It didn’t make sense to sail Silent Sky to New York and then have to turn right back around and pick up Windara. But I’d been looking forward to spending the summer at home, and with the delays in the process, I felt like we were missing so much. We decided to rent a car and go back to NY for two weeks – a lovely thought, except we couldn’t find a car nearby. The closest was at the Norfolk airport – a bit of a hike, but fine, we hired a car service…. and they canceled our ride last minute. So much for that plan! Once I got over the initial disappointment, I was excited for the opportunity to do some Chesapeake cruising and visit a few of the places that had been recommended to us.
We made friends with our dock neighbors, Brian and Linda, and their adorable Australian Shepherd, Gracie. They came in for routine engine maintenance and discovered that their port engine needs a rebuild. They only live an hour and a half away but were supposed to be starting a summer cruise, so they decided to make it a staycation until the boat got hauled. They took us to dinner at Merroir, a nice little spot on the Rappahanock, and over the weeks we shared drinks and stories (and I got lots of Gracie love).
We also made friends with some of the other liveaboards in the marina and were glad to meet other sailors around our age. One woman we met is single-handing, and I admire her courage as she learns her boat and how to face all the challenges where I look to Chris to take the lead. If we were going to be stuck somewhere for a long period of time, at least we were lucky to end up at a good marina surrounded by good people.
We finally got a chance to visit the Deltaville Maritime Museum and were surprised at how good it is, especially for such a small town. They have great exhibits on Deltaville’s place in Chesapeake Bay maritime history as well as the evolution of working boats in the area, lighthouses, and oystering, including current oyster restoration efforts. That particularly resonated since I volunteer for the City Island Oyster Reef back home.
Our running joke is that we’ve been watching the corn grow while we’re here. Just down the street is a big corn field, and when we arrived the corn was maybe a foot high. Now it’s full grown and nearly ready for harvest. (Aww, they grow up so fast!) We also found where the sidewalk ends (I think Shel Silverstein would be disappointed to know that it’s just before the West Marine!).
We’ve learned that the Chesapeake has much more intense weather than what we see up on the Sound. We had several intense thunderstorms and our second tornado warning of the trip. We could see the clouds swirling, and a couple times, I saw what looked like a funnel trying to form. Fortunately it passed relatively quickly and without incident.
We got the chance to meet another member of the Catalina owners’ association, and it turns out she lives just outside of town. She gave us a tour of the area and took us to a wonderful Asian restaurant in Gloucester. We had a great time chatting, and once again, it felt like falling in with an old friend rather than meeting someone for the first time. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to meet so many wonderful people through the association on this trip.
It’s been hard having Windara RIGHT THERE and to only be able to look at her on the dock. We walk over at least every other day, and the whole time I’ve been kicking names over in my mind. Nothing seems to fit, and I keep hoping on each visit that she’d speak to me. But I’m also antsy to get aboard. Not only do I want to get moving again, I want to get a better look at her without so many people aboard. I suppose it’s been a good lesson in patience.
While we’ve been here, we had the sail and bimini repaired, replaced our poor, well-worn flag, did engine maintenance and knocked off some cleaning projects, including having the cushions cleaned. We arranged a short haul to get the bottom cleaned and repainted, replace a seacock, and have the hull washed and waxed (goodbye, ICW mustache!), and get the gooseneck repaired. Deltaville Boatyard does great work, and she looks amazing. Her next owners will be getting one hell of a great boat, and we wanted to make sure she got the love she deserves before we say goodbye.
Our time in Deltaville has been amazing, exciting, exhausting, stressful, frustrating, disappointing… a microcosm of life, really. But we learned to make the best of it and enjoy the opportunities that were open to us rather than lamenting what we were missing out on, and I’m happy for the fond memories we’ll come away with.
