The Simple Things in Life

The most basic and best things in life are generally free: having a family, a smile, a hug, seeing friends, and of course seeing the world.

It's about finding YOUR best things in life for you to feel the happiest. I am pretty sure we would all rather feel happy than sad. This journey gives us many reasons to smile as we look at the world as if we were a kid again.

Schools of fish on the ocean

Pelicans circling the schools of fish.

Pelican and seagulls, the size of small dogs, fishing for lunch.

For Tony and I , we realize every day how fortunate and thankful we are to have this experience travelling south to Florida. Although we left many friends and family in the cold temps, we smile knowing everyone will be there when we return soon. (I wrote this blog up to this point before I found out about my Mom passing away. Very powerful words I wrote that I never knew just how much they would mean).

Some friends just couldn't be away from us and join us at the Annapolis Boat Show on Sunday, October 11.

Brett and David surprised us again on Monday, Thanksgiving Day as they visited us on Deja Vu at MYC (Maryland Yacht Club) just 40 minutes north of Annapolis.

SO happy to see MCC family for a quick beer before we were all off to seminars.

With no real list of things to buy, other than a larger boat (hee hee), we do make one very important purchase of "Marriage Savers" headsets. They are similar to a cordless phone however you can talk and hear at the same time, with the newest having blue tooth capabilities. Most cruisers appreciate their mate or crew doing their part when docking or anchoring the boat, however not all grunts and sighs and cursing can be heard - thank goodness. However the makers of these headsets (Cruising Solutions) truly want your relationship with your team member or in some cases, your married partner, to be as colourful as can be!
Seriously though, all grumbling and tiss-tissing aside, these headsets are truly marriage savers!
Picture this: I am at the helm, Tony is walking up to the bow and we are about to drop the anchor. Tony and I have agreed previously on a few hand signals to assist with our communication during the lowering of the anchor. As he hangs his head over the bow to lower it, I have lost all visuals of his hands, not knowing if he is even capable of making any; important signals like STOP, REVERSE or NEUTRAL.

Marriage Savers, two headsets needed. Boat show price: priceless

Without sounding like a shopping channel ad, the audio and mic on the headsets are spectacular! We can hear each other breathing, coughing (ouch) and yes, hearing those "ughs" as we let out what we believe to be under-our-breath sounds of frustration. We both say "I heard that", and chuckle as we realize how much easier and more safe our anchoring and docking is becoming. SAVE YOUR MARRIAGE!! Perhaps these would work  for other situations too, with an effective range of 50-70 feet, although could work up to 300 feet.

When would you use them?

As this gorgeous day continued we were able to work on boat chores: laundry, floor wash, wax boat deck and general tidying. Our V-berth guest (Bob) has left so once again this large space becomes our easy-access storage for cockpit cushions, suitcases and small heater.

I prepare a short provisioning list as we look ahead at our travels south toward Virginia.

It's Thanksgiving and we plan our holiday dinner in the picnic area on the waterfront. It's a bit chilly at the dinner hour but we are not complaining since it reached 30C earlier - a temperature that we've never experienced on any past mid-October day at home.

Duck face out, fish lips in.

Thanksgiving Day sunset. Cooler temps at night.

Tony just loves chatting. I think he loves meeting people more than me. He introduces me to Mike, another Catalina 380 owner at the club that is heading south soon, and within an hour of chatting Mike has offered us his car so we can use to get into the town nearby.  Time to make a grocery list.

We are so thankful for such a generous offer to use the car, as the taxi service that I called declined my request, saying 'they don't come out that far';working the Baltimore and Washington airports were their focus.

Early the next day I hear:

BANG!! BANG!! "chhhhhh...shhhh"....

what the heck?

I pretty much run up the steps out of the boat, into the cockpit at the same time another sailor in the boat opposite does the same.

Both of us looking around, I shriek,  "Was that a gun shot?" 

"Yup. Welcome to America", he says.

We scan the waterfront around us, only to see this! I am stunned. This camouflaged boat is just 100 feet away from fuel dock at the yacht club we are moored on.
Duck hunting in a small harbour like this?
I wasn't able to find any pieces on the deck, thankfully there were no more shots as I remained down below to take shelter. 

Shrapnel landed on the boat deck and bounced into the water.
Decoys in front and behind.

Maryland Yacht Club, just off the Chesapeake Bay, southeast of Baltimore.

FUN!

With our fridge and storage areas decently packed with provisions, we set out of MYC into the Chesapeake Bay, motoring and sailing towards Herring Bay, an anchorage about 6 hours south.
Winds gusting to 30 knots, thankful for northwest winds.



This sailor rides the waves in the Chesapeake, just south of Baltimore.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is nearly 5 miles long and almost 200 feet in some areas.
Some say the scariest bridge in America: I drove over this on my way from Ocean City to Annapolis and I say YES!

The eastbound lanes are toll free, but westbound lanes pay the toll.

Tony slurps the hot, spicy chicken soup and manages to give us a fish lip pose.

After careful navigation around shoaling and red markers, we arrive in the small bay opposite a shoreline of cliffs, lovely cottage-type homes and a small beach.
We anchor with ease, thanks to MARRIAGE SAVERS (say in a big voice) and settle in for a calm, quiet night.

Water depth 12 ft, winds from the northwest with very little current. Good muddy bottom.
Note to any sailors planning to anchor in the Chesapeake: Bring bucket of water to bow to splash on chain and anchor

Another early sailor gets this cool sunrise on Thursday, October 15.

Today's glorious, calm voyage takes us from Herring Bay to Solomon's Island, Maryland.

Winds are light (5-10 knots), ocean waves just 1 ft, with full sunshine that gives us 19C and a few fair clouds.

Pelicans, schools of fish, massive freighters and other snowbirds heading south on the water today.

We chatted with "Shine", to verify the restricted area on the charts. We are all willing to sail through - yikes!

Very cool sight. Helicopter training centre nearby.

We see several of the jets on our way out of the harbour the next day.

We are being watched.

Naval Academy airport sends out helicopters and jets! We have our own airshow!

We love saving money by anchoring, so with suggestions from Active Captain, we set out way points to Mill Creek to anchor in Bow Cove.  By the time we have anchored with the help of MARRIAGE SAVERS (say in big voice), we are shedding clothing and wearing shorts while we have dinner under the shade of the bimini.

It seems like we are in the middle of the channel but the small cove is perfect and calm. It's a lovely warm night that brings bald eagles fishing for their dinner at dusk and a few palm-sized translucent jellyfish too, floating on the surface around the boat. No midnight swim for me!

Excellent mud bottom for holding the anchor, approximately 11 ft deep, with 1 foot tidal range. Deja Vu is set.

Soon we have company on the brown river water. Where is the blue ocean?

Our quiet night is disturbed by the "Waaa! Waaa!" of the alarm from the Drag Queen, iPhone app we have, alerting us of some sort of anchor movement. We both bolt out of bed, Tony shuts off the alarm, we poke our heads out of the boat, look for the shore all around and other boats anchored, hoping there is no visual difference. We settle in after agreeing we are ok.
We laugh and compare our early morning wake to the times we answered our own children's cry in the night: one big difference is that our baby weighs in at 20,000 lbs!
There is a bit of sway with the morning winds building from the north. A Canadian cold, high pressure is on the way.

The eagles fly, the jets fly and the helicopters fly and we are off too. Leaving Friday morning at 9:40, we set sail for Reedville, just a 6 hour ocean run today. Although their is a small craft warning, we head out and prepare, knowing the waves and wind forecast will naturally be more, as Mother Nature has a sense of humour.

Loads of sunshine and waves at 2-3 feet, wind 15-20 knots from the north, we have the push behind us and rolling waves greet us as we exit the harbour and head into the open Chesapeake.

We do some sailing but with gusts and wind at our stern, we pull the sails in and motor on the roller coaster into Reedville, a small marina next to a fish factory.

Leaving Solomon's Island area.

The crab pots (buoys) are littered at the entrance to this river. The depth is just 2 ft on each side of the green and red markers. I can't imagine doing any of these inlet trips without navigation software (we use iNavX). Active Captain gives us details that make our eyes open wide: Better hope you don't have a wind from the south, as the smell from the fish factory will make your vomit.
Winds still from the north, although cooling off, we are happy to report that no buckets were needed.

Crab fishing boats just south of the Reedville Marina.

I call in on VHF 16 and am told to pull up and dock at the "Crabby Crab Restaurant". Sounds perfect!

A bowl of fresh crab bisque each, blackened Mahi Mahi for me and Shrimp Fettucine for Tony,
a chat with the other boaters and our day is done!

Have you ever heard the sound of a train roaring in the distance, the roar getting deeper and louder in range? Some people who have experienced hurricanes and tropical storms describe the sound of thewind like a roaring train.

It was just an hour past dawn, clearly Mother Nature is Canadian and she must have felt we missed her, so she sent that cold high pressure air a-roaring into this small marina cove at 7:30 am. At first I really honestly swore there must have been a freight train track nearby, as we hadn't explored the small town as yet. As we sat up in bed and wondered about this noise, it just kept roaring and then the boat began to rumble and sway. One look out the small port light window from the aft cabin confirmed this roar was indeed the cold, Canadian front we were promised!

Here is a view of the lovely home, sunrise reflecting on the water and buildings as the wind disturbs the once misty cove,

We stay in Reedville for another night and leave on Saturday, October 17th at 9:20 am. With our Sail to the Sun Rally beginning in just a few days, we contact the coordinator to confirm we are all set. As we remind him of our keel drawing 7 ft, he advises we don't meet with the rest of the group but rather join him at Fishing Bay Marina, Deltaville, Virginia. We've crossed over into another state!  

You can see the edge of the front, pushing the clouds southeast.
We are coming in from Chesapeake Bay to Fishing Bay Marina,
and those ugly clouds are heading south. 

 It's turning into a nice clear Saturday, although we have sweatshirts on, the sunshine is shining on our next port where we meet up with Wally Moran, the coordinator for the rally we will join.

We arrive at 3:30, up to the fuel dock for diesel at $2.79 U.S. gallon and a pump out too.

This marina has a pool! And a bath house! (just the southern way of saying showers/washrooms).

No sooner have we plugged in to shore power, the power goes out. Apparently there was a fire in the town of Deltaville which caused the power failure in the area. We are told it may come back by 8 pm. We have no way of knowing how the Blue Jays are doing!
I fire up the live stream on my cell and we watch the score to see the Jays win against Texas!!! (power back on at 8:30)

 GO JAYS GO!!!

"Where ya'll from?" says Jim, the dock hand. I love his accent.
The hospitality from all the marina staff is truly genuine. India (the owner's daughter) runs the place and helps us move Deja Vu off the fuel dock to a slip so we are safe and secure.
We borrow a courtesy car and take an quick drive just 10 minutes from the dock into town for a few groceries.

(Courtesy of www.marinas.com)

Not my image. However we are docked on a finger slip here.
Tony had to lasso the huge tree posts on either side of our stern, as I steadied us.
Very different docking with tides, as you must have a loose line that can slide up and down.

It seems the simple things in life are more precious than you can ever imagine.
With my mom being called to rest on Sunday, October 18 and then suddenly Randy McCabe (the father to my 3 children) on Monday, October 19, we travel home to Pickering, Ontario to be with our families.

We begin our mourning of the loss of two precious people in our lives and put our journey on hold.

Love one another and enjoy all the simple things in life.
R.I.P Mom
R.I.P Randy

We will continue our adventures soon,
Sailor Christine
xo