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Sailing weekend
2005-06-08 - 4:11 p.m.
The thunderstorm Monday night was absolutely fabulous! I actually
went out in the lighter stuff and soaked up the sprinkles and rumbling
heavens. I love storms, love them better when I have a solid
structure to retreat to, but even Pennsic storms have a bit of magic
for me. Nostalgic glimpses of my first pennsic and the puddle
jumping brigade. It likely goes even further back to forcing the
evil children out of the pool when thunder rumblings would happen in
the summer. And of course, when we were much smaller, and our
little butts would fit on the front stoop, my sisters and I would sit
just under cover and stick our legs out in the rain and watch the river
of rain water flow down the street and have silly girlie talks.
Speaking of rain, we went sailing this weekend.
Gainer, Krazy
Kaptn Kynny, Alan and myself took the (piece of crap)
Somewhere out
from Getaway in Baltimore on
Friday morning and brought her back home
on Sunday evening. We realize that we have this trend to
grossly over provision the boat with way too much food and drink.
We also need to come up with some kind of cart system for toting our
stuff, cause we are stuff intensive people. I'm thinking a
folding grocery cart each might just do the job.
So, we head out a little late on Friday
morning, frankly because it is
really difficult to awake on time when the rain is softly pit-a-patting
on the roof. We got to Baltimore and out on the boat roughly 10am
after loading on our vast amounts of provisions in the rain. We
question our sanity somewhat and then get underway. It was
supposed to rain off and on, with winds from 10-15 knots. I'm
thinking we got closer and above 20 kts wind though. I can
safely say that we didn't sink or wreck the boat, as we did make it
back home, but there were some times we'd be tooling along and all of a
sudden, Whoa! Tree! or Whoa! Buoy! Thank goodness for the
fabulous GPS system recently purchased by le Monkey. It really
helped us keep our course when we couldn't see the shores or any
channel markers. We discovered that only Matt's foul weather gear
is truly waterproof as the rest of us got soaked through. I
remained warm enough to not be shivering, but I was far from
toasty. Gainer couldn't find his foul weather pants so after an
initial soaking and some sea-sickness, he went down below to rest, warm
and dry. Even the Mad Monkey got a little queasy in the galley,
so he ended up napping in the cockpit in the rain. Color me
impressed. I had the song The
Sailor's Prayer in my mind practically the entire day. The
rain eventually lessened up around 4 as we
approached our goal of the Kent Island Narrows. There was much
conversation about getting our commemorative Kent Island Narrows
sweatshirts to keep warm, as well as towels. We'll come back to
this towel bit.
So, as we approach the tight channel into the narrows, we decide to
take down the sails while still out of the channel so as not to be in
anyone's way. Yeah, like there was much traffic on the bay, much
less anyone else headed where we headed. As we furl up the jib,
and prepare to drop the main, we decide to start the engine while we
still have one sail up, and some maneuverability. Problem, the
engine won't start. Big
problem as there is no way we are sailing
into the Mear's Point
Marina in the variable winds and with a tight
channel and big possibility for danger. So after consulting the
manual, trying everything it tells us to try, we suck it up and call
Getaway to gain assistance. Picture Alan on the phone patiently
saying "uh-huh", and "we tried that too" to the nice
Getaway employee
we reached. Finally Alan asks Gainer for a screwdriver, and his
response to Gainer's question of "phillips
or flat head" was
"metal". Whoa!
After Alan completes the solenoid (sp?-
circuit) we get the engine started. Great. We get to add to
our new skills, hot-wiring the boat.
So, we finally get started, and motor through the narrow channel and
into the marina, finding our reserved slip after doing a couple of
loop-t-loops and pissing off some other boaters. opps. So,
we dock, change into dry clothes, use every available hook and door to
hang up all our sopping wet garments and head for some nice hot fried
seafood. We ate at the Harris
Crab House, checked out other shops (where I found a Don't mistake Endurance for Hospitality
napkin) and moseyed about looking into the facilities and looking
desperately for a towel. You see, since we got started later, I
asked Alan to pack the linens, which he wonderfully did. But my
definition of linens for a trip includes towels, his definition of
linens did not. So he packed sheets, blankets, pillows and a
towel for himself, but not one for me. sigh. Mind you when I
meant to pack the linens I had intended to toss in extra towels for the
galley and mopping up morning dew and all that, but I had neglected to
communicate this to Alan. So, after our dinner we meander about
the town partly checking things out, partly in search of a towel.
I ceased my search when we walked under Rt. 50 and checked out the
other side and still found nothing and the only recommendation was for
a Kmart a few miles down the road. No Thanks. Especially
since my shoes were soaked through so I was just in flip flops.
The other monkeys made comments about the futility of my search and we
only contemplated stealing hotel towels a few times, but I don't think
they were on the whole pleased with my excursion. But we stopped
in a bar for drinks, and got to walk off some of the fried seafood
goodness, and all in all, it could have been worse. We headed
back to the boat after a very tiring day and laughed at our GPS tracked
course vs. the one we plotted, and listened to some comedy MP3s, and
crashed in bed.
Saturday morning dawned very
early. Far too early for me. I may have had trouble getting
up on Friday, but I was the first one up at 6:30am on Saturday.
So I took my breakfast and some reading materials up to the cockpit and
enjoyed the slight breezes and the silence. Sadly the book
did not impress me in the first 10 pages, in fact I thought of tossing
it overboard. So, I primarily wiped the ash off the deck, watched
the ducks nearby, and sipped my Diet Coke. We eventually visited
the showers and I washed my face drying off with a paper towel, and
enjoyed the flushies. Sailing is rather like Pennsic in that if
you have the chance to use the flushies instead of the head/portojohns,
you take it. We had quite a bit of lovely wind in the morning as
the storm blew off, but the wind died quickly for the rest of the
day. Since we had to wait for the drawbridge to get Somewhere to go through the Narrows
and around Kent Island, we got up and ready to go and were back on
water around 10am. Since we had no wind, and I do mean none, we
just motored (insert Gainer singing Sister
Christian on repeat for an entire 2 days here) around Kent Island
and into Annapolis. We got a little stir crazy at not being able
to get canvas in the air, so there was much silliness and rum and
laughing at the various landmarks, such as Bloody Point, and more
shifts napping down below, and all sorts of non-sailing activity.
I don't know what it was, but I was very irritable on Saturday
morning. The urge to kill the rest of the crew was approaching
overwhelming. So, I took the first shift napping below, figuring
if I closed my eyes I wouldn't see all the things pissing me off.
After a while I decided to brave their company again and since the
hackles raised again, I went and hung out on deck, but at the bow of
the ship instead of in the cockpit. The apparent wind created by
the boat moving was quite pleasant and it was harder to hear the
monkeys in the cockpit flinging pooh. I guess I did a really good
job at hiding my irritation cause none of them knew until it had
passed, but close proximity could have been detrimental to their
health. I think my OCD tendencies were in full force as their
silly couldn't-give-a-shit attitudes were ramping up. Sigh, it
passed and no blood was spilt.
When we make it into Annapolis harbor
and eventually find the City Dock
(cuz even with a GPS I'm still a tard) and we dock the boat and find
out the Harbormaster is an exceptionally groovy fella. He helps
us tie up the boat, checks us in there at the boat (no need to visit
and office for us!), gives us tokens to the private bathrooms and
showers, and gives us directions to the nearest things we need.
Since we weren't paying attention, and since Ego Alley is fairly
narrow, we docked the boat nose in, instead of backing her into the
slip. So we go find ice cream, and walk around some, and ended up
at Fawcett's marine supply
to shop. I was okay (since they didn't have foul weather gear in
my size and price range) until I found the pink
rockport deck shoes. Great Googly Moogly! They are so
pretty, pink, leather, comfy and get this-- machine washable! So
I splurged and bought them, but they were my constant companion for the
rest of the trip, so I'd say they are a worthy investment. And
they are pink!
Gina drove to Annapolis and joined us, and brought us all towels.
Oh, Gina is my hero, oh Mizz Gina is a saint. While we were
waiting for Susan and the Zack to visit, we decided that showers would
be a good way to spend our time. It is at this time that the boys
find out that while Alan didn't pack a towel for me, he had packed a
towel for himself (something neither of them managed to do) which moved
them to my side of the argument. I'm just saying, when I pack stuff I
usually ask Alan if he packed his own towel or if I should toss one in
for him.... The showers were really nice and clean and private
and hot and wonderful and we returned to the boat a lot less foul than
we left, so yay for Miss Gina, the bringer of towels. Who knew
that Towelie
and the Hitchhikers'
Guide were right, Always bring a towel! When the rest of the
monkeys arrived we let Zack explore the boat cautiously and went out to
eat at Buddy's Crabs for
more delicious seafood. Afterwards we hung out on the boat and
went on a small trip for Ben &
Jerry's and enjoyed the relaxed ambiance. Eventually parting
ways with the women folk as they made their way homeward.
While we hadn't planned to be rebels, we were arranged in the slip
exactly opposite of everyone else. While this meant we couldn't
use the handy ladder and we had to disembark from the pointy end, it
did mean that we didn't get pestered with questions from those walking
by and we didn't have to be side by side with our neighbors. It
also meant that instead of looking on land while hanging out Sat night,
we got a great view of the activities going on at Pusser's Landing,
the bar across the water. Eventually our voyeuristic sides came
out, with the help of a little rum and beer, and we sat and chatted and
pulled out the binoculars and had a fine time of people watching.
The ultimate entertainment of the evening was the "Slut Boat" docked
directly across from us that kept on adding more and more random
partiers. We had to name them because they each had very
different party personalities. There was the really drunk guy in
the white shirt that we had bets on if he'd hit his head on the dock,
fall in the drink, etc. if he tried to leave the boat. There were
Pinky and TubeTop who proved to be the ultimate party girls, letting
out the hair, dancing, smooching, you get the gist. There was
also GrayShirt who was a guy with a cheesy saying on his shirt that got
all the ladies! Negligee girl was half party, half buzz kill of
serious conversation off the bow of the ship. And lastly, there
was GreenPurse who had a death grip on her purse under her arm and
didn't seem to have any fun at all. With such a cast of
characters to entertain us, and some alcoholic libations to fuel us, we
had a darn funny evening. I think next time to hope for a similar
slip, and entertainment.
Sunday morning again I was the
first one up at 7am this time. I enjoyed my Diet Coke, the quiet
serene water, more ducks and re-braided my hair to keep it out of the
way. Once the boys woke up the smell of cooked breakfast wafted
our way and lured us across the way, the long foot traveled way, to
Pusser's Landing for hot food, coffee and a mimosa for me,
hooray! Kynny had to swing by the "Slut Boat" on his way to the
loo to check on its progress. Apparently two of the drunk guys
were hung over, but up and hosing and scrubbing something blue off
their deck. Eww... we must have gone to bed before that
happened. After our nice hot breakfast, a stop in the gift shop
for silly man-hats and razors, and a visit to the ladies for a quick
shave, we were back on the boat, sunscreened and underway home to
Baltimore.
We tried to sail, I swear we did, but the wind was completely
uncooperative. We did sail a bit in the light winds and
calculated how long it would take us to make it to Baltimore and
decided to drop the sails and just motor it again. (Again, more
Gainer singing Night Ranger... motoring.... I swear to
god...) We took turns at the wheel, took turns napping, took
turns passing up food and drinks etc. We eventually did get a
little bit of wind and put up the sails to motor-sail. It wasn't
quite the adventure that Friday was, but we had the sails full from
time to time, so that was nice. Matt and I took a quick dip of
our toes in the nice cool Chesapeake off the back of the ship while
Alan at the helm took us home. We finally got back to port,
pumped out and refueled by 5:30pm.
We ended the day with dinner out at Nichi Bei Kai in
Columbia, and nursing our burns. Of course we got burned.
It was so freaking hot that even with the application of sun screen,
there are still some crispy spots. At least it's not as bad as
one time last year when I burned the tops of my thighs so badly I
worked from home so I could be in soft comfy PJs. With a little
aloe and moisturizer, we should be right as rain soon.
And today is Alan and I's 3rd wedding anniversary. Can you
believe it? He hasn't snapped and smote me yet? I'm looking
forward to a lovely dinner out with my sweetie at Timpano's
tonight. Speaking of which, see you monkeys later...
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