Thursday 23 June 2011

Common Sense

Hi y'all
Good news! Common Sense has been surveyed and put through a successful sea trial, and, as soon as some complex financial and insurance matters have been settled, we'll be moving aboard. We got to meet the owner, Dave, who bought his first boat at the age of ten with money earned from digging clams and retrieving golf balls. He's a tough 73 year old with a voice like Jimmy Durante (he's from 'Noo Joisey'). Dave obviously loves his boat and she has been very well equipped and cared for. His previous boat was named Nonsense, and he reckoned he's learned a bit since then - hence, Common Sense.

Here are all the particulars of the yacht for those interested:
COMMON SENSE is a 2002 Catalina C42 Centerline, wing keel Hull #810. This sailing vessel has A/C, Radar, VHF, Auto-pilot, Depth, Wind, Chartplotter, Bow thruster, Dinghy davits, Bimini with connector, EPIRB, Furling main, Furling 135 genoa, Doyle asymmetrical spinnaker with sheets, sock and ATM, Dual bow rollers, 44# Delta 140' 5/16 chain w/150' 9/16 rode, 44# Danforth 60' 5/16 chain w/150' 1/2 rode, 33# Danforth 20' 5/16 chain w/150' 1/2 rode, Anchor wash down at anchor well, push pull switch wired from anchor windlass, 4 pad eyes on deck for dinghy tiedown, Inside & outside genoa blocks, 5 sliding midship cleats on tracks, Full teak cockpit grate, Full dodger with side curtains and covers, Bimini with connector to dodger, Custom closed cell cockpit cushions (do not absorb water), ICOM VHF with remote at helm, 2 aluminum 10# propane tanks, Magma gas BBQ grill, Raymarine 6001 auto-pilot with remote, Gahauer lifting davit at transom, 6 to 1 purchase, 2 additional cleats at transom for dinghy tie off, Dock water connection at transom, Custom teak companionway doors, Custom helm seat, Life sling, 2 jumbo fenders, Spare new 18x12 3 blade propeller, Speed seal on engine salt water pump, Remote to control deck lights, 3 Hella turbo fans, Leather covered wheel, Custom wine glass holder & silverware drawer in galley, 2 boat hooks, Flares, Flag halyards, Misc spares include: new fresh water pump, macerator pump, head pump kits & engine impellers, any special tools & electrical spares necessary for maintainance.

Don't imagine for a minute that I know what all those things are! However, the in-mast furling mainsail is great - very easy to manage - and the bowthruster minimises the chances of an embarrassing encounter with the dock. Various other smart fittings and gadgets should ensure that we can manage her safely and live in reasonable comfort. And it's good to know that all the weeks we've spent in small apartments and motels have been a helpful transition from living in a big home to the simplicity of life aboard.

We're looking forward to exploring the Chesapeake Bay, with its beautiful forests and farmlands, its extraordinarily rich wildlife on land and sea (every marker has a huge, fully occupied osprey nest with lookout!) and of course its history of human occupation and conflict. The Bay has witnessed it all, from Native American settlements, the explorations of John Smith, European conquest, religious strife and persecution (of Catholics and Quakers especially), the rise of tobacco barons, pirates (including the notorious Blackbeard), the infamy of the slave trade, the Wars of Independence and 1812, Civil War battles, emancipation, nation-building, the fishing industry ... all of these have left traces; there is so much to see and discover.

The loose plan from here is to base ourselves at the marina in Grasonville until September/ October, doing short trips and getting to know the boat. An option on the pen came with the purchase - it's a really nice little marina on Kent Island*, so we're very happy to use it as a base for the moment. Once the weather starts to cool, we'll head south down the Intracoastal Waterway to Florida and the Bahamas. Before next hurricane season starts (July), we'll hopefully be ready for the Atlantic crossing to Europe.

It's a great place to be, but we do miss our friends and family every day, and Terry is just about ready to kill for a nice bit of vegemite on toast!


* I always wanted to live on an island!

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Terry's Beer Tour of the World #2

Note:- most of these websites insist on you keying in your age – there’s plenty of “Prohibitionists” around here still.

#2 Instalment of the Beer Tour of the World


Oak Creek Brewery
Pale Ale.  5% Alc.  Very very nice.  Low fizz, deep hops. One of the local Sedona micro brews.


Sierra Nevada “Torpedo” Extra  India  Pale Ale
From California.  Creamy head, very bitter hops taste 7.2%

Carta Blanca
A bit like old Moretti.  Not too fizzy, hoppy.  Good – don’t know alcohol content

Dinner at Battista’s Hole in the Wall Las Vegas.
Limited menu Italian with dozens and dozens of memorabilia photos on the wall of stars from years and years ago.  This was a famous hang-out joint.
House wine is complimentary – one carafe of red and one white, a Burgundy and a Chablis.  Dinners were pricey for Vegas, $20 - $26 or so, but as usual they came with
1. Garlic Bread
2. Side dish of pasta. 
3.  The Wine (i.e. two carafes) 
You have to be really careful about what comes with what or you order side dishes and then find out you have 5 on your side of the table alone!. There is an ancient accordion player called Gordo who is ultra-famous and appears in the posters for sale – we now know he can play Waltzing Matilda.


Dinner at Max Brenner’s Chocolate Shop
Wyder Pear Cider – very nice.  Only 4%.  Not sweet and not enhanced at all – subtle pear taste to remind you it’s not apple cider (which they also make).
We both had Blackened Salmon, covered with black sesame seeds with vegetables.  Some ridiculously low price for a signature restaurant in the avenues of Caesar’s Palace.  The ciders were $6.95 each, the meals about $17.95 each.  I had a Mexican hot chocolate for dessert, dark hot chocolate with Chili – Carol didn’t like the taste she had but I would happily go back for more of it.  She had a Yemeni cappuchino in a Kangaroo cup (has a pouch in which they sit chocolate squares that melt as you drink the coffee



Sam Adams Noble Pilsner at Hard Rock Café.
Very citrusy but not sweet citrus, more sour.  The sour is probably from the yeast more than the hops. 4.9%.  It is one of their seasonal beers, only made between January and March and to be consumed within 6 months (there’s a marker on the side of the bottle to tell you when “best before”)



Mexican Cantina at Tuscany Casino

Carol ordered the Flaming Fajitas, beef, chicken and shrimp flamed at your table in tequila (makes the room smell nice as almost every table has someone order it)

I ordered a shot of Patron Silver with lime wedges to start with ($7.95 for a large measure)

Carol ordered the Californian Merlot ($4.00 per glass) which was eminently drinkable.

Excellent meal, though as usual here, we couldn’t finish it.

Nice resort.

More on
a)    Dry Pear Cider – bought a 6-pack when we were in our Extended Stay hotel.  Very nice in multiples
b)    Tsing Tao.  Ok but shows a little sweetness that I don’t like

Back to the Mint Indian – another Haywards 5000 then I tried the Taj Mahal a second time – I had this at the India Oven near the Sahara a few years ago.  It’s no better this time.  Strange that it costs $1 more than the Haywards for a 22oz but the Haywards kills it for taste. (ps – the Sahara closed down while we were there – it opened in ’57.  We stayed there one time in Vegas)

Now on the East Coast, where good coffee is easier to get.

Yuengling Traditional Lager
Oldest continuously owned family brewery in America  - established 1829 by a German immigrant.  They were serving it by the jug at the Crab Deck where we had a seafood platter on Memorial Day.  When they serve jugs here, they put in a floating ice container so that the container melts inside but doesn’t add water to the beer – a clear esky brick if you like.  Keeps the jug cold.  A great beer – look at the others in the range.


Jose Cuervo Margarita Classic Lime

Ok, in a motel you don’t have the luxury of mixing Triple Sec, Lime Juice, Tequila etc etc.  So you buy a QUART of  premixed Margarita  for $18:00.  You look at the label and it says 9.9% so you say ah, that’s not even as bad as a classic great red.  Then you realize that it’s actually 19.9% when you do the calculation of by volume and that’s why your head’s spinning after drinking half of it at one go.



Gordon Biersch Golden Export Lager
Very very nice – nothing overshadows anything else – extremely well balanced.  Crisp and clear.
Very pricey at a GB restaurant - $14 a  pint.



Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
6.0%
Very strong hops (added continuously over a 60 minute boil period).  Very citrusy.
Not a light summer sipping ale – winter with a roast leg of lamb and roast veggies etc.
And they have a 90 and a 120!



and more Corona of course.

Spaten
Sensational beer – classic Munich lager.  After the intense hops of the Dogfish IPA60 and the maltiness of some of the Sierra Nevadas, this is great.  Not very carbonated so the head disappears quickly.  Light and fresh but not a “light” beer – it’s 5.2%.  If you see it, buy it.


Buffalo Wild Wings. (it’s a chain)



This place is a blast.
First, when you go in, you have heaps of high tables with stools.  You go from the kid-friendly zone to the young-adult-friendly zone to the bar zone.

There are about 20 beers on tap, including Newcastle Brown and Abbots, Amstel, Heineken, the local Yuengling and others.  There are about 20 tv screens in the bar section alone – 16 normal house size, 2 wide screens and then two that are comprised of 4 panels each. Most have sport  of one form or another.  One runs a quiz show – you sign in on your android and play the “quiz night” format of 10-question rounds.  Then you get told who the winner is – different bars from the Wild Wings chains all play against each other.

The wings and ribs are joined by burgers and quesadillas, tacos, salads etc.  Your sauce comes from the “smilin;” end of the range through the “sizzlin’” to “screamin”.  6 wings plus 6 celery sticks with blue cheese dip sets you back $6.99.  A box of fries is another $3.99.  Coronas are $4.50.

This is unbelievable.  If we had one in Dalyellup, you wouldn’t see me all Sunday, provided you had NFL American Football on half the channels, three Sunday AFL games plus cricket from somewhere and a Big Wave contest from Mavericks.  Maybe an ice-hockey game thrown in for good measure.

In the background, they’d got their hands on the classic CD “Australia’s Best Pub Songs” so we had the obligatory Angels, AC/DC and even a full length version of Aqualung.

They run a Kids’ Day for families – 99c kids’ meals with the Cartoon Channel running and colouring in competitions.

There are two tvs over the men’s urinals so you don’t miss any of the major game (behind glass screens).  I was reliably informed that there are tv’s over the washbasins in the ladies also, but there are no glass screens?

Let’s not stuff around on dessert – you can have vanilla icecream with chocolate topping or chocolate Fudge Cake.  I mean, you’ve got to like one or the other so why muck around with too many choices?

This place rocks.  It’s in walking distance of our suite so no drink/drive issues.  It’s a Monday night and it was near full – The Canucks are playing Boston in the ice-hockey finals and this game (game 3 of 5) is in Boston.  Half the crowd came to watch this, the other half to watch everything, and all the crowd came for hot wings and beer. The start-up guy sang “O Canada” first which got zilch then the “Star Spangled Banner” and that got the bar cheering.  Boston went a)one Canuck carted off in the first couple of minutes then
b)two quick goals
and the place was jumping.

Had to go – couldn’t fit any more beer or icecream in.


Hoges in the Chesapeake.

Friday 10 June 2011

Annapolis - the Quest for Navy Blue





Hi everyone and welcome to the part where this blog gets seriously maritime at last!
This beautiful small city on Chesapeake Bay lives and breathes boating. Its complex and convoluted shoreline has so many little nooks and crannies, jetties, marinas, rivers and streams, and every one of them is crammed with craft from sublime 50 footers belonging to the blue-blazer set to the tiny racers or tin dinghies that every kid seems to own. I'm glad we came here with a fair idea of what we were looking for, or we would have been totally overwhelmed by it all.

So, after a week of orientation (including a couple of days sailing to equip me with some basic skills), today we had a look at a serious contender. It's a 42 ft Catalina that has pretty much everything we're looking for, including some extra features that will make it easier for a couple of creaky fifty-somethings to operate. We're planning to make an offer on Monday - very exciting!! The boat comes with the use of the pen for the rest of this year, so if the offer is accepted, we will make this our base for a while and explore the surrounding areas. The Bay itself is endlessly interesting, and you can access Delaware, DC and Virginia easily from here. We'll probably cruise north up the coast as the weather warms up, then head down to Florida and the Bahamas for winter.

There is a lot to like here besides the sailing and the bay: heaps of great little bars and restaurants; crabs and crab-cakes; gorgeous parks and gardens; woods with massive trees, deer, squirrels and other critters; good bookshops and galleries; fresh blueberries and raspberries; friendly people who love telling you the stories of their town; fireflies when you go for a walk at night ...

By the way, the prospective boat has a very nice guest cabin with its own head, so start making your travel plans as soon as you like!