sailing

October 24, 2021

Happy 96th Birthday, Nana!

To celebrate her 96th birthday, Nana rented a beautiful waterfront house in Rock Hall (how convenient!) for the whole family. Between our house and the rented house we were able to have the whole group together. Some people were there for a whole week, and others just the weekend. We didn’t want to take the kids out of school (they’re far enough behind as it is), so we were part of the weekend crew.

It was a beautiful fall weekend and we spent a lot of it outside.

Lauren and Ari got a lot of time to play and love each other. The time together is never long enough for those two.

The great-grandkids also got in some good Gigi time.

We had a big Italian birthday dinner on Saturday night and I made an apple bourbon cake for dinner. It was a very happy and festive celebration!

We also got in some sailing. Dave captained two crews. On Saturday there was wind and they were able to do some sailing. Doug, Vicki, Carly, Chris, Julia, Maithili, Dad and Sophie went on that trip. And on Sunday there was little wind, but it was still beautiful, so Mom, Becky, Dan, Maithili, me and all the kids went. It was Ari’s first time on a boat and at first she was nervous, but eventually got comfortable, and event went up to the bow to sit with Sophie for a bit. We toured around the harbor and enjoyed some wine and snacks. It was lovely.

On Saturday right before the birthday dinner there was a beautiful rainbow that spanned the entire back of the house. Very fitting.

Happy 96th Birthday, Nana!!

September 5, 2021

One Last Summer Hurrah!

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.

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!

July 31, 2021

Sailing Camp

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.”

August 21, 2020

Chesapeake Vacation, Part II

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.

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

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!

October 9, 2019

ULYC Fall Regatta 2019

sailing

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

September 20, 2019

Happy 40th, Dave!

Last weekend we celebrated Dave’s 40th birthday by spending a weekend in Rock Hall with a few friends. John, Crystal, and Bella came up from DC along with Joe, and Rebecca, John, Ava, and Emma came from Philly, along with Walt. We had a mini raft-up with our boat and Walt’s boat. There was no wind, so we motored right to our favorite spot in Swan Creek and spent the afternoon swimming and grilling. The weather was perfect!

August 5, 2019

Summer Fun and Other Updates

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.

April 2, 2018

Bahamas Vacation

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.