Rip Van Winkle

After a few days of sleep, interrupted every 5 hours for medicine, Skip is up and feeling better. (He looks like hell… but that’s another matter.) He partially slept through our friend Linda’s visit last night and our crab fest at the Tap Room here in Chesapeake City. Linda came bearing gifts… some essentials of sailing: toilet paper and wine! 

Not just any wine either – wine made by Vinnie Perla in New Jersey. (Yes, wine made in New Jersey!) The man is a wine genius, really. Thanks Vinnie – sorry we didn’t get to see you too. We’ll drink to you when we uncork your creations. Linda was in Newport this summer when we put the name on Saralane…. and documented the event.

We walked around Chesapeake City yesterday... it's a pretty little town. We wandered into a cool yarn shop called Vulcan’s Rest that’s open every day, even in the sleepy off season (except the usual biggie holidays). I can see why people drive for hours just to come here. As is often the case after a little conversation, we discovered a connection; Tanya (from the shop) bought her current boat from a good friend of ours in Rhode Island. She’d also met Skip a few weeks ago at the Annapolis Boat Show. She didn’t recognize him right away because his face is um…. a little swollen and beat up looking. (Sorry, no photo of said face… would still be cruel.) Turns out that she’s cat crazy and had the perfect kitty for us to take on board. We thought about it overnight and decided we’re not quite ready for a third crew member. Not even an adorable marmalade colored one with really soft fuzzy paws and absurdly big pointy ears. 

not the marmalade cat... just a cat keeping an eye on things from a shop window

Route 213 bridge over the C&D Canal

Some rain rolled through during our stay here and Saralane got a much needed bath. Can’t say the same for us – conserving water is a fact of living aboard that I was aware of, but hadn’t fully appreciated until now. (Perhaps ‘appreciated’ isn’t quite the right word.) There was a rainbow at the end of the rain showers – that’s gotta be good, right? I did some cleaning up and rearranging below deck to try to lessen the “Have you seen the _____?” factor. 

I got a few surprises as I went through storage areas “Oooh… I forgot we brought this!” and scratched my head a few times “Why on earth did we bring this?” I filled a few boxes/bags with things to offload and stow with family when I head to Delaware next week.

I had some time on my hands while Skip was resting, and when I got tired of practicing my clove hitches, I pulled out my laptop and popped in the DVD of old family photos my dad brought on Monday. 

He recently undertook the huge project of converting our old family photos to digital files and burned a DVD for each of us. I sat one night and went through all 1468 images. (I said it was a huge project didn’t I?) 

A few of the photos could probably land a parent in trouble these days (like the ones of my dad and Uncle Barry tossing baby Leslie around like a beach ball) but mostly it was a whirlwind trip back through my childhood. I have two burning questions: 1) exactly how many times did my sisters and I wear our matching Mickey Mouse t-shirts in public and 2) why, why did you allow me to wear those white satin shorts and a halter top!? Good grief. I may need therapy.

I'll spare you the photos of my graduation... but here’s a photo that captures another proud moment for my dad… when he at last baffled a squirrel with a squirrel baffle. 

It's a gorgeous day and we’re under way headed for Fairlee Creek to hang out with Miles and Lex for a bit. 

They arranged dockage for us, so we'll wait a little longer to put the dinghy in the water. Even better they’ve offered us the use of their washer/dryer. Oh happiness! They are fabulous cooks and we’re looking forward to eating whatever they make. We love to cook but we’re still working on a set up for Saralane’s fridge. As it is now it’s hard to get to things that are stored below the upper basket in the fridge. So if we’re not up for a struggle, we 

can eat anything we want as long as it’s in the top basket. Oh look... the pumpkin pie is right on top!