A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed!

SHIP'S LOG:

Another glorious day. In other words, NOAA got it wrong again! I am not sure where they are getting their info these days, but down here in Chesapeake Bay, they have really been "quite a bit shy of the mark!to say the least. Today was supposed to be 5-10knots out of the south west, shifting in the early afternoon to south. To be fair, they got the first part right, the morning breeze came out of the south west though a bit more than 10. It was closer to 15 but it made the run down Mobjack Bay electric. There seems to be a permanent chop of a foot or so in the Bay and it is exhilarating punching through it which ABISAHG does easily. The wind directions allowed sailing from the anchorage, a mile or so out into the Bay and then down the Bay into the Chesapeake. I made excellent time and good speed - 6+ knots - and was right on the course I had laid out this morning.

As it approached noon, I kept waiting for the wind to clock south which would allow a reach up the York River to Yorktown where my friends would be waiting. But alas and alack, it was not to be. It was as though someone had done a "cut & paste" of the weather for the last few days for the wind did clock around, not to the south but . . .wait for it . . . to the west! right on the nose for the trip up to Yorktown. As a result, it was two(2) hours of motoring to get up the river to the York River Yacht Haven. I hate motoring like that. Into the 15! knots of wind and the 2-3 foot chop it kicked up.

Up in the river, some sailing club was holding a race the likes of which I had never seen. They had a standard starting line but there must have been an unknown count down to the start. When the race started, the boast (there was only one class) were on both sides of the line and took off in the direction they were headed when the start was sounded. After say about five minutes, they all tack and headed for a buoy a couple of miles away that they were using as a windward mark. It was a real chaotic start and the weather leg was even more fun when a barge decided to invade the course. I would have liked to stick around to watch it but it really was difficult to follow and the course seems rather vague to say the least.

During the morning sail, toast Guard lost track of one of their helicopters. It is very disconcerting to hear the Coast Guard calling out on channel 16 basking if anyone had seen their helicopter. It turned out that it was safe, just a malfunctioning radio, but it was spotted by some boaters who dutifully called it in.

There was another call from a boat that was taking on water. Naturally the conversation between the captain and the Coast Guard monopolized channel 16 and rightfully so. I am happy to report that all are safe even though the captain was not able to "de-water his boat." Evidently that is a new Coast Guard tern for pumping the water out of your boat and keeping it out. It sounds really strange to hear it. Because of this emergency, which happened just as I was preparing to enter SARAH Creek where the York River Yacht Haven is, I was forced to use my cell phone to contact the dock master and get the help I needed to dock ABISHAG. I am still not very good at this but I am getting better. When they call this place a "YACHT haven" they are not just whistling "DIXIE!" At the dock, I had to look up at every other boat. All of them came with stairs to get on and off. It was humbling, but I was able to dock without incident . . . . sort of. I got the spring line ashore. And I went back to hand off the stern line and as I bent down to clete it, my cell phone and blue-tooth device slipped out of my pocket and into the drink! I was not happy and God and I had this long conversation about and the necessity of this particular loss overboard. In the end, I had to accept that it just was they ways thing went.

My friends, the Leclercs showed up moments after the dive by my phone. They had done some grocery shopping for me and after loading up ABISAHG, we took off in search of a Verizon Store. Finding one was easy but I was overwhelmed by the number of people in a phone store buy phone and such on a Sunday afternoon. It took a couple of hours to acquire a new phone I have a list of all my cell phone numbers on my computer, unfortunately, not this computer! So over the next few days, I will have to use email and the Internet to reconstitute my contact list. What a way to spend the afternoon. However, we were able to visit and share and all in all, it was a great day.

I am not sure where I will head tomorrow, perhaps the Black River, perhaps Hampton Rhodes (Roads?). I'll just have to wait and see how I am feeling tomorrow. At least I haven't gone overboard . . . . . . . . . .yet!