Urbanna Small Boat and Rum Appreciation Messabout
More to come.
Leg o’Mutton
Was Warthog
Old steamboat office in Freeport, Virginia.
Short Sail ~ Season Re-Opener
The forecast changed abruptly on Sunday morning, and did a 180. A broad storm front was now approaching from the Midwest. So heading for the Bay was definitely out.
But there was still time to get to a local reservoir. Probably all for the best: It’s been so long since I’ve sailed these boats, so much chaos and mayhem in the intervening years, I need to step out slowly.
How long? Looks like four and a half years. Based on photos and posts here on this blog, the last time I sailed one of my own boats was MASCF in October of 2018. That’s incredible.
Got gear collected and did a dry run in the yard. Lights on the trailer work, tires not flat – check. Blocks corroded, but serviceable – check. Lines and spars intact – check.
We left home in sunshine and arrived thirty minutes later at Beaver Creek under grey skies, darkening to the west over the mountains.
Backing a trailer, turns out, is a little like riding a bike. It’s a part of your brain you don’t use for anything else; so once you find where that is and open the lid, it’s still there, right where you left it. Confusing and wobbly at first, but it comes back. Same with the sailing part. In a few minutes, everything feels familiar again. Fortunately, boats don’t hold a grudge. All this time ignored, and Aeon was just happy to be out on the water again. Light puffy wind, nothing too ambitious. Tacking and jibing, reading wind signs on the water and in the trees on shore.
After an hour the Blue Ridge to the west disappeared. We turned back. Got to the ramp and mostly loaded before the sky opened up and dumped rain on us.
Looking at these photos, we realize how much older and grayer we are now. It’s been a tough five years, for all of us.
More of this soon.
Spring Cleaning
Got one of the boats out of the shed after a long winter nap. Washed off all the dust and mouse nests, gathered up the scattered bits, and tried to remember how all this stuff works again.
These boats have held up amazingly well. They were first launched over ten years ago, and I’ve only had to refresh with a single coat of varnish five years ago. Just one minor repair after a boneheaded collision with a channel marker in St. Michaels (now I know to sail first, take pictures second).
Was hoping to get out on some big water near the Bay tomorrow. Now the forecast says it will be gusty, pushing the bounds of my comfort zone, which seems more narrow than it once was. If so, we may still do a little refresher cruise on a local lake, where things should be more placid.
So much has transpired since we held the boat birthing party in this backyard. Kind of wild to look back on it all now.
Visitations
Locals report that a black bear has wandered down from the ridge, with the knowledge of doorknobs and handles. Hungry from winter hibernation, at night it enters cars and houses looking for food. Our hosts have shooed it away from the front door, only to find it pawing in through French doors in back moments later.
It is believed the bear learned this skill from the ski resort above the valley, where transients from the city leave garbage cans full of tasty treats outdoors, and empty cabins are easy pickings after a weekend of parties. Now that the snow is gone and ski season has passed, the bear has gone on walkabout for new people to party with.
Spring Rain
Met friends for brunch out in Nelson County. Lots of rain the past few days, really making all the green things pop off. Mountainsides are green patchwork quilts, and streams are full.
Nature is Metal ~ Wool Sower Wasp Galls
The tiny Wool Sower Wasp stings a fresh young stem and deposits her eggs. The developing eggs use chemicals like hormones to stimulate the tree to produce a very specific growth structure that encases and protects the larvae. This growth is not a normal shape or color or texture of the tree – the growing parasites within the stem tell the tree to do this, and how to do it.
If you open the gall, the larvae look like seeds packed side by side with fuzzy tails. The whole cycle takes two years to complete. Though strangely parasitic, it doesn’t hurt the trees.
Though the gall protects the young larvae from predators, and even pesticides, there are other parasitic wasps that have evolved special ovipositors that allow them to pierce the gall and deposit wasp eggs on the wasp larvae.
Even parasites have parasites.
