Penn's Creek Watercolor

I painted this at the cabin.
7" by 10" Watercolor

Jennifer Harris took this photo of me painting at the cabin.

Here's a pic of the photographer biking:)

To view my snapshots from biking and canoeing, click on this link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/PennsCreek2011

Second Annual Classic Wooden Sailboat Rendezvous & Race

I raced my 10' Acorn dinghy, Morgaine, in the National Sailing Hall of Fame Regatta on September 18.

View my picasa web album here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/NSHOF

Thanks to Eric Weissberger, Jane Becker, and Dawn and Paul Miller for taking the photographs!

View the article about the race in The Capital:

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/sal/2011/09/27-43/AYC-team-brings-home-cup.html

Shaw Bay, Wye River

This is the last sketch from my cruise earlier this month.
7" by 10" Watercolor

Crisfield

Crisfield, Maryland.
7" by 10" Watercolor

Morgaine

I painted this watercolor while staying in the marina in Solomons Island, MD. It's a sketch of my dinghy, Morgaine. We towed her behind Ca Ira when we went cruising for a week. I built Morgaine 10 years ago, in the summers while I was in college. I named her after the character in "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
7" by 10" Watercolor

Solomons

I painted this in the marina in Solomon's Island, Maryland where we spent one night of our cruise. It's the view looking out of the harbor at the mouth of the Patuxent River.
7 1/2" by 10" Watercolor

St. Leonard's Creek

This is the view of the shore from our anchorage where we spent the night of Monday, September 5.
7 1/2" by 10" Watercolor

Old House Cove

I painted this last Monday, on the third day of the cruise. It is the painting that I was working on in the photo that I posted on Tuesday, September 6.
7 1/2" by 10" Watercolor

Voyage Home, Day Nine

With half a tank of diesel left, we motored out of Shaw Bay in the fog.  The wind never came up, so we motored the whole way home to Annapolis.  When we got out on the Chesapeake Bay, we could see that the water was now the color of brown mud and full of debris.  This was running down the bay from the flooding in Pennsylvania.  We managed not to hit anything, but the southbound current slowed us down about a knot and a half.  We got Ca Ira and Morgaine put away and cleaned up about 1730, just as another thunderstorm came through... an appropriate end to our week's cruise!

Link to the last photos from the trip:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/20110911Day9

Attack of the Catalinas, or Day Eight

As we napped on Saturday morning after our night sail, the Shaw Bay anchorage slowly filled up with cruising boats anchoring.  They were coming to Shaw Bay to hear a local band, Them Eastport Oyster Boys, play a concert on an anchored raft-up.  My parents arrived on their Luders 36, Interlude, and Dawn and Paul Miller arrived on their Herreshoff Rozinante, Honalee.  We pulled up our anchor in the afternoon to go raft up with them closer to the concert boats.  Later, on, I went rowing with my parents over to the "Slosh Pit," a group of dinghys crowding around the band.  It was a lot of fun.

In the evening we got a bit of a scare as a raft-up of about seven or eight Catalinas pulled up their anchors and moved AS A FLEET, still tied together, under power straight at us!  They managed to turn the raft in time, and went and anchored not nearly far enough away from us.  Later that night, I was just about to fall asleep when I saw through the companionway, the glowing red/ green navigation lights of two sailboats RIGHT on our stern.  I jumped up to the cockpit and saw two of the Catalina fleet maneuvering around the anchorage looking for a new spot to anchor.  No harm was done, but it was a bit unsettling!

Link to the rest of the photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/Day8

Hailing a Fish Weir in the Dark, or Overnight Day Seven and Eight

En route for Poplar Island, we saw something that appeared to be going southbound opposite our course.  It had two flashing yellow lights on either end, appeared to have stakes set upright on its deck, and was surrounded by birds.  What could it be? A barge? A garbage barge?  It was awfully close, so I tried to hail them on Channel 13.  I got no response on the radio.  Just lots of squawking filled the night.  Then we dug out the spotlight and shone it on the 'barge."  It was not a barge, it was a fish weir!  Undaunted, we pressed on.  We got to a place in about 15' of water where we saw white buoys that I took to be the demarcation of crabbing areas.  Then Daniel heard squawking as if from a flock of birds!  He thought to aim the spotlight dead ahead of us.  We saw a fish weir not 10' off!  So I threw off the autohelm arm, and I threw the tiller hard over, we jibed and moved safely away from weir #2!
We backtracked, then aimed for the outer green mark at Knapp's Narrows (which, luckily, was lit.)  From there we set our course to the Poplar Island channel based on the waypoints I had entered into the GPS a couple of years earlier when I had gone through in daylight.  We got to where the first mark was supposed to be, then passed it.  But we could not see any of the channel marks at all, and we only had about 8' of water, so I got scared and turned hard around again.  I decided to go around the outside of Poplar Island.  We headed for the shipping channel and heard two commercial vessels chatting on Ch. 13.  The wind was dying, so we started the engine.  We saw a big car carrier headed north and hailed him.  He had seen us on radar, but we kept out of his way by staying to the east side of the channel near the two reds by Poplar Island.  The waves were really large and disturbed here, I think because of the rapid depth change, plus the wind was rising again.
We raised the sails again in the Eastern Bay, but I was disoriented and steered the wrong angle so we almost ran aground just past the green buoy off of Bloody Point.  We got out of the shoal by heading up closed-hauled back to the center of the Eastern Bay.  We sailed most of the way towards Tilghman Point, then the wind dropped again and we lowered the jib and started the engine. As we rounded Tilghman Point, the main started to flog, so we lowered it.
We motored up the Miles River to the daymarks that mark the channel to the north of Herring Island.  The predawn light was just starting to shine then.  In the dim light, we motored into Shaw Bay and anchored at 0700 Saturday morning, exhausted!

Night Sail-- Day Seven

At 0930, with assistance from the very friendly and helpful dock hands, Daniel and I departed Somers Cove Marina, in Crisfield, MD, on Ca Ira with Morgaine in tow.  An hour later we killed the engine and raised the main and genoa.  At 1300 the sun came out and we raised the kite to take advantage of the southerly winds out on the Chesapeake Bay.  We had a lovely sail for about an hour until the wind died and we started motoring.  Around 1530, we had a slight breeze so we raised the spinnaker only and ran up the bay.  The boat was moving at about three knots downwind against a strong current.  The current was from flooding in Maryland and Pennsylvania caused by the recent tropical storms and high amounts of rainfall.  Ca Ira was coasting along so calmly and flatly that we were able to grill shrimp and veggies for dinner underway in the middle of the bay.  I raised the radar reflector from the port flag halyards before the sun went down.

At 2055 we saw ships coming down the channel towards us, but the wind had gotten so light that we could not maneuver out of the way.  We pulled down the spinnaker and started the engine.  The wind came back and an hour and a half later we raised the main and blade jib.  We set a course for the Poplar Island Channel.

For more photos from last Friday, day seven, click on this link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/20110910DaySeven

Thursday, Day Six, Solomon's to Crisfield

Link to the photos from this day:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/20110908Day6

Day Five Photos

This day's photos are at this link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/20110907Day5

Day Four Photos

For more photos from day 4, click on this link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/20110906Day4

Day 3 Pics

For all of day three's photos, so to my picasa album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/Day3

Pics from Day 2 of the Cruise

By posting pictures on Picasa, I hope that they are available to my Non-Facebook friends and family, you know who you are...

https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/20110904Day2

Adventures in Photosharing-- Day One

Here's the link to the photos from the first day of my cruise.

https://picasaweb.google.com/116043240045555125384/20110903Labordaycruise

Day Seven

We departed Crisfield at 9:30AM this morning. We've been sailing and motoring as the wind allows since then. It's about midnight and we are west of Sharps Island. I hope to get to the Wye River tonight.

Day Six

We pulled up the anchor in the rain and departed Solomons.  Rain sucks.  The day got better as the rain squalls all missed us.  We sailed and motored to Crisfield.  There were lots of pelicans.  We saw the half sunk ship that the navy uses for target practice.  We docked at Crisfield at 1800.

Day Five

This morning I painted for a while and Daniel got a lift to a grocery store from a fellow sailor. We took on ice and water and considered how we were going to get both boats safely out of the slip with a strong wind pinning the boats to the dock. Finally, we devised a plan that Daniel would assist me with Ca Ira's lines and I would motor her away from the dock. Then Daniel would row Morgaine out to meet me. It was a success! We motored out to Mill Creek with Morgaine in tow and had just set the hook when a thunderstorm hit! After it cleared, we decided to press on, undaunted, with Morgaine. We rowed her up Mill Creek wher we saw laborers fell a tree damaged in Sunday night's thunderstorm. We continued to the rapids at the headwaters of Mill Creek and we got soaked by the next rain sqall:)

Day Four

The wind and rain came up last night while we were anchored in St. Leonard's Creek.  The anchor held well, but I was still up half the night listening to the wind howl through the trees and watching the tree line swing back and forth as Ca Ira hunted for her anchor.  The wind let up a little with daybreak and the rain stopped about 10 AM, so we motored to the mouth of the Patuxent.  The Chesapeake looked cold, wet, and windy, so we turned around and motored back to Solomons Island and got a slip for the night.  We borrowed some bikes from the marina and rode around town and had a great seafood dinner at a restaurant.  The marina's wireless is allowing me to upload photos today and connect to the outside world:)

Painting on Ca Ira

Day Three

This morning I painted a watercolor and Daniel went rowing in Old House Cove. We motored to Solomon's Isand for diesel, water, ice, and hot showers. Under the main alone, we ran up the Patuxent eating pretzels and humus with rum and listening to hard rock on the stereo:) We anchored in St. Leonard's Creek without another boat in sight. I finished another painting and then took Morgaine sailing until the wind came up as a squall blew through! Luckily, I was upwind of Ca Ira and drifted back to her under bare poles. We then discovered that raw shrimp doesn't keep for three days in an icebox, so we reheated part of a baked chicken for dinner!

Day Two

We woke up only slightly damp to a beautiful morning on Harris Creek. We weighed anchor at 9AM to tack down the bay. Soon the wind was so strong, we reefed the main and raised the blade jib. I admit, we used the engine to get around Cove Point, then we had a great close reach into the Patuxent River, and then ran up Mill Creek past Solomon's Island. We anchored in the well protected Old House Cove, expecting a storm tonight. At anchor, we realized that the cabin had gotten very damp since the rail had been buried most of the day! As I write this, several sails and sheets are drying from the lifelines and boom :)

Labor Day Cruise 2011

My week's vacation started last night when I picked up my good friend, Daniel, at BWI. We walked up Main Street in Annapolis for an excellent Sushi dinner. The voyage started this morning when my alarm clock woke me up to "Welcome To The Jungle" at 5AM. We drove out to Crownsville in the predawn light. There, I had docked Ca Ira, my 1961 Pearson Triton, to ride out Hurricane Irene. We loaded food, rum, clothes, and other supplies at the community dock and departed with Morgaine, my 10' Acorn Dinghy, in tow. We took on 10 gallons of diesel and four blocks of ice in Annapolis, motored out to the bay, and headed south. We tacked down the bay in a good wind, enough to need a reef in the afternoon. Then we motored into Knapp's Narrows, went through the drawbridge, and ran up Harris Creek, where we anchored at 6:30 in the lovely Waterhole Cove.