As it turned out, I did go out in the freezing rain. Strange experience to reach out and grab the bow pulpit and find it coated with ice. Fortunately, the fiberglass decks and similar surfaces weren’t freezing but it wasn’t the cheeriest day I’ve hoisted anchor on. Worth it for the Freezing Rain tee shirt though.
I’d thought of waiting for the rain to blow through and making it a short day but the prospect of the rising wind and the tidal confluence at the mouth of the Potomac made me think that a couple hours standing in the rain would be a good trade off. I think the day proved the decision because it was starting to get very nasty just as I eased around the corner into the lee of Smith Point and started up the river.
As most of you know, I prefer to wear my “dodger” in the old style instead of having that ugly and vision restricting stuff hung all over my boat. I was tolerably comfortable today but so are a lot of those people climbing Mount Everest, the experienced ones anyway. The day cleared up and ended quite pleasantly, motorsailing up a river I haven’t seen before was a good end to this chapter of my cruising life.
My decision was also influenced by haste. The title of my last post should actually have been, “Winter Delivery” since I’m under some time pressure. I need to get the boat settled so I can leave it to do some traveling connected with putting several of those irons in the fire I hope will lead to enough additional cash in the bank to let me write about more interesting cruises than just up and down the ICW. Oh, yes, I’ve also got to gather wood and build that fire. It’s tough restarting an income producing life again after being a crazy old man on a boat for two years.
Even in delivery mode, plans are subject to change. My trip was considerably shortened by an email offer of yet another dock. These folks are quite private and the offer was contingent on my not revealing their location so we’ll just leave it that the boat will be somewhere on the Potomac.
This will be my last cruising post for a while. I still plan to post occasionally about boat related topics that come to mind, like which states to avoid due to stupid boating and tax policy and inconsistent enforcement. Come to think of it, that would probably be most of them but I think you will see posts from Newfoundland before you see any posts from the dongle on the corner of the nation.
I do hope to find things to do that are flexible enough or Internet based so I’ll be able to post about some cruising around the bay when the weather gets better and maybe even a run down to the Bay of Fundy and back next summer.
Life is cruising, cruising is life. Who knows what comes next? Keep an eye on the “All Forums” section for occasional pithy and semi-polite rants from this correspondent.
I’d thought of waiting for the rain to blow through and making it a short day but the prospect of the rising wind and the tidal confluence at the mouth of the Potomac made me think that a couple hours standing in the rain would be a good trade off. I think the day proved the decision because it was starting to get very nasty just as I eased around the corner into the lee of Smith Point and started up the river.
As most of you know, I prefer to wear my “dodger” in the old style instead of having that ugly and vision restricting stuff hung all over my boat. I was tolerably comfortable today but so are a lot of those people climbing Mount Everest, the experienced ones anyway. The day cleared up and ended quite pleasantly, motorsailing up a river I haven’t seen before was a good end to this chapter of my cruising life.
My decision was also influenced by haste. The title of my last post should actually have been, “Winter Delivery” since I’m under some time pressure. I need to get the boat settled so I can leave it to do some traveling connected with putting several of those irons in the fire I hope will lead to enough additional cash in the bank to let me write about more interesting cruises than just up and down the ICW. Oh, yes, I’ve also got to gather wood and build that fire. It’s tough restarting an income producing life again after being a crazy old man on a boat for two years.
Even in delivery mode, plans are subject to change. My trip was considerably shortened by an email offer of yet another dock. These folks are quite private and the offer was contingent on my not revealing their location so we’ll just leave it that the boat will be somewhere on the Potomac.
This will be my last cruising post for a while. I still plan to post occasionally about boat related topics that come to mind, like which states to avoid due to stupid boating and tax policy and inconsistent enforcement. Come to think of it, that would probably be most of them but I think you will see posts from Newfoundland before you see any posts from the dongle on the corner of the nation.
I do hope to find things to do that are flexible enough or Internet based so I’ll be able to post about some cruising around the bay when the weather gets better and maybe even a run down to the Bay of Fundy and back next summer.
Life is cruising, cruising is life. Who knows what comes next? Keep an eye on the “All Forums” section for occasional pithy and semi-polite rants from this correspondent.
