Aboard Lady

Rally preparations

Hampton, Virginia, USA

Monday, October 31st, 2011

After some nice cruising in Chesapeake Bay, visiting Smith Creek off the Potomac River, and Irvington on the Rappahannock River, where we were able to get together with former Tulsans Kimberly and Scott Vail and family, we had a great wind from the north on Friday, which blew us down to Hampton.  We anchored at dusk in Mill Creek, just inside the entrance to Hampton Bay, and braced for a change in the weather.  Saturday was cold, with 40 knot winds forecast, so we called the Hampton Public Piers marina to see if we could come in a few days earlier than originally planned.  Dock-master Kate found room for us, and we waited for a break in the rain to pull anchor and move in to the Hampton River.  A stop at Blue Water Marina to fill the fuel tanks and the eight new jerry cans on deck provides us with all the fuel we need for the upcoming trip to the Virgin Islands.

Tha marina and a local wine shop hosted the 1500 sailors that were already in port to a wine party on Saturday night.

Sunday the rally office opened, so we checked in and also had our safety inspection.  Although we are still lacking a few items, they are on order from West Marine in Hampton.  

We are working through the list of to do items...like everything, as soon as one item gets checked off, we have to add additional items.  Our generator died Saturday morning, but Charlie thought it was because the port fuel tank was empty.  Now that we have fuel, he has worked this morning on servicing the generator, and it has run well for a hour, so victory is declared.  However, he had to turn off the fuel at the tanks to service the generator.  The fuel tanks are under our bed in the aft state-room, and when we went to put the bed back together, he discovered that one of the fittings has broken, so now he has taken that apart and is searching for a replacement.

I have used the on-line registration to notify BVI customs that we are coming...this is supposed to make it easier to clear in to the islands...it didn't work two years ago, but we'll see if they have it working now.

My computer died and I sent to Tulsa from Irvington, where the technician managed to turn it on and boot it up with no problem.  Don't you hate it when that happens?  Perhaps it got too cold, or a little damp, and dried and warmed up on the way.  We hope that Bob Crawford will be able to get it in his luggage and bring it back to me on Friday.  In the meantime, I have managed to load the Airmail software on to Charlie's computer so we will be able to send and receive messages from the Sailmail account while at sea (WDE9568 at sailmail dot com).  The rally will be able to send us weather and fleet position information daily.  

A routine engine check the other morning showed that the coolant tank was empty.  Charlie has diagnosed it as a problem with the domestic hot water tank, so now we are trying to find a new hot water tank and get it delivered to us before we leave.  We may not have it installed by our departure; we can always boil a kettle for hot water; at least it is easier to get that part here in the USA rather than down-island.

You can follow our progress during the rally on the World Cruising Club's Caribbean 1500 website.

 

 

 

Back Aboard

Solomon's Island, Maryland, USA

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

We have been back aboard for about a week now.

We had a wonderful break from cruising.  We brought Lady to Zahniser's Marina on Labor Day, and departed the following Wednesday in a car rented from Enterprise in Lexington Park, Maryland.  After lunch at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington DC, Charlie headed to Tulsa by road, which took him a couple of days.  There he kept busy working on a five-month accumulation of mail, taking care of business, and playing golf.  He had a fun time at NeMar Noulles' birthday party, and saw lots friends there, and a delicious pork chop at her house another night.

While he did that, I visited my mother, Mary Pain, in Blackwater, Isle of Wight, England, and besides Mum, enjoyed seeing my cousin, Kerry Hayward, family friends Jack and Eileen Roberts, high school friends Pam Matthews, Margaret Weber Habens and Doreen Munden Darlow.

I returned to Tulsa September 20th, and we had time between annual and semi-annual medical checkups to have friends and family over for dinner, go out for meals with other friends, and have Anna Louise McNamara for a couple of over-night stays. It was generally a busy time and we were glad to catch up with IV and Olivia McNamara, Steve and Mary McNamara, Raleigh McNamara, Bob and Betty Crawford, Les and Susan Veltman, Don and Peggy Williamson, NeMar and Tom Noulles, Bob and Libby Gaddis, Richard and Susan Marple, Marcy and Bernard Robinowitz, Bob and Mary Ann Swain, Barri Plunket, Nina Huether, Junior League of Tulsa sustainers, Anna and Steve Zenthoefer, Joyce and Jep Randolph, Beverly Golden, Laura and Kyle Shannon, Muriel and Fuller Shannon, Jack Owens, Mary Jane and Gary Lindaman as well as all the friends we saw at the Cascia Hall Homecoming Alumni Picnic and all Charlie's golfing buddies at SHCC.  Apologies to all the friends we did not see this time.  Look for us in April 2012.

The car was loaded with lots of boat parts and a new bikini when we departed by road early October 6th.  As you might expect, with an overnight stop in Nashville, Tennessee, we heard some great country music. We dined at McNamara's Irish Pub, run by (surely he's a cousin) Sean Patrick McNamara who entertained us and the other customers with wonderful traditional Irish music.  

Since getting back aboard, we have been busy getting Lady ready to head south.  We have entered the Caribbean 1500 Rally that we participated in in 2009.  Because of rally safety requirements, we have been forced to check all the safety equipment aboard, a really good thing to be doing.  New life lines were installed this week, after a rigging check before we left found weak and broken joints.  A new battery is installed on the generator.  The dinghy's motor was left for service before we departed, and it is now back on Bimbo.  

We took the week-end off to go to Baltimore and spend the night with son Mike McNamara, for the USS Constellation Cup party - he and his crew competed Artemis II - got Third Place - the parties were a blast - and the next day, he and Katie Burkett came and visited Lady.  

While Charlie works on boat projects, I have made a number of trips to the grocery store to get provisions, and every night we have beeen enjoying some of the meals that I'm preparing for the passage.  So far, we have chile, meatballs and red sauce with spagetti, beef stroganoff with noodles,  red beans and rice with spicy sausage, paprikos, chicken and mushroom stew with wild rice all boxed up and in the freezer.  There's also a store-bought Lasagna at the bottom.  Tonight I'll make a beef stew; fellow cruiser Bill Loring will join us - he's crewing on Kinship, a Saga 43 that is also entered in the Caribbean 1500, and is commissioning in the dock behind us here at Zahnisers to join the World ARC 2012 after the 1500.  Bill is just going on the 1500 leg.  We met Tim Szabo, the skipper this weekend - he's still working so the guys from the yard are really busy on his boat - today they are installing some kind of generator that is run by the boat's motion throught he water.  

We seem to stop in at WestMarine most days.  The Hampton store has set up an account that 1500 ralliers can use to get a nice wholesale discount on our purchases at any of the WestMarine stores - thanks  West Marine!  

We hope to be able to depart the dock tomorrow.  The other projects that we still have to to can be done at anchor.  Today Charlie is working on our anchor chain and I will get a ride from the marina (we returned the rental yesterday) to make a trip to WestMarine to take in our old generator battery for a $10 refund and pick up a drogue anchor for the man overboard pole (the old one must have blown away over the summer).

You might be wondering about our crew for the 1500.  Steve Ormond sailed with us for the 1500 two years ago, and when we invited him to go again, he did not hesitate to say yes.  He used to own a boat similar to Lady.  We know we'll enjoy his company, and he's a very competent sailor.  

Bob Crawford was a Grand Lake, Oklahoma sailing friend until he sold his Catalina 30.  He now owns Sovereignty, a fabulous Little Harbor sixty-something, that he and his wife Betty keep in Florida.

 The Caribbean 1500 is scheduled to leave Hampton, Virginia on November 7th, or the first weather window thereafter.  You will be able to follow our progress from the links on their website.  We will try to update with another post with additional links and contact information before we depart, but that depends on getting a good wi-fi connection.