Down to Dixie

It's been so long I had too check what my last "riveting" news was.

So... out of Oriental and the 4 hour trip down Adams Creek to Beaufort (pronounced Bofut in North Carolina ) where one of our singer/guitarist mates, Jeb,  from Eleuthera is the dock master at the city marina in the summer months, that's him in the middle, and we had a couple of free days dockside to hang out and jam with some of his buddies round town. Just right while waiting for the perfect weather that was forecast to head south. As you know ,I'm not one to whinge...even though my (ex) friend Big John had the hide to call me a curmudgeon recently...where was I? Right...we jumped out for a perfect 10 to 15 NE down to Wrightsville Beach which arrived for the last half hour after a pleasant MOTOR on a lovely sunny and windless day. A couple of relaxing days there while a wet and windy cold front passed through and we  jumped out ,yet again, to catch the westerly that was going to clock round to NW by the afternoon and blow us down to Florida.....even though there were largish swells coming from Hurricane Gonzalo about 200 or so miles East.

There he is.

Well we got over the Frying Pan Shoals and the wind stayed west so we thought we'd head straight for Charleston as we were pointing sort of at the Bahamas and the chop was getting annoying. By nightfall it was the same so I/we said *&#! this we'll overnight to Winyah Bay and get inside and stay there. So after bashing into it all  night we arrived on a cold but sunny morning ,committed to the comfort of the ICW. Charleston the next morning. Lovely old town.

Lots of elegant old homes, thanks to the sweat of slaves of course, and great art galleries and

Graveyards

And Pirates firing their (weenie ) cannons at anyone game to walk across the park.

Another bouncy night at anchor as the Canadians through down another cold front at us.

Nothing personal I'm sure.

Some of our goodest friends are Canadian.

A calm and sunny chug down the ICW and anchored in a piece of river that looked like we were in the middle of a huge lake. We checked the chart later and found out it was called Moonlight Bay..

As we were showering in the cockpit a bunch of dolphins came swimming round the boat......perverts. They kept hanging around so I got the ol' penny whistle out and gave 'em a bit of a hornpipe.

and four of them definitely popped their heads up for a look.......honest.

Next morning ....down to Beaufort South Carolina (pronounced Bewfort ) where we had lunch with our old mates from Oriental Joe and Cherie.

Shame the waitress told Joe he had to pay the bill if she took a photo of us!

They took a photo of the graceful  Jabiru coming through the bridge when we arrived.

Still haven't figured why vertical photos come out on their side.

Have a lie down for a moment.

Anyway y'all know when you're in the south when Halloween's coming up.

And Beaufort is a nice ol' southern town too. Old plantation owners houses Spanish moss dripping from the ol' Oak trees.... but it's on  to Savannah Georgia ,where we'd never had time to stop before. We stayed at a marina past the Savannah River and caught the local bus the 10 miles or so to old downtown area. Once again ,a beautiful old city full of antebellum houses built around a whole lot of squares. They only got to be surviving buildings because Jackson (I think )decided to present the town to Pres. Lincoln as a present after he routed the rebels.

We toured the town (because of limited time ) like genuine old pensioners......on the tourist trolley. Unlike most of our fellow passengers though we were so enthralled we......forgot to get the camera out. Never mind. If you want a look I'm sure there's plenty of sites to Google

There was the Peanut shop with a line of ol' gals stuffing their faces with the samples!

And the Pohlice station with the yellow cab rear end.

Cab sir? Ha....gotcha.

Anyway,the weather was still glorious and St Augustine ,Florida was only an overnight sail away,so we cancelled our commitment to the inside and popped out for an easy cruise and we are in this fascinating place. The oldest continuously occupied European settlement in North America .Lots of old buildings going way back but not as far back when Ponce de Leone found the place back in 1513ish. Chris Columbus ,of course , only found the Caribbean islands and thought he was off India  Ponce found the mainland or at least Florida. He was quite exited about finding the Fountain of Youth which we sampled of course.

Didn't work.

 Maybe it was Amerigo Vespucci that found the rest. This is all from memory of course . I don't have access to my notes at present. All the same , St Augustine is an amazing town with a very interesting history from "Indians " to Spanish to French to English and back to Spanish then to the United States and so on . there's even pirates still around........on genuine 17th century segue's














. Anyway Howard and Barbara drove up from Daytona for a visit and we caught an imitation Aussie Didgeridooing with a genuine pirate dawg.

Speaking of pirates ( there's a lot round here ) we witnessed a small pirate boat attacking a large one just off our mooring. There was a lot of cannon fire and then a lot of yelling.....then a boarding and by this time we had the binoculars out and witnessed a flogging  .......and .....evrythang.

 

                       Gondola ! What Gondola ? They don't have Gondolas in St. Augustine.
Just happened to be strolling around and there was a couple of 'ol mates of ours ,Jim and Bentley off Salty Paws , doing their Sea Shanty thing outside the Starving Artist gallery and restaurant.
                                             What could I do but whip out me whistle.

 Bill (Raynor) in Hale Kai caught up and a couple of days later Bill and Gail drove up from St Petersburg and then it was time to get going south. That just happened to be the coldest day on record for this time of year and we wore 3 layers of everything and 2 pairs of gloves as we battled through 25 to 35 knots of cold front. We'd been wearing T's and shorts the day before. I can feel the sympathy through the ether........ Well we made it to Daytona beach and pulled up for a couple of days visiting with Howard and Barbara ,but that's going to have to be next time cos I'm running out of time ......and patience.....and I've got to sort photos out so ................

Oriental-Fall 14

The days are getting shorter and the last month seemed to only last a couple of weeks. Time does fly when you're having a good time...or busy....or busy having a good time...or having a good time being busy. I'm not trying to fill space here...just raving.
Well, the trip down from NY was very interesting as it turned out. The forecasts on the east coast in the summer are pretty much "chance of thunder storms " most days, so we didn't take much notice when we left the Manhattan area to chug down to Sandy Hook for the night to be ready for a first light departure  to Norfolk Virginia. Duh. Didn't even make the Verizano Bridge before the first storm hit us,then by the time we just reached Sandy Hook ,we got thumped by number two. Splendid start to the trip. Next morning at first light we jumped out into the Atlantic and had a wonderful sail wing on wing (goose winged in Oz talk)(a sail out each side of da boat)all day. Passed Atlantic City at sunset. Actually, with 3 Casinos closing their doors that week, it could be Atlantic Ghost Town before long....Anyway...as the night progressed the wind just kept building. In the early hours we were passing the Delaware and thought it might be wise to head in there and do the whole Delaware/Chesapeake thing.....but wait....Jabiru's Captain is an idiot. Let's keep going. By the next afternoon we had 25 to 30 knot winds ,just aft of the beam , and 10 to 12 ft seas to go with 'em. By evening we were getting gale force (35 knots ) gusting to 40 ! I'm  not sure how big the waves were , I didn't really want to look at them much but we were flying along at 7 to 8 knots with just a weenie bit of jib out. Looking back , it was exhilarating....certainly quick , and the new rigging had a good test drive. By the time we were off  Cape Henry , at about midnight ,  we turned west and at least had the waves behind us , which was good because at least three large waves had broken over the boat and reminded me I hadn't re-sealed the hatches after the last time I varnished them. Read "little waterfalls over the bedding ". The good thing was that it also turned out that I hadn't done a real good job of sealing the mast when it was put back so all the fresh water , from the now torrential rain, rinsed the floor off nicely. So....here we were 'surfing ' into the Chesapeake with about 50 yards/metres visibility and steering by "TV " ...or chart plotter.....same thing...and wondering when the clouds were  going to thin enough to give the Sun a bit of a go. Well.....as we neared Hampton Roads things cleared and we chugged up to Norfolk and dropped the hook off the Hospital and went into a coma/sleep for about 3 hours .The rest was easy .....another chug up river to the Dismal Swamp lock and a good, calm sleep. Next morning ,a very pleasant trip down the canal ,except the masthead light got damaged when I didn't see some overhanging trees , and out of the canal and the beautiful Pasquatank River to anchor off the Albermarle Sound ready for an early start across the sound and down the Alligator River and nearly home ( Oriental ).....But wait....the sun's almost up and we step out into the cockpit to be greeted by thousands of mosquito looking things that had left a green coating over everything....We'd been slimed!! 45 minutes later we'd cleaned up and had a lovely sail down to the Alligator/Pungo Canal and another peaceful anchorage at the south of that. Oh, did I mention that we were briefly grounded on a tree stump at the beginning of the canal...Next morning was a motor to Oriental ,about 40 miles, on a totally windless, sunny day.......until we were about 3 miles away from the entrance channel. Well I suppose it's an exit channel too.....depends which way yer going, Where was I ? Right , 3 miles. Is that thunder ? 300 yards from the channel....dark clouds rushing in......should we just stay out 'til it passes ? Noooo......the captain's an idiot....maybe fearless....no...an idiot. So we dashed up the channel, called Larry to see if he could take our lines.....got  about 40 yards from the slip and this rolling cloud that looked like fog ,but was actually thick rain,  came charging down the creek. Nuff said...we got in without damaging ourselves or the neighboring boats the only problem being drowning Larry's cell phone. That'll teach him not to be a good guy. All in all we got sorta got what we wished for at the end of the last blog. A good trip.  Interesting but good.
That's how we got here and once here everything was as usual. A delightful little all American country town,  a whole bunch of our very good friends ,lots of boat projects done...Jabiru looking beautiful again , plenty of playing. These two were something special. Call themselves The Travelling Joneses Though neither of their names is Jones.

Mike and Ladonna.She sings like an angel and Janis Joplin

Amazing

A misty, dewey morning through a resident spiders web.

And one night we went over to celebrate the arrival of cold nights with a moonlit bonfire and feast at Perry and Susan's house.

That's the gang...or some of us.

Well that's it...That was Oriental ..That was.

Off on our way down to Florida tomorrow or maybe day after.

Think I'll finish off by saying that we're hoping for a rough trip and see if the old reverse pchycology works.

Passing The Time.... then it's Up

Jersey City and Statue of Liberty on the left,Hudson left of centre,Manhattan then East River to right.

This shot taken on a sail round New York Harbour last weekend.Todd and Melody took us out for a sail on this overcast day but it was still great to be out sailing. Even though we've been doing that pretty much constantly for the last 7 years we're usually coming or going not just out sailing about.

When we met Todd 4 years ago he was the leading mechanic at the marina and was just about to marry Mel. I've told the story of how he fixed our transmission problems once and for all and we've been good friends ever since.We spent some fun times up on Long Island Sound on the way to Newport this year. Todd is now Operations Manager for Suntex Marinas which has him travelling all over the country setting up marinas etc. .Melody ,at the drop of a hat,or the hint of a musical ,will burst into song. I think she knows all the words to all the musicals!

We do have lots of laughs.

 The mast , with all its shiny new rigging, goes back in tomorrow. That should have us sailing out of NY on Saturday and if the forecasters aren't lying again we'll have some good northerlies to take us down to Norfolk without having to do the Delaware and Chesapeake route which will save us a few days and a lot of motoring which alone would be a shame, what with all the new rigging an' all.

So how do you fill in 3 weeks in NY.

Well the first weekend was the Puerto Ricans celebration in Jersey City. So just down the road.

Parades and food and lots of Latina.  Kids in traditional dress for concerts.

And kids in non-traditional dress just being...Puerto Ricans

Them thar Latinos sure love a good time.

As for New York City...... as always just blows us away.

Times Square..Empire State..Wall Street...all that .

Just walking around you feel that electric energy that seems to give you something new with every corner you turn. Everywhere there is a space there are tables and chairs set out for people to just sit and read ,eat ,drink or watch the rest of the world go by. Don't look lost. Someone will ask you what you're looking for and if they don't know they'll whip out the Iphone and google it for you.If another one overhears the directions and doesn't agree they'll jump in and it's "No yerl be woiking past dat joint wher dere doin da road woik. Bedder take da next next toin ....."etc .Arms waving and all. Sounds like they're fighting but it's just the way dey toik.

Don't forget the lovely little parks here there and everywhere. And there's little doggie parks complete with wading pools for those hot days. Another little space between building and there'll be a one on one basketball court...or two. Kid comes flying down the street on a skateboard, straight past a cop. No problem...he ain't hurtin' no one.  The buskers seem to be  more like real good players out practicing with an open instrument case nearby....just in case.

 
  The subways have always got some sort of entertainment, whether it's a string quartet or a brass band or a perfectly normal looking jazz duo.

Don't ask me why the stupid computer decided to leave a big gap.I think it was just pissed off because I fooled it when it tried to switch to blue writing and underline everything.

Where was I. Oh yeh.

                                        The average , run of the mill handbag salesman.
They've got a two lane bike track going just about all the way round the island (Manhattan ). The day we decided to do that , we got on the subway at Jersey City with our bikes.....well I did and then the doors closed on Gail and left her standing on the platform. Dilemma.Should I go back and risk crossing or wait at the next station for her. To cut a very long story short( phew..I hear you say ) we got back together about an hour or so later after the railway authorities and Jersey City police ,JSPD , got me on the phone (by this time I'd decided to carry on to Manhattan and wait ) and suggested that I return to JC and pick up my wife. Anyway a ride up along the Hudson on a luverly sunny day with maybe a stop for a beer at The Frying Pan, a really cool converted Coast Guard ship.

A bit further and one of many converted piers where there's a band playing as a freighter makes it's way down the river and kayakers frolic near the shore ( frolic? )

And folks are flying their kites.

Cool.

Unfortunately , the first Sunday that we went to hang out in Central Park I forgot to put the SD card in the camera so I only got about 8 photos of the shenanigans....and... I can't get them out of the camera without a special USB lead that is now unavailable. I mean it's an ancient camera...all of 3 years old..what do I expect... and it is a little computer...curse it.

It was a particularly good day......really cool wierdos.....a live theatre show... the roller skating/disco was outstanding.......honest.

Anyway the next week was still delightful.

Central Park is just an amazing oasis...huge rocky outcrops.....lakes....trails and waterfalls etc. where you find it hard to believe you're in the middle of a huge city.

Gail's watching turtles and swans swimming about.

People just picnicking..these a bunch of kids obviously into acrobaticy stuff.

Quality volleyball ....softball...soccer...flying model planes and flying saucer thingies.

While on parks....we were walking through the city and noticed people walking across what looked like an old railway bridge so climbed the stairs for a butchers (hook) and.....

there it was....... an old railway line that used to run through the city.

Don't really know how long it went for but we walked a few blocks through a botanical garden type place. You can see the old railway tracks on the pathway.

Always another surprise.

Well...there are 8 million stories in the Naked City and this has been one of them.

(Hope there's a couple of you old enough to remember that one.)

Oh how we wish we could make it 8million and 2 but the mast is about to return to its proper position and we have to go.All going well we should be back in Oriental by the 10th or so and back in the land of wifi and hopefully nothing more interesting to report than we had nice trip/sail.

 

Noo Yoik...... well Joisey

We came this way for the first time 4 years ago...check September 2010 if you can be bothered ...and the ride down East River from Port Washington was just as much a thrill this time. Under the "Coat Hanger" ,11.5 knots through Hell Gate and then the big Green Gal comes into sight....under the Brooklyn Bridge ,round the Battery and across the Hudson ,past Lady Liberty and the giant Colgate clock........and Home.

 Now, by home I mean what's become our home in NY (alright Joisey City ). It's at the service dock at Liberty Landing Marina up the end of a no longer working canal  which is just round behind that big ferry on the right. It's one of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferries and it lives here too. Actually this is an old pic from 2011 and the  Twin Towers used to be to the right of the big building on the far left. sort of between the big piling thingies. The posh end of the marina is where all the boats in the middle of the pic are. You walk off the marina and you're in Liberty Park which runs behind Ellis Island  and Lady Liberty with great views from the Verrazano Bridge to Manhattan.

This is the view from the Hudson end of the Morris Canal which is now the Liberty Landing Marina.  That's the new Tower.

We figured we'd call in here and see our old friends and get a couple of things done which would give us a day or two at the service dock to catch up with Todd and Melody again etc.

It was just after hours but as we pulled in there was Jose to help us tie up with a "welcome back guys" and his trademark smile.As it turned out it was harder to get a photo of Jose smiling than we thought (there's supposed to be a little thing on the e but I don't know how to get it on this computer ) so we ended up with a pic. of the new Jose (known as JoseB ) in the foreground and Jose the original almost smiling.

Then Tyler,the rigger ,lent us his security key so we could shower up etc.

See what I mean about "home"

Checking the standing rigging was the main concern so next morning Louis and Miguel.....

Moved us to the hauling slip.

Tyler came round and organized things.

That's Tyler in the red hat. He'd been in Sydney back in '81 crewing on Nirvana, one of the Maxi's in the Sydney to Hobart .They actually won but got protested into second by Ted Turner on Condor.Tyler reckons it didn't matter to them cos they had a great victory celebration all night in Hobart before TT won his protest the next morning.

So...on with the work

Jacob,the new apprentice , gets sent up to hook up the mast.

And out it comes...Jacob's a good looking lad but that's his butt.

The Verdict............All the standing rigging (that's the stuff that holds the mast up) needs replacing.

Oh dear........we're going to be stuck here for at least a couple of weeks.

So here we are...just over from Jersey City Fire and Rescue, who run their hoses every day to check 'em and that's pretty spectacular and if you look closely you'll see one of their guys on the back playing his bagpipes.

I painted the mast while it's been out and two weeks have flown by and Tyler told us today that the new rigging arrives maybe tomorrow. That means we'll have to spend the holiday (Labour Day ) weekend here before Jabiru can leave with all her new stuff.

As I said before ...Oh dear!

Might have to catch a bit of the US Open or a Broadway show to pass the time.

Geez......retirement's  boring.

Rain and all that Jazz

        It  was supposed to stop raining for our day at the Jazz fest........and it nearly did.

 We took along our little fold up chairs like good little jazz fans.

And sat in the drizzle.

In brief.

The Brubeck Brothers did some kick ass versions of their Dads stuff.

The Mingus Big Band were a credit to the late Charles.

Dr.John (who could of made us forget the rain) was hospitalized in New York.

Dave Sanborn and Joey DeFrancesco played a hell of a lot of notes.

Dave ,I think, might have been ill or just didn't want to be there.

We walked round to see Lee Konitz who played some sweet alto but at almost 90 years old amused rather than impressed.He was funny. Seemed like a sweet ol' guy.

We did get a look at Ron Carters back but was getting sick of the endless solos by this time.

Bobby McFerrin didn't tell us to Don't worry Be Happy but he did end the day on a light note and he and his band seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Jazz...........I dunno.

Anyway that was Sunday and on Wednesday we had tickets for Boz Scaggs.

Great night...cool band...cool Boz.... no photos

More rain the next day then a lovely sunny morning to bid the beautiful Newport farewell with 10 to 15 knots from the North West taking us back west along the Long Island Sound with all sails up.

Life is good and with New York City at the other end of Long Island.

It's gonna get better.

 

Saturday August the Second Two Thousand and Fourteen

The day before we attend the day of our choice at the Newport Jazz Festival I gaze with a heavy heart through patinated portholes as the surly grey clouds roll across the slate gloom of Narragansett Bay and gleefully deposit their watery burden upon us. As I watch the raindrops pock the surface all around us with tiny fountains that desperately reflect what little light that can be gleaned from the invisible sun that is hidden behind the swirling mists of cloud ,I can only ponder the existence of a benevolent God or wonder if  Nature really is a Mother.
Are the promoters of concerts that are to be performed in the open air actually sinners to the point where they must be punished for their presumption that on this or these days they will be blessed with an azure sky and a balmy breeze ? I think not , for they have already reaped their financial harvest before a gate has opened.
On this day the fans of Trombone Shorty and Wynton Marsalis , Randy Brecker and even the Kurt Rosenwinkel Quartet will shiver in their ponchos and under their no doubt only partially effective umbrellas while trying to ignore the insidious creeping chill that invades their sodden foot ware . Their hearts and ears will try to absorb the energy and soul that the musicians will attempt to convey through the gloom whilst trying to avoid touching microphone stands that could short and send them to that great Club in the Sky where they will at last get to jam with Sachmo and Bird and the Count and the Duke.
If,for once we can believe the misinterpretations and outright lies that the meteorologists deign to call forecasts , we can expect , on the morrow , some sun. Maybe some cloud and a chance of showers.
Maybe God and Mother N. are also admirers of David Sanborn , Dr John ,Bobby Mc Ferrin, the Mingus Big Band, Lee Konitz et al.
I sincerely hope so.
GOVERNMENT  WARNING : SITTING  IN YOUR BOAT AND READING A LOT CAN LEAD TO CHRONIC VERBOSITY .