Weekend Trip to the City

Greetings any and all readers from the fabulous Taj Mahal in New Jersey!


Atlantic City became our destination for the weekend when we opened our "junk mail" and to our surprise found that a casino had invited us for two free nights stay. The room was comped to us, that is to say, in exchange for playing card games at their poker room.

It takes us about 9 hours to drive each way, which we broke up by making a stop in DC to visit Mike, who kindly put us up on his fancy couch. He also invited me to a party across town, and even lent me the bike to get there! Mike's neighborhood is thriving and attractive, known as Mt Pleasant, and we frequently visit and Mike always accomodates us with gracious generosity.


Compare with the below picture of some row houses abandoned and boarded up (the Borgata Casino is behind them) in Atlantic City :




The view from the room of Absecon Inlet at the north end of the island includes the Lighthouse and a giant new casino under construction.

We brought a good bit of our own supplies to the hotel, since room service and drinks and what-not are often overpriced. But the modern room was very nicely appointed with a fridge. We brought fresh baked brownies, fancy beer and sodas, and garden grown flowers from NC to ensure proper decor and diet while there.





I approached the weekend from a wilderness camping perspective, since as soon as you walk out of your room, you begin to run into ways to spend money. But there are simple bargains, too, such as valet parking ($7 including tip), coffee (free in the room, around $1.25 by the thermos-full at service stations), and food at the poker table ($7 plus $2 tip for a large salad and order of onion rings).

Among the few recreational activities in Atlantic City are beachcombing, which is surprisingly interesting. Jennifer and I strolled up to Absecon Inlet and back, and easily could see significant erosion from the summer hurricane named Bill. Along the beach are numerous piers, jetties, groins, bulkheads, pilings, and all manner of failed construction. But at the NE tip of the island is a jetty which the locals fish from. It was very pretty fall weather, and we saw others strolling and biking, as well as fishing and surfing.






The drive back to NC was a long one, but I would definitely repeat the trip, and I felt good about keeping the trip simple and affordable, as well as the nice touches that made the trip more homey and low-key.

Minor repair for the Wayfarer

Raising and lowering the mast on the Wayfarer can cause a lot of wear-and-tear. Trailering her along bumpy frost-heaved Maine roads doesn't help the situation much. The mast and spreaders receive much of that abuse. Last year as I put Juliet away for the winter, one of the spreaders cracked and broke into two. I looked closely at the spreader, and resolved to bring the needed repair parts with me in the spring when Jennifer and I returned to Deer Isle. On our drive north from North Carolina, I collected a few things I thought might come in handy. First I stopped at Hamilton Marine in Searsport, Maine. I thought I would be able to just buy a spreader arm or set. I only found some Taylor brand boots to put over the spreaders. So on to the next stop, the hardware store in Bucksport. There I found 3/4 inch electrical conduit that seemed like it might be a good backup plan.

Juliet had waited all winter on Deer Isle, way down at the bottom of Mary's backyard. Usually we stash the boat around a bend in the trees but last year we tried putting her in the old boathouse at the bottom of the yard. I found the boat and trailer stuck axle deep in mud. Instead of struggling against the mud, I used a couple of old boards under the trailer wheels and Juliet followed along like an obedient puppy, all the way up the grass yard.



In the driveway I got another look at the broken spreader. Now, how to fix the damage? It seemed like Juliet needed another spreader, and the conduit was going to be it. I measured the length of the spreader, and cut a piece of conduit to match.

Then I realized that I really wanted a splint for the broken outside end of the spreader. I cut the replacement spreader down by about four inches, so that it would act as a sleeve. I flattened and drilled a hole through the mast end of the conduit to screw it to the mast brace. Below, I am smoothing the burrs of the sawn ends of the newly fabricated spreader. The broken original spreader is across the port gunwhale.





After I got a screw through the new piece, I slid the old broken spreader into the new, and taped it up to prevent the sail from contacting anything rough. It worked pretty well. I only spent a little on the parts, although I plan to order the new correct spreaders for the Wayfarer. I like working on the Wayfarer, because anyone can see what is wrong when something is broken, and then repair it with a little creativity, even on the water.

The Alcort Sailfish, My First Boat

Below is an old Instamatic photo of me and my stepbrother Harrison (hat) sailing our 1964 Alcort Sailfish in the summer of 1981. I often point out that my first car was a boat, and I think all children should have a chance to go boating. The shoreline is in the Chesapeake Bay, east of Lynnhaven Inlet. My stepdad Bobby got us this boat from somewhere, along with his whole quiver of other sailboats, such as Nacras, Hobies, and Sonars. We kept it on Chesapeake Beach from the time I was eleven till I was fourteen or so. Then we moved it onto the oceanfront of Virginia Beach.


A permit was required to keep it in VB, and mine read "58th-60th St Only." To sail her I would carry the sail spars, rudder, daggerboard and lifejacket down to the boat, untie it from the fence and then drag the whole boat down to the water's edge. Rigging the Sailfish was easy, and getting through the waves became second nature. As you can see, there is no cockpit at all, which let waves wash right over it. I would often sail out of sight of land, and at least once swam in the deepest, most remote water I could find, which was about three miles out and forty feet deep or so.
Eventually, I left Virginia Beach to attend Christchurch School in Saluda, Virginia. I took the Sailfish with me, and often sailed as part of the Christchurch Sailing Team in the Rappahannock River near the Chesapeake Bay. After I left to go to college, Bobby turned the boat over to a friend's son, and I moved on to other boats. I owe Bobby a huge debt of gratitude for introducing me to sailing.

Deer Isle Map from a postcard

We commonly use postcards and handouts from the Chamber of Commerce to navigate.

Homeward Bound on Deer Isle

Well, it has come time to wrap up circumnavigating Deer Isle in Maine. We were tired from two days of sailing, and the decision had been made to sail to the causeway at the very north end of the island. Mary's house where we keep our sailboat is only a quarter mile or so from the causeway. The winds were light and variable, which might have been frustrating if we had pushed on around Little Deer Isle. But I drank my last Ballantine and soldiered on, lightly sculling with the rudder.
Sometimes when the wind is very light, we will use our paddle briefly to gain some direction, and it does make the Wayfarer coast along for a few dozen feet, even when you only throw a few strokes in. It was like that this day. The coastline here on the NW side of Deer Isle looks very much like Acadia National Park, but with a bit more development.


I could write a whole post about the tides in Maine. You have to be careful with shorelines. If you beach the boat on a lowering tide, she can be stranded in just fifteen minutes. But I decided after talking it over with Jennifer that we could retrieve the trailer from Mary's house and load Juliet on the trailer by hand. After that, the boat would be left high and dry on the trailer. Then we would have most of the low tide through nightfall to figure out how to get Juliet and the trailer up the long sandy/gravelly beach. The causeway beach is the very first place you come to when you drive to the island, and there were a few vehicles and waders, sunbathers and children playing. We sailed straight up to the beach and jumped ashore with our "fun bag", which has a bunch of necessities for in or out of Juliet (the boat.) I threw a few totes and some gear on the beach. Then I tossed the lunch hook as far out as I could, so as to hold her of the gravel while I hiked for our car/trailer combination. This is how she looks at anchor on the Causeway Beach :
All that was left to do was get her out of the water and home. So Jennifer kicked back on the beach and took some pictures and sorted gear, and I jogged back to Mary's and retrieved the car/trailer. I unhooked the trailer and walked it down the beach to submerge it near Juliet. I slid a couple of long plywood strips under her wheels to keep them from miring in the sand. Then I pulled the anchor and centered her on the trailer and cranked her in. I rolled her and the trailer up the plywood planks and checked her as she sat for centeredness (new word?) The Wayfarer is a very light boat. A very nice man named Ed took interest in the whole operation and offered to help roll her up the beach. I said "I think I'll just tie a line to the car from where she sits and pull her from afar up the beach." He replied "I have my truck." "Man, I wouldn't drive my car down there." And he said "It'll probably be fine." So, he pulled his little 4X4 down to the waters edge and hooked me up, dragged Juliet up to our little wagon, and the boat was out for the winter. Jennifer and I had completely circumnavigated Deer Isle. It really seemed like a longer sail in concept than practice.

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Wandering through the NC Piedmont: History for Sale

The following is my first in a series of guest blog posts about where I live. It is not about sailing, but, well, I accidentally let a friend post an article to my blog instead of his. It happens when you share a computer. This is dedicated to Ed and Andrea, readers of my blog and good friends. Sail onward!

Wandering through the NC Piedmont: History for Sale