From Annapolis to Napa, with love...

Everybody raise a glass to my lovely mom, Betty Suhr, who celebrated her 90th birthday this week.  Happy Birthday, Mom! 

Dave and I, still in Annapolis, have decided to forego the trip north because it's just getting too late, and, now, cold.  Three days ago before a warm sunrise, I donned my shorts and tank top and rowed up to Truxton Park, took a brisk walk, and rowed back to Wayward Wind.  By mid-day, a cold front from Canada rolled in and with it, a crisp coolness.  Fall arrived on Wednesday afternoon. 

The windlass project is just about finshed.  And, as are all things Italian, it's beautiful and sleek.  And it's so much quieter than the previous windlass.  And no more pounding to get it going.  We're happy.


We will finish other projects, such as repacking the rudder shaft, fixing the leaking aft cabin hatch and two starboard ports, servicing the outboard motor, cleaning the bottom of the boat and other minor things.  And, oh joy, one of the heads has now decided to act up.  We will stay on for the Annapolis Sail Boat show which is the second weekend in October.  We will try to get out for a few days' sail in the bay or at least some day sails. 

We had a little surprise the other day.  In preparing for friends coming over for happy hour, I removed the wheel to make more room in the cockpit.  The next day when we tried to remount the wheel onto the helm stand, it wouldn't slide on, as it should.  We noticed that the piece of metal, the key, that keeps the wheel from spinning around freely on the shaft had a huge crack.  Don came by and when we told him, he thought we were mistaken.  He said that he's dealt with keys on his farm equipment that last forever even though the machinery bounces around over the fields.  Sure enough, when we tapped the key, it broke off completely.  Don was really shocked. He helped us replace it with a new piece of metal.  We are thankful that we discovered it here rather than out at sea.  That would really be a surprise.

Dave has been under the weather for three days - nothing serious - but seems to have a low-grade bug with malaise.  I'm fighting something off.  Don's wife, Janis, has been very ill with a fever and sore throat.  Must be the change in weather. 

Hope everyone is enjoying the last days of summer.  I know I am.  Now I get to learn about marine heads!  ; )

Good Night, Irene

  

Wayward Wind on Mooring Ball 71

We swayed.  We gently swung.  Occasionally we jerked.  But we stayed put and, thankfully, so did our neighbors.  Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time she visited Annapolis.  Here in Spa Creek, the sustained wind was in the low 40 knots with the highest gust recorded by neighbor Gordon on N’Aimless at 47 knots.  It reminded me of a bad California winter storm except that it lasted for nearly two days.  The peak winds were on Saturday night from around 8:00pm till 12:00am though it was blowing heavily all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday.  On Saturday evening, after dinner, Dave and I sat in the cockpit playing gin rummy while enjoying a vodka tonic.  (Yes, even Dave had one!)  On a side note, early on, I was up by nine games, but he wound up winning by one game.  I blame / he credits the vodka. 

Sometime in the late afternoon, we heard a knock on our boat, “Wayward Wind!”  We came out in the blowing rain to find Jeff and Stan, who’d donned their foulies looking up from Stan’s dinghy, smilingly asking us if we wanted to join them on Simpatico because they’d heard that dinner was cooking.  They looked like a couple of kids on an adventure.  But that image was slightly altered when Stan asked for a vodka tonic although he DID have boyish grin.

On our end of the creek, we had no boat damage.  Farther downstream, however, sometime on Saturday night, an old Hans Christian with a big bow sprit drug anchor right between Stan’s and Jeff’s boats and plowed into a power boat, Wat a Joy, punching several holes into its hull.  What a drag!

Our little group of boats and another group of boaters who were at docks monitored Channel 69 on the VHF radio.  The boaters at the docks had internet access, so we heard their periodic weather updates.  We went to sleep around midnight.  Dave got up a couple of times to check on things.  I slept till 4:15 and Dave slept later.  We were grateful for the decent night’s sleep.  By morning, the rain was on and off though the wind was still blowing fairly hard.  By mid-morning, the rain stopped and by mid-afternoon, the edge of Irene’s cloud tail passed overhead.  The wind continued to blow until the evening when finally it was as calm as could be.  Irene, good night.