Moving On

About three weeks ago, I headed north from Fort Pierce. Impatient to get going and seeing only small waves on the "marine current conditions", I did not wait for incoming tide or even slack tide. I suppose not caring may also have affected my decision... but I swept out with the outgoing current and into the riffle at the entrance. A few waves swept over the bow, but it WAS a pretty calm day and all was well... eventually.
Now, let's see what my daily captain's logs say...

Captain's log: Caught the outgoing tide as I was impatient. The current swept me out very nicely, but the rip at the entrance was nasty.

After fighting through that, I heaved-to in the near-zero wind until it picked up a bit. The forecast said east wind, but it was a bit more north-east and I could hardly get away from land, but very gradually did so. Wind picked up until I was moving along at around five or six knots by sunset. Forward running lights were, once again, OUT: was that issue up forward where I had problems in Maine or where? During the night, the wind gradually died until I had to drop main, reduce jib, and heave-to just before sunrise.  

5/2/2024

Captain's log: Beautiful stars and phosphorescence last night: SO nice to be back in darkness! Wind died to nada by sunrise & no wind until about noon, although the gulf stream pulled me along north at about 3.5kts.

I needed a bath and some exercise, so swam and scrubbed bottom in about 1500ft of water. At noonish, the predicted SE wind showed up... as a NW wind: oh, well! Still, I'm trying to keep a bearing about 60deg, so that is fine. Wind is perhaps 5 kts, adding a 2 or 3 kts to my speed. Waves have increased a bit since my swim, so that is probably all for this trip. 

A small bird came by and checked the compass for directions...

I find that sailing with Monty is FAR more stressful than sailing alone. I really liked having him aboard for living near shore and loved having him for living ON shore, but he disturbed my peace of mind when I didn't want to leave the boat. I would like a higher-energy companion for long walks, but like having a staid friend for long sailing trips. I don't know WHAT I would want for living on a boat in St John: how do I find company for walking, swimming, kayaking, etc?

1pm: bird came aboard and went from place to place, probably searching for food or drink. I put out water for bird. A swallow flew around the boat.

Figure out running lights (Found damage to bowsprit platform (perhaps from rough Ft Pierce entrance) and separation of running light wires there. Made repairs to wiring that should last for a year or two.)

Captain's log: starting around 10:30pm I ran into several rips out in the Gulf Stream. I could hear them making an odd rushing sound from several minutes away and they smacked the boat a bit. Curious. Saw a rocket launch just as I hit the first one. Location is about 30 21.8x79 38.7

soak chickpeas

5/3/2024

Captain's Log: 5:40am: Around midnight I woke to the sound of a pod of dolphins breathing, so I turned out the lights and walked to the bow. They rushed around in the glowing water for at least a half hour before one whacked into the bow and shot water into the air... and onto me: I imagined the ribbing the others might have given him for his awkwardness. Then I sang to them for a bit (several water songs) and they played some more. Very sweet and healing to be there, under the bright stars, with the crew of dolphins.

I am finding it very pleasant to not talk to anyone, to not pay attention to anyone, to just relax with myself. This is the first I've been sailing alone since fall of 2021, before I got Monty. While I completely loved him, having another soul aboard for whom I feel responsibility gives me serious stress, on top of weather/wind/waves. 

By 5am the wind finally came up enough that I didn't need to heave-to frequently.

Cook/can chickpeas

Nice big salad for dinner w newly cooked chickpeas

5/4/2024

Captain's log, 5:30am: 32 14.4 x 77 56.2

Decent wind last night, varying from light up to “time to reef”. 

Was singing “Love like yours will surely come my way” and smiling or weeping at Monty's memory: I am grateful to have had such a love in my life... and tend to gloss over the hair-pulling frustration. Was also modifying the song to “every day, I'm getting older, every day it is growing colder” because that describes the temperature drop of the last few days as I sail north. 

5/5/2024

Looks like I will get to Cape Hatteras about sunset. Waves are much larger today, perhaps 4'. (rounded it at about midnight and got into calmer waters around 2am 5/6. 

5/6/2024

arrive in Chesapeake tonight? (maybe midnight)(Nope, will be around 6am tomorrow as wind is far lower and less favorable than forecast.)

5/7/2024

Captain's log: 3:25am: wind FINALLY came up nicely around 3am, so am now making good time toward Norfolk, 6am eta at entry

Heard a couple loons calling to each other. Nice. 

Anchored and napped in afternoon when wind stopped

Sailed wing-on-wing for a while. 

Got to Deltaville late at night and dropped anchor and slept. Chilly

Deltaville was not ready for me, so I visited friends in St Michaels (and their dog, of course)

, then sailed to Annapolis for the first time (snagged a mooring there for a couple days), and will shortly head back to Deltaville. Let's hope I can make it down there as winds are not going to be favorable.

Written some days later: done painting my bottom in Deltaville. Nice boat yard. 

Goodbye, my dear Monty

I sob intermittently as I write this. With speaking still beyond me, at least I can write. 

Yesterday morning, as I walked Monty along a very quiet road, on leash, a pack of dogs came out of a house and set upon him... I'm not sure how many of the dogs were actually involved, but the owner blames one. The owner, screaming and sobbing, threw himself on Monty to try to protect him and I did my best, but Monty took some serious damage. 

The owner and I rushed him to the local emergency vet and they were quite comforting and confident in his recovery... far more than I, but I tend to encompass the negative possibilities in my future expectations. I went back at 4pm, but they were still in surgery, having taken the morning to stabilize him. At 6:00 (closing time), I brought him home, yelping and crying while still deep in anaesthesia, apparently a common event. 

I lay beside his unresponsive and noisy form all night, occasionally checking on him when he thrashed about, putting a hand on his back and gently stroking him in hopes it would get through, At 8:20 I checked and he seemed still... and stiff... and gone. 

I'm broken...but I will heal in time. I miss my little cuddler, one of the two best dogs I've had, terribly. Furthering the heartbreak is the fact that the owners of the dog pack, a very nice man/wife/young child, are going to lose a big part of THEIR family too, as a killing is an unforgiveable offence even here in FL. And I can certainly see that pack of normally nice dogs getting excited and killing a child or even an adult, so I can't leave it unreported. Shortly, I will go with the owner to help him put his dear dog, the ringleader, to sleep, so he can pet it and say goodbye while it goes...

This is just heartbreaking in every way. 

At least Monty brought a lot of joy into many lives and really enjoyed his life with me. Goodbye, my little one. 

A Story With a Morel

 I found my first morel!!!

Not many things make me hop up and down with excitement, but noticing my very first morel mushroom did the trick. These things blend in SO well that I had a hard time seeing it from six feet away. I've gone out and done some desultory mushroom hunting, but never gotten anything worthwhile and to come across this one in my mom's yard surprised and delighted me. 

According to ForageSF.com, the morel I found is “Morchella Rufobrunnea. These morels are nicknamed the “Wood Chip Morels” since they like to grow in mulched areas. That’s because they are saprotrophic morels that feed off of decomposing organic matter.”  https://foragesf.com/blog/2020/3/4/finding-and-frying-wild-morels

I did not bother to pick it, preferring to leave it there. Childhood training to never even touch wild mushrooms runs deep and, while a taste of morels might have convinced me to pick this one, I've never tasted them and was therefore not tempted. Besides, it was all alone and maybe we might get more next year? 

California Wandering

 One of my regrets of leaving CA is being away from hiking the marvelous hills and mountains, either alone or with friends or ESPECIALLY with The Sonoma County Wanderers. I delighted in the steep hills, massive trees, windswept rocky coasts, and open vistas. The east coast is FLAT, until one gets up into Maine. I loved St John for this reason, although the heat made hiking hard for me, especially in summer months. Maine delights me, especially Mt Desert: perhaps I'll spend much more time there this summer.

ANYWAY, I loved this last visit to Sonoma: I went on two trips with my Wanderer friends, once I had regained confidence in my knees and feet. The second was the Carson Falls trail, an 8-mile loop with a bit over 1/5 mile of climbing. We hiked through scrubby brush blossoming after a nice wet winter and along chuckling creeks under a canopy of towering redwood second growth. This rough-hewn bridge delighted me...

 as did the huge redwood....

and the red-bellied newt on the verdant creek-side moss.

It is surely one of the great pleasures of life to be in nature with people who are similarly inclined to appreciate these delights. 

Now I'm in St John with dear old friends, working on their boat, trying out things like open mic night (WAY too loud, but nice folks there), and generally adding to my carefully accumulated store of good memories.

Goodbye, Penny-Lane

My friend Caroline has a delightful pup named Paxton. He and Monty love to race down the beaches at Cape Cod or sniff things in Sonoma. Paxton's best friend was Penny-Lane, the runt of her litter, the essence of the energy and love of a rowdy 1.5-yr-old Cavalier distilled into a 2/3 scale copper body. They would spend hours exhausting one another every day. 

Friday, I called Caroline to ask if she was going to Yappy Hour, an informal end-week event at the local dog park. Monty, Paxton, and Penny-Lane raced about with a dozen other dogs, made friends, sniffed butts, got cuddled, (here is Penny-Lane in my lap)

and generally had a wonderful time while the humans chatted and laughed and petted dogs. Penny-Lane practically went into paroxysms of excitement at the ball being tossed by another owner and raced after it while Paxton tried to cut her off. 

We parted ways and Monty and I walked home, only to get a call that Penny-Lane was in serious condition and another ten minutes later saying she had died.... and a while later to ask if I could help with the goodbye.

Today, with the agreement of my brother and mom, we (Ellen (Penny-Lane's beloved human), Caroline, my mom, and I) buried her near a fig tree just NE of the house. We spent a couple hours talking about her, dogs in general, love, and life.

Penny-lane: all lives are brief and end, the only questions I have are whether you enjoyed life and whether the world is better for you having been here. On both of these I think we can answer with a resounding “YES!”. Penny-Lane, we will miss you and cherish your memory. Thank you for bringing your joy to our lives.

Sonoma Visit and Citrus Update

I arrived here about 2/18 and depart on 3/24 for St Thomas. Travel was fine, although Monty didn't pack light and seemed to expect ME to carry his suitcase... (ok, just kidding!)

Monty acts DELIGHTED to be here: a comfortable house, cool conditions for walking, a couch, and a lazy-dog... um, lazy-boy.

Pretty nice! AND he always loves being around my mom. 

Monty also loves seeing friends, even if they have dogs. He mostly doesn't care much for most other dogs, but played wildly with Mattie, a 6-month-old wild-and-crazy fluffball. 

I feel a bit sore, perhaps from hill walking or perhaps from a hot yoga class I tried. It turns out that, while I enjoyed the class and company, I tend to overdo the exercise and get some injuries.... and I run warm, getting rather woozy by class end. Some like it hot, some can't handle the heat... and I recall being in the latter group, needing to load my pockets with ice in order to function in the boat yard in St Thomas, while others seem to revel in warmth. Ah, well: we all need to know our limitations: perhaps I am better off with boat yoga.

Citrus Update? WELL! The grafts from the beginning of Covid are doing just great!

April 2020: https://hydrophiliapow.blogspot.com/2020/04/pandemic-stuck-in-sonoma-twiddling.html

October 2020: https://hydrophiliapow.blogspot.com/2020/10/update-on-sonoma-citrus-grafts.html

Now: 

Here are blood, satsuma, and cara cara citrus. I understand the blood would have better sweetness, color, and flavor with more warmth. Right now they look like smaller, less-sweet cara cara oranges. 

The blood oranges produced about ten fruits, the satsumas about 20 and the Cara Cara oranges around 100 or 200! All three are tasty and juicy, so the grafting has been a big success! Two other trees we planted are doing well: the lime has about 8 nice fruits and the satsuma has grown considerably. All things may pass, but I revel in the delights along the path.

Paddling in Key Biscayne Mangroves

Monty and I are back in Fort Pierce! We dropped anchor Sunday 2/11 after an overnight sail from Key Biscayne during which we caught a small mahi. I'll add my future travel plans to the end of this post. 

Cynthia and Lucy visited flew in to Miami and spent ten days aboard in rather cool weather, during which we actually got to explore the mangrove swamp and associated human modifications beside No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne. Cynthia also took ten lionfish, easily doubling out total lifetime haul from Florida waters: Cynthia gets so much satisfaction from hunting them, getting good exercise, looking at underwater life, and helping the environment by removing these invasive species.

Our favorite adventure? Paddling up a mangrove swamp tidal creek!

I think I would really like to find some of these salt creeks that have been less modified by humans as we both really enjoyed the adventure. 

Least favorite bit? The midges we dealt with on windless evenings in the harbor: they are even smaller than the midges in Cape Cod and Maine, but DEET still does the trick! 

Cynthia & Lucy, both well exercised through long walks and recharged by the Florida sunshine after months of midwestern gray skies, departed at about 9:30 Saturday 2/10, Monty and I set sail when the tide turned and helped us out past the shoals at about noon. Neither Monty nor I enjoyed much of our sail north as it was rather rough, but we caught a nice mahi Saturday PM and dropped anchor in Fort Pierce before noon. 

Future travel plans? 2/18-3/(20?) Sonoma, -4/(10?) St John, -4/(20 or 30) sail to boat yard in NC or VA and spend a week or two on bottom paint etc, 5/(1? 10?)-6(15?) sail to St Michaels/Annapolis area and visit friends/family, -7/(1?) sail to MA or ME and visit friends/fam/islands. (9/15 or 10/1-ish) putter south.

Exceptionally Lovely Launch from Canaveral

Space has fascinated me, from watching Apollo rockets go up to seeing the first man on the moon on TV to pulling over in a bar in WY to see a space shuttle launch to being in awe at what SpaceX has done with re-useable rocket boosters. And, as I sail south along Cape Canaveral, I love to see the launch structures and rockets standing by the water's edge, lit by floodlights if it is night.

Recently, I went up on deck in Fort Pierce at twilight to see a launch. The skyline in the north lit up with an orange glow like a sodium vapor lamp, then an accelerating orange spark rose in the darkness

until it reached the sunshine. It went out for a few seconds, then smoke blossomed and swirled as the first stage spun around and fired rockets to slow and return, while the second stage lit up and continued on its way (up and left). 

I have never before had the experience of watching this twilight ballet and the beauty and detail was quite lovely. And, amazingly, some of these launches can be seen from the Virgin Islands! What an amazing world we live in!

Anchored at Taylor Creek

 I'm listening to the rattle of rain on the cockpit windows, the hiss of rain striking the peaceful water, here at our favorite Fort Pierce anchorage at the entrance of Taylor Creek. This spot gives us good access to a nice park where I can walk Monty,

a Publix supermarket, and a whole town full of boat related businesses. The downside is road noise, construction noise, and strong currents. What fascinates me at the moment, however, is the interaction of Taylor Creek and the ICW (Intra-Coastal Waterway).

Taylor Creek is fresh water, dark with tannins, and runs into the ICW at nearly a right angle. As the tide changes and current changes direction, the plume of dark water changes direction too. So far, so good.... but I noticed a few days ago that the current was running almost perpendicular to the side of my boat and that sure made me scratch my head. 

You see, my boat has a DEEP keel and always aligns with the current unless there is a STRONG wind. In this case, it was aligning with the ICW, but the current I could see, the Taylor Creek "tea" was running straight into my beam. What's more, on the other side of the boat, nice green salt water showed where an eddy might form in that sort of current. 

Here's what I figure is happening: the fresh, lightweight Taylor Creek water runs out and OVER the salt water.

Probably there is a tongue of salt slowly probing the creek with the changing tides, with the "tea" running perhaps a foot or two deep across the surface of it. When it reaches the ICW it spreads out and runs downhill (whichever way the tide is running is slightly downhill) and eventually spreads out and becomes a thin layer and mixes and conforms to the ICW. 

Sometimes I even see waves break as they strike the "shore" formed by the tea getting shallow and ending: even though the total water is deep, it acts shallow.

What does it matter? Well, understanding the surface currents better has made it far easier to take advantage of them when I row around. And now I comprehend another amazing thing in this wonderful world!