Why the Wye?

I've been told that when God takes a vacation, he goes to the Wye River. I can fully appreciate this now.

It was a long day from Crisfield to the Drum Point anchorage on the Wye River. We've never been on the Wye or in Eastern Bay. We have a few days before SSCA to try it out. It is quite pretty and an excellent anchorage.

The dogs have been sick over the last couple of days. Gastrointestinal sick. It hasn't been fun. They are both on a diet of rice and are starting to look better. They either caught something from one of the many dogs they played with in Crisfield or they ate something on the dock.

So we'll explore the area by dinghy tomorrow if possible. It might just end up being a chicken soup kind of rainy day though.

The Coffee House...

MTOA has been a lot of fun. We're deep in the middle of it right now. We've met a lot of really nice people and have had fun at the different seminars. There are many trawlers here and it's been fun to look at them and get ideas about things we'd like to add. We know we need some type of ramp system to work with fixed docks in a better way. It has been difficult for both man and dog here to get off the boat.

Tuesday night was a pot luck dinner.  With hundreds of people, this was a massive pot luck rivaling any New England dinner we've ever been too. The food was outstanding. After dinner, the dining area was re-decorated as a coffee house with candles, coffee beans, and a warm dark atmosphere. Peter Colket performed for a couple of hours with just one break when he gave the stage to Karen and me. We performed a couple of songs. Thanks to Celeste Yost for taking the video of one of them so we could share it!

Our second song was a re-make of the Marshall Tucker Band's song Can't You See.  Here are the words and music:

Can't You See What That Trawler's Been Doing To Me
(sung to the tune of Can't You See)
Chords: D, C, G, D (repeat)

Verse (Jeff):
    Used to have a day job,
    Workin that 9-to-5,
    Life went by so fast,
    Got me a trawler now,
    Life in the slow lane,
    I know I can't go back.

Chorus:

    Can't you see, oh can't you see,

    What that trawler's, been doing to me

    Can't you see, oh can't you see,

    What that trawler's, been doing to me

Verse (Karen):

    Used to wish for diamonds,

    Wear the latest fashions,

    Silk and satin was for me,

    Now I dress in T-shirts,

    Rarely put my shoes on,

    And only wish for calm seas.

Chorus

Verse (together):

    So we're out there cruising,

    Life on the water, now,

    A life that's hard to beat,

    It isn't just the places,

    It isn't just the sunsets,

    It's the people that we meet.

Chorus (twice)

Vagabonds no more

At 5:30 am now, it's dark. Very dark. We know because that's what time we got up and started getting ready to leave Solomons. We'd done 3 loads of laundry, cleaned the hull water line, and taken the dogs for a romp in a field. It was time to leave.

The anchor started coming up around 6:15. We slowly pulled out past the other dark boats - everyone still asleep inside. Outside the harbor we turned to the east and watched a beautiful sunrise over the Chesapeake. Waking up early has some advantages.

While we only traveled 40 miles over water to Crisfield, it was a much longer journey in other ways. For three full weeks we've lived the life of vagabonds. Life on the hook. Spending the night wherever our anchor dropped - sometimes for almost a week at a time. The journey today would bring us to a marina. Don't get me wrong. Marinas are wonderful. We have all the power and water we want (long hot showers!). But there are rules, and neighbors, and the sunrises are hidden.

Pulling into Somers Cove Marina gave us an opportunity to purchase fuel.  We didn't really need it yet but their price was pretty good and they were hosting the MTOA rendezvous so it seems like a good thing to get out of the way.

We took 476.1 gallons. A little less than half of our 1,000 gallon capacity. We have enough fuel now to get to the Bahamas although we'll certainly get more in Georgia where it is very inexpensive. With 100.5 hours of engine time since leaving Castine and 56.1 hours of generator use, this puts our engine burn at 4.5 gallons per hour. This is very good for a large boat with twin engines. I'm very happy with the performance.

We pulled into our slip at the marina and got everything connected. We washed about 1/2 of the boat but then had to leave for an MTOA reception. There are more than 80 trawlers here and a couple of hundred people. We saw some friends that we've known for many years and some that we only met in the last year. We talked about Cuba, anchorages, Coast Guard boardings, and traded sea stories.

Because this part of the Chesapeake Bay has only 2 foot tides, the marinas here have fixed docks. This creates a challenge in getting the dogs on and off the boat. Dyna and Dylan met our "PetStep" for the first time. It took a lot of treats but we finally got them to walk up the ramp and onto the dock. Fearless Dyna didn't think twice about it. She just walked the plank. Dylan was another matter...but he finally got it and got off the boat.

So we're back in civilized life for a little while. The sounds of people are everywhere. Air conditioners are running on about half the boats. We have air conditioning on our boat too but I wouldn't think of running it with 70 degree outside temperatures. The seminars start tomorrow. We're playing and singing at the coffee house tomorrow night - we wrote a special "trawler" song when we were in Northport. We're speaking on Thursday - it should be a lot of fun.

And we'll be vagabonds again in another week...