pelicans and dolphins and fish farms oh my

october 21

sometimes i just don't get big dummy. yesterday it rained all day so what did we do – sailed in the rain. fast. downwind. today the sun is shining and the wind is blowing like snot so what have we been doing all day? sitting here with the anchor in the mud, sleeping, drying things out, reading books, and “resting”. like we've done something we need to rest from....ha!

anywho it is a very pretty place even if it doesn't smell like fish like it did where we were a couple of days ago (reedville virginia). actually this is about the prettiest place we've ever stayed and the people are really really nice too. we are in horn harbor (nearest town is port haywood virgnia) and b.d. tells me we're going to leave on the high tide at eight tomorrow morning and that we'll be in the dismal swamp canal before dark. sounds lovely doesn't it? probably catfish in there. b.t.w. the horn harbor marina is for sale if anybody is interested. i hope the new owner is as nice as the lady who owns it now. she even made a special trip in to town to get b.d. the right kind of oil and an o-ring and invited him to use the showers (people always invite him to use the shower – what's up with that? i always thought the smell of low tide was kind of nice....)

well i gotta tell you about the stupid thing b.d did the other night see he wanted to sail until late at night cause he got worried that we weren't getting south fast enough so we sailed until ten thirty. but what he wasn't counting on was that there are these fish farms (when i retire again i think i'll be a fish farmer!) which are really just some long slender poles stuck in the mud that hold nets. well the poles and nets aren't substantial enough for the radar to “hit” on them when you have the sea scatter filter set on “rough” which it was. fortunately the pelicans are big enough that when they get a few feet off the water they set off the radar alarm. you shoulda seen b.d.'s face when he turned on the gazillion candle power spotlight to see what the heck that was so close to the boat without lights and he smiled and said to me “oh lookie it's just pelicans...” then kept turning towards the bow with that light and suddenly there is a big ol fence only a few feet away and, did i say we were moving real fast? he yelled something not very nice that translates as “evasive action helms hard over watchyerhead she's gonna jibe!” we made a one eighty and dodged that one only to find ourselves, seconds later, doing the same thing again for another and yet another! whew! my ears were hurting by the time we got clear of that mess b.d. was using words i never heard before and i'm sure they weren't nice ones. we double checked the charts and according to them we were in clear open water with nada but clear open water. lesson don't trust the charts. hey didn't we learn that one in barnegut bay? also lesson don't sail after dark unless you are way the heck out in the open ocean even with the radar going and all that. also lesson pelicans are cool – not only do they carry a suitcase under their beaks they save stupid night sailors who are about to crash into their dinner troughs.

well that's all for now. fair winds and following seas to you.

peace and love

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee

october 22 friday

after my morning workout which consists of about two hours of bouncing off every conceivable surface below decks and waking b.d. a million times i was doing my morning bath and b.d. finished breakfast and brought up the hook then off we went into the sunrise with b.d. singing some stupid song about feeling groovy and something about the morning sun is rising like a red rubber ball. and it was. but i was too involved in my bath even when b.d. started calling me to come up and look at the dolphins. he won't let me eat them so i pretended i didn't hear him.

so we had another day of excellent downwind sailing this time with sunshine even if it was a bit cool. and we had another gang of dolphins greet us at thimble shoals just outside norfolk virginia which is where we are now. a heckofalotta gray ships in this place. all coming and going at the same time so we had to keep a sharp eye out. now we're in this marina that uncle russ recommended and we're surrounded by these really big motor yachts that probably use more fuel cooking breakfast than we use cruising for a week. silly yachties. b.d. says if he had that kind of money he'd wipe out a couple of major diseases in a dozen or so third world countries and still have money left enough to cruise on the JoHee the rest of his life.

but he doesn't so he won't.

well tomorrow we're back into the canals so sailing is over for now. oh well.

fair winds and following seas to ya.

peace and love

kitty

first mate s/v JoHee