Happy Halloween!

Our little monsters had a blast tonight! They were positively spoiled by our dock neighbors on Renaissance Lady, Nana Maria, and Libre Vie, then filled their buckets in under an hour in the town of North Beach. We may have to host a party soon to offload some of this candy!



Spiderman and the Princess Fairy



More changes

For a nice, calm autumn, we sure do have a whole lot going on! Yesterday we got measured for a custom mattress and our new bed should be here in about 3 weeks! We went with the super froo-froo latex pillow-top job. Should be nice! We also turned in the old batteries and picked up our new barometer (LOVE the lifetime warranty from Weems & Plath!). As if that wasn't enough we FINALLY received word from Beneteau that the radar arch we ordered forever ago has shipped. And if the weather holds our radar will be installed tomorrow. It's not all good news, though. Last night we had some gusty winds and Captain Bandana's body separated from his skull, crashing to the deck. His body is now lounging in the cockpit while his head remains dangling from the yardarm! :)

Hiatus

While we had been looking forward to October for some time out on the water, life had other plans. Right before the boat show we celebrated the marriage of our dear friend Jesse. That week we learned of an ailing family member, and this weekend we laid her to rest. Through all of this we have been enjoying a good deal of family time with the extended family, and it has been great to celebrate a wonderful woman's life and legacy.

While we've been off the water we have made some key improvements to the boat. For starters, skull lights and "boo" stickers are up, and a skeleton dangles from the port yardarm. We've also offloaded some of the summer clothes in favor of warmer garb. We even have new Fagor nesting pans on order so that we may stop ingesting flakes of Teflon from the old T-fals. But the biggest improvement came today, compliments of the Captain's hard work, in the form of new batteries! Now we can enjoy a weekend on the hook with the heat on without draining the bank. I can't wait to get out on the water this weekend and try it out!

"Captain Bandana" swinging from the yardarm.

Look at all that power!

US Sailboat Show

With the little girl in school today, Trent joined us for a day of gawking at the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis. The lusting began early, with enticement awaiting us in the very first tent. Custom mattresses, folding propellers, shiny new dinghies, and the possibility of getting our barometer repaired all looked great to us! But who were we kidding? We were there to look at boats!

We went straight for the Lagoons and much to my surprise I was not all that impressed. The interior just wasn't the quality I was expecting. The next stop at Fountaine Pajot panned out quite a bit better. We checked out both the Lipari 41 and the Orana 44, but actually preferred the smaller Lipari in that line. After a bite to eat we checked out the Beneteaus and were treated to a demo of the dock-and-go system--wow! The boats were nice, but we still love ours the most! Next up were the Leopards...39, 44, and 46. I really liked the 39, but then we went on the 44 and I was completely smitten! I LOVE the forward cockpit, even if it does rob a little of the seating room from the saloon, and the separate heads for the guest cabins were a nice touch. After that the 46 didn't really add much for me. I mean all the cats had an impressive amount of room and storage (and 3-burner stoves!) over our boat, but a few really stood out for us.

So, the official lust list from the show is:
1. Leopard 44 catamaran
2. Fountaine Pajot Lipari 41 catamaran
3. Leopard 39 catamaran
4. Walker Bay Genesis FTL dinghy
5. Handcraft custom mattress
6. Flexofold folding propeller
7. and many more!

That's it for this year!

Fall Sailing

 Yesterday, after a tough week of work, we got underway, destination unknown!  We headed north, thinking we might make our way towards Baltimore.  We were rolling under full sail!  As the winds started gusting with a squall line, we had to reef.  Of course I was in the middle of making dinner (make-your-own pizza) and burned my hand a few times moving pizzas around.  While the speed was great, the other benefit of the squall was a great show of rainbows...

 

With the sun setting we headed into Aberdeen Creek for the night.  Seemed like a nice little cove, but as the sun rose this morning we realized it was a very nice spot!  The houses and boats in here are unbelievable, and it's really peaceful.  It was a chilly morning, so we donned hats and tried out the fishing.  After a really lazy morning and a look at the winds, we decided to just stay put.  It seemed like a great day for fishing, movies, drawing, and relaxing, and it was!