Back to Cruising…for a bit
In the last Ship Log you saw how busy we were with projects. Yes, there are still a ton of projects on the list, but it was nice to put them aside for a bit to go out sailing. We were out cruising in the Chesapeake for the last 13 days or so.
The first few days we had wind and the weather was pretty nice and there were little to no jellyfish. Cruising around the Chesapeake is pretty nice in these conditions.
Well that all came to an end on July 6th. The wind died to nearly zero and the jellyfish decided it was time to end any swimming in the Chesapeake. Add to that 95 degree temperatures and 90 percent humidity and it’s not a lot of fun cruising the Chesapeake Bay. You can’t jump in the water and you have to motor everywhere. I hate motoring.
Dolphins! Dolphins! Dolphins!
Our experience here in the Chesapeake Bay pretty much every day is seeing dolphins. There are a lot of them in the lower Chesapeake Bay. It is a rarity out sailing here that we do not see them.
We’ve seen a lot of dolphins out sailing in the Caribbean, but nothing like the amount here. It is at least a daily occurrence, if not multiple times a day. Sometimes the pods are a hundred strong. They are everywhere.
Now we just need to locate the turtles.
New Sails
We ordered a new Code Zero and an Asymmetrical Spinnaker in March hoping we would get to use them all summer. We finally received them on the 12th. Unfortunately the hardware used on the fittings will not fit our furler and they are going to need new fittings. The sail loft is trying to sort it out, but it looks like we won’t be using them for the next few weeks. This is typical of owning a sailboat, so you can either be disappointed by it or shrug it off and go with what you have. We’ll get it sorted out.
Breaking Things
Sailing is a mix of highs and lows. We found out that not only did a close lightning strike destroy our battery monitor, but it probably fried our battery bank as well. Our batteries will not hold a good charge and will not last the night with a full charge, probably the result of the lightning. Good thing we had already planned a battery bank upgrade, we just need to make it happen sooner.
Be Humble
Don’t talk smack if you are ever in our cockpit playing UNO. This happened recently and the perpetrator (Ryan Koslow) got beat down. Final tally: Jason – 254, Nancy – 300, Ryan – 426. No, you aren’t the best at UNO.
Rest of July
For the remainder of July we’ll be taking day sails here and there, working on more boat projects, sorting the sails and battery issues and some general maintenance. We have a road trip to Florida loosely planned to take care of some business there as well. All of this is in preparation to leave the US for the Bahamas as soon as hurricane season ends at the end of October.
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