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October 24th, Monday - Edgewater, Maryland
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We are down to our last
two days before leaving Maryland for Hampton, Virginia.
The past few weeks have been a beehive of activity from
social gatherings to boat chores to administrative
duties. All crucial projects have been completed,
or are close enough to completion that we can leave.
The good news is that we have another 10 day cushion in
Virginia before we truly take off. Some of the
chores, like the provisioning of fresh fruits and
vegetables for the week to 10 day passage, can't be
accomplished until closer to our true departure date.
But the pre-prepared food, frozen meat and dried goods
are all bought and stored. The spare parts for the
engines and other boat systems are also in stock.
One of the big projects we saved for our month here was
to replace the trampolines that run between the two bows
on the front of the boat. Bruce and Alison have
gone well above and beyond the call of duty, giving very
generously of Bruce's time and efforts as he
single-handedly strung the new trampolines for us.
That was a huge chore that he had dealt with on his old
boat, Simpatica. I don't think we intended to have
him do the whole project when we started it, but that is
how in turned out and we are eternally grateful to both
of them. The new tramps look and feel amazing!
I don't think we would have found anyone who could have
done a better job.
We have enjoyed
catching up with all of our local friends, and even a
few out-of-towners, since being back. We do regret
that we haven't been able to see everyone that we had
hoped to while we were here. Although we did keep
our family station wagon to use for this month, having
only one car was a bit of a logistical challenge between
the kids and the chores and the social events. One
of us usually stayed on the boat with the kids doing
chores while the other ran around doing their errands.
The time flew by and before we knew it we were days away
from departure date.
One common question we
heard from our friends was to ask what our best moments
and worst moments were on the boat so far. The
worst moment was easy. Joe and I both agree that
the hours in the fog approaching
Block Island were the worst moments. Our fear
arose from inexperience, and we have since gotten a
little more comfortable in the fog. We have also
since gotten a newer and fancier radar screen which
gives us a lot more information about the targets in our
vicinity. We can even track their speed and course
and therefore tell for sure if they are a threat to us.
This is especially good when you are looking at big
container ships and barges. They take a long time
to maneuver and it is often hard to tell what direction
they are headed, especially when they are coming
straight for you. If we are under sail, it takes
some time for us to divert our course and the sooner we
are aware of the threat, the better. Of course you
don't want to change course unless you have to, so that
little bit of uncertainty when you are trying to figure
it all out based on the radar screen is unsettling.
It will be great to have an instrument that removes some
of that doubt. I'm looking forward to trying it
out.
One of the best moments, without a doubt, was spotting
the whales while sailing to Provincetown from Boston.
We had been motoring into the wind, again, for three and
a half hours when we decided to fall off and do a little
sailing. We had plenty of daylight to make it to
our destination, it was a gorgeous day, and it always
feels so good to turn off the engines and listen to the
wind and the water instead of the throbbing of the
motors. We both love them when we need them, but
sailing is way more pleasant. We were quickly
rewarded in our decision when we spotted a whale
spouting about 300 yards off our starboard bow.
Our new course had taken us further out towards the
Atlantic Ocean instead of straight across Cape Cod Bay
and the chances of seeing whales were greatly improved.
We watched the first one spout half a dozen times, but
always at a distance. The next one we saw was
right off the port side of the boat. I walked out
into the cockpit and saw its back arching gracefully
through the water not more than 30 feet from the middle
of the boat. We saw that one spout several more
times as it fell behind us. The last one was by
far the best. Joe was at the wheel and saw it
surface off the port bow, heading straight for us.
He shouted down to us and the girls and I ran up on
deck. Poor Cassie couldn't find her life jacket,
so she missed it (the girls aren't allowed out of the
cabin without a life jacket while we are moving).
The three of us watched, hearts pounding, as the whale
swam out from under the boat on the starboard side.
We saw it's immense black and white body clearly through
the water. We squealed with delight as it surfaced
right next to us. We saw the whole thing, from
nose, to blow hole, to dorsal fin, to beautiful Y shaped
tail. It was breathtaking. I wish I had a
picture of it, but there was no time for that.
We
have since learned that catamarans have a much higher
incidence of collisions with whales than monohulls.
I'm not sure what the real reason for this would be, but
we've heard about it from several different sources.
I speculated in my journal that all three whales we saw
that day were as aware of our presence as we were of
theirs, although they probably were aware of us long
before we saw them. It almost seemed like they
were coming over to check us out. The first one
seemed to swim towards us and then turn away once it got
too close for comfort. Of course, this is all
speculation and probably romantic fantasy, but it was
still a pretty amazing encounter with mother nature,
regardless of the reciprocity.
In the mean time, we
are suffering through the onset of the cold weather here
in Maryland. Of course, it will only get worse
before it gets better, but when it gets better it is
going to be sooooooo good! We should arrive in
Tortola by mid November and I can retire the one pair of
jeans I have on the boat, after near constant use this
past month. I'm not sure how I'll post updates
while we are at sea, but I should be able to send emails
via our new sailmail account.
We use our single sideband radio to transmit and collect
emails on this account. We haven't tried it out
yet but we should start playing with it in Virginia.
We are also taking delivery of a satellite phone and
we'll post that phone number as soon as it is all set
up. We'll have to see just how expensive it is to
make and receive calls with it. At any rate, I'll
certainly post an update or two before we set out to
sea! I'm getting a little excited/panicked!
Thanks for the emails and good wishes. We'll be
thinking of you all.
Christy, Joe, Cassie and Juliana
Next entry
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Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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