Morty Likes to Swim

Morty has no appreciable legs, instead his feet attach directly to his body via many fluffy hairs. 

Due to his lack of appendage length, he has never been a very strong swimmer. Morty actually avoided swimming all together for quite some time. 

Then one day, he was standing on a beach, and took a stroll into the water. He went ankle deep, then came out, then knee deep and backed out, then belly deep and backed out. Each time he would go in, he would look you in the eye for assurance that he was doing it right; then he would smile a huge smile and go a little further.  

Soon enough, he was bounding around in deeper water and swimming around the edge of the shore. Adorable!  

We thought it was cute that one time, but now he will go for a swim anytime he is on a beach.  

Here, I was taking him to shore to do his business before Maddie and I went out to dinner. While I was untying Tooth , I hear splashing. Morty had gone for a quick dip the moment I looked away!

Guess we are going to have a wet dog in the cabin tonight.  

Rainy Days

We are anchored in Town Creek, next to Oxford Maryland at the moment and it has been raining all morning. The rains started at 4 AM and have not let up all morning. 

The gray and gloomy skies take all the desire out of going outside our rowing to shore. 

Maddie is still sleeping and I am looking into the gray skies with Morty and Sammy, waiting for the weather to change.  

The good side to this rain is I can collect some water off the sails to do laundry with. This rain has no wind accompanying it, so I feel confident about opening the sails to serve as make-shift rain collectors.  

Once the buckets are a bit more full, I can get to the laundry. Until then, I sit looking out the companionway at the raindrops hitting the water.  

Lazy Days

When the winds are light and we are ghosting along on a broad reach, an aire of relaxation seems to come over the crew. 

Everyone seems so relaxed and the desire to sleep the day away comes over us all! 

Maddie and I take turns at the helm, usually dictated by how sleepy we are. I steer while she sleeps, then she steers while I sleep.  

We sleep in the cockpit with Morty, so we don't have to move very far when we trade watches. We simply nudge them to wake them and then curl up with the cockpit pillows.  

I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day!  

Ghosting

The questionable cold front, with its harsh cold breeze has retreated, leaving us with warm sunny skies and little wind. 

We are on a run towards our favorite creek in South River,  Harness Creek, and the light airs make for lazy days and slow passages.  

We raised Dill, our drifter and began ghosting along towards the mouth of the river. 

Our bottom is very dirty, so we are fortunate to be on a run at the moment. If we can time it right, we will be able to ride the tide up the river and into our favorite anchorage for the weekend.  

Storm Front

We're setting off for an 11 day sail for part two of our honeymoon flying the stay sail (Stanley) and one reef in the main (Marge) as we watch the weather front in the distance play out. 

This cold front was creeping towards us, but now seems to be retreating. 

Cold wind continues to blow onto us, sometimes close to 20 knots, then dropping down to 5 knots. It is unclear at the moment what this weather system is going to do, but we will continue to watch with our reefed sails.