The past week or so has been nothing but boats! The picture at left was taken during the Solomons Waterman's Festival last weekend. The boat in the picture just left a slip at the lower left, applied full (800+hp) reverse and will be doing about 20kts as he goes between the pilings on the left then stop instantly while he throws four dock lines on the pilings, all in 18 SECONDS from the start. We watched boats of various sizes up to 65' doing this for hours last Saturday and it was really a hoot. In the future we may do our docking only after dark!
Mid week the boats began arriving for Trawler Fest just across the creek from our slip. More than 50 trawlers ranging from 27' to 70' were on display and several tents with boat paraphernalia and services. The prices would knock your socks off and we were pleased to come home convinced that our Charis had as nice and in some cases better features than many the "real boats" in our size range.
This week we are driving up to Port Deposit, Md at the head end of the bay to celebrate Larry's birthday at the town where he was born and where he boated with his father as a youth. Joan reserved a room in a neat old B&B and it should be a feast of remembrances
Beyond that, plans are in motion to haul the boat out of the water during the last week in Oct. at Washburns Yard across the creek and cover it with shrink wrap to protect it for the winter. If all goes well we will be headed home to Fl around 5 Nov.
Beginning with a leisurely 3 day cruise up the Potomac River last week, Charis and crew visited Washington, D.C. for a delightfully relaxed 5 days of touring and sightseeing. We anchored in the Washington Channel almost in the shadow of the Washington monument. For $15 per day we had full access to the numerous amenities of the Capitol Yacht Club, just a 10 minute walk to the Metro subway station in L'Enfant Plaza mall. The highlight was a fabulous morning of touring all of the monuments on the mall on our bikes stopping to touch and feel each in a rare quiet and peaceful manner. In bright sun with few others around every moment was filled with sights and sounds of our history creating a virtual sensory overload. We rode well over 7 miles around the mall, the White House grounds and the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, ending with a great hamburger at the golf course club house on Haynes Point. Another highlight was a morning spent with our friends Laura and Jason at an Art Festival in Old Town Alexandria. More than 200 vendors displayed mostly very high quality art and crafts in the antique setting of King street in Old Town. The 2 day voyage back down the Potomac was broken by anchoring in a scenic small basin behind the village of Cobb Island. Then home to our slip in the Solomons We did have a bit of a thrill as sizable swell rolling up the bay left over from tropical storm Gabriel combined with 20k local winds to create a quite sporty ride as we rounded Point Lookout entering the bay from the Potomac. The boat did very well while the crew developed acute white knuckle syndrome.
In the Year 2000 Joan and Larry began a two year project to build a cruising trawler to complete their cruising dreams begun in the 1980"s. Six years later "Charis was completed and the cruising has begun. This blog is provided so that we may share our dreams and experiences with family and friends as we continue this long planned adventure. Last year we cruised from FWB to the Chesapeake Bay and this year we are enroute to in Canada. We are having the time of our lives enjoying God's creation.
Charis is 42' built in 1974 as a working lobster boat designed by Royal Lowell and built by Bruno-Stillman. After an unknown career we found her totally gutted in Panama City Fl in Nov 2000 and fell in love with her classic lines. What was planned to be a 2 year project to construct a modest pilothouse design got out of hand and six years later after 18000+ man hours she floats again as a quite tidy little coastal cruiser with ample creature features and a delightful interior crafted from 300 board feet of teak-hand sanded four times by Joan. Along the way she soaked up some 300 gallons of fiberglass resin, hundreds of yards of fiberglass cloth, several truckloads of plywood and 12000 stainless steel screws. She handles like a dream and is well found to begin fulfilling phase II of our cruising dreams.
