May, 06

May 31st, 2006, We did a little baby sitting (cat) this last week. Percy is going sailing offshore in a few weeks and his owners wanted to go and see family over the memorial weekend. He sure loved his petting and food, in that order. We did go out on the bay a couple of times with neighbors on the dock. One time was in a power boat two slips from us (Steve and Lisa). It was real foggy on the bay and we did the navigating mostly by radar and electronic chart. The chart has the radar overlaid on it so it sure made things easy. Coming back in the fog was starting to lift and I took a few pictures from the boats bridge. This one is of our harbor entrance. The channel coming in is very narrow and boats have to pass each other like cars on a two lane road.

You can see our first entrance mark on the right next to the jetty. Looking down the channel you can see the boats coming out single file on their right side of the channel. One of the first signs of spring here is the returning of the Swallows and Osprey. The Swallows build their nests under our docks and the Osprey build their nests on the channel markers. On the left side of the channel mark you can see an Osprey with the nest on the right side.

Another Osprey can be seen to the left of the mark near shore doing the family shopping. They are wonderful to watch. The next time we went out was later in the afternoon on a sailboat (Norma and Sam). It was their first spring outing (shakedown cruise) and Sam took advantage of the situation by putting me at the helm and playing with everything on deck. Coming back in we did wing-on-wing and passed all the boats coming back. Actually it was only one boat.

The new windless is installed and working like a charm. It actually is faster than the old one. Nice to have that job done. Nancy and I are starting a new training course. We are working on our Dive Master and Master Diver certifications. So a lot of our spare time is spent studying. (what spare time?) The training will take about 6 to 8 months to complete but the big rush now is the book work. We will be meeting with our instructor this week to go over the portions of the manual that we have completed so far.

We got a call from Bob and Bev (from our old Marina in Texas) and they will be in Washington D.C. this week, so we are hoping to meet up with them. What we do will depend on what their schedule is. Well, that's all the news that is the news.

May 20th, 2006 We are all ready for crab season. They should be showing up at our dock in the next week or two. To make sure that we knew what to do, we attended a crab seminar given free by Boaters World in Annapolis. This was something else. The instructor was Jared, about a 19 year old employee that still lived at home. His expertise was that he ate crab, but not often because his mother was allergic to it. With that direct quote, the class started and Jared began reading a page of rules from the Maryland DNR ( Department of Natural Resources) web site. When asked questions about some of the rules his standard answer was "I'm reading what I downloaded from the web site". A couple who were in the class with us knew a little more than the Instructor and that helped a lot. Jared handed out a copy of a how to set up a crab line and a recipe to use when cooking crab. The other couple went to the front of the store and grabbed a hand full of the free monthly Prop Talk magazines and gave them to everyone and told us what pages to go to for all the rules and recipes. Way to go... So now we have two crab traps (one folding and one big), Nancy's tongs to grab them from the trap, a big steaming pot (good for crab and lobster), fresh chicken necks (bait) and a Maryland Recreational Boat License. The boat license will allow anyone on our boat to fish and crab free in Maryland without a license and it also gave me a fishing license good on any body else's boat in the Chesapeake Bay.

One of the popular things to do on the Bay is to boat to a shore side Restaurant/Bar and have a good time. Well, that's what we did last night. Nancy got home from work, and decided for us, that it would be fun to go to the Bar across the creek from us and partake in the 1/2 price appetizers that are available from 5 to 7 o'clock. So we grabbed the dock neighbors, Nicky and Jay, who just can't turn down a good time and went to have a light dinner. We ordered 8 different plates of the appetizers (shrimp, crab dip, etc.) and overfilled ourselves. A good time was had by all.

I got the new Garmin 492 GPS (Global Positioning Satellite ) receiver installed at the helm and connected it to the autopilot. Now I can navigate anyplace in the world and not have to touch the wheel. The GPS receiver that it replaced could do the same thing but this one also has all the US coastal charts and tide tables that are viewable on a LCD color screen plus a world wide map. It is not as fancy as the Raymarine MFD (multifunction display) that is installed at the nav station on the boat, but will work very well for quick reference while in the US. I have purchased all the electronic charts for the East coast thru the Bahamas. We will wait to get the rest when we leave. We have backup paper charts for the Chesapeake Bay and will get the rest of the paper charts when we leave. The new windless is still not here, but should be in next week sometime. I talked to the store manager and she said that she was going to try and get it shipped second day. Will have to wait and see what happens.

May 14th, 2006, Last week I found out that our anchor windless had stopped working. This week I climbed into the anchor locker and took it apart to find out what was wrong. The electric motor case had broken and everything was torn up. Now I HAVE to buy a new one. It should be in this week. I am getting the Lewmar-Simpson-Lawrence Sprint 1000 GD. In the mean time, I am updating the GPS at the helm with the new Garmin 492. It should be in this week also. Hurry up and wait...... Last week we noticed a 105' sail boat. Really neat. One noticeable thing is that it showed no anchor line when anchored. The anchor came out of a hold in the bottom of the hull. Strange.. Something like a submarine. We also got a good picture of Jay and Nicky's boat at anchor.

We had a nice treat for dinner last night. Annapolis Seafood had a Mother's Day Special for two - Maryland Crab Soup, One pound of snow crab legs, One pound of spiced peel-and-eat shrimp, and two one-pound Maine Lobsters. And yes, we ate it all!

May 07th, 2006 , We spent the weekend at St. Michaels, Md. It is located on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in an area that is called the Eastern Bay. It is one of those truly unforgettable cruising spots of the Chesapeake Bay. The town was chartered in 1804 although early accounts of trading here date to 1631 and in the late 1600's a parish church was built. It has many attractions and is steeped with American History. We first visited St. Michaels by car 5 years ago to see the Maritime Museum. This time was a special treat since we were now visiting by boat and watching all the people looking at us as we were anchored in a small quiet cove. It was so interesting that I woke up at 3 in the morning and I could not hear anything. Not a bird, highway traffic, airplane, nothing could be heard. It was a completely quiet evening.

May 5th - So off we go to start the weekend. Nancy is anxious because it is her birthday.

We left the harbor and Tippy immediately started her job of navigating across the Chesapeake Bay. We used our electronic navigation backed up by paper charts and pilotage. It was a calm day so we motored for 5 hours and 15 minutes to anchor drop. Along the way we had to navigate past crap pots, fish havens, tankers and tugs. We arrived and anchored next to the Maritime Museum. That is a hotel in the background, rooms go for $450.00 per night (unless you want something special). People staying there pay that much to look at us at anchor. Nancy immediately relaxed, . That is the Maritime Museum behind her. We went to Jay and Nicky's boat that evening for dinner and a birthday party. Jay had his birthday two days before Nancy's. Nicky had baked a cake for Nancy and the party was on. . The next evening we took dinghies into town for dinner. It was an enjoyable birthday weekend. Love the friends and this part of the country.

May 2nd, 2006 We got back from Arizona late last night. It fact it was almost today. 11:30 p.m. was our arrival time at the boat and Nancy is off to work already. Its was Dads 80th birthday that took us to the big city of Tucson AZ. Great celebration. My sisters, Mary (and family), Claudia along with my cousin Sharon with husband Dave, showed up for the celebration. We don't have the exact count yet but about 85 friends showed up for the party which was held in the community club house. We had lunch catered for everyone which shows you how many people will show up for a free lunch.

The weather was just warming up for the summer and the cactus were in bloom. Strange the flowers only last for one day and then the pod drops to the ground.