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Dec. 31st, 2005 Yesterday we went into the heart of Virginia with the main objective being the Monticello Wine Trail. We wanted to visit many vineyards and select a fine wine to serve at our docks 1st Annual Progressive New Years Dinner. Virginia is known for its many vineyards with the first being started by Thomas Jefferson. It is impossible to visit all the vineyards in a single day - because of that there are five suggested tours in the different areas around Charlottesville, VA. We decided to toss all hope to the wind and do our own tours because we had selected the three vineyards we wanted to participate in the wine tasting. The one other change we decided on was that we would do no vineyards tours but to go straight to the tasting room ;-) In all we tasted about 25 different wines and had a ball. Accompanying us on the Trail were Mike and Kirsty who are live aboards on the dock with us. Mike is a Certified Chef and employed by the U. S. Army (has served President Bush), with Kirsty (his fiancé from Scotland) whom holds a PhD in Animal Behavior (Great degree for dating Mike) are a wonderful couple to have with when dealing with food and people.
The first tasting occurred at the Barboursville Vineyards. The best known of the vineyards for its wine but you have to have local knowledge on getting there. They have no signs but Mike knew the way. It was started in the Eighteen Hundreds by former Virginia Governor Barbour. He was the Governor from 1812-1814. The estate home was designed by Thomas Jefferson to be the grandest residence of Orange County. The estate home was destroyed by fire on Christmas of 1884. Since the home was made of stone and brick all the walls are still standing but the interior is gone.
In 1976 the Zonin family from Italy, took over the estate and established the first Virginia vineyard devoted exclusively to European wine.
We purchased 2 mixed cases of wine and have decided that it is their wine we will serve tonight at the dinner. It is a Pinot Grigio that is described as "a romantic and youthful-spirited wine, made in a true Italian style of winemaking. Extremely flavorful, with apple, pear and a touch of pineapple. Dry and well balanced with a glowing and poignant finish". The next winery was the Horton Vineyards. They had different types of wine from the previous vineyard and we purchased a case from them. One of the selections was grape from Russia. The wine (Rkatsiteli) is described as "Zesty orange peel aromas, citrus flavors and long finish. A very rare wine for the white wine afficionado". The last place we visited was the vineyard of our 3rd President Jefferson. Again, different wines than the other vineyards we visited. On a hillside overlooked by the Blue Ridge Mountains, we tasted his wine. Again a purchase of another case. One of the selections was Jefferson's own Vin Blanc. It is barrel fermented and aged. Description is "The Chardonnay lends hints of butter and backbone of oak, which are complemented by the tropical fruit flavors of the Vidal Blanc. This wine shows nutty, vanilla flavors, orange peel and pineapple, A hint of lemon and raisin complete this unique wine".
We also drove past James Madison former estate "Montpelier" a close neighbor to Jefferson's "Monticello". Thomas Jefferson is called the father of American wine as he wanted to produce a exceptional quality wine like those he had tasted in Europe. Quote from Jefferson, "Good wine is the necessity of life";-)
Dec. 22nd, 2005 What I have learned about BUBBLERS (for now). This is a part of the country where the water we float in freezes. If a boat is left in the water and not transported to land storage, it is prudent to use a bubbler to stop the ice build up around the boat. The bubbler is (for us smaller boats) a 1/2 or 3/4 horsepower electric motor with a little plastic propeller that is hung below the bow of the boat and placed about 1 to 2 feet above the bottom of the water. It is cycled (by electric timers) to turn on and off during certain times of the day, something like your Christmas decorations. Some people will run them all night or some run them a couple of hours at dusk and a couple hours before dawn or somewhere in-between. The theory is that the pumping action caused by the propeller will bring the warmer water at the bottom to the surface and melt the floating ice. It does work. To start at the beginning of my learning curve, it was at the Annapolis Boat show that we talked to a company that was selling the machine. They told us that we would definitely need it but since we where live-aboards we would not need the timer and we could turn it on or off as needed. So we left telling them that we would be back at their business as the season approached. Next, I noticed that when we had a thin layer of ice in the bay, our dock was half frozen (from the land outward) and the other half was ice free. I later found out that a boat 4 slips from us was running a 3/4 horsepower bubbler. I have since seen a 1/2 horsepower bubbler working and saw that the ice free area was about 1/4 that of the 3/4 hp motor (if properly placed, it will keep a couple of slips free of ice). Going back a little, some of the conversations that I had about the bubbler brought forth the following advice, "Don't buy one yet maybe your neighbor has one", " Don't buy one yourself, see if your neighbor would share the cost ($300 - $400)" to finally " you don't need to buy one, just run your boat's engine in gear a few minutes (30) in the morning and night and it will keep you ice free and also keep the condensation out of the engine". That last advice came from another live-aboard on our dock who also works part time at West Marine. That is the advice that worked for me. I have run my engine just once to see if it would work and it did (1/2 inch of ice), only it took about 5 minutes of forward gear and reverse gear, to clear all the ice not only in our slip but across to the next dock behind us and into the slip ahead of us on our dock. Since then our neighbor to starboard installed a bubbler and that keeps our forward starboard side clear. Our heat pumps discharge on our port side fore and aft and keep our boat clear of ice except for the transom area. A short burst of power from our engine will clear that right away. Most bubblers are not installed at the bow but tied off on a piling of the finger pier and a piling on the dock, about a 10 foot spread. So at our dock, of the 6 live-aboards - 3 use bubblers, 2 use engine power when needed and one doesn't do anything. One boat (the one next to us) that was left in the water uses the bubbler and about 5 more boats on our dock left in the water use nothing. I forgot to mention a bubbler's physical size, - well its about the size of and looks like the bucket you wash your car with.
Dec. 8th, 2005 Back to the old grind of retirement. Nancy's folks left on Tuesday and so did Nancy. They went back to their home in Bellingham WA. and she went to Houston TX for a meeting. Lets see... where to start.. Well, the boat is back in the water and we are officially liveaboards. There are 4 other liveaboards on our dock and a few on other docks in the marina. Lets start at the top of the boat and work down. New painted mast, TV antenna placed at the top of the mast instead of at the spreaders, new cell phone repeater antenna, oh yaw, the repeater is new also. The repeater will extend our cell phone range to about 50 miles +- which is great for Coastal Cruising. New spreader boots, hailer speaker at the spreaders (also listens and sends fog signals), video camera at the spreaders that is coupled to the new Raymarine E80 Radar/chart plotter system. The main function of the camera will be to see navigation hazards from the OLD proverbial crows nest. The video camera also has a microphone that has not been incorporated into the system yet. At the navigation station the Raymarine E80 which is a 24 mile radar, chart plotter (with aerial overlay and sub water terrain) for both marine and road, plus the video input (it can take up to 4 video inputs so besides the spreaders I am thinking of more locations, i.e. engine room, aft of the boat). It will do more things (fish finder, engine instruments) but I have not and probably will not incorporate those. New Garmin GPS 376 that is a chart plotter with electronic chart and it also downloads the national weather, radar, winds, pressure systems, sea swells, bouy reports and tides for the Northern hemisphere to its most southern point about half way between Porto Rico and Bonaire. Current weather is for that area only but the GPS chart plotter and tides are for world wide. We also added a Emergency Locater Transmitter that has its own GPS receiver. When in the water it will send a emergency signal to the satellites that includes our position. Bad me,,,, GPS is Global Positioning Satellites that orbit the earth and can give our position on the globe to within about 12 feet. A new SSB (Single Sideband Tranceiver), the Icom IC-M802, that works on both marine and ham frequencies ( I have been a HAM for about 30 years and hold the Advanced License for ham radio, my ham call sign is WB0RVX). Behind the navigation station is a new AED (Automated Emergency Defibrillator). (and one of Jim's Christmas Presents that he opened early) It is part of our on board emergency kit. Nancy and I are also certificated rescue divers with Red Cross first responder and AED training. Forward of the AED is "Henry" our new Fortress FX-55 storm anchor. (another early Christmas present) Aft of the AED is the new pop machine (Nancy's Christmas present). Soda Pop is rare in some places of the seas, hard to store, and if available it is very pricey, sooo, we will make our own. Its like being a soda jerk. That's me, just add soda. Below all that is a new hull. Two layers of glass were added from the forward bulkhead aft to the transom and then another coat of glass, starboard to port from stem to stern. The first two layer were to tie in the bow with the transom and the last glass was added to make the whole hull stronger. After that was done, several layers of a barrier coat of Poly was added. I don't know how many layers but I was watching as layer 3 was being put on and it continued for a couple more days. The barrier coat will protect the hull from blisters and anything else that the water would try to do. After the barrier coat, 2 coats of bottom paint were added. Oh, I forgot something in-between. The painting of the blue strips on the boat, the one on the top and the one on the bottom and the compounding and waxing of the total hull. Enough of Jim's "Stuff" - we also have a beautiful new veneer on our saloon table - and have converted some of our galley drawers into shelves. Lots more storage space. Buster Phipps of Phipps Boat Works did the wood work himself and it is great. The grain of the wood was picked by him and I love it.
So while all this was being done, Nancy scheduled her parents for a visit. The day after the boat was launched and the day it was commissioned (put back together), the folks arrived. The "making the boat a home" was put on hold. It was a great visit . They arrived at the Baltimore airport the same day that our boat got settled in her slip. In fact, we had just enough time to tie off some lines before Nancy had to speed off toward to Baltimore to meet their flight. I stayed behind and complete putting the boat in the slip (electrical, inspect for leaks, all that stuff). On the way back from the airport, Nancy stopped by and picked me up. We checked her folks into their motel at Herrington Harbour South and then had dinner at "Mangos" (local place at the resort). It was now 10:00 pm and it had been a long day.
The next day we went the Branch Avenue metro (by Andrews Air Force Base, southeast of the loop), traveled into L'Enfant Plaza and switched to the Smithsonian metro to get to the Washington Monument (555.5 feet).
It had been about 10 years since the monument was open and Nancy got 12:30 reserved tickets. We got there at 12:28. (an example of the tight schedule she'd worked up for the visit) From the monument we looked over the Reflecting Pond to the Lincoln Memorial. Out of another window we saw the Tidal Basin and the trees that give us the spring cherry blossom and from the next window, the Capital and finally the last window overlooking the elipse and the White House, were we would be later that day.
After the Monument we went to the WWII memorial, my stepfather had asked us to go there since he had registered my father and himself and wanted us to see it. We went to the museum and type in John J. Otis and it came up and showed that he had been honored by his friend Lloyd Aadland . We were all touched by the memorial.
After that we went to the American History Museum and saw the First Lady's dresses
and the flag that was draped over the Pentagon after 9/11 by the fireman. But, my special discovery was "The Star Spangled Banner" that was in the same building. It was laying in a special room that had been set up for its preservation and reconditioning. Because of its condition, it will never be flown or draped again, but to lay for us to remember. It is a huge flag that would cover several floors of today's buildings, if draped.
That evening we were on the White House Ellipse as President and Mrs. Bush lit the National Christmas Tree. This was a special honor as only 700 people could get 4 tickets each and Nancy got 4. Several stars performed with the Marine band . My treat that night was listening to Voena (Voices of Eve and Angels). A children's choral group that was fabulous. After that we went to have dinner (and thaw out) at the Occidental Grill, the closest restaurant to the White House and the place to be seen when in Washington.
Next Day, we traveled back to Washington - only this time I drove in through all the traffic and we parked at the L'Enfant Plaza and took the metro to the Smithsonian stop and then down a couple of blocks to the Holocaust Museum. Normally a person would not go to the Smithsonian stop, but it was so cold, we didn't want to walk the 4 blocks. We spent several very emotional hours at the museum - the exhibits are something to behold. After that, back to the parking garage and off to old town Alexandria, VA. That evening (after shopping) we had dinner at Gatsby's.
This was one of George Washington's favorite establishments. It was from there that he reviewed his troops. It is historically the same as when he was there - even the menu. The staff dress in period costume and a story teller roams the area. Wonderful evening, but try and get from Virginia state highway 1 to US 395. And I got to drive in all this mess. By the Way, the Woodrow Wilson bridge is under construction.
The pace for the third and fourth days of their visit was a little more relaxed - shopping, local site-seeing, and visiting. We took Nancy's folks to our favorite little restaurant/bar Neptune's in North Beach and they were as impressed with their meal as we have always been. On Sunday, they joined us aboard Solitaire for dinner to celebrate their 62nd wedding anniversary. The five course meal included crab chowder, harvest salad, sautéed asparagus, veal in brandy cream sauce, and chocolate mousse with ice wine.
Winter arrived the last day of their visit. We were doing some Christmas Shopping in Annapolis when the temperature dropped and the first snowflakes started to fall. We spent the afternoon running between stores for shopping and pubs for warming up. That evening, we had whole Maine lobsters at the Rams Head Tavern and then enjoyed Aaron Neville's Christmas Concert.
He sang one song after another for nearly three hours without a break - it was great show! Unfortunately, the snow was still falling when we got back to our car at 11 p.m. - the trip to take Nancy's folks to their motel and then on to the Marina was very slow due to the road conditions. The following morning, the roads had been plowed and Nancy took her folks back to the airport.