sailing

The last week of August we took a week vacation on the boat in the Chesapeake. My leg is healing and I can hobble around a bit more, so we thought we’d give it a go. Aside from getting on and off of the boat, there’s not actually a lot of walking around needed, so that was a plus.

We met up with the Townsends for the first part of the week and rafted up for two nights.

This was also the first time we’ve taken Petunia on the boat for more than a few hours. I was a little nervous about it, but she was great. She may actually be a better boat dog than land dog to be honest.

Boat dog

She actually got out on the kayaks with us a few times. I don’t think that she absolutely loved it, but she was game.

The week mostly consisted of kayaking, paddle boarding, and relaxing.

Unfortunately, the sea nettles had invaded the area, so swimming wasn’t a great option. Instead of swimming, the girls did a lot of swinging off the side of the boat with the bosuns chair. Fortunately they can entertain themselves for hours with that chair!

Lauren off the side of the boat in the bosuns chair

Along the Wye River we found a swing that someone had made with some rope and a big stick. The kids had hours of fun on it, while Dave and I kept an eye out for sea nettles.

Here are a few more shots from the week. It was a fabulous, low key time with the family and what we needed before diving back into the new school year!

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We spent a good portion of the summer in Rock Hall and while we were down there we registered the girls for sailing camp. The first week both girls were in the beginner group where they learned on Optis. After the first week Sophie was “promoted” to the intermediate group and did another 2 weeks of camp. Lauren decided she wasn’t that into it and did “grandparent” camp instead.

The intermediate camp was a little more challenging for Sophie, but by the end of it she was really happy and confident. Which is great because she’s definitely the #2 sailor on our boat vacations. (I’m definitely the #4).

Here are a few shots of Soph in her Opti.

At the end of each session the girls got an award. Lauren was “Silent but Deadly” – appropriate in more ways than one. The first session Sophie was the top “Knot Tie-er,” and the second session she was “Fiesty & Fearless.”

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On May 15, we participated in our first regatta since 2019 with the Union League Yacht Club. Bonus: it was in Rock Hall! The Sharps have been working hard on the boat over the last year and it’s beautiful! As usual, the ULYC regatta was a low-key, family friendly affair with 5 boats. It was a beautiful day – although not a lot of wind – so the race was a slooooow one. Regardless, it was great to be out on the water.

  • Captain Lauren
  • Captain Sophia
  • The “Kind of Blue” crew!

After the race we got dressed up and headed to the after party, which was held outside at a beach club on the Chesapeake. It was the first time in well over a year we had the opportunity to get dressed up!

  • Finally fancy again!

It was such a great weekend – mostly because it just felt “normal.” Because most adults are vaccinated, no one wore masks at the party, and it was the first time we’ve been in a group that large without masks. This whole pandemic has put a different lens on what used to be every day things – like meeting new people, making small talk, catching up with acquaintances. It’s been 14 months since I’ve just “caught up” with someone I haven’t seen in a while. Nearly all interactions have been through Zoom, which is the opposite of informal, and I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed small talk. We’re still at baby steps to “normal,” whatever that is anymore. But it was a great weekend of baby steps!

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Our planned August vacation this year was supposed to be Alaska, but since that couldn’t happen, we decided to do another week on the boat on the Chesapeake. We didn’t travel quite as far as we did the first go round, but did stay in a new spot each night. This time we also met up with our friends the Townsends, who were supposed to be in St. Maarten the same week, but obviously couldn’t go. They chartered a boat out of Rock Hall and we met up 4 of our 7 nights out. At one point we also met up with a family we had met down in Tangier the last time we were on the boat. A dad and twin 7 year olds who have been on their boat nonstop since the spring.

We spent a few days with the Sharps in Rock Hall before heading out.

  • The girls with Mom Mom and Pop Pop on a beautiful night in Rock Hall

We always travel with sea kayaks, which are the best way to get around into little coves and shallow rivers. The Townsends up the game with inflatable standing paddle boards, which were pretty cool. Sophie in particular loved them and was really good getting around on it.

  • Sophie & Crystal
  • Bella paddle board dancing
  • A boat of 7 year olds
  • Sophie taking one of the twins out for a ride

The Townsends also brought along a huge pink blowup unicorn, which was of course a hit with all the girls.

5 girls getting ready to set sail on their pink flying unicorn
Dave and the girls using the seine.
Dinner with a view
Bella with an ice cream face in Havre de Grace. Ice cream was a destination in each place we stopped and this place was by far the best.

It was another amazing week on the boat!

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The second to last weekend in October was the Union League Yacht Club Fall Regatta in Annapolis. This was the first time racing the new boat. We had a small crew – just our family and Dave’s dad. We had a great time, despite a lack of strong wind and ended up taking 3rd in our class. The girls both had a chance to steer the boat, and it’s become a bit of tradition that Sophie steers us over the finish line in the ULYC regattas.

  • Sophie steering us over the finish line
  • Hamming it up no the bow
  • Another regatta – but pretty with the spinnakers up
  • Dave post-race, creatively steering

That evening was the party where we got our 3rd place plaque.

  • Fancy ladies
  • The fam all fancy
  • The girls with Poppop
  • Dave giving the obligatory speech
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We’ve passed the midway point of summer, and even though people are already lamenting the end of summer and talking about back to school, we’ve still got time!! We’ve been fitting as much as possible into our weekends to make them all feel like mini vacations.

A few weeks ago we did a weekend in Rock Hall with the Townsends. We had originally planned on spending the whole weekend on the new boat, but it was ungodly hot, so we stayed at the house and just went out for an afternoon sail/swim. It was a ton of fun, as it always is with that crew.

  • Bella & Lauren
  • Lauren
  • Dave and John doing what they do best
  • Bella, Sophie & Lauren at our favorite Rock Hall spot – the Harbor Shack
  • Lauren doing the hard work while I relaxed 😉

The next weekend we took the girls to their first real concert – Jojo Siwa. It was a glitter, rainbow, unicorn explosion and they loved every minute of it. We had bought the tickets for Sophie’s birthday, so she was allowed to bring a friend, so she choose to bring her friend Dior.

This past weekend Dave sailed in a regatta called The Governor’s Cup, which is a 70 mile overnight race from Annapolis to St. Mary’s College. The crew left Annapolis on Walt’s boat at 3pm on Friday and arrived at St. Mary’s at 1:30 on Saturday. They were completely exhausted and totally spent, but had a good time (I think) and ended up placing 2nd in their class! Here’s the crew, with and without kids, and their 2nd place trophy.

And finally, we’ve begun construction on our new kitchen!! We’ve been planning since January and demo finally started last week. Our contractor thinks it will take him a month, so in theory we’ll have a spanking new kitchen by the time school starts. Fingers crossed that actually happens! Here are shots after the first day of demo.

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We just got back from a week vacation on the Sharp’s sailboat in the Chesapeake Bay. The timing weatherwise was not great, as the first part of the week was also the first heatwave of the season – but we made the most of it. Outside of the weather we had a great, very relaxing time.

On Sunday night we met the Sharps in Turners Creek, where we did a boat/car exchange. They had brought the boat from Rock Hall and they drove back that night in our car. We grilled on the boat, did a lot of swimming, and tried to stay cool. There was a nice breeze all night, so it wasn’t that bad.

You could easily spot us on the river, as we were the only boat with a giant inflatable flamingo and unicorn. The girls spent most of their times playing on these, especially on the very hot days.

The next day we headed over to Fairlee Creek, about a 4 hour motor away. We did some more swimming, seining for creatures, kayaking, and playing on the beach.

Here’s a shot of Sophie and Lauren in the kayak headed over to the beach. Soph is getting pretty good with the kayak.

Both he girls took turns steering the boat on the trip. Here’s Lauren with a little oversight from Dave.

The Sharps met us again and we made dinner over an open fire on the beach, which is pretty unusual because most places don’t allow fires on the beach.

Here are the girls cooking their dinners over the open flames… Sophie with her not so campfire easy tofu 😉

But soon the smoke got to be too much for the girls and the dads took over…

That night, after the Sharps left, the wind died and the bugs descended. It was a pretty rough night for all. Definitely the low point of the trip.

On Tuesday, July 3rd, we headed over to Rock Hall for their Independence Day celebration, which they do the day before. We watched fireworks from the front yard of the Sharp’s house.

 

The next morning, on the 4th, Dave and I ran in the Flat Five, a 5 mile race throughout Rock Hall. There are only about 50 people who do it, and Dave and I both placed in our age class (first time ever)! I won my class and he came in third.

Here we are with our coveted prizes: a coffee mug for me and a beer cozy for Dave.

That day there was a parade than ran through town and then Dave (pop pop) had a gig with the house band at the Harbor Shack. It was pretty cool to hear him play.

Here’s a video of the band:

IMG_3728

We stayed for the first set, and then got back on the boat and motor/sailed 3 hours to Baltimore, where we docked and watched their 4th of July fireworks, which was pretty impressive.

On our way over to Baltimore we passed right by the buoy marketing the spot where Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner, which was pretty cool.

The next two days we spent in Baltimore. Dave and to work 1/2 days, so I took the kids around – to the National Aquarium, the Maryland Science Center, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and some shopping.

Lauren sitting on a “motorcycle” that was crafted from one piece of wood at Ripley’s, and the girls at the Inner Harbor.

We went to a famous dessert spot called Vaccaro’s where we got the biggest dessert I’ve ever seen. There was no way 4 of us could finish it.

It was called a snickers volcano.

On our last day we met the Townsend’s for lunch (who live just an hour away) before jumping back on the boat to Rock Hall.

 

 

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Over Mother’s Day weekend we went town to Baltimore for the Union League Yacht Club spring regatta. The Townsends joined us for the weekend and we all stayed on the Sharp’s sailboat. The race was on Saturday and we ended up getting first in our category. Dave and John are the only two who actually know how to sail, so Crystal, me and the kids were all just weight that needed to be shifted every so often.

Stolen Moments

The weight crew. Sophie, Lauren, Bella, Crystal and I moved side to side depending on the wind.

Dave and the girls with their award.

Making his acceptance “speech” with the littlest crew members.

The fam before the Saturday night party. If only we could get a pic with all four of us smiling…

Sunday was Mother’s Day and it rained all day, but fortunately we didn’t have to go back out on the boat.

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In October the Sharps left for their eight month adventure down the East Coast and into the Bahamas. We were lucky enough to meet them in December in Key West, and lucky again to meet up with them in The Exumas, Bahamas, for spring break. It was amazing! We leaving a cold, snowy Philly and it was warm AND beautiful!

SATURDAY

We left Saturday morning, flew to Nassau, and then took the sketchiest plane I’ve ever been on to Staniel Key. Only a 30 minute flight, thank God. There was electrical tape holding some of the lights up, and not all seat belts worked, I’m not kidding.

Here we are taking up almost half the plane. They had to seat us according to weight.

During a stop over at another island, Sophie jumped up to sit right behind the pilots.

Here’s a shot of Staniel Key from the plane. By far the most populated island we were on all week (in fact, the only populated island). Accessibly via sketchy plane and private yacht, making it an interesting mixture of locals, a handful of cruisers (like the Sharps), and very wealthy folks – half totally pretentious and half totally crusty.

Once we arrived in Staniel Key a woman who worked at the airport (which was a building the size of our living room) was nice enough to give us a ride on her golf cart to the yacht club, where the Sharp’s boat was.

Here are the girls in the back of the golf cart.

We met up with the Sharps at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, which had one of two restaurants on the island. It also had a large group of Nurse sharks that hung right in the water outside. They congregate there because it’s where the fisherman throw their scraps. They’re not aggressive, so the girls could go down and pet them.

 

SUNDAY

On Sunday we went snorkeling in Thunderball Grotto, made famous by the James Bond Thunerball movie. It was a cave that you had to hit right at slack tide, otherwise it was too hard to get into. Once inside it opened up to this amazing space that was lit from above by an opening. There were thousands of fish. It was pretty incredible. Sophie snorkeled with us, Lauren didn’t want to leave the boat.

Dave brought his go pro – here’s one of the videos.

After the Grotto we left Staniel and headed to Shroud Cay. It was about a four hour boat ride. We anchored and took the dinghy and kayaks to this beautiful beach, which you got to via a winding waterway through mangroves.

Here’s a shot of Kathy prepping to lower the anchor. It was pretty amazing – the entire week we hardly saw other people. Each anchorage had maybe two or three other boats.

On the kayak trip to the beach we saw a lot of sea turtles, including this guy.

Me in the kayak.

Sunday night’s sunset. They were all pretty amazing – it was hard to pick just one to post.

MONDAY – WEDNESDAY

On Monday we left for Warderick Wells Cay. We planned on only staying there one night, but the wind really picked up and it was just too dangerous to leave – which I am not complaining about because this place was amazing. I’ve certainly been “stuck” in worse places.

Here’s Warderick Wells.

The tides are pretty extreme there, and when it’s high tide there are some cool intertidal zones. Every day we went and checked out what came in.

Here are the girls exploring.

One of the sharks that we saw. He was pretty small – maybe two feet. He was just waiting there for his dinner to float in.

We did a few hikes at this Cay, including one up to Boo Boo Hill, which was named after the sound the waves make crashing into the cliff.

Here’s a view from the top of Boo Boo Hill. The only non-sailboat is ours.

At the top to Boo Boo Hill people leave the names of their boats on pieces of drift wood. Sophie made a sign for So Many Stars and Dave screwed it in to remain for years to come.

Sophie with her sign.

A family shot on the way up to the top of Boo Boo Hill.

Monday night we celebrated Dave’s 67th birthday. Kathy had bought a cake from a woman who also ran the laundromat in Staniel Cay.

The next day Dave, the girls and I took a hike to another side of the island. We followed a path someone had marked with yellow paint.

…and ended up at another amazing beach – totally secluded.

This one was called Barefoot Beach.

On the main beach there was this huge skeleton of a sperm whale that had died and washed up on the beach years ago. There was a sign that said it had died by ingesting plastic. Later in the week we ended up on a beach that had a lot of plastic that had washed up on it – so we all moved it up to past the waterline, reminding the girls about the whale.

On our last day at Warderick Wells we took the dinghy to another area of the island we hadn’t explored yet and spent the day on the beach. The only other people we saw was a Canadian couple and their granddaughter, who were hiking around.

 

On most beaches were piles of rocks. Dave and the girls help to build this one.

THURSDAY

The winds finally calmed down enough for us to travel on Thursday and we headed to Cambridge Cay, which was about a two hour boat ride. It was another beautiful anchorage, and when we arrived we were the only boat there, other than a catamaran, which was there permanently to collect mooring fees.

Our first adventure was to an amazing area called The Aquarium, known for some the the best snorkeling in The Exumas. Unfortunately the go pro had gone dead by this point, so there’s not video. Lauren did snorkel with us this time.

Next up, we went to a small island that the girls “claimed” with flags.

First the girls hammed it up…

 

And then planted their flags.

The next adventure was a hike out to some blowholes.

 

Dave, his dad, and I went out on Thursday to check it out.

FRIDAY

The next morning we did the blowhole hike again with the kids, Kathy, and Rosie the dog.

The landscape looked a little like Ireland.

Dave his dad and I also hiked to the top of a big hill not far from the blowholes.

Dave and Rosie at the top.

Me with the mooring in the background. A big yacht had joined us the evening before, so there ended up being three of us there.

Panoramic shot from the top of the hill.

After that we were off to see the swimming pigs.

Another two hour boat ride and we anchored right outside of Staniel Cay. We took the dinghy into see the famous pigs. To be honest, they were slightly terrifying. Some of them were huge, and they were very aggressive, coming right up to eat the food you hopefully brought for them (we brought carrots). Although other people were in the water, I wouldn’t let the girls get in, which they were not happy about. They did come right up to the boat though.

Lauren tossing the carrot because I was too afraid to let her feed him by hand. They were not very good at catching food in their mouths.

That night we had our last meal back at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club.

Not a great shot, but it’s one of the few group ones we got.

SATURDAY

All good vacations must come to and end. We took another golf cart back to the same sketchy plane and headed home.

One last shot of the group in front of the boat.

An amazing week!

 

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We took our week long vacation the second week in August and did a little New England tour. The Sharp’s brought their sailboat, Stolen Moments, up to Newport for the whole month of August, and we were happy to get to live on it for a week. We started in Newport and then went to Menemsha, Nantucket, Edgartown (Martha’s Vineyard), Cuttyhunk, and then back to Newport. Lydia also came with us. This was only her second time on a boat, and certainly the longest. She did great – feeling seasick only a few times (eek!).

Here’s a shot of Menemsha. It’s a very small, picturesque fishing village where the moving Jaws was filmed. It consisted of just a main street with some shops, one restaurant, and one ice-cream place. Really all that we needed.
Dave and the girls caught this monster fish off the back of the boat. If we were going slow enough we put out a fishing rod with some bait to see what we could get. Unfortunately it was a blue fish, which taste disgusting, so we threw it back (no so unfortunate for the fish I guess). 

I took every opportunity to do what I like to do most on the boat – drink wine and read. I read a book called The Vanishing Year, which was a thriller and so good! 

There was only one day of bad weather (where both girls got seasick). Unfortunately it was our longest day on the water, traveling from Menemsha to Nantucket. I think Lydia might have been regretting her decision to come on this vacation at this point. 
Once we got to Nantucket it was gorgeous. Here is Dave and the girls in front of the lighthouse that welcomes you into the harbor. Nantucket was the only spot that we paid for a dock slip. The rest of the time we were on moorings out in the water. We took the opportunity to use their showers and laundry.

Right off the beach in Edgartown the girls caught little puffer fish in their nets. They were so tiny, and when you picked them up they puffed right up – providing hours of entertainment. 

Family shot on the lookout in Edgartown, which was my favorite spot of all the places we visited. We were actually there a few years ago, when I was pregnant with Lauren and Sophie was just 2 1/2. 

Our last stop before heading back to Newport was Cuttyhunk – a little island with less than 100 residents. This is a shot of the mooring we stayed in from a hill on the top of the island. This was also the second time that we’ve been there. It’s such a unique place – a one room school house for all children who live on the island, one little “grocery” store, an ice-cream stand (of course), and of course ample opportunity to eat oysters and lobster. 
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