....whew, got away from Annapolis with my liver pretty much unscathed. Got some sail up and headed south to Solomon's Island, on the Chesapeake, where I ran into my friend Steve from Port Dover, ON. I've mentioned him previously, he is travelling on a steel 53 foot sailboat he's built and is now finishing up. Beautiful boat.
But talk about going from the frying pan into the fire! Just when you thought it was safe...of course, sitting around talking boats with a good friend, you simply don't pay attention to the number of bottles - sorry, I meant glasses of course, glasses, what was I thinking - of wine you're imbibing in the course of an evening and they can catch up to you. Not only caught up with me in fact, but tackled me like a 300 pound NFL running back. The pain....why is it that as we grow older and presumably have more experience with drinking that our ability to drink somehow decreases? Or maybe that should read our ability to endure?
So from Solomons I headed for Deltaville, VA, to Regatta Point Marina. Steve of course caught up with me there a couple of days later and we had lunch and much laughter (minimal wine!) with Doc, who lives in the area.
While here, I picked up a writing contract, an interesting project that ties in with this winter's travels. The only drawback to this contract is that I'll be stopping my progress south for a few weeks to do this job, and I'd hoped to be in Miami Beach for Christmas. That isn't going to happen now.
On the other hand, given the frequency of minor breakdowns I've been experiencing this trip, I have been thinking that it would be a good idea to stop to do some basic maintenance.
Since I'll be going through the Bahamas and then Cuba, and I really don't want problems in those locations - parts and repairs are much more difficult when you're in the islands - it's just as well I stop now. I'd rather have the boat shipshape before getting that far.
I've run Gypsy Wind up to Urbanna, a lovely small town where I painted the boat last year - oh, and took the video of the drunk guy talking about viagra - which I posted here on LiveBlogging a while back. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out, it's rather hilarious.
Everything here is more convenient for someone on foot - in D'ville, the marina is a couple of miles out of town. Here, everything is within a ten minute walk and the town is simply nicer - I feel much more 'at home' here than in Deltaville, and then of course, Doc, who is on this forum, lives here, so we'll get a chance to spend some time telling lies about sailing to one another.
The weather has been good - lovely yesterday, and quite mild but overcast today. Temperatures are forecast in the high 50s, low 60s all week, so it's going to be very pleasant, at least, compared to Toronto, or New York, and other places north...
That's it for this post friends - I'm tired today and not feeling very inspired, I suspect you can tell...I promise a much more fun and exciting post next time.
(this post, btw, is dedicated to my left wing, hippie socialist carpenter/sailing dog-loving friend from back in Ontario - yes, I heard you were reading the blog Todd! Aduana says hi...)
