Weekend Update...

No boat trip this weekend due to weather. Did home stuff cleaning laundry etc. Got most of the parts for the big battery swap on the boat. Power meters, new cables and terminal strips came in. I have to pick up the batteries on Tuesday. It'll be a couple of weeks until I can put them in the boat. Next weekend, Marj and Roy part deux. They'll come down next Saturday and we'll figure where we'll go then. This week at work front line support...... Arrrrugh!

Five Oh... take two

We went to Maria's on Summit last night to celebrate Meg Otte turning the big 50. It was very nice with lots of friends to wish her well. Drinks were flowing and dinner was great, the tiramisu birthday cake was super. Before too long it was over. Two 50 year birthdays wow I'm getting tired.... someone pass me the Geritol!

BTW, Meg....ask Marilyn about the shark!

Here to the big FIVE OH

This week is rich with people with people turning the big 50. Last night we roasted Brian Bannach. There was a big party at the Phoenix Sport Club for him. A bunch of his old friends related embarassing stories and had many laughs. Tonight we celebrate Meg Otte's big step over the line of the 40's.

Hey guys, remember to ask for the senior discounts!

Yuck!!! Broken Kitchen Disposal

Well vacation's officially over. Our disposal ground up it's last onion skin and puked under the sink. I made the obligatory trips to Lowe's and picked out a new one. It fought me tooth and nail but I put it in it's place under the sink.

Now for the thing that frosts me.... we have a kitchen guy coming over in a week or two. The thing just could not hold on for a few more weeks.

pictures from vacation....

Here is the link to the photo album

Back in Rock Hall

After a stormy night. We woke up in the creek. It was very peaceful. We watched the birds. Ospery, herons, egrets all were showing us their morning routine. We broke anchor and headed for home. We made it to our dock a few hours before the rain hit again. Enough time to hit the pool.

We'll finish cleaning the boat tomorrow.


This message expertly written with all thumbs on my mobile device.
--Rico Paolino

Tilghman creek

We made the trip across the bay. Small craft advisory out 20mph wind and 2 foot seas. The crossing was rough but we did it safely. In tilghman creek below st micheals,md. We are anchored in the creek for the night. There should be a line of t storms passing. That may block out the sunset. Sunsets in this creek are spectacular. We may set up the bbq for dinner. Just resting now waiting for the storms to pass.

This message expertly written with all thumbs on my mobile device.
--Rico Paolino

We went to Deale....

... and all I got was.... Not much. Herrington Marina North is one of the nicest marina you'll ever go to. It is a resort class facility. Spotless restrooms give Disney a run for their money, a great pool, spa, fitness center with new equipment, nice staff. But all the other places that we went to had a little village in walking distance. This place .... bupkiss, nada,nothing. Deale has a post office, harware store, coffee place, and pizza joint..... all closed at 5 pm. Nothin' to see folks here.... move on..... What make me steamed is that we walked there in 95 degree heat and could not get as much as a cold drink anywhere. I looked like someone dumped a bucket of water on me, Marilyn was getting a little funny with the heat and the walking. We came back cooled off and then went out to dinner.

Crossing the bay will be a little tricky tomorrow. We have to get a 6am start to beat a storm from coming thru.

Day Five.

We stayed on the boat last night for dinner because of the thunderstorms. They gave us a great sky show. A pink sunset capped off the night. Early start this morning before 8am. Saw the US Coast Guard buoy tender James Rankin at the mouth of the Back Creek. On the Pax river we saw pelicans floating on the water. The James Rankin passed us heading north as we got out to the bay. We passed the El Paso LNG terminal with the voice of the all powerful OZ warning us not to get close or suffer the consequences. The Calvert Cliffs were spectacular. The only other boat we saw was a large car transporter. The weather was pretty smooth even though they were calling for storms. It's about 95 now and we have docked near Deale,Md. Going to the pool in as soon as I finish this.

Where's Rico ....

.... and what the heck is he doing? Marie Kenney, a friend from high school and on facebook, asked where I am. Marilyn and I are on vacation sailing on the Middle Cheasapeake Bay on our 36 foot Catalina sailboat the "Imagination" ( yes its a real boat! ) . We are currently in the Solomons, Maryland, it is on the western shore of the Cheasapeake and it is a center for all kinds of recreational boating. There are hundredes of boats here both sail and motor. If you go to the blog ricopaolino.blogspot.com in the left corner you will find a spot on google maps where I update where we are. A little more info on the places we have been. Oxford is a historic town on the Eastern shore of the Cheasapeake. Very sleepy town, no shopping or many other things, but get a night at a B&B there and rent a bike and just relax and have dinner it's kind of a place. Knapps Narrows ( Tilghman Island ) is a small village that is still a working fishing village. Most of the crabs you get on the Cheasapeake are caught there. You can hire out on a crab boat for a day or charter a boat for day of stripped bass fishing. But it one of the places that you can still see how they worked the bay as in days of old.

P.S. Marie sorry I could not answer on facebook. I am improvising an internet connection on my phone on the boat today.

Solomons

Today we stayed in the Solomons. We walked downtown which has a promenade over the Patuxent river. We sighted groups of dinner plate sized sting rays swimming close to the shore. The town was as sleepy as last September. The Calvert maritime museum was good as always. They had info on the rays. They are native to the bay. I didn't know that!

We then did some boat stuff. Fueling up as fuel here is 2.39 a gallon. The boat a/c froze up I cleaned the sea strainer for the a/c and found a jellyfish clogging it. It's working OK now. Pool time soon! Tomorrow sail to Herring bay.

This message expertly written with all thumbs on my mobile device.
--Rico Paolino

Day three

Last night I made boat pizza for dinner. This capped off a great day of sight seeing and sailing and soaking in pools in the Chesapeake. We left Oxford early this morning . The slip we were in was a tight fit. We could not back the boat out and turn. We bounced off some pilings and managed not to hit any other boats. A local crabber almost hit us as he was not watching what he was doing, neither were we! We started 5 the hour run to the Solomons. Man it is a very big bay! We were almost alone on the water. At some point I could not see the other side and the side we came from was hazy. We saw the Calvert cliffs near cove point which are Marilyn's favorites. The Cove point light is picturesque. We finally docked at Spring Cove in the Solomons....and had a well deserved soak in the pool.

Day Two

Yesterday we walked around Knapps Narrows. We saw the Skipjack Catherine being refitted. She was built in 1901. Two guys were repairing and painting. They were going to have an expert from the St Micheals Maritime Museum to caulk the bottom. ( Caulking is cotton the is forced between the boards at the bottom to seal it from the sea ) They were getting the boat ready to put it back into service for oystering. In the channel there were a few Buy boats in disrepair and many working crabbers and small fishing boats. After leaving Knapps we saw an other skipjack in full sail. There was no wind in the Choptank river. We kept the motor on low and crept into Oxford. We passed the Oxford ferry as it was making it to the other side of Tred Avon. We docked in Mears Marina. Thier pool was very welcoming as it was getting very humid and hot. Today across the Cheasapeake to the Solomons.

Day one

We shoved off around 10 am from rock hall. Headed south toward kent narrows. Heavy current in the channel. Took on fuel in the narrows. Headed south again with motor. No wind for sail. Very hot. Almost ran aground rounding parsons island. Docked in kapps narrows, tilghman marina. Nice pool! Had dinner and cocktails watching sunset. Oxford,md tomorrow.

This message expertly written with all thumbs on my mobile device.
--Rico Paolino

Vacation day 1

Day one got off to a late start. Marilyn is still fretting about work stuff. They have to deal with by them selves. We arrived at the boat and Al our next door neighbor was having trouble getting his engine started. We unloaded the car and stuffed things in the boat and I tried to help him out. We needed to bleed the diesel line for the engine and I could not find the hand pump for the fuel. Dave finally found it and we got Al running. We then had lunch on our boat in the air conditioning. We still need to fill the fresh water tanks and it's too hot now. We are going to get a start tomorrow morning.

Chesapeake cruise

Next week we are on vacation and are taking the good vessel Imagination to points on the mid Chesapeake. Looks like or destinations are working out to be the following:

Day1 ) Tilghman Creek
Day2) Oxford
Day3) Hudson Creek
Day4 and 5 ) Solomons
Day6) Dun Cove
Day7) Rhode River

Now this may change due to weather and how we feel. But this is looking doable.

Yikes it's hot!

Broad creek was nice last night. A gentle breeze was blowing about 7 this morning. But the sun was hot. We got a nice sail out on the Magothy river. The diesel started just fine thanks to the solar panels. We drained the battery last night with the fans. Tying up was a sweaty experience. I'm hoping that next week the sun is not this strong.

After cleaning up the boat and showering the ride back was nice. I was exhausted. I had Marilyn drive so I could sleep. We fueled up at home and Marilyn got 32 mpg. To be fair she drove around all week before we left. ( but I still beat her! Not a competition..... Just saying! )

At anchor in the Magothy

We are at anchor in the magothy. We are trying broad creek instead of staying near gibson island.

It a little smaller but there are less people. It's starting to feel hot it's 91. Hoping for a cool breeze but we have the genset for a/c if we need it.

This message expertly written with all thumbs on my mobile device.
--Rico Paolino

Napoleon exhibit

The Napoleon exhibit was great . Many artifacts and letters and the waterloo long johns. It's a good time and worth going to. They have after 5 specials for $5. Much better than the normal $17.50 admission. Down at the National Constitution Center.

Afterwords we had dinner at Charles Plaza. Another great healthy meal, and he is always glad to see us.


Tomorrow down to the boat.... if I can get thru the day!

That Corsican!

This afternoon we are going to see the Napoleon exhibit at the National Constitution Center. Risa and Jeff are joining us at the museum. I think Marilyn wants to see Josephine's hair. The exhibits are swords, letters, hats and a pair of Waterloo underwear.

We'll have dinner and may go to Naked Chocolate ... to eat some cake!

More Car stuff.

I got the new GPS for my new car. I have ordered a special tool to loosen the passenger seat to install the mount for it. It is a lot better than the one in the Acura but the Acura's gps was built in and bigger. Marilyn seem to be able to input address into this one. It's not hard to use like the first gps that we got.

I fixed Marilyn's IPod mount in her car. Now that the satellite radio subscription is done, she would like to have some other music in the car.

Marilyn's car is also in for inspection. Bad news, she need four new tires. Yikes!

We are going to take the Civic down to the boat this weekend to see what the gas mileage is using Fuelly. ( look in the right hand column for out mpg standings! )

We have a plan for our vacation. We are going to the Solomons again. We'll post up our full itinerary later. No hurricanes this year I hope!

Back in Rock Hall

We came down to Rock Hall this morning. The new car was working great. Looks like we got 41mpg according to the computer. In the right hand columm of the blog has a Fuelly badge. It will keep our mpg up to date as we fill up. We're staying at the dock this weekend. I'm not feeling myself this weekend. Must be stress as I just did a week of customer support!

I got the SeaClear chart plotter working well now. This will keep track of our position and keep our track on the computer. I maybe able to make maps and show you where we are from time to time.