Our First Little Cruise

Karina arrived safe and sound from New York on Monday Aug 13 around dinner time. It was great to see her - she's a terrific gal. She's full of stories from her week in New York, and her life in Denmark and her sweetie Thomas!! We got lost on our way back from Annapolis where I picked her up (it was my first time driving to Annapolis myself), so we had the scenic route on our way back home.

Well, we finally got off the dock and did a little sailing for a few days. We got the mizzen mast up with the wind generator finally and we headed out! Our first stop was the little town of Galesville (we have visited there by car) and it was so nice to anchor the boat and be head to wind for a change. The wind scoop brought a good breeze down the hatch and sleeping was nice and comfy. Next morning we headed out for St. Michaels, which is across the bay. It was a good sail and Clare showed her talents on the helm...she's a natural! St. Michaels is another OLD sailing village, and home to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum...quite a good one too, and we spent the better part of the day exploring there. Friendly people made the day fun, and fortunately St. Michaels is "dog friendly" so we could bring Beau, so he wouldn't be lonely (and howling!) on the boat.

Karina kept us entertained with the new games she brought and there was lots of time for reading! We headed back to Deale (Shipwright Harbor Marina)on Sunday afternoon because we were having some issues with the electrical system and did not feel it was doing its job correctly, and wanted it looked at before we headed out again.

Being back at the marina allowed us time to do the fun stuff, like laundry, cleaning and food shopping (oh, and rum shopping too!) It also offered time to visit with folks, and we spent a very enjoyable evening with Peter MacIntosh, a fellow liveaboard and skipper for hire. A very entertaining Scot at heart, he regaled us with tales of his 40 some odd years at sea, including most recently, skippering a 60 foot power boat up and down the east coast for the past month or so. He also sang and played Clare's guitar, which lead to both Clare and Karina playing for us too! It was a fun night.

We still haven't been able to teach Beau to pee on the boat, which he will eventually have to do if we do an ocean crossing (ie. to Bermuda) This is proving to be more of a challenge than I thought it would be....anyone with suggestions would be welcome!