it on the tree in the lounge. At Gangplank Marina in Washington DC, some of the liveaboards go boat-to-boat by dinghy and kayak, singing carols and serenading the neighbors. And as the Jimmy Buffett song says, we hang our stockings from the mast. But my favorite tradition has always been the boat para...

Posted: December 8, 12:19 pm | (permalink) | (0 comments) You’ve seen them on Main Street – those souvenir shops selling t-shirts that mockingly proclaim Annapolis to be “a quaint little drinking town with a sailing problem.” By contrast, local artist Dean Quigley described St Augustine to me as “a quaint little drinking town with a history problem.” Wazzup here? Are all the locals overwhelmed with their town’s past? First Grace Sparrow and her [broken] time machine , now this? Maybe so. Maybe you can’t help but have a sense of history if you’re surrounded by reminders of it. Or maybe, it’s just so darn colorful. Or maybe there’s a special interest that we just happened to tap into, since we arrived here as the town was gearing up to celebrate its 450th anniversary. When I retired, I made a promise to myself that I’d read at least one non-fiction book per month, cover to cover. This, I hoped, would keep my brain from turning to jello without the stimulation of the work wo...

Posted: December 5, 1:40 pm | (permalink) | (0 comments) “If there was such a thing as time travel,” explained Grace Sparrow, the woman behind the counter at the ship’s store of our new marina , “it would end up like this city. People in the costumes from every era walk the streets. You never know who you’re going to see next.” I had just gone into the office to find out our new mailing address and a few other basics as we began to acclimate to our new city for the winter; I wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to this unexpected insight. In the buildings of Annapolis’ historic district, the most visible time period seems to be Colonial and Revolutionary War. Although there are other historical stories to be told, including those of the watermen and those who arrived as slaves, virtually all of the tour guides I’ve seen who wear period costumes are dressed as characters from this colonial period, so when I think of the historic district of Annapolis, a fairly consistent theme domi...

Posted: November 29, 11:14 am | (permalink) | (0 comments) [ photo: This lion statue at the beginning of the historic "Bridge of Lions" is one of many things that symbolize St Augustine to me ... and it's visible from our slip ] For all the good times, and challenging times, and plain old *work* that the trip south entailed, we were just a bit wistful that it would soon be over. Even though it was only early afternoon, we anchored at a pretty spot called Pine Island, about 2 hours short of St Augustine, to enjoy our last night “out.” There were practical reasons for this delay; we knew that there could be quite a bit of current at the marina and wanted to enter at slack tide, and they weren’t expecting us until the next day (would there even be a slip available?), but mostly, it was a gentle, warm, sunny day and we weren’t quite ready to see the trip end. We watched the egrets fishing in the shallows, toasted our last sunset away from civilization, and saw the zill...

Posted: November 19, 12:52 pm | (permalink) | (0 comments) We are here! [ Nautical chart of St Augustine, FL ] When I was a kid and got my textbooks on the first day of school, I’d excitedly bring them home and turn to the middle, anxious to see what was in store for me and what kinds of cool new things I’d know by the end of the year. Of course, that was never a very productive enterprise. Knowledge in so many areas builds on previous steps. So the middle of the textbook would be daunting and incomprehensible because it required things that I hadn’t learned yet. How can you do algebra if you haven’t yet mastered arithmetic? I would come away from these explorations skeptical that I would ever pass my courses that year (but I always did, obviously). I had a flashback to that same feeling when I looked at the nautical charts for all the areas we’d have to traverse to get from Annapolis to St Augustine. I’d look at cities and harbors many days’ travel away – Norfolk and Beaufort...

Posted: November 11, 9:33 am | (permalink) | (0 comments) [ photo: we spent 5 days in this anchorage ] We carefully planned out the next few days’ travel and then … So much for plans! Not to worry so much about upcoming shoals and tides, now the forecast is for wind wind wind. Our first priority is to seek what shelter is available here in the marshes. What we really want is a snug still cove with trees or bluffs on all sides. Ain’t gonna happen. The marsh grasses here are like the wheat fields of Dan’s childhood – wide and open and flat. There are a few clumps and lines of trees here and there, but nothing like the 360 degree shelter we’d like. Instead, we’ll settle for “less open.” We found Bryan Creek, a creek in the marsh grass, with trees to the northwest. At least there isn’t a wide expanse of water for waves to build, although the grass isn’t tall enough to shelter us from any wind. Well, maybe it would be tall enough at low tide, almost 8 feet lower than high tide....

Posted: November 10, 8:50 am | (permalink) | (0 comments) Navigating through Georgia is like a math problem. Tides can be 8 feet or more. There are some stretches of the waterway that are very shallow, or nearly dry at low tide. The Army Corps of Engineers, who maintains the waterway for navigation, doesn’t dredge those areas; they just tell you to coordinate your travel times carefully with the tide, to arrive at those areas at or near high tide so there is enough water depth to cross them. Nothing in the Chesapeake has prepared us for this – we only have tides of about a foot near Annapolis – negligible. In addition to timing the tides, we also need to think about current and predicted weather and the travel speed of our boat, and choosing a good anchorage … and, oh, yeah, “good” includes shelter from the winds, and depth, this is a pleasure trip so scenery is nice if we can arrange it, and one more thing -- it would be convenient to reach the anchorage before midnight. So l...

Posted: November 6, 4:29 pm | (permalink) | (0 comments) If you’ve ever tried to make plans to connect up with a cruising friend who was coming to town, you probably got a firm “maybe” for an answer. This frustratingly vague lack of commitment isn’t due to a fundamental character flaw; its just the nature of the traveling life afloat. One woman explained, “You can pick the time, or you can pick the place, but you can’t pick both.” We knew, for example, that we’d be coming through Charleston sooner or later, but the exact day we’d arrive would depend on the weather, the tides, and numerous other factors, many of which are beyond our control. So if we were trying to meet someone in Charleston, the best we could commit would be to say, “We’ll be there sometime in late October, we’ll let you know exactly when we get there.” or, conversely, we could say, “We’ll meet you somewhere in southern SC on Tuesday. Could be Charleston, or it could be any city within a hundred miles of ...

Charleston, SC - The Next Port Posted: November 18, 7:30 am | (permalink) | So mostly, this is what cruising is – live aboard the boat (for a short time, a long time, or forever, as it suits you); travel for a while, find an interesting port, stay and explore for a while, then get underway again, find the next port, repeat. Maybe someday it will get old for me, but I suspect that day is a long long time in the future. If ever. Charleston was that next “interesting port.” This would be our third visit, each time staying a bit longer than the time before. And although it’s a city with many charms, what I associate most strongly with Charleston is evident when I review my photos; most of them show two things – architecture and food. Not surprising, it seems we spent most of our time either walking around or eating. I’ll pretty much let the pictures tell the story. A couple of random street scenes. Wrought-iron details. Woman weaving traditional sweetgrass baskets at the m...

Posted: October 31, 5:01 pm | (permalink) | (0 comments) [ photo: my fantasies of cruising included days traveling through scenery just like this - near the beginning of the Waccamaw River in South Carolina ] The weatherman served up a series of days so perfect for traveling that we just couldn’t pass them up. And it was clear that it was time to get moving southbound again. While the days were bright and lovely, the nights were taking on a bit of a chill. Six solid travel days, with five nights anchored out, would get us to Charleston, SC. We got into a routine. Whoever woke up first went out to the main cabin to turn up the heat, then came back to bed for another 15 minutes or so until the chill was off the air. When it had warmed up a bit, we shared a pot of coffee while looking over the nautical charts for the area we planned to travel that day – generally, about 40 or 50 miles, 7 or 8 hours under way. After breakfast we’d raise the anchor. We have an electric windlass t...

Posted: October 27, 11:07 am | (permalink) | (0 comments) [ Photos: just a few of the many decorated bears in New Bern, NC. More pix at Life Afloat on Facebook ] One of the things that fascinates me about traveling by boat is the magic of seeing the world without ever leaving the comforts of home. And sometimes, having your home with you can invite more in-depth exploration of places you wouldn’t ordinarily spend that much time at. Let’s face it – while you might shell out for a 2-week stay to explore a nationally-recognized destination like Denver or Seattle, you might not be so inclined for a lesser-known location like, say, Morehead City, NC. But we had our home with us, so that’s exactly what we did, using the city marina as a base, renting a car and exploring. We sampled the local “flavor” at the Havelock Chili Cookoff Festival, drove to the barrier islands and watched the Atlantic Ocean crashing on the beaches out of season, visited historic Fort Macon and the town ...

Posted: October 21, 8:37 am | (permalink) | (0 comments) [ photo: a BIG jellyfish ] “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” (W. Churchill, from a speech given after a battle that was a turning point for Britain in WWII) We broke our planned trip into three sections: Annapolis, MD to Oriental, NC; Oriental, NC to Charleston, SC; and Charleston, SC to St Augustine, FL. Each leg would have 7-10 underway travel days with as many days hunkered down in secure anchorages as the weather demanded, and ended with a few days in a marina exploring an interesting city. In some ways, the first leg, which we have now completed, was the easiest, as there were minimal tides & currents. In other ways (as I’ve written) this first leg was quite challenging. Another aspect of that first leg, was that it was mostly in fresh water. Now, we have arrived in Morehead City, NC – salt water! Our boat floats about an inch or tw...

P(Originally posted in the Annapolis Capital: October 19, 2:37 pm | (permalink) ) [ Photo: Sorry, no photos of the biggest waves, we were just too busy hanging on. Even after we were out of the very worst of it, you can see the waves breaking in different directions and with irregular spacing .] Our friends and sailing mentors James and Ellen once told us that in all their 40-odd thousand nautical miles of sailing, some of the worst weather they’d ever been in was right here on the Chesapeake Bay. And I really, really, hope that’s true for us as well, because I’d be just as happy if the rest of this trip had no weather worse than the weather we had crossing the mouth of the Potomac earlier this month. It started simply enough. We weren’t sure whether to leave the safe harbor we were in and head for the next one, or wait another day. We agonized about making the right decision , and listened to the weather forecast – which called for the wind to lighten and skies to clear – and t...

Posted: October 14, 8:27 am | (permalink) | (0 comments) A lock is a kind of elevator for boats, to get from an area of one water level to a one with a higher level, and the principle is the same whether it’s elevating giant tankers on the Panama Canal, or pleasure yachts on the Great Lakes, or barges on the ICW. A lock is a section of canal with a gate on either end, making a kind of water-filled chamber. Open the gate at the downstream end and motor the boat in. Then close the gate behind the boat, and add water to the lock. As the lock fills, the boat floats higher until it reaches the level of the upper water body, then the gate at the upstream end is opened and the boat can float out. At least, that’s the way an ordinary lock works. There is one lock on the ICW by the route we took, and we went through it last week. This lock, at Great Bridge, VA (near Norfolk) is not “ordinary.” It is located on a canal that connects Currituck Sound, NC with the Elizabeth River, VA, whi...

Posted: October 11, 1:35 pm | (permalink) | (0 comments) I’ve been negligent – I need to put this trip in a bit of context for you. The “icy W” is the acronym for Intra-Coastal Waterway. It’s a collection of rivers and bays, linked by man-made canals. You can travel on relatively sheltered inland waters, all the way from Annapolis to Miami, almost 1200 miles, and never have to go out on the ocean. Handy for smaller boats, for bad weather, and for less seaworthy commercial vessels like barges. It’s quite varied and interesting. And on several occasions, we’ve noticed that it can be quite boisterous sailing – it may not be the ocean, but some days its quite big enough for me! (Actually, its official name on the Corps of Engineers website is Atlantic Intracoastal Water Way (AIWW), because there’s also a waterway of similar concept along the Gulf coast.) [photo – the ICW, map from Army Corps of Engineers] On the natural river and bay portions of the ICW, we can sail if the win...

(Originally posted: October 6, 4:14 pm | (permalink) | (0 comments) ) “Make a decision – even if it’s wrong,” ordered my supervisor Jeff. “Huh?” I’m thinking to myself. Surely he’s joking! I was new to managing contracts for the Army, very earnest and in awe of my responsibilities. This is millions of taxpayer dollars that I’m responsible for spending wisely. I want to be *right.* “No, really,” Jeff continued. “Right now, you have 4 contractors standing around, at a couple hundred dollars an hour, while you’re waiting to make a perfect decision. Recovering from a wrong decision would be cheaper than this. So do something. Tell them go, or no go, and let’s move on.” Detail-oriented engineer that I am, it took me a while to wrap my mind around his approach. There are, I’ve learned, in contract management as in life, many circumstances where he’s right. Today is one of them. We’re snugly anchored in a harbor in Solomon’s. Still here, while the chilly wind blows. Anxious to ...

(Originally posted: October 6, 3:51 pm | (permalink) | (0 comments) (Seen on the Chesapeake Bay. Really!) How to begin our trip? It’s like the old adage about a journey of 1,000 miles beginning with a single step. Job #1: Get off the dock! Our friend Debbie Bradley advised us two years ago, leave the dock, even if you only go an hour away, drop the anchor and spend the next couple of days rearranging provisions and sitting in place. At least you began your trip. And two years ago, we took exactly that advise and made it only as far as Knapps Narrows on our first day. This year, we knew we had one good travel day, then wherever we set the hook that night, we’d stay for the next several days due to weather, not preparedness. High winds, chill and rain were predicted. So, we took the good day and motorsailed to Solomon’s Island, about 40 miles along our route south from Annapolis, and prepared to hang out for several days. Besides, we’d never explored the town, this would be ...

Waiting for Weather Posted: September 28, 4:04 pm | (permalink) | (3 comments) We didn’t have a going-away party, so not our style, but all week friends have been dropping by, to share a beer or a joke or a little gift. Janet brought a jar of dried hot peppers from her garden, Dave gave us a crash course in a new navigation app, Mike - who started out as our canvas maker but then became a friend - dipped into his endless font of stories and had us in (excuse the pun) stitches one evening. Local artist and dock-neighbor Kristine Kowalski had us visit her studio at Maryland Hall and graced us with a painting to remember her by, all ocean blues and fresh greens inspired by her visit to the Virgin Islands. But now, the goodbyes have all been said, the fuel and water topped up. The last load of laundry is done, the docklines are looped and ready for a quick departure. And here we sit, waiting for weather. We can’t control the weather along the journey, but we can pick the weather we ...

(Originally posted in the Annapolis Captial: September 26, 11:56 am | (permalink) | (1 comments) [photo: "Now where am I gonna put all this stuff?" ] Seems like every departure has one of these “provisioning up” pictures, so here’s mine. I have to rein in my culinary tendencies, though; I can spend $200 in the grocery store and not buy any, you know, food . I will come home with mango chutney and panko bread crumbs and a new herb blend and five kinds of sauces. But basics? Pasta or salmon or bread or green beans or cheese ... or sometimes even ramen noodles? Maybe, maybe not! When we headed for the Bahamas two years ago, we had to figure out what to buy since we were not planning on seeing a grocery store for 6 months. I saved grocery lists for months to establish our use patterns for pantry items. After that, it was relatively straightforward to plan that we generally have pasta about once a week and get three meals from a 1-pound box, and do the math for 24 weeks ...

(Originally posted in Annapolis Capital: September 24, 10:00 am | (permalink) ) They call them “sunflowers” because they turn their faces toward the sun, right? So why do they call us “snowbirds?” We don’t seek the snow, we try to get away from winter. So they should call us “sunbirds” don’t you think? A few weeks ago my friend RoseAnn posted her Facebook status: “We went away for the weekend and while we were gone it was like someone flipped the switch from summer to fall.” And that seasonal switch also activated something in our own minds – it’s time for these two sunbirds to start thinking about sailing to Florida for a few months. I’m an engineer. I’m also the queen of checklists, and just now we’re overwhelmed with details. Repair the bilge pump and bring the spare anchor aboard. Forward our mail and turn off the land line phone. Figure out where to leave the car, and restitch the sail cover. Stock up on our favorite foods and spare parts for the diesel. And on and ...

(Originally posted in the Annapolis Capital: September 13, 8:09 am | (permalink) | (0 comments) “May you live in interesting times,” goes the old Chinese curse. Of course, the times that are most interesting to historians may not be the most tranquil or pleasant to the ordinary people living through them. Similarly, the trips that make the best stories to tell in the bar are not the uneventful ones. So it was with our weekend least weekend. Plans were for dinner at the waterfront home of good friends Steve and Jane, followed by a raft-up next night on another part of the river with different friends, an easy three hour trip to the Magothy River from Annapolis. (Three-hour tour? Now I’ve got the Gilligan’s Island theme song running through my head.) It was rainy and no wind when we left on Friday afternoon, and although the predictions were for clearing skies, we hadn’t seen the clearing yet. But the last several times we’d promised Steve and Jane that we’d come by boat, we’d...