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I know, I know, I haven't written in a VERY long time. I apologize. I'd like to say it's because we were too busy, but the truth is, we settled into complete laziness. We just figured we had sooooo much time to wait out and we were quite annoyed/pissed off that we got stranded we became a little depressed. I think we lost track of just how lucky we are to be out here on the boat. We took it for granted. But you'll be happy to know, we've gotten our priorities back in order.
During our "vacation" here in southern Maryland we rented a car to visit Washington (as I mentioned in the last post... I figured I'd remind you...it's been a long while!). Washington is a pretty cool city, very clean, great public transit, and lots to do.
We visited the monuments. The Vietnam memorial was incredible. For those who don't know, the Vietnam memorial lists all the names of those who died in the war. There are so many names. I think what moved me the most was watching people look for the names of their friends, some were looking for the names of those who served with them. You could get a pencil stencil of the name. Also along the memorial were pieces of paper with names of a soldier, their age, how long they'd served, and how they died. One gentleman had just turned 19. He served only a couple of months. So terrible. There were also postcard and letters, so asking us to remember those lost, others were confessions of people who felt they should be on the wall instead of someone else. The other monuments just could capture that feel...so they don't get mentioned in the blog!
We also did a few museums. That's right Josh, went to the museum...not always willingly but he came. I think his un-excitement (I can't think of the proper word) was because our first museum was the Air and Science museum, it was boring. The only cool thing was the Wright's brothers' plane, the exact one they flew. But other than that it was just a bunch of screaming kids and some rockets.
On the list of "good" museums, the Holocaust museum is a must-see. They do a wonderful job explaining the events leading up to the war and the post-effects. A lot of the exhibits try to get you to understand just how many people were affected by the Holocaust. It's a concept that I don't think anyone can grasp. Somehow my mind won't allow me to envision such atrocities.
Also on the list of "good" museums, was the National Museum of Natural Science. It's the one with all the dino bones. My favourite part was an exhibit of butterflies. You walked into this gazebo, inside were 1000s of butterflies. They were everywhere, you could get really close to them. One landed on my leg, another landed right in the middle of a lady's forehead. They're spectacular.
We saw the National Museum of Portraits, which was ok. There were too many paitings of dead people we didn't know! The International Spy museum was by no means international. The only mention of another country was to mention ex-KGB spy that worked as double agents for the US. It would have been super-cool had I been in my early teens.
Other than that we sat at the dock watching the guys work, or waiting for the guys to get to work. We had some "issues" with the yard. They really dicked us around, they were sneaky, we had to stay on top of them. Had we been the ones who actually had to pay the bill, there would have been some major issues. They charged the insurance company extra hours on lots of stuff. They charged 250$ for a job that Josh did. They weren't going to give us the extra pieces that came with what they'd replaced. If it comes in the same box, it's all ours. They made assumptions that certain electronics were going to work...they didn't of course.
*CAUTION* technical terms. The replace our autopilot brain because it got fried the most, yet they assumed the autopilot itself as well as the fluxgate compass and the rudder thing (see I don't know all the proper terms too!) were correct. They weren't. They also didn't change the chartplotter (or as Mommy calls it a plot-charter) right off the bat either. The general rule of thumb for lightning strikes is change everything. It's impossible to know if one little wire inside your instruments is a little charred. ANYWAYSSSSS, the work is done, the bill paid and we're off...watch out guys here we come.
So our adventure has come to a screeching halt. The boatyard had originally said we'd be done in 2 weeks (this Friday). However, they are now claiming they won't be able to finish until July 1st!!! Needless to say we are PISSED! Especially since we met Scotty, a guy who does electronics, and he claims we have a 3 day job. I think we need to have a serious sit down.
In order not to get ultimately depressed , we've decided to rent a car and go to Washington DC. At least then we'll have something interesting to write about.
Seeing that we aren't making it back to the lake until mid July. We were just wondering if anyone wanted to join us for a leg of the journey? There are 2 "legs left". One is Annapolis to the Delaware bay to Cape May to Atlantic city to New York city. This may get a little rough, there will the open ocean to contend with. The next leg is new York City up the Hudson to the Champlain canal through all the locks to the Lake. There will be very little sailing on that leg because the mast has to come down but we do go over the mountains...very pretty.
We'd love the company, we miss you all very much.
Roxanne and Josh
A superstar docker, that is.
In all honesty, he's done a fantastic job docking the boat. It is no easy feat. The boat handles nothing like a car. It turns from the middle, and in reverse you barely have any steering and it "walks" it one side all the time. When dock a boat, the one thing you don't want to do is slide along the dock, you'll end up scraping the entire side of your boat (very expensive). You want to approach at a 45 degree angle.
There are a few other things you have to pay attention to. You don't want to come in too fast but if you come in too slow you have no steering. You have to get close enough to the dock for someone to jump off with a line. There are no brakes, the only way to stop is to reverse, which moves your stern (the back of the boat). The have to be aware of tides, currents, winds, and wakes from passing boats. And if you're going to hit something hit the least expensive boat (same rule applies to driving).
Josh displayed his finest docking skills just the other day. He had to first pass between two very big and expensive trawlers (power boats) which blocked his view of the dock. He then had to "parallel" park the boat in front of one of the trawlers and behind a sailboat. I was convinced that L'Attitude wasn't going to fit and that we were about to get ourselves into quite the predicament. However, Josh appeared calm (later I found out he was probably more nervous than I was) and was going for it. We had no more than 6 feet at either end of the boat. He pulled in perfectly, all I had to do was step (not even leap) on to the dock and calmly fasten the spring line.
Normally what happens is someone leaps to the dock, line in hand, runs either forward or back depending on which way you shouldn't be going, wraps the line halfway around the cleat and hangs on trying to stop a +15000 pound boat. Which believe it or not you can do, I can do it depending on the speed the boat was traveling of course.
Josh has proven himself a true Captain. I've decided to be the Admiral, a higher rank than Captain, I'm the one who gets to give the orders!!!
We're looking forward to having you all come aboard so we can show off our new skills!
This blog is the titled "The Melt" because that's exactly what we are doing. It was 100F in the shade today, not taking into consideration the humidity, which I'd be willing to guess to somewhere around 10000%. I get to complain about the heat today because back home (which is where most of you are) is also hot. See, I'm thoughtful enough not to complain about the heat when it's 10C in Montreal.
So I can't believe I'm alive to tell this next tale. Yesterday was almost as hot today. Josh and I escaped the heat by going shopping all day. It was around 9pm and it was still stinking hot. So I decided that I would go out to Walmart and pick up a cheap air conditioner to jimmy rig to one of the hatches. I figured I'd be less upset having spent 100$ than i would having to be around Josh who was sweltering and grumpy because he'd hadn't gotten a good night sleep. It not like this weather is only for a couple of days, I could deal with that. It's supposed to last until Wednesday or Thursday! However on my way to the store, I was having second thoughts. I figured I'd buy a 15$ fan and the 100$ air conditioner and bring both back to the boat. Upon my return, I brought the fan to the boat and left the AC in the truck (borrowed from the marina... with permission). I told Josh we'd try the fan first and if it really wasn't working we'd install the AC.
Well luck would have it, a storm blew over and cooled everything down. The fan worked out just fine. So this morning I brought back the AC. As soon as I got back to the boat, I regretted it. So far today, we've accomplished nothing. Any sort of movement makes you sweat. Thinking of moving makes you sweat. I've spent the day in my bikini taking constant cool showers (it's not even cold because the water tanks sit just below the surface of the water).
Josh and I are going to have to start volunteering or helping old ladies with their groceries or something. I've never had so many strangers help us out. I figure our bank of good deeds probably needs some filling up. The couple from a boat down the dock, came to see us to ask if we'd like to borrow their old air conditioner. "Ah, yes please"! So now the bedroom is getting cooler as we speak.
We're blowing some of this warm weather your way.
Love ya
Roxanne and Josh
I have a bone to pick you some of you. You know who you are....you non-comment writers!!! You want to know what's up with us, well we want to know what's up with you too. It can't be that hard to write a comment or send us an email. It doesn't have to be a big long story, just a quick little hello would make us happy. So go on, type away.
WARNING - If you haven't read "the Solomons", one it means you aren't reading in order, I can barely make sense of the days so reading them backwards won't help any. And two you won't understand the beginning of this story. So go back and read at least the last paragraph before continuing.
So we left you anchored safely on Thursday. During the day, we took a dinghy ride into town. We actually went into a West Marine (THE store) and came out without having spent a cent! Truly a day to remember. Upon returning to the boat, the winds had picked up and we could see a front (front is a meteorological term for nasty weather) coming. Somehow it just missed us. We could see it right on the other side of the creek.
Later in the evening, around 7pm (the time is important, you'll see), josh noticed another front coming. Because of all the trees (trees are good for protection, but bad for seeing incoming weather) we hadn't noticed the clouds until last minute. We turned on the VHF to listen to the weather. (Non-boater explanation- VHF is a radio in which a funny little automated voice tells you the weather for your area and surrounding areas. It's also used to call other boats and marinas.)
The weather "man" said there was a tornado watch #447 until 8pm and another watch #454 until 1am. Now the problem is they give tornado watches and warnings (a watch means that there's a storm that could produce a tornado. a warning means that a tornado has been spotted) by county. But on marine charts they don't list counties. Plus they mention little tiny points of land or islands. So if you aren't familiar with area it could take you a while before figuring out whether it applies to you or not.
Ok back to the weather, not only was there 2 tornado watches but one watch turned to a warning as a tornado touched down about 15 miles south of us. Also, following that grim news, there was also a severe weather warning for our area. Severe weather, I think translates into storm from hell! We didn't think we'd get it soooo bad, considering we were on the most Northern part of the announcements. We realized afterwards that we were only on the most Northern part, because the weather only transmits to where we are. The other station reports the Solomons and North.
Well the storm came. I was just hoping for no hail. I didn't want holes in our new canvas work! Luckily because of the trees, we were somewhat sheltered from the winds. It rained hard. The worse though was the lightning. Being a little thing with a very tall metal stick makes lightning a little fearful, to say the least. We have never seen a storm like that before in our lives. the lightning lit up the sky like thousands of little LED lights.
Because the storm approached so quickly, we didn't think we had time to put out another anchor. So we stayed up watching to make sure we weren't dragging. Well this craziest went on until 1am. At around 12:30am, I saw a bolt of lightning come across our boat and it looked like it hit the boat next to us. A split second after the flash came and ear-splitting CRACK. We both jumped to attention and stared out the window. We could still see their anchor light on (the little light on top of the mast). Then Josh checked to see if OUR anchor light was still visible. It wasn't. They hadn't gotten hit, WE HAD!!!! There wasn't much we could do, so once the storm died down, we went to bed.
In the morning Josh went to inspect the damages. Most of our electronics had been zapped. *Attention* unexplained boating terms. We think it fried our Seatalk, the brain of our electronics. thankfully our chartplotters work but there's no gps signal. The speed is completely dead. All the engine gauges are also deceased except for the oil pressure. The VHF antenna is no longer and somehow only one of the interior got fritzed. We are also very lucky that there are on burn marks or spider fractures on the deck and that all thru-hulls seem to be intact. I don't believe we took a direct hit. As bad as it may seem, it could have been much, much worse.
So the insurance company has been called. (I don't know what kind of luck I have with insurance stuff. For those who remember me crashing my car 5 days after getting it. I guess I want to make sure I'm not paying insurance for nothing!) We are now tied up at a boatyard awaiting an estimate. They will then send the estimate to the surveyor, who will send it to the adjustor, who will in turn approve the work to be done. Only after all that is done, will they start the work on the boat. This process should take no less than 2 *@#^*% weeks!!!!!
So Josh and I were just wondering if anyone wanted to take a vacation to Maryland???!!!
We miss you all lots
Roxanne and Josh
This is just a little clip taken before the storm actually really got going!
Where did we leave you on the Roxanne and Josh adventure.... ah yes in Deltaville. Well the Ship's Tailor delivered our sail cover first thing in the morning. Once Josh and I finally figured out how to get it on, we were off....finally. As we rounded Windmill point, which put us in the Chesapeake bay we say a pod of dolphins. I don't care how many times I see them I still love it.
We had some crazy winds, 25 knots. Luckily it was coming from behind us. So we were surfing the 4-5 foot waves. However once the tide starting going out, the waves got higher. At one point Josh has at the helm and I was in the companion way looking back at him. I could have sworn he was standing in front of a wall of water. *Attention* boating terms- we were going so fast at some point we were going 8 to 11 knots on the waves, max hull speed is 7.5knots.
We were rolling so much we actually put on our lifejackets and harnesses. I was very glad that I had mine on when I went up to the mast to pull down the main. That's a flaw on our boat. Not only do I have to go to the mast, I have to climb the mast to bring the main down. I don't think it's very safe.
After rolling and surfing and hanging on for dear life, we pulled up the Patuxent River to the Solomons. As we were coming in there were fighter jets landing over head. Man are those things loud. Hoewever the coolest flying thing we've seen yet was the "plopter", as Josh calls it. It's a thing in the sky (I don't know exactly what to call it) that has 2 propellers like a plane but then the propellers rotate like a helicopter. Now that's CRAZY!!
Solomons Island is actually not an island. It's 2 creeks with hundreds of boats. After having spent a good chunk of change on the enclosure, we decided to anchor. Well we haven't really been anchoring much, we've really only done it twice, and we certainly haven't been anchoring around other boats it tight little creeks. So there we were about to have another adventure!
Well we going to try and anchor behind the mooring field near all the other boats. At which point we kinda got our hand signals (the cute little signs you to eachother because you can't hear anything). I understood "drop the anchor", he meant "you really want to drop the anchor here?!!!". Anyone want to guess what happened after. I came running to the middle of the boat so I could kinda hear him. And we both spoke "nicely" to eachother. (For those non-sailors, on the water even thought Josh and I can't hear eachother speak when one's at the front and the other's at the back, it doesn't mean that everyone around can't hear you. Sounds travel extremely well over water.) We finally came to an agreement, nicely of course, to pick up the anchor and go elsewhere.
We finally got hooked in a nice little bay for the night. The weather wasn't looking good for Wednesday, more 25 knot winds, and our nerves had had enough of those for a while. We decided to stay put and leave on Thursday for Annapolis. Well we slept in, had a big breakfast, then turned on the weather. It had changed, they were only calling for 10-15 knot winds. It would have been a perfect sail. But it was too late to leave. This is an important for the "what if" moment that happens later Thursday. That story next in "THE STUPID STORM"
Stay tuned.....
When we were first making the appointment to stay in Deltaville we heard about the Beneteau (which is the boat we have) rendez-vous. It was the last weekend in May. We thought for sure we'd be gone by then, well we weren't. We were a little apprehensive about going thinking that it may just be party of "gray hairs" (no offense to anyone with gray hair), but we signed up anyways. And we were glad we did, we had a really good time.
There was a potluck on Friday night, which we cut short, so that Josh could win some laundry money! Kosta (the owner of the marina) invited us over for a poker game. Now for anyone who knows Josh, he never wins at poker. Well luck was on his side, i think I can do at least 6 loads with all the quarters he won!!!
On Saturday, Josh and I went to class at the Beneteau thing. We both attended a lecture on engines. The guy giving the course said, "Well most of you are still breaking in your engines, you know under 50 hours". L'Attitude has 4800 hours!! I guess that comment didn't apply to us. The rest was quite helpful. After that Josh went to...electronics, quelle surprise. Once he finished lusting after the guys 12" chartplotter screen (We are more than happy with our chartplotter - thank you Aunty Michelle!), he picked up some new tricks.
I went to learn about weather. The guy teaching the class was great. It really helps understanding the weather reports, other than simply reading them. In the afternoon there were classes on knots and one titled "Talking heads", everything you wanted to know about toilets. All in all very informative.
Saturday night was FIESTA night!!!! the photos was of a Father and Son duo who won 2nd prize. Josh and I won "most newly acquired boat" and we were the definite shoo in for "youngest combined of Captain and Admiral". They started the combined age at 80 (which would mean that both people are around 40 years old), no one put up their hand. We had a combined age of 55!!
Gray hairs or not, we had a great weekend.
