Sea Sickness

Yeah...I get sea sick.

Luckily there are two things that help me through it: Herby is very understanding, and I know the cause. The problem is, sometimes the cause can't be avoided. When the waves are even slightly choppy, I can't go down into the cabin for more than about one minute without running back out and adjusting my breathing so as not to puke all over the place. It's definitely a handicap when it's raining...or night time. I've tried taking Bonine, which supposedly makes people less drowsy than Dramamine, but I was a useless blob for an entire day after taking it. True, I wasn't throwing up, but I also wasn't any sort of help whatsoever. It just wasn't worth it.

I know that if I stay outside, I'll be completely fine. The problem is, the cozy bed, the food, and the bathroom are all inside. It's not the most comfortable situation, but so far, it's been worth it. Herby fetches food for me when I'm hungry. He built a middle insert in the cockpit so that we could sleep outside during rough nights. I even got these rubber tubes to help me pee over the side so that I don't have to go down into the cabin every couple hours to relieve myself. It's a handicap for sure while sailing long distances, but honestly, I view it as completely worth it.

Sometimes I casually throw up over the side or into a plastic bag, but at least I'm cognitively present when we need to reef or drop a sail. So far on this trip, we've made an effort to always anchor in protected waters, but it won't be like that in the ocean. I sincerely hope that the rumors about adjusting to the rolling waves after a few days at sea are true, but if they're not, I know I'll be able to sleep outside and have an understanding husband who will cook and grab me snacks.

The Importance of a Dry Run

It may seem boring for us to spend the first three months of our journey in the Chesapeake bay, but there's a very important reason that we are doing so.  We needed a dry run.  It's helping us figure out the important things before we cross an ocean, so that we know that when we do set out, we are as prepared as we can possibly be.  I have only gone on one sailing journey in which I actually helped sail and it was two years ago.  It was extremely important for me to have this time in the Chesapeake to relearn all the skills that have been laying dormant for the past two years.  I am also gaining practice with things that I didn't even learn the first time around such as attaching hank on sails and putting in a triple reef.  As I do these things for the first time, I'm not only learning how to do them, but I'm also gaining a better idea of how the boat works as a whole.  This knowledge then helps me control it more effectively when we are at sea.

Besides the technical knowledge, however, this trial run has also given us important practice with things like rowing to shore and provisioning. We have learned how much fruit we consume in a week versus how long it will remain edible and we have also learned that we suck at keeping our garden alive while detached from shore hoses. Along those lines, we have also gained an understanding of how much water we tend to use in a given week, allowing us to ration appropriately when showering and doing dishes. 

That brings us to our rain water collected. We have had plenty of weather while away so far, which has shown us that we can collect more than 60 gallons of rain water in a single down poor. We learned the hard way that we can't sit on our flexible solar panels, but we were able to replace them with new ones within a couple of days since we were still in Easton, Maryland. It is far better that we figure these things out while still in familiar territory rather than discovering that something isn't working the way we had planned in the middle of our trek to Bermuda. Though it might not be as fun to follow along with or watch on YouTube, this trial run was completely necessary for us to prepare for the year of travel ahead.

Spotting a Cruiser: Laundry Day

The main difference between cruisers and weekenders is laundry. Those who go sailing for a weekend, week, or month, will typically carry all the clothes they need for the trip. As the clothes get dirty, they will simply be stowed away in a hamper or bag until they get home and can do all the laundry once they return. This means that these people will have clean laundry for the duration of their voyage and never need to do any laundry as they go! 

Cruisers differ from these people in that they will not be returning anytime soon to do laundry, and it is physically impossible to carry enough clothes onboard for the entire journey. This means that cruisers will need to set out and find places to do their laundry. Typical favorites are laundromats, where all the clothes can be washed in a few hours out of the day. When a laundromat is not to be found, other methods of doing laundry will be sought out.  

On Wisdom, we use a small and compact machine called the "Wonder Wash" which allows us to do our laundry independent of electrical access. It has a small hand crank on the side that you use to operate the machine as it spins to wash your clothes. While washing and rinsing are done in the compact confines of the machine, drying the laundry is a whole different ball game. 

The laundry needs to be hung out to dry, and on a sailboat, open space is limited. A typical favorite is to hang the clothes up on the lifelines. Our concern was that the blue from the dyneema lifelines would leak into the clothing and give us a lovely blue strip through all our shirts and shorts. Instead, I hung up three whilte nylon cords running rom the head stay to the mast, and from the head stay to the shrouds. 

These cords allowed us to hang two loads of laundry from the machine over the foredeck where it could drip dry in the afternoon sun. 

Where you do your laundry and when is important. While your clothes drying may add some nice color to your yacht, do remember that you are anchored in front of expensive waterfront property. It is best to do laundry in a quiet area where you see few houses, and to do it on a weekday. Most waterfront homes that look like small hotels are actually weekend homes for the wealthy. If you do laundry on a weekday, they won't notice your presence and won't complain to the marine police about "that eyesore over there." 

Being discreet is important when passing through new waters. It is important to remember that you are the visitor and you should try to minimize your appearance as to attract less attention from the authorities. If you become an eyesore, some locations will actually ask you to leave and anchor elsewhere. What if they tell you to move as a storm approaches? By staying below the radar, you can enjoy the protected waters of an anchorage, keep your clothes smelling fresh, and cruise without causing a ruckus. 

Timeless Sunsets

I was recently asked: "You must get to see a lot of sunsets" 

Up until that point, I have taken for granted the fact that I get to see every sunset. I see the ones that light up the sky with a red glow and the ones that fade out into blue obscurity as the night encroaches. Seeing the sun set simply becomes a daily occurrence becuase I pretty much live outside and connected with nature. As the sun begins to go down,I notice it because the sun comes in at a harsh angle, this alerts me to look in its direction and enjoy the splendid display in the sky above me.

Sunsets will never loose their majesticness, but they will lose their count. I honestly have lost count of what day we are, and how many days we have been cruising, as such the number of sunsets I have seen is also lost to me, but the wonder always remains the same. 

This timelessness of the setting sun brings peace to each day as night comes over us and we relax our way to sleep. 

Sailing to Easton, MD

Easton is a small town located at the top of the Tred Avon River on the Chesapeake Bay. This is a quite little town that has one marina that caters more to shallow draft crabbing boats. Needless to say, an ocean going sailboat is not a common sight to see in this sleepy little town. 

Maddie had an art competition in Easton and wanted to go to it while we were out cruising. We had two choices, either stop somewhere and rent a car to drive there or sail there. I checked the charts and saw that the depth in the river leading up to the town is maintained at 8 feet, and we draw 6.5 feet. Naturally, we chose the more complicated way of getting there. 

The Chesapeake Bay is a gorgeous location to sail. There are parts that are so wide that you will not see land in any direction. Directly off of the Chesapeake Bay, you will find the Choptank River, which is also rather large and expansive to be called a river in my opinion. Both of these bodies of water are easy to sail on as you can stay on a single tack for hours without running out of deep water to sail in. Off of the Choptank River., you will find the Tred Avon River. This is where the good sailing ends and careful navigational choices begin. 

The Tred Avon is very narrow as it joins the Choptank, and only gets more and more narrow as you head up it towards Easton. There is no room to tack, and it twist and turns in such a way that the wind will be coming at you from all angles by the time you finish traversing the river.. Wisdom, our sailboat, has a small electric motor with enough battery capacity to get us in and out of a marina, but not all the way up a river! We needed luck, and lots of it! When we entered the Tred Avon, we were on a dead run and sailing wing on wing! The winds were light and we used all we could capture with our light air sails. As we made our way up the river, the banks came closer together, giving us even less space to work with. 

The trees also came closer to us, as they lined the shores edge. Massive oak trees that are full of leaves will stop the wind as effectively as a brick wall! Sailing through this area is tedious, as the wind that reaches your sails is only the wind that has been deflected around the massive trees on shore. This is where further timing comes into play, the tides that is. 

Easton has a 3 foot tide, that means that a lot of water will be coming up the river if you can catch it at flood tide. When the trees block your wind, the tide will still carry you along as you slowly make your way up the river. 

We were very lucky in that it seemed that the wind was always behind us or on our stern quarter. No matter which way we turned, we were either on a broad reach or wing on wing as we sailed along slowly. The journey was going smoothly until I found some shallow water.

The top of the Tred Avon River is popular with crabbing boats that draw only a few inches of water. This has led to less emphasis on the recordings of soundings in this part of the river, as it is deep enough for them to make their way, but not for us. In one section, two points projected out into the river, making it a very narrow pass and the chart said that it was 11 feet deep on the right side of the river. I kept to the right as we struck the bottom and got stuck. It turns out that the deep water is in the middle of the river, as it usually is, even though the chart said the middle was only 2.0 feet deep. The bottom was soft so we weren't worried about damaging our bottom, instead, we relaxed, ate cheese, and waited for the tide to rise. 

Once the tide rose enough, which was 1AM in our case, we floated off the bottom and continued our journey up the river to the town of Easton. When we arrived there, the locals in the marina were shocked to see a large sailboat arrive, especially by sail. We anchored at the top of the channel, which is as far as our keel would let us get to shore and rowed in the rest of the way. 

We only needed to spend 1 day in Easton, but we grew to like the small town and spent a week there exploring the streets and sampling the different restaurants. One gem that will always stay in my mind is an Italian restaurant called "Portofino." The owner and chef is from Portofino and his life journey has brought him to this small town of Maryland where he opened a delicious and authentic Italian restaurant.  

Spending time here did lead to a bit of a phenomenon. Word apparently got out in the town that a colorful sailboat was anchored in the river, and one day we arrived to find five people taking photographs of our yacht. A local new person was even filming her segment with our boat as the background.  

Easton was a very interesting and quaint town. We spent a week there, and just as quietly as we arrived, we also left, riding the tide out of the town and down the river towards deeper and wider waters where we could once again sail to our full potential.