In the Chesapeake!

We are heading to Deltaville this morning. Here are the entries for the last couple of days:

Friday, May 15

The anchor was on deck by shortly after noon yesterday. With winds under 10 knots, we motor sailed until we were able to turn the engine off at 7 p.m. and sail a broad reach on the starboard tack. Around midnight, we made our way into the Gulf Stream, which helped to propel us along. 

As the night sky lightened with the approaching dawn, the wind dropped from the night-time 16-22 knots to 8-10 knots from the southwest, and we were forced to use the engine again. Peter rigged up the spinnaker and we used it when we could, as the wind was fickle. At 8:30 a.m., the spinnaker was flying. We socked it at 9:50 a.m. and turned on the engine, then unfurled it again at noon when the wind picked up to 12 knots, cutting the engine. It was back to a socked spinnaker and engine power at 2:20 p.m., and then we reversed this at 3:45 p.m., gliding along with minimal noise with 14 knots of wind from the SSE. At 5:10 p.m., the wind was stretching the limits of the spinnaker and we brought it down and put it away. With the genoa back up, we were going 6-8 knots in 15-20 knots of wind on a deep broad reach. It was a delightful sail.

Slipping through the green water of the Chesapeake Bay, we headed northwest to the western Virginia shore of the bay, where we anchored at 1:20 a.m. in Bryant’s Bay, a part of the larger Mobjack Bay, dodging crab pot buoys. We only caught one; it was impossible to avoid them. We did not realize how many there were until the next morning when we could see them all around us.

Saturday, May 16

We fell into bed around 2 a.m.; Peter really needed the rest as he had done virtually all of the night watch the night before. (My hero!) We awoke to sunny skies and warm temperatures. We could go out on deck in only our nightclothes, without wool socks and sweaters!

We did various tasks on the boat. Peter pointed out to me the varnish swipes on the white paint inside the boxes for the deck hatches, mentioning that he would need to do something about that. This slopping job of painting (completed before we owned the boat) had not escaped my attention; in fact, two years ago, I had meticulously removed varnish from around the wood trim that was stuck to the headliner. The person who did the job was sloppy and too lazy or inattentive to wipe off the varnish that overlapped onto the headliner and the box while it was still wet. It was obvious that he had used the technique of taping to avoid overpainting because there was a blemish-free strip above the wood and then varnish streaks above the tape line. It makes you wonder!

Before . . .

And after my hard work

I volunteered to do the job and spent a few hours with my trusty paring knife slowly scraping off the excess without damaging the white paint. I tried using a heavy razor blade, but it just didn’t work for me. 

After completing this job, I moved on to the second task of the day, cutting Peter’s hair. It has been nearly four months since either of us have had a haircut. My hair has made it through an awkward stage and it is now at a length that I like, so I will probably not cut it short again for a while. Peter, on the other hand, was looking a bit shaggy. I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. I hadn’t cut his hair since we lived on Epicurus (2005-08); there seems to be a bit less of it now.

Peter's haircut

Now that the days and nights do not seem to be stretching out in front of us without end, now that we are in the Chesapeake and near our final destination for this part of our sailing adventures, we are more motivated to get boat jobs done, so there was no time for games today. Bedtime will be early.