Wednesday, May 27, 2020

2020: Dirt house

27 May 2020
No boat travel.

After posting that we arrived home, I received the obvious question from a reader ... "What's it like now being in your house?" I honestly had to reply, "I have no idea." We arrived at our creek at low tide and just barely pushed our way through the muck in the creek to make it to our house. Normally, we turn the boat around a ways down the creek and back up to our dock. Clark did not feel comfortable turning the boat in such low water, so we came in bow first and tied up on our port side. 

Nighttime had arrived by the time the tide came up, so turning the boat was out of the question until the next day. Sunset Delight is a bit longer than Sea Moss was. We are in the process of applying for a permit to extend the length of the dock to better accommodate Sunset Delight. Given the length-of-the-dock issue, I am only able to disembark from the boat when it is properly positioned and secured on the starboard side. 

Clark, on the other hand, jumped down from the side of the boat to the dock so that he could go check out the house, turn on the water, jack up the heat, etc. When he came back, he brought a step ladder so he could climb back onboard. After a long day traveling on the water, I was happy to hang out onboard and just enjoy the view of the creek.



Rumson Creek
(If you look closely, you can see an
egret on a pole downstream.)


Saturday, we had a rainy morning. Neither of us felt like turning the boat in the rain, so we waited until the sky cleared. By the time the rain did slow down, we were once again approaching low tide. Before the rain had completely stopped, we went out in our rain gear and started getting set to "spin" the boat. Clark backed the boat down the creek to our turn-around spot, spun the boat, and returned to our dock backwards. Just as we finished retying our lines, now tied on the starboard side, the rain stopped.

Knowing the work ahead of me, I got off the boat, went up to the house, and got started with the cleaning. We visited the house 5 months ago, but it has been collecting dust since we left in October. Before we could move back in, the house needed a good going over. Praying the washer and dryer still worked, I dragged the laundry bags filled with our dirty clothes up the hill to our house. With the washer running, I left to start deep cleaning the kitchen and then the rest of the downstairs. 

We have too much house for me to deep clean everything in half of an afternoon. I managed to get the downstairs in shape. However, I told Clark we would be sleeping on the boat again tonight because the upstairs had not been cleared of dust. I then announced that we would "dine out" in the kitchen for dinner tonight. On my trip down to the boat to get supplies for dinner, I encountered a furry creature that was pretty shocked to see a human in his neighborhood!


Chipmunk that is none too happy 
that we are home!

All it took was one step closer on my part for him to scurry away to the other end of the brickwork. There he sat with one eye on me while he munched on something. I got the feeling this is a regular perch for him.




We bought this house in 1991, so we have owned it for a few years now. Amazingly, we both felt a bit lost in the kitchen. I had to laugh when Clark said, "Where are the plates?" as if he was visiting some stranger's house. I had the same trouble trying to figure out where to find a spatula. It must be that old age is settling in.

On Sunday, I tackled the upstairs. I have an iRobot cleaner, so I set her to work (I named her Hazel) cleaning the master bedroom while I took care of other chores. After she completed that room and got her batteries recharged, I had her clean my sewing / art room next. Meanwhile, I kept unloading items from the boat. 

I decided that I really liked cooking in the house, so the food had high priority to move. Since we got home a lot faster than I anticipated, I had a lot more food left over from provisioning than I might otherwise have had. On the bright side, that means I won't have to run out to a store for major supplies for a while. Unfortunately, it also meant a lot of trips with bags of food up that hill to the house. 

Since I got most of the upstairs dust under control, changing bed linens became my next priority. We moved just enough off the boat up to the house Sunday night to allow us to sleep in a warm house and enjoy a hot shower. After conserving water during showers on the boat, that first in-the-house shower felt truly luxurious. 

While in Marathon, and somewhat on the trip home, I made lists of items that I wanted to take off the boat. I loaded up bag after bag of "stuff" and lined them up by the door. If either Clark or I walked up to the house, we could not go empty-handed. We took so many pounds of goods off the boat, I remarked to Clark, "The boat must be floating many inches higher by now!" 

At least 75 to 80% of the items I took off the boat I have no intention of putting back on. I sorted through our clothes and ejected those that we never wore once on the trip. Some kitchen items that take up space and are rarely, if ever, used also got expelled. Not being sure what I might find the time for, I had a variety of art-related supplies on board and found that I only had interest in acrylic paints. The rest sat unused for months and are now back in the house.

One of the first things Clark noticed when he got off the boat Friday was a rogue kayak that had decided to tangle itself up with our dock and make itself at home. I am not sure what the attraction is at our house, but over the years we have collected a few strays including 3 docks that floated up into our yard during Superstorm Sandy (but that is another story). The problem is deciding what to do with the items that come to visit. 

I told Clark to just give the kayak a push in the right direction at low tide and let it find its way home as it was carried out to the bay. Clark, however, decided to pull out his kayak and take a ride down our creek looking for people to ask, "Are you missing a kayak?"  I thought he would tow it behind his kayak on display, but he said that whoever claimed to be missing one better be able to describe it. Personally, were it me, anyone who showed the least bit of interest in the thing could have it and be done with!

It was quite a while until he returned. He was unsuccessful finding the kayak owner, but he did find a friend to talk to.  (No big surprise there).


Yellow kayak is, hopefully, just visiting our dock.

By Tuesday, I had been home for over 3 full days and had not yet seen the front yard. My phone indicated that I had walked nearly 5 miles up and down my backyard over the past 2 days. I figured it was time to check out our yard and the neighborhood with camera in hand.

Sadly, I missed the Lilacs - my favorite smelling bloom. 


Purple Lilacs - gone

White Lilacs - almost gone


I did find the azaleas and the iris in full bloom however.


Azaleas gone wild


Azaleas with Lily of the Valley


Flowering Iris 
(Little, striped Lighthouse in my front garden)

The hydrangeas must have grown a foot taller than last year. I can see they are covered in buds. Shortly, they should make quite a sight. I also have a row of rose bushes that are full of new growth and will most definitely produce an abundance of blooms sometime soon.

While we were away, the Canada Geese decided they liked our dock. We could tell by all the evidence they left behind. Tying up the lines was a bit gross. One of the first things Clark did after he got the water turned on was bring a hose to wash down the dock! These pesky birds usually hang out on the docks and in the yards of the people across the creek from us. I prefer them to stay over there.


Only 3 of the many Canada Geese that love our creek!

After circling our house a few times to see how things fared in our absence (we have a lot of weeds), I decided to take a walk down the street to see what was new in the neighborhood. After sitting on the boat for 3 weeks straight with no place to walk, I definitely needed more exercise. A walk to spy on the neighbors seemed just the thing to do.

Not surprising for a Tuesday, I found very few people around. A couple of trucks blocked a portion of our street to traffic, and several men were laying a cable of some sort. Other than them, I saw one jogger (the same one twice). Our street is a side street off County Route 520. As I made the circle down our street, up the next, and a short walk on 520 back to our street, I was amazed at the number of cars zipping up and down the highway. I gather that they are no longer staying home due to the pandemic.

A few things stood out to me on my 1.5 mile walk around my neighborhood. First, I could not get over how green everything was. I am so used to looking at blue skies and blue water, that green struck me as a novelty.


It's so green here!

I saw a couple of lawn signs on my stroll. A couple of them thanked the people working through the pandemic. Several signs congratulated students graduating from either middle school or high school. I found myself becoming rather pensive thinking about what a strange senior year this year's graduates have had to deal with.



We are the Rumson Bulldogs
aka "Dawgs"

As I approached one house near the park at the end of our street, I wondered, "What the heck did they build? A wooden jail?"


What is that wooden structure??

As I got closer, I figured out it was a fenced in section for a vegetable garden. The deer are very aggressive and hungry around here. I have seen deer jump pretty high. I wonder if this amazing structure serves its purpose. This fencing is new this year. Perhaps, with the pandemic, they decided to grow their own veggies. 

The birdhouse-looking item in front is a Little Library. That's new too. I wonder how many people want to borrow books during a pandemic. Not I!


Fenced-in Garden


As I passed by the park, I watched 3 squirrels frolicking and chasing each other round and round a nearby tree. They refused to pose for a picture! I decided I much prefer to watch squirrels frolic in oak trees than have iguanas stare at me from palm trees. 

Because of Memorial Day, several houses had flags out in their yards.


In honor of those who gave all for our country!


Clark and I both have lists of things to do now that we are home. Before Clark could dig into any of his boat projects, he needed to order parts. He has been doing that for the past two days. I get the receipts in my email - ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching! Once the deliveries start, he will be real busy fixing and improving the boat.

I too have been busy with projects. My first project was to organize my list of projects. I made two lists - house projects and -boat projects. Both lists are rather long. Many of my "to do" items have the word "organize" in them. 

One such, "organize", project got done yesterday. That involved pulling everything out from under the galley sink to first see what was under there and second put back the items I use in an orderly fashion. On cleaning out the boat the day before, I had Clark take off a huge blue storage bin that was eating up space under the salon sofa. As I stared at the mess around me in the galley, the ah-ha moment hit that I could make use of that blue bin. The biggest problem with the space under the sink is that nothing is reachable. Now with the blue bin, I can slide it over to get what I need!

With all the items on my project lists, Clark added another one for me today that I decided to deal with right away. I painted the rusted windshield wipers on the boat with black, rust-oleum paint. This chore fell off my list a long time ago. It should have been done in Marathon, but with the high heat and humidity, it just did not happen. Since today was on the cool side, I decided to get it done now. I told Clark I was done, but then he said it needed at least two coats, so then I was not done and did it again!

A large part of my day today involved on-line shopping for items I would like to replace on the boat. Two out of the three things I searched for turned into a fail. Nothing came close to what I was hoping to find, so it looks like I will stick with my current solutions. For the third item I researched, I did make a purchase finally. 

After measuring, discarding too-large items, and pondering the merits of reasonably-sized choices, I ordered a new toaster oven for the boat. I looked into air fryers and convection ovens, but my counter space is minimal in the boat. I found a small footprint toaster oven that claims it will hold an 11" pizza and cook 4 slices of toast at a time. These topped my criteria list.

Before placing the order, I had my chief electrician bless the 1800 watts it will take to run. Heaven forbid I should buy something for the boat that overloads the inverter / circuits on the boat. The caveat Clark gave me is that I cannot use any other appliance at the same time as this -- including the microwave oven. Still, I expect the pros of having a nice oven will outweigh that one big con! I will just have to be methodical in my cooking. I went for it and hit the "Buy now" button!

We have over-the-air TV in the house, and we have satellite TV on the boat.  After looking at the list of television shows on the over-the-air stations and finding nothing of interest, I suggested to Clark that we go out to the movies tonight (i.e. on the boat). Sadly, we looked through the list of movies on Satellite and could not agree on anything. 

Our interests are the opposite of what one might stereo-typically expect. I thought it would be fun to watch either "Beverly Hills Cop" or "Con Air". Clark suggested either a movie on Hallmark or something called "Mermaids" with Cher. So, going "out" to the movies was "out", Clark got back on his computer doing whatever he does, and I decided to add to my blog. 

If tomorrow is another cool day, I will be on the boat with my boat project list. Otherwise, I'll be in the house with my house list. Between the two of them, I should be able to keep busy for weeks!


Friday, May 22, 2020

2020: Barnegat to Rumson NJ

Depart: Anchorage near Barnegat Light, Barnegat, NJ 8:10
Arrive: Home - Rumson, NJ 4:30
Distance: 63 nm


We decided we needed to get an early start to beat the rain scheduled to arrive this afternoon. While Clark prepped the boat for departure, I made his breakfast and prepped mine to eat later. Not knowing what the ocean would present us today, I also made sandwiches for lunch, so they would be easy to grab later.

As we prepared to leave, we saw lots of activity near where we had dropped anchor.



Barnegat Light and some little boats

Charter boat heading out 

Going for the inlet

Fishing from a Kayak

Clark uses a piece of PVC pipe with a pinpoint nozzle on the end of a section of hose to wash down the anchor chain and anchor. We have a pump on board that pulls up the raw / salt water so we don't have to tap into our fresh water, and we don't end up with mud in our rope locker.


Anchor cleanup time

Shortly after 8:00 a.m. we were on our way on the last leg of our trip home. As Clark piloted the boat out of inlet, I sat down to my favorite meal of the day and my novel.


Barnegat Light

Without looking, I could tell when we started to get near the ocean as I found my eyes chasing the words on the page due to the rocking motion of the boat. I decided it was time to abandon the Kindle.

Traveling Barnegat Inlet is almost always an adventure. The waves were particularly impressive in size today. I decided not to move until we got out in the ocean proper as I anticipated the wave action decreasing once we got out of the inlet. As I sat in the salon, I heard Clark moving about up top taking pictures a couple of times.


Beach and jetty along Barnegat Inlet

Wave action at Barnegat Inlet







While I was down in the salon thinking about what a fun ride we were having, Clark was up top sweating out the trip as he navigated the less-than-abundant waters of the marked channel. Later, after I managed to move up top, I got Clark's story.

He said that the trip out was a "real nail biter". He had 5-foot breakers crashing over the bow of the boat as he saw depths in the 7.5-foot range in the channel. When the waves crashed over the bow, the depth would become unreadable due to the bubbles generated by the wave. He had no idea if the boat would bottom out as the waves passed.

Meanwhile, he could see sections outside of the channel without waves breaking. He decided that the marked channel was probably not the deepest water to exit the inlet. After he got us on route out in the ocean, he called Sea Tow to inquire about the inlet and learned that those in the know turn north after marker Red "6" to avoid shallower water in the channel.

I was so glad that I had been oblivious in the salon instead of stressing up top. Unlike the breakers of the inlet, we had 5-foot swells out in the ocean with not one whitecap in sight.

Given that today was the last day of this voyage, I decided to look at some statistics. Since this is the fastest we have ever made it home from Florida, I thought it would be interesting to see how far we went on average and how fast we moved.


Days 
Total NM
Equiv Statute Miles
Average NM per day
Average Hours per day
Least Miles in 1 Day
Most Miles in 1 Day
21
1499
1718
71
9
38
101
Fuel purchased on trip
1004 gallons


I was doing well until Clark asked me to look at fuel stats as well. Then I had some problems with the math. He wanted to know the NM per gallon. For that I had to know mileage between fuel stops and had to extrapolate to get some of the numbers. It gave my brain a workout.

I worked on the mpg problem until I got too frustrated. Then I left it and went to get lunch. I continued to work on the numbers like solving a puzzle while I munched and finally figured out the issue. When I returned to the upper helm, I knew how to do the calculations properly. It came out to 1.3 nm pg, which sounded absolutely dreadful to me. Using that number Clark figured out that our range / distance limits with our fuel tanks is about 800 nautical miles.

While I had been fussing with math problems, the boat had continued up the Jersey coast. When I got up top, Clark said, "Do you recognize anything?" I correctly identified Long Branch. He said we passed Asbury Park while I was eating lunch below. Actually, what he wanted me to notice was the fact that we were passing Sea Bright.



Asbury Park Convention Center
on the Jersey Shore


Highlands Bridge from ocean view


Sandy Hook!

The entrance to the Shrewsbury River which leads to our creek is marked by Red "2"!




We passed the anchorage where we go on a hot summer's day and saw a chartered fishing boat that looked to us to be in an area with rather shallow water.




We passed the terminal for the ferry to New York City.




We passed some small beach areas in residential sections. Some folks had decided to start celebrating Memorial Day weekend early.


Small beach party here


Intrepid swimmers here. 3 kids in the water.
Probably 50 degrees or so, and they were loving it!

We passed Sandy Hook Lighthouse.



Sandy Hook Light

As we traveled along the river, I kept looking to see if I could get a reasonable picture of Twin Lights lighthouse. Most of it was obscured by trees, but I got the towers.



Twin Lights lighthouse 



Impossible to see the huge building connecting those two towers.

I tried to get a full picture of the Highlands Bridge, but I could only get a section at a time.


Highlands Bridge - Sandy Hook side

We passed by the entrance to the Navesink River where we had our first glimpse of Rumson on the left side of the river.


Oceanic Bridge connecting Rumson (on left) to Locust, NJ
Huber Woods Park is on the right.

As we approached the Sea Bright bridge, Clark called the bridge tender to inquire about an opening. Unfortunately, the opening schedule was changed to "on the hour" a couple of years ago. We found out that we would have a 50-minute wait for an opening. Then Clark asked her what vertical clearance the bridge offered. She read 16' off the height board.  We need a little over 17' of clearance.

While we moved at idle speed towards the bridge, I snapped some pictures of Sea Bright.


McCloone's Restaurant in Sea Bright

Sea Wall in Sea Bright
(Sea Bright sits on a very narrow strip of land
between the river and the ocean.)

One of several Sea Bright Beach Clubs

One thing Clark cannot stand is wasting time waiting for bridges. He decided that we should see if we could get under the bridge instead of waiting for an opening. He ran down to get tools to lower our mast as I drove the boat ever closer to the bridge. Eventually I got close enough that I could read the clearance board using the binoculars. It appeared to read 17' on the board.

At low tide, we used to drive Sea Moss under the bridge without lowering. That boat needed 18+ feet of clearance. Clark decided that even though the tender said the 16' was the clearance at the center, it was really the clearance at the side. We figured we must have at least another 2' at the center. Once again, Clark had me drive the boat under the bridge while he spotted. As we easily passed under the bridge, Clark said we had at least two more feet over head. Good to know for next time!

It really was low tide. As we continued down the river and into Pleasure Bay, we saw very little water under the keel. Clark bemoaned the fact that we would be struggling to get the boat home. The entrance to our creek is shallow at the best of times. Sure enough when we tried to get into our creek, the depth finder quit showing numbers.

I could see black muck being stirred up behind the boat. At one point I wondered if we would be able to make it through, but Clark persisted and we got past the lowest spot. It wasn't the first time we dredged the end of our creek.

Normally Clark turns the boat around and backs up to our dock because there is no room to turn around at our dock. Today, because of the depth and the predicted rain, Clark decided to skip the turning around part. I had already started setting up fenders and had to move them to accommodate this change of routine.

The rain held off until we got to our dock. As soon as we got there, it started to drizzle. We got our lines tied and then it stopped raining. Because we are tied up opposite to our normal positioning, I cannot get off the boat. Clark managed to jump off to the dock, so he could walk up to the house. He came back with a step ladder, which I have no plans to use. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a break in rain near high tide, so we can turn the boat around and tie it in our normal fashion. Although I am not in a hurry to move back into the house, I would like to be able to get off the boat to stretch my legs.

NOTE: Given we are home now, blog entry publications will be suspended until we commence boating travels. At present, we do not know when that will be.

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2020: Cape May to Barnegat NJ

Depart: Cape May, NJ anchorage 9:30
Arrive: Barnegat Bay anchorage 7:40
Distance: 75.5 nm

Last night, and even after we woke this morning, the plan was to stay the day at the Cape May anchorage and wait until the ocean waters settled down before continuing homewards. As we laid in bed, I heard a noise reminiscent of the sounds I heard on the Loop when a tug went by the boat. Clark jumped up to take a look and came back to report that it was a fishing boat going out for the day.

A while later, Clark called the fishing boat captain on the radio and asked him about the wave action on the ocean. The prediction of 8 footers had scared us off. Clark heard from the fisherman that it was more like 5 foot waves with a 5 second period. Hearing that, Clark decided that we might want to go "take a look" and see if we wanted to brave it out there.


Leaving Cape May to venture into ocean

Waves breaking at the Cape May Inlet

I have never know Clark to turn back once he ventures out to "take a look", so I anticipated an interesting time on the ocean. Having been told it was 32 nautical miles to Atlantic City, I figured I could manage 4 hours.

As I got tossed around on today's trip, I thought "who needs a trip to the amusement park? I have a roller coaster, the Tilt-a-whirl, Roaring Rapids, and the Log Flume all wrapped up in one package by the name of Sunset Delight!" The waves averaged 5 feet. We saw some that reached 8 footers. Some came in triples. We would glide over the first and second and then get dropped in a trough created by the third.

At some point along the trip, Clark decided to make a trip down below to take care of a few things. It was funny to see him bouncing around in the pilot house as he grabbed at one handhold and then the next as he attempted to walk. He looked up at me in the upper helm at one point with a big grin on his face. He was clearly having fun.

I, on the other hand, tried to stay put as much as possible. When visibility on the upper helm diminished so much we could not see out the panel, we migrated to the pilot house. Clark said I could stay up top by myself if I wanted to, but I decided to brave the stairs and made my way down to keep him company in the pilot house.

I considered the merits of venturing as far as the head and studied the waves trying to pick a time that felt like I could make the trip. As I watched for a window to make it downstairs, I saw something I thought was strange. "Is that a marker?," I asked. "Yes, it's a Red/Green marker." Clark looked it up and found it was marking "The Lump" -- a shallow, 16' area.

Then, to make things more interesting, a trap magically appeared out of nowhere. I alerted Clark and he diverted our course. We did not see any others nearby, but as soon as it appeared there were no more, another appeared and then another. Given the wave heights, the traps played hide-and-seek - now you see me, now you don't!  I decided that I didn't really need that trip to the head. After all, we only had two more hours to go to get into Atlantic City!

Finally, as Atlantic City became visible on the horizon, I mentioned to Clark that we had not seen another boat on the ocean the whole time we were out there. He looked on AIS and found a boat about 4 nm ahead of us - Windfall, a 46' sailboat. We turned to go into Absecon Inlet for Atlantic City, but the sailboat continued on northward.

Coming into Atlantic City, I watched the channel markers dancing in the waves.




Finally, at 2:15, we got far enough into the inlet to have the waters settle down. Phew! We made it!


Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, NJ

As we came in the inlet, Clark asked me to drive so he could use the head. I told him I had a more urgent need since I had not seen the head in over 4 hours. When I came back, he gave me the helm. I saw the anchorage at Brigantine was coming up quickly to starboard. Knowing it is tricky to get into this anchorage, I was anxious for Clark to return.

When he came back and took over the helm, he continued on past the anchorage. "What are you doing?," I squawked. He replied, "Sure why not? It's sunny and only 2:15, we can keep going to Barnegat!"  As we talked, we passed under the bridge at the inlet.

I hate surprises, and this was one big surprise. First, I thought we would not travel at all today. Then I agreed to 4 hours on 5 to 8 foot seas. I thought we were done for the day. Given my drastic reaction to his revelation, he turned the boat around and went back through the bridge. Knowing that he would prefer to continue on, I relented and said we should try the trip if he wanted. I just needed to eat lunch to improve my mood.

At that point he was committed to going through the bridge, so he waited until he was on the other side and turned around again to pass under the bridge a third time. I laughed and pointed out that if anyone was watching from shore they either thought we were crazy or we really liked driving under that particular bridge.

So, instead of calling it a day, we continued on towards a new destination. The only caveat ... we would find some shallow water as low tide was at 1:30. Hopefully, it would be high enough when we got to the shallow areas. Sure enough, we found those shallow spots along the way. As we approached Great Bay, we watched the depths go lower and lower and lower until the depth finder could no longer find water below the keel.

We crept through at idle speed. We never bumped. Talk about one extreme to the other, from the waves on the ocean to no water under the keel on the Jersey ICW, we have covered the spectrum. I actually found the 0" of water more stressful than the 8' waves. After that we found more places with less than 1 foot of water under the keel, but nowhere else did we see 0".

When we purchased our first boat, C House, we kept it docked in Mystic Island which is near Great Bay, so we are familiar with these waters from past experience. It was interesting to see the area again after not being here for several years.


Circular Sandbar 

Small, flat island

Old Fish Factory

Beached Red marker 

closeup of Old Fish Factory

Old Coast Guard Station

Now an extension of Rutgers University

After leaving Great Bay, we traveled along Long Beach Island.


LBI

Beach Haven

Solitaire House on an Island

Beach Haven

Street leads right to water - it must flood here at higher tides

Black Pearl pirate ship

Fantasy Island Amusement Park

Colorful houses in Beach Haven, NJ

Continuing on, we passed by a section where dredging equipment was in place.


Dredging Equipment and pipeline

Backhoe on a barge  on Jersey ICW

Cute Little Temporary Marker 

Looking back at the pair of temporary markers

I honestly thought this day would never end, but finally I caught a glimpse of Barnegat Light and knew we would be anchoring some time soon. Unfortunately, we had to follow the deeper water round and round the bay until we got to our spot.


Yay! Barnegat Light!


More dredging equipment near the spot where we chose to anchor

I had no time to cook as we traveled today, and unfortunately, we ate all the leftovers last night. As soon as we got the anchor down, I left Clark to put everything away and close up the upper helm. I went to see what I could find for dinner.





After dinner and dishes, I sat down to work on the blog updates. I should have been in bed sleeping in preparation for another day on the ocean. Instead, I was up past midnight typing away. To avoid rain tomorrow, we need to get an early start. Hopefully it will be calmer on the ocean tomorrow than it was today.