Sailing!

I actually went sailing! For real. In a big boat (though I kind of agree to a point with the folks who say real sailing is done in dinghies - just the fundamentals and physics, less teamwork and mechanical advantage), in the real ocean!

Our sail the first day started with this little 24 hour jaunt:

Almost out of sight of land!

 Though it really started like this:

Memorial day traffic on narrow ICW canals. :|

 And when dawn broke while we were sailing (though the wind had gone to just about zero):

I waited to turn on the engine so I could see sunrise in the quiet

 I looked like this (Am I not looking at the camera? My teeth kind of look funny, huh?):

I got to wear my big boy jacket! It's been so long...

 And when we finished in Oriental, roughly 36 hours after we started, I looked like this:

Can't get Yuengling in CO! I categorize it like Killians - the best cheap beer

 The next day we figured out the cruising spinnaker, and asymmetrical rig in a dousing sock, that neither of us had ever used anything like before:

It worked out pretty well.

 Then today we did a lot more motoring through canals and into headwinds, which sucked. Fortunately our day wasn't nearly as bad as these peoples':

See the wrecks off on the left? And the funny sign?

 This is what the wrecks look like on the chart. 7 of them in that little oxbow! What in the hell were they all thinking?

This is how most of our navigation has been done

 And we ended by arriving in Norfolk, a very busy industrial shipping port. Getting in through all the bridges is a trick. Some open only every hour, some every half hour, some don't open during rush hour, some are normally open, most want you to call them on the radio to ask for an opening, but some of the scheduled ones don't listen and/or respond when you call. And there are barges, being pushed by tugs, driven by guys who can't seem to get a sentence out and only at the last moment, in great panic, can he articulate himself enough to say what he wants and we try not to get run over.

The barge came through this bridge at us

 This bridge was much easier to get through:

This is a swing bridge. It swings open

This is a bascule bridge. It has a weight on one side, and the whole thing rotates up around that weight

 And we parked in Norfolk (Portsmouth, actually). That's our cat on the left. This is a free dock for transients such as ourselves. Pretty nice! And right in the middle of town, easy to walk to lots of cool stuff. I could spend some time here checking things out.

But first I had a beer. It was hot!

 And this is the view from the front of the boat this afternoon.

Though now we are in a thunderstorm. And high tide has flooded the dock.