To see as much of the world as we can,
Using the smallest carbon footprint we can,
Spending the least amount of money we can,
Making as many friends we can.

Team Red Cruising

  • Super Bowl Weekend

    The folks from Fawkes, Monday Morning, Amazing Grace and Red Ranger had an epic Super Bowl spread in the marina lounge in Deltaville. Delightful. Snacks. Friends. Talk of boats, boating, destinations, anchoring, The Ditch, Manteo, Ocracoke, chart 12204, and—well—football, too.

    Sadly, I forgot to take party pictures. I …


  • Winter Weather

    These are pictures from earlier in January. It was cold.

    The creek isn't frozen, yet.

    Starting about the 15th, the crew of Fawkes were back in the marina. Living full-time on their boat. On the hard. In the cold.

    The good news is that there hasn't been as much blowing …


  • eBay Magic: Reuse-Recycle-Reduce

    Good ways to deal with old boat parts are eBay, Craigslist and Nauti Nells. **Consignment stores are kind of fun -- drop it off and hope. eBay is a little more fun if there's a bidding war. ** Craigslist, however, is the most fun. Why?

    Clandestine Meetings

    The fuel filter eBay sale …


  • Plugging Holes

    Yes. That's a wine cork in the deck of Red Ranger. Once upon a time (it appears) something like an antenna was mounted there. A hole had been drilled through the deck into the aft cabin. A piece of hardware of some kind had been screwed down outside. [You can …


  • Is That What They Mean By...

    Poop deck?

    Yes, the birds seemed to have pooped all over Red Ranger's deck. Sigh. CA took a picture of a bloody fish-head on Liquid Therapy's swim-platform. It appears that otters use swim platforms as picnic tables.

    Also, it snowed on Jackson Creek.

    You can see traces of snow on …


  • Two Favorite Appliances—This Season

    Now that it's cold outside, we've identified our two favorite appliances for weathering winter weekends.

    On the left is a wood stove. Yes, it's small, but filled with Wood Pellet Fuel, it rocks. We use a long, metal soup spoon to put in about 2 spoon fuels of pellets every …


  • Post-Rendezvous Rendezvous

    Scott and Jeanie (from Joie de Vivre) dropped us a line via Facebook. We met them at the Whitby-Brewer Rendezvous. On their way south they were docked in Portsmouth. We took the ferry over and had dinner and a movie with them at the Commodore. ("Secretariat", a Disney spectacular on …


  • That Looks Familiar

    Sunday, we loaded the truck with stuff, ready to install the Sailrite Stack Pack cover on the mizzen. Two 10' pieces of 3/4" PVC pipe. Check. Stack Pack kit. Check. Tools. Check. Plan for managing the assembly process. Check.

    The pipe is important for supporting the top of the …


  • Mizzen Tension

    We took Hannah out on Red Ranger in 15-20 kt of wind, with waves of 3-4 feet. This was our first trip in conditions that were more than "light breeze" or "gentle breeze" on the Beaufort Scale. We bounced around a bit; had quite a bit of trouble tacking; and …


  • Too Hot to Handle

    Saturday was the last day of the 2010 USODA Layline Nationals. Kids left. The place went back to being a sleepy little marina in rural Virginia.

    While the Optimists were coming in after a day of racing -- we went out. The wind had died and the best we could do …


  • Sight Seeing

    The 2010 USODA Layline Nationals are this weekend (and next weekend) in Deltaville VA. The US Optimist Dinghy Association (USODA) is the national class organization for Optimist sailing in the United States.

    There were boats everywhere in our marina. And we're not the only marina hosting racing.

    Jackson Creek was …


  • Friends and Neighbors

    Here are some pictures of Cricket.

    Pam and Ben have been at the marina for several weeks. They're cruising more-or-less full-time.

    They've been refitting Cricket while we've been working on Red Ranger. They've been there full-time, however, so they've gotten a lot done in a short period of time.

    Their …


  • Rigging, Phase 2

    Moving on.

    Two masts means two sessions with the crane operator.

    Rigging Phase 1 was done on the hard. They positioned the mast and mostly reset the stays and shrouds that secure the mast.

    The inner forestay isn't correctly backed under the deck. The mast isn't yet blocked into position …


  • Camping Out

    For our 28th anniversary, we did something new and different: we went camping. Camping isn't all that new. But we spent our first night on the Ranger. No water. No heads. Limited electricity. Delightful.

    [The Emily Post list of anniversary gifts: 1st paper, 5th wood, 10th tin, 15th crystal, 20th …


  • What's the Rush?

    We grew up in houses, on land. We've lived in cities as well as the ‘burbs, and we felt pretty well acculturated.

    But marina life is still very new to us. The standards and conventions are not what we're used to. It takes a bit of work to fit in …


  • Dreaming of the New ‘Hood

    "Stone Soup Today" -- a blanket invite to everyone hanging around the marina. "Stone at 5, Soup at 6" is the small print at the bottom of the sign. (Ishky Baha is Gaelic, "water of life", from which we get the English word Whiskey.)

    CA was cruising the boatyard, looking at …


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