IN THE FIELD: Shiver Me Timbers

In a previous post [https://dhphotosite.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/in-the-field-out-to-sea/] I described a small bit of my adventure on the Intercoastal Waterway. We saw watercraft of all shapes and sizes during our travels, but when we saw this ship early one morning we joked about how it looked like a pirate ship.

Since our youngest crew member was an eight year old boy and was totally fascinated with pirates, we pretended the buccaneers were still sleeping off the previous nights pillaging and rabble rousing. We told him no one was keeping watch and they would not notice our passing. But if someone had seen or heard us they would have sounded the alarm and subjected us to the pirates’ colorful language and less than civil behavior. And then they would have boarded and raided our boat

We pretended that the pirates most likely would have taken all our provisions consisting of seven pounds of fresh shrimp, three dozen eggs, some packages of carrots and celery, several jars of peanut butter and jelly, four loaves of bread and the multiple jugs of wine. And if we were really lucky they would not find our stash of numerous packages of Pecan Twirls and the full case of family size cans of Dinty Moore Stew. We kept up the fantasy going for quite sometime…after all, what would a boat trip be without make-believe pirates?

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IN THE FIELD: Out To Sea

A number of years ago I was invited to take a trip down the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW), located on the eastern coast of the United States. The Intercoastal is comprised of waterways including rivers, bays and sounds that are inter-connected with locks and canals, and in some locations the open ocean.

My wife’s brother had been a sailor for years and he always wanted to make this voyage. Since he was moving to the Gulf Coast of Florida, this was the perfect time to cast off the dock lines and shove off. And I got to be first mate, cook, assistant navigator, and deck hand.

We met many interesting people along the way who were all heading south for various reasons. A number of folks were sailing the ICW and retiring to points south, and others were making the trip just because they could.

Some individuals were in sailboats or small powerboats and others were in mega-sized yachts. Our boat was 33 feet long which was adequate for the trip. Although, we felt rather puny compared to the military vessels, freighters, and cruise ships we passed by.

We ate and slept onboard, except for one night when we found a marina that served family style meals. We met up with a lot of the boaters we had been seeing along the way, and hung out together for hours telling stories about experiences and sights of our adventure.

The journey started in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, and 11 days and close to 1200 nautical miles later, we pulled up to the dock in Florida.

This is an ocean going tugboat I photographed in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, which is really like a small ocean. I was especially drawn to the the colorful paint on the boat with the background of blue sky and water.