Rut-Row!!

It's getting colder!!!! Up until now we've been pretty lucky with the temperatures during the day but it's definitely getting colder at night. We're waking up to frost on the deck now and the water is a balmy 48F degrees. Now there are plusses and minuses to this..............on the plus side we've set a new record for keeping a block of ice..( 9 days, Aussies really know how to insulate an "eskie"). On the minus side our lowest temperature in the morning has been 37F degrees and a very slippery deck!! Yes, that's frost on the bow! How's that for being "Glass half full" kind of folks???

Evan James Pinter!!!!

At 3:15 this afternoon Evan James was born! He weighed in at 7 pounds even and is 19 3/4 inches long. Mama and Evan are doing just fine and he is a beautiful, healthy boy! They make a very happy picture!

more Elf.......

She's just too nice not to appreciate!!! Here are some pix of her tiller and bow sprit/ figurehead. Rick carved them himself and even added a little "bite" to her figurehead. Yup, those are teeth she has and she has the bite to back it up!!! Thank you Rick & Cali for welcoming us aboard!

The oldest known small yacht in America!

After visiting with Amy & Jason we decided to check out the Annapolis side of Spa Creek and happened upon ELF. The sailing yacht was designed for William Wilkinson and built by George Lawley of George Lawley & Son, from Boston in 1888.

During the 60's she fell on hard times but in 1971 was purchased by Rick Carrion. He then founded the Classic Yacht Restoration Guild and donated ELF to the nonprofit organization hoping to preserve and restore the vessel. In 1991 the restoration of ELF began and without any line drawings but with surviving photographs from glass plates negative she slowly dismantled and the brought back to her original condition.

In 2008 ELF she came out of the shed fully restored to her original condition and she can be found sailing around the Chesapeake all year long. We hope she will continue to carry the tradition of American yachting for another 100 years!

A real beauty you think??!!

Annapolis versus MRE Tug 'O War

Yesterday was the traditional Tug 'o War across Spa Creek between the people of Annapolis and the people of "the Maritime Republic of Eastport". It's a yearly event that involves a "pull" across Spa Creek. The ingredients are a 1700 foot line at a cost of $25,000 and alot of effort from the competing teams. What a great time it is!! The weather was chilly but that didn't seem to bother anyone. There were bands playing, foods being served, teams pulling, people cheering and the crowd was into it! We went with Amy, Jason & Tyler (J's nephew) Yup, Amy's still hanging in there even though she is just a few days from her due date! But we were having such a good time we didn't get any pix. We'll try to do better next year!

Heading west....

We woke to a very cool morning and decided that because of the forecast for the next few days it was time to move to the west shore of the Bay. In order to have the facilities of Annapolis during the end of the week we grabbed a mooring in Spa Creek. We plan on heading down to Holiday Hill soon.

Today was the day of lighthouses. One is right as you enter the Wye River and the other is for "Bloody Point"........and it's even red!

Heading north ........the long way!

November has come at last and we want to make sure we are close to Annapolis for Amy. In order to get a little closer we decide to head to the Wye River area since it's not far from Kent Island and a little more north.

So.....we sailed downwind out of San Doming Creek across the Choptank and around Walnut Point instead of going through Knapp's Narrows. It was only a few more miles and then we could have a full day of sailing.......yep, we sure did!

The Chesapeake is supposed to have great sailing in the fall with steady winds and warm water. Yes, the water isn't too cold yet but we would like to put our order in for some steady breeze. On this day it was all over the place and almost always from the direction we didn't want! The bottom line is that as the "crow flies" we moved north about 7 miles. The sail which took all afternoon stretched out to 49 miles! We pulled into Bigwood Cove just as the sun dipped over the trees. The next morning showed how beautiful the cove is.

The sounds of the Chesapeake!

Awesome!

Skinny water.........

As she sits GH is in about 3' (maybe even a little less) of water at low tide. Here is a shot off our port side about 50'....... we think Bambi may be joining us soon!! Dave A if you were here venison would have been on the menu tonight!

N 3846.65 W 07613.95

Also known as San Domingo Creek, the back door to St. Michael's, Md. Grey Hound is now lying about as far up the creek as you can go. It's a beautiful, very protected spot no distance at all from the south side of St. Michael's. It is the same creek that James Michener had a house on while writing 'Chesapeake' and it's easy to guess were he got his inspiration from. The sounds and sights around here are beautiful!!!

Adios, Knapp Narrows

Grey Hound is heading east!

Darcie J

How's this for a new spelling of your name?

HUH????

Does anybody get this?

Hey Van Den Berg!!!!!!

Get with the program!!!!!! We had cocktails last night on Old Sam a Cabot 36 out of Lunenburg, NS. We had a great time with Don and Sue sipping their rum. Well, it turns out Old Sam is named for a certain Nova Scotia medicine that sailors have a weakness for. Long story short Old Sam has not only rum of the same name on board but they have t-shirts, ball caps, jackets and a flag to fly as well!! Sue wrote the company and they gave them lots of good stuff!! SOOO, where are your Screech shirts and don't forget our ration Screech grog as well!!! ;-0

Think we'll write Old Sam the company and see if we can get t-shirts too!

Thanks for the great time Sue & Don! Hope our paths cross again!

Back in the day..

On the water and land..........