Painting Schooners?

My friend Steve has invited me to join him for a sail on Spartina this weekend. The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race finishes in Portsmouth, VA and we will hopefully be able to get up close. 

I have been painting recently in my new studio in Richmond. There may be an opportunity this weekend to sketch for a pen & wash or two, and get some ideas for large maritime paintings. 

On the quay, Lekeitio, Basque Country, Spain

A Day and a Night on the East River

Autumn is in the air and the NOAA forecast a cold front on its way to the Chesapeake. I picked up Annie at Winter Harbor and headed for Put In Creek on the nearby East River. It seemed prudent with no local knowledge to stay in an area with a plenty of protected north shore coves instead of the more vulnerable Rappahannock River. It had already picked up from the SW ahead of the front as I launched at the county ramp. It always makes for  slow put-in when singlehanded and the wind is blowing into the launch slip. Extra line here and there and a bit of head scratching.

We explored the ins and outs of the river and made way into the northern end of Mobjack Bay. Late in the afternoon we headed back north and stopped in at the small Compass Marina at the village of Mobjack. I tied up for a short time and nice folks gave me directions to an anchorage further back upriver. The front passed without an appreciable increase in wind but the temperature steadily dropped. At sundown I dropped anchor, snapped these pictures and readied for the night.

It rained in the night. I awoke and sailed in the morning gray. More rain, colder. The sails started to dry and I decided to hauled out. As I was within ten minutes of being packed, it poured. Everything soaked and cold.

Annie is back at Winter Harbor under wraps and I am drying out canvas in the basement in Richmond. It is great to be in 'the sailin' way' again.

A well planned cruise begins

My friend Steve, his shipmate Bruce and Spartina are beginning their fall sail up the northern Chesapeake, down the Delaware River and maybe beyond. It is sure to be a great adventure that you can follow it on this site. And stay tuned to the Log of Spartina for the play-by-play on their return.

Favorites

Spain and Portugal have rich maritime histories. Traditional boats and harbors rim the countries' coasts. I enjoyed documenting them. Here are a some of my favorites shots...

On the beach at Nerja near Malaga 

Bermeo in the Basque Country

Lekeitio, Spain

Cudillero, Spain

San Sebastian

Cudillero, Spain

Aviero, Portugal

Malaga, Spain

Cudillero, Spain

Aviero

Nazare, Portugal

Nazare

By the Bay of Biscay, Llanes, Spain

Hunting a New Home Port

Eleanor and I drove over to Mathews County, Virginia to meet our friend Frog from St. Augustine. He spends a couple of months a year in Mathews enjoying autumn on the Chesapeake Bay and knew people and places that might be helpful in finding a place to keep Annie. We have rented an apartment in Richmond for the year with no place for boat storage.

We drove all around the county and settled on Winter Harbor Haven Marina for its price, boat ramp and proximity to the Bay. After our search Frog took us by canoe to a private beach for a swim. He is quite the host.

 We will be moving Annie in a couple of weeks from North Carolina. Back in the water again!

... if you are interested in our Iberian trip check out artaventure.blogspot.com   The Blog Archive (left column) will help you navigate from the beginning in April

Mathews County, Virginia

Winter Harbor Haven Marina

An alternative boat ramp

An early possible storage in the trees at Denise's house

Frog's Autumn Palace at Denise's

Cormorants drying out

Low tide

A Pending Move

We returned from Spain and Portugal in mid-July. The 10 week trip was quite an adventure, traveling 4500 miles by car and camping on the beaches, the mountains and the plain (not much rain). I found Annie in good shape on our return and we are in the midst of moving to Richmond, Virginia for the next year. My friend Frog is working on a safe place to store Annie on the Chesapeake about an hour and a half from our new place in the Richmond Fan.

A bit of sailing on the Bay is in the near future. I can't wait!

Vagabonding...

We are in North Carolina preparing for our extended camping trip to Europe. We got a couple of full price offers the first week of showing our house and left St. Augustine with a pending contract. Filled both vehicles with what we felt were necessary for the next year, hitched up Annie and made a slow caravan north. Annie is behind our friends' house near my father's place and we are off to explore the maritime world on the 'other side of the pond'.

What Do You Do When You're Not Sailing?

A thousand answers. Most likely working or staring out the window at the snow falling. Maybe absorbed in building your next boat, fulfilling another's plan for you or asleep dreaming about wind and waves. Or just sitting around the docks with dry pants telling a previously told sailing story. Well, for the most part, any of those could be me at times.


Lately I have continued to ready the house for putting on the market and whacking my finger with an xacto  knife while multitasking... not quite my forte lately. Eleanor and I, with a lot of help from Terry and others, have made good progress. Both bathrooms have been gutted and remodeled and there is a new floor in the sunroom and lots of fresh paint. We have tickets to Spain, a new tent and plan to leave the end of April after taking Annie and a pile of unstored belongings to my Dad's in NC. Although there is much to do we are forging ahead.

construction zone

If you are reading this (posting once in 6 weeks = blog in coma) and get the chance... check out Annie on the cover of the latest issue of Small Craft Advisor. A nice article by my friend Bill Jacobs. At a Barnes & Noble near you!

In the Transition

I ran Annie's outboard in a big bucket yesterday. That is the most attention she has got since December.  We have been busy organizing and cleaning our house pending our next life move. That means a lot of small decisions, pitching unneeded 'stuff ', a big yard sale, and trips to storage. And as soon as it seems like it should be over, we start again. More of the same. I am amazed (and don't take that as a cliche) that we have collected so much over the years. For the most part it is going away... going to friends, strangers, good causes and the dump.

I look forward to seeing the world through new eyes and in some ways that is starting to happen. Annie is a simple being. Every piece of line has a purpose... whether to directly position a sail, hold you fast or wait in a designated place to be ready when needed. That unencumbered, clear, and simple design is our personal goal as well. Onward.

Eleanor sorts through her studio

From drawer to storage bin

A New Path

Annie has gone through a few changes lately. When Terry and I got to Bokeelia to launch last month we noticed the the bumpkin was missing. I had seen it at the shop and assumed that it had been packed onboard before the trip. We fashioned a substitute using the boat hook and a piece of line tied with a loop as a turning 'block'. It worked suitably even in a 25 knot wind. I guess it was good that the mizzen is a small sail.

Boat hook deployed

When we returned there was no spar waiting for us at the shop. A real mystery. I have gone ahead and made a new one out of radiata pine. Yet to try out...

She also has a new cover that my friend Edward, our local sailmaker, made for me. It has snaps and a shot-weighted apron on the back to protect the transom varnish. No more plastic tarps disintegrating in the Florida sun.

Eleanor and I celebrated our 30th anniversary on the 12th. It coincidentally corresponded to our 'coming out' on the decision to move along. We will be listing our house in February and heading for Europe for an extended adventure. I will take Annie to North Carolina for storage and we plan to spend some time in Richmond, Virginia next year. I am excited about the possibility of sailing the Chesapeake. 

St. Augustine has been a great place to live. We met here in 1980...  Eleanor arriving from Mexico and I, aboard my Buchanan Spartan. We still have a lot to explore together.

December 11, 1980

Clear and Burn

My friend Mel and I spent the day on Drayton Island. Since we had gotten needed rain we decided to re-clear the area along the river. Our land has 300 feet of river frontage that drops 20 feet to the shore. The river has been eroding along that stretch of pre-colonial shell midden for years. Large trees, both deciduous and palm are slowly dropping over the edge.

We took a chain saw and other tools over in Mel's Key West 17. The day was perfect ... clear and in the 70s. Since there was only a slight breeze we decided to burn the dry limbs and fronds that had been cut and left last year. We took a ride down island on the 4-wheeler and got home by dark. Still have to wait a day to see if the red bugs found us.

Wilderness Island

About eight years ago two groups of friends (including Eleanor and I) purchased contiguous property at the northwest corner of Drayton Island. The island sits in the St Johns River in a sparsely populated area of inland Florida. It is accessible by boat or a small, infrequent car ferry pushed across by an outboard-powered yawl boat. A few people have residences but for the most part 'full-timers' are deer, alligators, a few bald eagles and in the summer- ticks. Our scene is undeveloped and wild.

Drayton Island

Eleanor and I explore the shore by kayak

As late fall and winter bring cool weather Drayton becomes a great place to camp out and sail around. In years past we have had a lot of fun on the island and its time to go again...

Rafted up

Cypress along the Salt Spring Run

The grill is ready

Bluegrass in the smoke

Ferrying 'Becky Thacher- style'

Jack's camp

Oatmeal and coffee breakfast on a cold morning