Two weeks ago a B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator and a P-51 Mustang visited Chesterfield County airport for the weekend. My youngest boy and I went out that Friday to tour the planes. He has been playing the video game War Thunder and recently had achieved a level that allowed him to fly a B-17. The look on his face as he climbed in and out of the real thing was priceless. He also was a walking encyclopedia of B-17 specs. We took loads of photos. The Nine-O-Nine was built at the end of the war in Europe, 1945. She flew 140 missions and was credited with shooting down 3 German planes.
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| Nose art and victories. |
Regretfully, the B-24 was absent after a necessary landing in Stafford to attend to an engine problem. However, we found out that the aircraft were to depart that Monday morning, so we grabbed a thermos of hot chocolate and headed back to the airfield that morning. By luck a simple request got my son a tour of the late arriving B-24.
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| B-24 |
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| P-51 |
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| 17, 24 and 51 |
A Stitch In Time … Saves The Varnish
I’m sure as UNA ages her owner will favor more paint over varnish, but for now, he can’t “let her go”. One area of constant wear on the finish has been between the tiller extension and gunwale. Though the extension has a pronounced “hump” to clear the gunwale and smooth edges, it has regularly sawed off the rail’s finish. Just over an hour’s worth of work and $7 of scrap leather hopefully fixes the problem. For oar leathers, diamond hole chisels were purchased. Reused here, a long 30″ strip of suede was punched to be sewn onto the tiller.
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| chisel and scrap demo. |
The strip width is 1/8″ shy of wrapping around the tiller. This allows one to draw the leather tight around the stick. Once punched, the leather was soaked in warm water for 10 minutes. Then the strip was dabbed dry and stitched with a double strand of waxed twine onto the tiller. Initially the stitches were on top of the stick. I moved them to the side before the leather dried too much. Looks better I think.
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| tiller extension with leather |
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| close up |
This should solve that problem. Now on to solving the slick floors with some anti-skid.
Pamlico Pleasures
Katman and Little T met us in Oriental, NC ‘s public ramp next to the Route 55 bridge on Midyette Ave. About a dozen parked trailers indicates it is heavily used by fishermen in the area. This ramp is concrete and flanked by two nice floating piers. For the next three days, the winds are predicted to be out of the NE, shifting more easterly on the third day. Our goal, 40 miles away as the crow flies, was Ocracoke Island. That puts the wind on the nose outward bound. Around 10:30 we were rigged and under way.
The wind was crisp at 10 kts with gusts to 12-15. The NE direction was steady and only a few headers made tacking necessary with the inevitable Neuse River shoreline. It is a wide river with as much as a 5 mile girth in places. Once at the mouth, the wind dropped out. We anchored behind Swan Island on the north shore for the night. The evening gave a wonderful sunset while rafting and brilliant stars once we set tents for the night.
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| Una and Little T |
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| At Swan Island |
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| Katman (aka KMac) |
At some point around midnight a motor boat roars into the anchorage which is protected by 1 foot shoaling at both ends of the island. I grabbed the flashlight, ready to point us out when the speeding boat was stopped as they dug up the bottom. Some choice country words were heard as the boat then slowly proceeded t the back of the small bay. They were out for the fish and could be heard having success as they came back rowing along the far shore. The mosquitoes were also out all night and only a towel over the head kept them at bay.
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| Skipjack “Wilma Lee” |
Named the Wilma Lee, she is over 70 years old, donated to Ocracoke Alive, Inc. ( a non-profit), and is for hire to sail. She happens to be one of only 32 skipjacks left afloat out of a fleet of once 800. More of her history can be read here.
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| Morning motoring |
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| heron |
After a final roll around the harbor, we head out under full sail. Winds are 10 kts from the east.
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| Marsh Cat and Cedar Island ferry. |
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| Oriental |
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| UNA at anchor. |
Oriental to Ocracoke and Back
Over 95 miles of moving on. This is actually the return run.
Our Modified Eastport Pram "Gigi" Maidens
Was a beautiful morning on the East River. Took Gigi out on her first sail and row.
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| A good fit. |
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| First taste of water. |
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| Dream house. |
Eastport/Nutshell Pram Finish
After hanging in the shed for months while the kayak took center stage, the final coats of varnish are going on our pram Gigi. She is decidedly an Eastport Pram in hull form and sail, but in all other respects she’s influenced by the Nutshell pram by Joel White. Ultimately she will likely be 6-8 pounds heavier. I hope to take some pics of her in the backyard rigged, or better yet, sitting atop the water soon. Before Luna was in the picture, the dinghy was to be painted the sky blue used on Una. Now that her role will be mostly as a tender to Luna, she is painted “white” to match Luna with Petit Easypoxy and her inside is the tinted “blue” of Una’s interior.
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| Rudder, thwarts, tiller and dagger board drying. |
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| Transom view. Brass on rub strakes and keel. Dagger board is offset to port. |
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| Running out of room. |
As much as can be said of RIB’s (rigid inflatable boats), there simply is no comparison to the rowing and sailing this little dinghy will be capable of doing. After a good day of cruising to a nice anchorage, sometimes a sunset sail further up the same creek can be a whole other perspective.
More detail shots as she is rigged or splashed later this week. Ciao!
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware … Ducker
As the summer winds down, the days have been quite pleasant here in Virginia of late. So why go to Maryland? Because there in St. Michaels you can find a Delaware Ducker. A fairly rare bird, there are actually several at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. One you may even rent by the hour for $30. On Fridays you may get and extra hour for the same ticket. So, we went for a 2 hour cruise.
But to back up, long before I became a canoe stern addict, I had seen Thomas Eakins’ painting, “Starting Out After Rail”. I half thought the boat was fictitious. However, Eakins had made her look so right that I dreamed maybe such a boat existed.
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| Starting Out After Rail |
Also, on previous visits to CBMM over the years, I’d often pause to stare at a simple moss colored skiff tucked under a shed. Seemingly cast off almost, I half thought they were on their way out or one step from a bonfire.
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| elegant deck beam |
Only recently did the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit when I had saw photos of a boat built by Dan Sutherland at the Museum. Investigation revealed these craft to be versions of the Delaware Ducker.
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| Dan’s boat |
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| Forest and Stream: April 21, 1887 |
Much more history and detail are written by Ben Fuller in WoodenBoat Issue 48 and in their Small Boats issue 2010. The better documented models are the Greenbriar and York. The latter has a tad more stability in a slight turn to the bilge. I sailed the former. On with the show. After sorting out the rig’s tangled lines, we shoved off in light breeze. The boat was quick to move.
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| Selena II. A large Crosby design catboat. |
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| the museum’s Hooper Straight Light and Skipjack |
Sitting in the aft portion of the cockpit I was surprised at how balanced the boat was. Both sail and board are way forward. The steering was quite easy on all points. After 1.5 hrs we returned to the pier, left the rig, and went rowing. Again, the boat moved almost effortlessly. She is the best boat I’ve rowed really.
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| the 1888 Lawley designed 30′ cutter “Elf” |
Back at the pier I took detail photos of the skiff.
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| stern |
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| floors and sheet block |
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| in the bow |
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| rudder and tiller |
Wanting to beat the traffic home, I was quickly on the road, but not before checking out “Greenbriar”. Hanging in the shop rafters, I got a few pics of her up close.
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| Greenbriar |
The 3.5 hr trip home was well worth the visit. Wouldn’t this be a great winter project?
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| It was a great day. Ducker on the left. |
Melonseed Marginalia
Some of the best rewards from “messing about in boats” are the people one meets that become friends. One guy I’ve met along the way started from a long chain of email correspondences over the Melonseed skiff, a late 19th century New Jersey gunning boat. This fellow had built 2 simultaneously in his basement. They are pieces of furniture as the saying goes. A high standard for sure, but Barry isn’t afraid to use his works of art. He and I got to share each others boats a few weeks ago. His write up of our sail and his blog are here. Enjoy!
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| Barry and his Melonseed “Aeon”. |
Mobjack, Ware, East
Yesterday was fantastic. My oldest boy is just back from working at a dude ranch this summer, and like music to my ears, he asked to go sailing. I couldn’t think of a better idea. He got no protest from this old sailor. We went and had one of those rare August days, easy temps, good breeze, and a lunch in the cooler. Darn near perfect.
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| Cowboy |
We’re still struggling with getting Luna out of her berth when driving NE winds force her back in. This go-round we used our small 2hp Honda thinking its ability to swivel 180 degrees would provide reversing action and drag us out of the slip. Initially successful, the progress degraded as the wind won by grabbing the stern. We had no real steerage. So, like last outing we docked on the outer berth, but this time with jib and jigger we slipped to weather past a crumbling wharf and into the clear.
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| “Dory”: a Cape Dory 28 |
Aside from a marina mate, “Dory”, there were no boats out there. With winds 12-15 kts we rushed out of East River on a run, jibed and sailed to port out past New Point. There it got windy (18-20 kts) and lumpy quick. The standing NE wind bucked outgoing tide producing short, quick 6′ seas. Reefing the main settled things down. Dropping the main altogether may have been a better decision. After 20 minutes of taking our lumps, we turned back into Mobjack and reached far up into the Ware River. Pretty. I look forward to seeing this river in the Fall.
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| siesta |
As we turned, the crew was quick to catch up on shut eye.
The reach was strong across Mobjack into Ware River.
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| wet decks |
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| sweet rig |
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| slicing through |
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| colorful |
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| my good buddy |
The day ended with a beat back up the East River watching the sunset. As I said, a fantastic day.
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| no complaints. |
Patient Lady
One evening in Maine at the Small Reach Regatta, I got the opportunity to introduce my girl to some of the “riff-raff”. Only after walking away from some introductions did I hear my buddy Mike say, “There goes a patient lady”. I laughed, and then, I didn’t. What was he implying? I think I know. I’m blessed.
More recently, over the past10 days I’d been watching for a weather window and saw predictions for a day that seemed ideal for August in Virginia. 82 degrees, sunny with NE winds at 5-10 mph. I wanted things to be as perfect as they could to introduce my number 1 girl to girl number 2. As luck would have it, the winds were virtually non existent, but the acquaintance was made and I think a friendship struck. Guess they’ll start trading tales?
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| my cowgirl and Luna. |
Our actual moments of sailing were fleeting. Several porpoise entertained us as we drifted up river. They were chasing bait fish along our way. For the most part, it was a flat day, but … on a boat … no harm.
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| Dwindling breeze |
To be enjoyed, the outing demanded patience. You had to pause and take in the lovely view. Luna made the best out of the wisps of air. She continually impresses. Like Una, her hull is so easily driven. And just like a dinghy, Luna is small enough that shifting our bodies to leeward helps shape the sails. That’s all she needed. She loves to sail.
Schedules intruded calling us back home mid afternoon. No sooner had we tied to the dock, the breeze began to fill in. Still, all in all it was a pleasant afternoon. I’m glad the girls met. As always, it’s tough to leave either.
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| Office view toward Mobjack Bay. |
Lingering Lunacy 