We had a fantastic road trip out to Ohio, near peak foliage on the Blue Ridge Parkway and through West Virginia and driving back roads of Ohio and Virginia on the return. I listened to Dreameagle and my father get to know each other and took her to see all four of the houses of my childhood including the one my father designed and built.
Back in Hampton, the perfect weather of our road trip ended and made leaving Hampton Roads more uncomfortable and ambitious than we wanted to tackle. However, we found plenty to do at anchor and ashore. A few days ago, we had a great daysail across to the bridge tunnel and back which was her introduction to open water sailing and learning to handle the helm. The winds were perfect for that.
Yesterday, it was sporty with gusts to 30 forecast so we repeated the bay crossing, double reefed on the main and triple reefed at times on the jib. Dreameagle did wonderfully , steering nearly the whole time. She greatly enjoyed it although going below in such conditions clearly wasn’t going to work out well. We both have a better idea now what kind of sailing and cruising we would like to do in the future.
The day before yesterday, however, life threw us curveball. She needs to have a minor operation mid month and we’ve been planning on the basis of the stated week before return to normal activities. A couple phone calls with her doctor while checking appointments during final schedule planning for our ICW cruise revealed that cruising in a sailboat, climbing in and out of a dinghy, etc,, most definitely does NOT come under the heading of “normal activities”. (I guess everyone here knows that but I sort of hadn’t given it a thought since it all seems so normal to me now now.)
The doctor doesn’t want her to even think about getting on a boat until next year and possibly longer pending a mid December follow up. We spent a long time kicking around different plans and options and concluded three things, we don’t want to be apart for long periods, neither of us wants me to do the ICW alone again, and there are a lot of things back in upstate New York that we look forward to doing together.
Therefore, I am going to have Strider hauled in Gloucester, VA on the 15 th and take the train north to the land of ice and snow where I think I will actually be a lot warmer in the important ways than grinding down the waterway for the third time.
Re-launch and future cruising plans will depend on how the winter seems to be shaping up weather wise and how the recovery goes. The essence of cruising is being able to change your mind and it looks like I will be land cruising for a while. If it is a fraction as ethereally wonderful as our recent land cruise, you can be sure that I am incredibly happy although I regret that I won’t have many boating stories to post here. I feel like I’ve hit the curveball out of the park even if life is going to be very different for a while.
Back in Hampton, the perfect weather of our road trip ended and made leaving Hampton Roads more uncomfortable and ambitious than we wanted to tackle. However, we found plenty to do at anchor and ashore. A few days ago, we had a great daysail across to the bridge tunnel and back which was her introduction to open water sailing and learning to handle the helm. The winds were perfect for that.
Yesterday, it was sporty with gusts to 30 forecast so we repeated the bay crossing, double reefed on the main and triple reefed at times on the jib. Dreameagle did wonderfully , steering nearly the whole time. She greatly enjoyed it although going below in such conditions clearly wasn’t going to work out well. We both have a better idea now what kind of sailing and cruising we would like to do in the future.
The day before yesterday, however, life threw us curveball. She needs to have a minor operation mid month and we’ve been planning on the basis of the stated week before return to normal activities. A couple phone calls with her doctor while checking appointments during final schedule planning for our ICW cruise revealed that cruising in a sailboat, climbing in and out of a dinghy, etc,, most definitely does NOT come under the heading of “normal activities”. (I guess everyone here knows that but I sort of hadn’t given it a thought since it all seems so normal to me now now.)
The doctor doesn’t want her to even think about getting on a boat until next year and possibly longer pending a mid December follow up. We spent a long time kicking around different plans and options and concluded three things, we don’t want to be apart for long periods, neither of us wants me to do the ICW alone again, and there are a lot of things back in upstate New York that we look forward to doing together.
Therefore, I am going to have Strider hauled in Gloucester, VA on the 15 th and take the train north to the land of ice and snow where I think I will actually be a lot warmer in the important ways than grinding down the waterway for the third time.
Re-launch and future cruising plans will depend on how the winter seems to be shaping up weather wise and how the recovery goes. The essence of cruising is being able to change your mind and it looks like I will be land cruising for a while. If it is a fraction as ethereally wonderful as our recent land cruise, you can be sure that I am incredibly happy although I regret that I won’t have many boating stories to post here. I feel like I’ve hit the curveball out of the park even if life is going to be very different for a while.
JK ... Enjoy the warmth of a hot stove or fireplace! We've got our wood shed fully stocked with some great hardwood this year and our stove has already been employed. It's our favorite place in the house right now.