Breeze On

I like to be organized. I like to put things where they belong so I don't have to spend time looking for them. (I know what you are thinking...can you spell OCD?) Being organized is a bit of a challenge on a boat since the storage spaces are limited and often odd-shaped. Before we started sailing Breeze On I took measurements of all of the storage areas and purchased some storage units that would fit. I found that my things still weren't very organized because they would shift when we sailed. I recently had the thought that I could custom make my own flexible storage units to fit the odd shaped spaces on our boat. I found some instructions on Pinterest to make my own vinyl boxes . I used lightweight vinyl that I purchased from Joanne Fabrics, measured my storage spaces and the I wanted to store. I cut the pieces of vinyl and sewed them together. I was happy with the results. Next up, larger storage boxes to use for my clothes.   Next season we will see if these vinyl boxes hel

We had our last cruise early last month. Breeze On was pulled from the water a few weeks ago.     She is sitting right next to the marina building because they are going to install rub rails for us this winter. Remember my disastrous docking ? Well, we decided to have rub rails installed after that experience. Even though we are much better at docking now than we were then we believe they will be worth the price for us. Also on the to do list for the winter is making decisions about solar panels. We have been reading up on electricity and have quite a bit more research to do before we decide. We are currently leaning toward flexible solar panels that will zip onto the bimini. We have to decide how many amp hours we need and which solar panels to buy that will provide the power that we need. So, even though we are no longer sailing we are still thinking about sailing. The winter will be over before we know it and we will be back out there on the water.   Posted with Blogsy

I haven't documented all of our recent cruises on the blog. If you would like to see tracks of where we have been, click here . If you want to check out our most recent trip, or see if we are out sailing, click here . In the meantime, here are some assorted photos of our recent trips. Leadenham Creek Leadenham Creek Dawn McKeil Point Cove Dawn and Ray Ray at the helm on a wild ride home Dunn Cove Dunn Cove Dunn Cove Local waterman working his trot line within 2 boat lengths of us. He started very early in the morning playing loud country music.     Posted with Blogsy

As we continue to cruise through the fall we are finding that the boat is getting pretty chilly at night. We have anchored out when the outdoor temperatures are in the mid-50's at night and the interior of the boat will be in the upper 50's by morning. That is about as cold is we are willing to tolerate. I heard about a low-tech heater that uses tea candles and terra cotta pots . We decided to give it a try.   First, we put four tea lights into a loaf pan. Next we inverted a terra cotta pot over the lit tea lights. We had plugged the hole at the bottom of the pot with foil. Then we put a larger pot on top. We waited for it to get warm. It began to heat the interior of the boat within an hour. The outside pot got nice and warm and was great for warming our hands. The heater increased the temperature of the boat about 4 or 5 degrees and it was really quite comfortable. The candles lasted about 5 1/2 hours. We did not keep them lit when we went to bed, but we did light some new

One of our goals for our first season of cruising was to complete a one-week cruise before the season ended. It was beginning to look like we might not meet that goal. So, right after the boat show, we decided to go out for a week. We gave ourselves permission to cut it short if necessary. We quickly threw together our provisioning list and did the shopping. We packed our clothes, loaded up the boat and took off on a gloomy, drizzly morning. There was very little wind so we had to motor for the first hour. We were wearing full foul weather gear to keep us warm and dry. Our initial plan was to spend our first night in an anchorage near the mouth of the Choptank and then decide where to go from there based on the wind direction. However, the wind picked up, we hoisted the sails and were near our planned destination in just a few hours. We made the decision to press on, head North on the Chesapeake and anchor in the Wye River. We later regretted that decision. Within about an hour the wi

The Annapolis Boat Show is quite a big deal. The literature claims that it is the largest and oldest boat show. The entire inner harbor of Annapolis is filled with floating docks. The boats that are tied to the docks are so close together it is hard to imagine how they maneuver them in and out. I have heard it is quite a sight to see how they assemble and disassemble it. Pictures don't do it justice. View from the water taxi after closing   In addition to wall-to-wall boats that have several tents full of vendors. It can be quite overwhelming. We have been attending the boat show most years for the past eight years. Early on we went because we happened to be in town visiting our daughter in college. We bought a few odds and ends, like a soft-sided cooler one year and an electric gadget to help us with our starts in races another year. Last year we were shopping for our cruising boat. This year we returned to look at some items we may want to add to Breeze On if we take her to the

We returned to Maryland and Breeze On last week after spending a month in Florida helping my mom. Since we returned and started sailing again I have been thinking about a new book called Blue Mind : The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do. Hmmm, makes sense to me! Maybe that explains why we love being on the water so much and why we missed it so much this past month. I love it when my subjective experiences are backed up by science. I just purchased the e-book and look forward to reading it soon. This past week we took a one-night cruise to Plain Dealing Creek off of the Tred Avon River. I felt a bit rusty on the helm but everything went well. The weather is so much cooler now than it was when we left in mid-August so we decided not to go for our usual swim. Shortly after we dropped the anchor George told me to look at what was coming up the creek toward us. I looked up and saw th

There are all kinds of options for a sailing log book. You can use an electronic log (laptop or iPad, etc.), blank notebook, custom bound book or something in between. When we started sailing Breeze On last May we used a blank notebook because we hadn't decided on anything else.   It was a little bit cumbersome because we had to rewrite all the headings every time we made an entry. We thought we might go with an electronic log book but realized that we don't always have the iPad in the cockpit and don't always want to keep it in the cockpit. We decided to try to make our own custom paper log book with custom-designed pages. We first agreed on the headings we found useful and designed a page using Excel. The headings we chose are: date, time, latitude, longitude, course over ground (COG), speed over ground (SOG), apparent wind angle (AWA), apparent wind speed (AWS), true wind speed (TWS), weather and comments. George printed a cover page using the logo for Breeze On. Then,