Day 336, Saturday May 24th

Day 336, Saturday May 24th,

Day 336 began as many others, up with the sun, brush our teeth and a cup of coffee in the cockpit.  A great way to start the day!  Today is another work day with the continuation of off loading stuff and prepping the boat for going on the hard and for sale.

Good coffee

Today we apply the second coat to the very limited teak on Jazzebelle.  One of the concepts of Caliber yachts was to build a boat with less bright work to allow for more sailing.  A very good idea and one that Julie and I appreciate.  By 2:00 we are ready for a break and head into Annapolis to pick up a few things, get a coffee and do some blogging.  Just as we are about to start blogging, we get an email from our broker with the revised listing.  We read through it but realize there are still numerous adjustments needed to the brochure.  We spend the next 3 hours, reviewing and editing.  This is not making us happy.  Sadly we don’t get any blogging done.

It is time to move on as we have been sitting at the coffee shop for almost 3 hours.  Luckily there are lots of seats.  We are customers, but this is pushing the coffee loitering to new heights.  Our parking meter is about to expire so we head off having sent the new edits along on their way.

Back at the boat we have a quiet dinner and head to bed.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie 

Day 335, Friday May 23

Day 335, Friday May 23

Continued sanding, had some electrical mystery that Dawson worked on in the morning.  Stained the eyebrows, which is the teak edging on the deck (kind of like crown moulding in a house).  Dawson sanded and stained the bow sprit.

Stuff packed in Laura and Brad's garage

The boat is cluttered again.  It does not take much to make such a small space a mess.  Everything has been pulled out and no longer has a home so it is challenging to remember where stuff has been put.  Similar to when we moved on to the boat.

By 3:00 we had completed the work we had planned for the day and were heading to Arlington just west of Washington D.C.  A friend of Dawson’s from university is in Arlington for the weekend having driven down from Toronto with his girlfriend Teresa who is an avid Albacore racing sailor.  They are taking part in an Albacore regatta this weekend which is about an hour from where we are docked, so it seemed a great idea to meet up and catch up.  We were joined by Barney and Lee who are hosting Mike and Teresa as well as 2 other captains and their crew who are in town for the great Albacore regatta.  An albacore is a dinghy sailboat that was originally made in the UK.

We get to Arlington shortly after 4:00, find the restaurant we are meeting at 7:00 and wonder what should we do for 3 hours.  We look on trip advisor for some suggestions, but nothing seems to fit the time slot that would not get us caught up in Washington DC rush hour, so we decide to head over to the mall at Falls Church a few miles away and pick up some odds and ends we need to put the boat to bed.  While killing our 3 hours we get the first draft of our boat listing and it is all wrong, well lots of errors in it.  We are frustrated as we had provided a detailed listing and had the broker to the boat for a tour.  We sit in the van and start listing the corrections needed, but run out of time.  We will have to draft a correcting email later.

Soon enough we were heading back to Arlington and meet up with Mike, Teresa at an Italian restaurant.  We have a lovely evening complete with lots of laughs, and are heading back to the mothership by 11:00.  We could have stayed the night in Arlington, however the hour long drive beckoned us back to our nest.  On the way back we made 2 wrong turns.  Driving the highways here is interesting.   There are numerous highways going in all directions and with sweeping cloverleafs on all of them, interconnecting the web.  So by missing 1 of our turnoffs, we then did a square, encompassing backtkracking and doing 4 cloverleafs to correct ourselves. 

We must have been tired by the time we are back in Crownsville as we even drive past the home we are docked at and we were both looking for it.  It is a neat little neighbourhood on a narrow peninsula, with lots of trees and a very narrow, winding road.

Once home, we draft an email to the broker and there is a list of 25 changes to the listing.  Dawson falls asleep and Julie sends it along, only to find out that she quoted a couple things wrong too, so now we have errors on errors contrary to the listing document Dawson painstakingly put together over the last weeks.  Oh well, fix that tomorrow.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 334, Thursday May 22, Work, work, work, work

Day 334, Thursday May 22, Work, work, work, work

We continued to empty the boat out and clean and sand.  Pat our broker was scheduled to come visit the boat.  He arrived and we spent an hour going through the boat and items we have for sale.  We also asked for advice on repairs etc.  Pat did not seem that interested, although he was the broker who sold the boat to the previous owners, Glenn and Solange.

Safely anchored at Brad and Laura's

After Pat left, we went to the store to get more sandpaper and a few other things.  We head in at 4:00 and the traffic is heavy.  Our first clue is that as we are driving out the windy, narrow road, there are numerous cars careening around each bend heading straight at us.  We make it to town safely but sadly take a wrong turn.   We pull into a spot we think we can get turned around, but the spot leads to nowhere, and there is a divided road and lots of traffic so we decide to have a beer and a snack at the “spot” because there is a Mexican restaurant here.  It was a great idea, as an hour later traffic had cleared and we found our way to where we were going.

Back at the boat we spend a quiet evening.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 333, Wednesday May 21, Work, work, work

Day 333, Wednesday May 21,   Work, work, work

So the work is beginning to get the boat ship shaped.  We started with cleaning windows and screens in the morning.  Then we got picked up by Enterprise rental to coordinate vehicle pickup.  We rented a small car for a week as Crownsville is not located near much and a car is a must.  When we got tot eh rental place turns out they don’t have the crappy little car we rented for $200 for the week and they upgraded us to a brand new van with leather interior.  Bonus, for us as we can now use the van to store all the stuff we are packing up so that we can get photos without clutter.

Julie confirming rental company pickup

First stop is Home depot for bins, and sandpaper, then we are off to the marine store to pickup a new solar vent and a navigation light for the bow.

Once we got back to the boat, which by the way is a beautiful drive, we started sanding the eyebrows of the boat, and the bow pulpit.  Sadly the sawdust from the sanding fell on all the windows we had just cleaned.  A bit frustrating.  Grrrrrrr

Luckily we don’t have a lot of teak as the sanding was hard work, all by hand of course.  We worked until about 5:00 sanding, removing the anchors and cleaning the anchor well, and then headed to town to meet George and Jackie off of Heritage that we had Easter dinner with in Georgia.  George and Jackie are from Sarnia where Julie grew up so kind of neat.

Dinner was at a great local pub, but we were soon back to the boat for an early night.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 332, Tuesday May 20th – 10 more sleeps

Day 332, Tuesday May 20^th – 10 more sleeps

Well we wake up to a cold morning as we get going.  We bundle up, and get the coffee on.

We set sail out of Solomon Island at 6:00 a.m. and the winds stayed with us for about 3 hours, but then died off as anticipated.  We were surprised we even got 3 hours of sailing in.  Today’s journey to Annapolis is in 2 parts as we anchor near the naval academy around 1:00 to watch the Blue Angels practice session for tomorrows air show.  The Severn River which we will then take up to Brad and Laura’s house is closed until 4:00 as a safety precaution during the flights.

Leaving Solomon Is.  Lots of boats here.

Once again we have been welcomed to use Brad and Laura Sitler’s dock and house to “get organized”.  Brad and Laura are friends of a friend of Dawson’s from University.   They welcomed us and treated us wonderfully last fall when we passed through.  What wonderful people!  Thanks!

Freighter Georgia Hwys that called us to make sure there was room to pass

As we plod along, Dawson makes some calls to organize our plans, he books our haul out, and our U-haul so plans for living off the boat are becoming a reality.  We are hoping to make Canada the 31^st so we can attend our son Ross’s season opener for the 1500m race. 

Blue Angels in formation F-18's

Blue Angels with schooner from "The Wedding Crashers" in front

The haul out is occurring in Annapolis where Jazzebelle will be listed for sale.  Our amazing adventure is 10 days from finishing.  That however opens the door for the next adventure.  Already Julie is combing the travel guides for our next destination although it will be more a short vacation.

We make good time getting to Annapolis around 1:00 as planned, still 7 hours at the wheel doing only 6-7 miles an hour, listening to the motor for 4 of those hours.  Today is potentially our last opportunity to “sail” on Jazzebelle.  We are hoping to go out for a sail on Monday, but will have to see what the weather is like.

Boats anchored with Blue Angels in the background

The air show is neat to watch.  There are hundreds of boats anchored.  Most of them with dinky little ropes holding what may or may not be a suitable anchor.  It is all during daylight and temporary so not an issue.  The show lasts about 2 hours and then we doddle as the river we need to access is closed for a while longer.  Finally we decide we have delayed long enough and head up the Severn.  We need to weave around some party boats that are doddling even longer than us.  The trip up the Severn is uneventful.  Quite a bit of traffic all going our way, and after almost an hour we are all tied up to the Sitler’s dock.   No one is home to say hello to so we just cook dinner and make plans for tomorrow, then off to bed.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 331, Monday May 19th – Victoria Day in Canada

Day 331, Monday May 19^th – Victoria Day in Canada

Dawson washing down the anchor chain

We enjoy a slow start to the day as we are looking at a easy 40 mile sail up to the Solomon Island.  We up anchor just before 9, the bottom provided good holding but the anchor chain needs to be hosed down to get rid of mud before going into the anchor locker.  On the way out of the harbour we pass the fish factory where there was a number of fishing boat tied up the day before.  Today they are all out except for one; proof the menhaven fishery is still going strong.

Fishery plant with the fleet gone

Again the winds are forecasted out of the north.  Dang!  Not as strong though and our heading for the first hour is NE so we are able to sail, but soon enough the cloth comes down and the engine is turned on.   The winds and waves are not too bad so we can motor directly where we want to go which is due north.  There is a current of about a knot against us so our speed is not our fastest, but reasonable.

Aurora under sail

Fisherman on his way home

The current is due to change in about 2 hours so we will be patient and enjoy a push later in the day.

After a couple of hours we hear some announcements on the VHF and there is a spotter boat telling people where to go and asking their intentions etc. as they are doing some military exercises.  Braveheart who is ahead of us is in “their” zone and is asked/told to stand off and change directions.  They do of course as no one wants to get in the way of the military.  Mike radios us and tells us he gets to see a bit of an air show.  We are too far back and miss it.

The winds pick up for an hour or so, but lay down again after lunch so we plod along.  We are able to put our sails back up around 2:00 which is nice.  By 4:00 we are pulling into our anchorage, getting the hook dropped, lowering the dinghy and putting the outboard on it.  We have anchored here before on our way south and it is a well sheltered spot.  It takes 2 tries however to get the anchor to hold.  Winds are supposed to be “medium” tonight so we want a good hold.  We choose to go to town for an

explore.  We find a place to dock the dinghy near a few boats that we sailed with for the day who have taken a slip.  The walk to town is about 30 minutes, but it is 6:30 somehow by the time we sit down to a beer and blog.   We stay at the Lighthouse restaurant for an hour and then head back to the dinghy dock and our mothership.  We recognize a few boats in harbour but do not see anyone we know.  The town is spread out a bit and it is a typical tourist town set up for hot weather activities, lots of restaurants and a nice boardwalk.  There must be about 10 marinas and 2000 boats in harbour, yet the population of the town is probably 2000 people.

It is almost 9:00 by the time we have dinner.  We could have dined at the Lighthouse restaurant, but we have food that needs to be eaten, plus we eat healthier on our boat.  Our typical evening of coffee and King’s cribbage ensues, then we are off to bed for the night.

Day 330, Sunday May 18th

Day 330, Sunday May 18^th

We head out of Fisher’s Bay very early to get a jump on the days movement.  Turns out it was a dumb move as the winds were building and scheduled to stay strong in the wrong direction until about noon.  It was blowing over 12 knots right on the nose.  By noon we had already been underway for 6 hours and were exhausted from being bashed about.  We could not even make very good headway into the wind and waves under motor, so reefed our main and our headsail and tacked way out into the bay to keep our speed up.   We had planned on making it to Solomon Island but decide we have to look for alternatives.  We decide to head in to Reedville although it means we only made about 20 miles on our journey to Annapolis.  It is an easy anchorage to access, and by 1:00 we have anchored just down the creek from another Caliber 40.  We have lunch and launched the dinghy so we can enjoy wandering around a new town.

View of fishing ships as we come into port

On the way to shore we stop and chat to a fellow couple in their dinghy who own the other Caliber 40.  They invite us to drop in later so we agree we will visit after our tour of the town.

Julie in front of a bank that has closed down 

Our town tour takes us to the museum which at first we struggle to access as the doors do not open so we peruse the grounds which have many boat displays and talk about the fishing and oyster industries.  We try the doors again, (all of them), and with no luck even though the big “open flag” is flying we head off to walk up the street and take some pictures and making up stories of where the museum employee has gone and what they are up to that caused them to leave the museum locked when it was clearly advertised as open.

The walk is quite nice with a number of older homes to look at boarded by beautiful hard wood and pine trees.  We also spot a bluebird which we photograph so we can confirm it species.  We turned around from our walk and as we were passing the museum we see a car there so decide to head in and try again.  The car belonged to the curator and he assured us the museum was open and sure enough, he could work the door.  We were greeted by the 2 employees who had not heard us trying to get in earlier.  We paid our entry fee and then enjoyed an hour being toured around by Linda, through the historical home.  Linda was also a sailor who had undertaken adventures offshore.  We also got to see a video and the many models, and displays of the museum.  It really was an excellent museum.  The village of Reedville’s economic boom of fishing Menhaven, continues today and we watched a 12 minute promo video of the industry which was quite ensightful. 

Julie with Linda from the museum

We really have enjoyed many of the small towns, and the many welcoming people.  We have found the Americans to be super friendly and helpful to us travellers. 

Gable inn, impressive

After the museum we head to the dinghy dock restaurant for a beer to say thanks for letting us tie up to their facilities.  Next stop is our boat to grab an appetizer and a drink to take with us over to “Aurora”, the Caliber 40 in the bay owned by Lidia and Bob.  We have a lovely visit and tour of their boat.  They even invite us for dinner which we oblige.  Lidia and Bob are from an area just south of Reedville close to Deltaville.  Again they show fabulous hospitality inviting us to join them for dinner aboard Aurora.  We did have an interesting conversation though about gun laws.  Julie started that conversation and given it is a controversial subject we had an interesting conversation.  Lidia was also able to provide a different perspective having been raised in Poland during the communist regime and was involved in the solidarity movement and escaped as a refugee to the United States.  It reminds us of how our perspective is developed from our environment and it takes listening to other situations to sit back and try to understand differing attitudes and opinions.  Needless to say both Lidia and Bob very much supported the second amendment of the constitution, about the rights to bear arms (or is it “the right to arm bears?”, Bob was not to exciting by this comment) based on the ability to defend yourself from Tierney.  Having always been raised in a peaceful democratic country we have never imagined needing guns to protect our rights from the government.  The USA on the other hand has lived through a war of independence from Britain, and a civil war.  Not to say we agree all their points, however their perspective shed that we have not previously thought about.

Jazzebelle at anchor

We get back to the boat well after boaters midnight, hoist the dinghy and jump into bed.

Cheers

Julie and Dawsonr