Since I last posted in early June, Billy Ruff'n has a newly leathered wheel, some expertly done welds on her mast and boom, colorful new reefing lines & high tech rigging as well as a fancy new electric winch for the main halyard and sheet. These were expensive but important improvements to keep her safe for Andrew and I to operate alone. Check out the results:
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Through most of June & July, Andrew stayed in Maryland supervising this work on BR while I hung out in Devon, Pa. getting cars fixed or inspected, making Dr. appts and checking in on my mom and friends. When we weren't doing those things, we were visiting friends & family in Virginia, Massachusetts and Colorado. Some of the highlights were 1) a visit to the farm of our favorite CNN commentator in Va., 2) our eldest son's (Campbell's) surprise 30th birthday party at The Beach House in Natick, Ma., 3) babysitting our newest grand-daughter and her two older sisters in Philadelphia, 4) seeing Wicked and attending our eldest grand-daughter's Christmas in July birthday party, and 5) our youngest son's (Drake's) wedding in Colorado. Here are some of my favorite pictures from those events:
Life on land doesn't get a whole lot better than that! By early August, Billy Ruff'n was back in the water and we were headed to Newport along with our favorite canvas guy (Charlie H.) and our good friend (Michael M.). It was a pretty quick (and thankfully uneventful) off-shore sail. We arrived at Jamestown Boatyard on August 9th.
Andrew and I made trips to Bristol, Cuttyhunk, Dartmouth, Marion and Edgartown and visited with our former boat partners (the McCarron's) and other friends from the Corinthian Yacht Club of Philadelphia (Dick & Cathy, John & Carolyn, Katie & Tyler).
Our son, Campbell & his family visited with us in Jamestown. The older girls enjoyed exploring the boat; opening every cabinet and pushing every button. They even asked Andrew to see what was underneath the floor boards (in the bilge)! After lunch in town, we drove to Beavertail Lighthouse where the girls enjoyed walking out (too far for my comfort) on the slippery, wind-blown rocks.
Son Drake and his new bride, Ashton visited the following weekend and we had a lovely sail to Cuttyhunk, complete with oysters & clam chowder delivered to the boat once at anchor and lobsters cooked onboard. Ashton appeared to enjoy her first time on a sailboat and proved to be pretty good at steering!
Andrew and I drove home in early September for our dear friend Fran's funeral service and then back to Jamestown for the Cruising Club of America's 100th Anniversary celebration in Newport. We had the incredible pleasure of having dinner with 2 Bluewater medal winners (Bob Shepton and Randall Reeves) and 1 Far Horizons medalist (Steve Brown) on the first evening of the event. In fact, we got to know Bob quite well since someone miss-booked his hotel room and he took us up on the invitation to stay on board Billy Ruff'n his last night. Bob is probably the most famous modern rock climber known for sailing to his climbing venues and being an adventuring Scotsman (at age 86), he was full of amusing tales. Sadly, I neglected to get a good picture of us but I did capture this one of his backside as he and Andrew walked to the Castle Hill lighthouse before having lunch there. I did have to restrain Bob from climbing back up the rocks next to these steep stairs!
Other notable events during and after the CCA celebration included visiting the Sailing Museum in Newport, a great party for Chesapeake Station CCA members sponsored by Jack, Laura, Cathy & Dick and hanging out on the boat with my neice, Kate.
On 9/19, I drove our car back to Devon and the following day, Andrew and Charlie headed south (to Annapolis) with Billy Ruff'n. They had waited for a weather window that left them with no wind (or opposing winds) so mostly motor sailing at best but they timed the currents up the Delaware, through the canal and down the Bay so well that they made the trip in 46 hours!
Andrew is currently on the boat in Oxford, Md. getting the engines tuned up for our next adventure to the Caribbean. We are looking forward to heading south again on (or after) November 1st, when hurricane season has hopefully concluded!!
