Six years ago Hurricane Isabel

Hurricane Isabel - that was another rough night on the creek! Last picture from the RYC webcam before we lost power is the lower image - a comparison picture taken a few days after calm and power was restored (top picture). The boat on the lift was recovered in its new high and dry location on top of the RYC dock with a large hole in the hull. The building in the center completely disappeared! Water level in the creek rose over 7 to 8 feet above normal. Reminds me thankfully that 2009 hurricane season has seen the lowest activity for over 10 years.

Rough Night on the Creek!

Deep Water Access is Courtesy of Tax Dollars and Corps of Engineers

RYC gets deeper water access overnight.... the dredger is moving inexorably down the creek at about 12 ft per hour, sucking the silt from the bottom of the channel and pumping via a mile long tube to a disposal site some way up the creek. Around 5 pm the sharp pointy end - an ugly rotating multi-bladed bit ( just the sort of tool that James Bond would find himself on the wrong end of... ) - appeared on the surface and a couple of engineers fussed over it for half an hour before resuming the action - this looks like a 24/7 operation. It will not be a quiet night in the creek tonight....

Caribbean Christmas 2007

Remember lying in the netting of the bows of the brigantine Royal Clipper under sail somewhere off Antigua on one of those RYC Expeditions and looking down at the ship's figurehead..... twas the night before Christmas....we are long way from the Yacht Club on the Rappahannock River! For more shots on this adventure click here..

Life Expectancy 120,000 Hours

The latest in Green technology welcomes you to the RYC - LED lights embedded into the steps of the entrance to RYC guide your path without dazzling your night vision. The manufacturers quote a life expectancy of 120,000 hours (that's 13 years continuous use!) before failure - certainly beats the ol' filament bulb...

400 Years Later....

Video team from RYC was at the ready to record the re-enactment of Captain John Smith's exploration of the Rappahannock River. These volunteers who on calm days rowed the shallop must have had blisters on their palms as they manfully... yes and womanly... put their backs into the sculling of the shallop up the Rappahannock River. Well.. the welcome in the Tappahannock area was a stunning - a shower of arrows welcomed our conquering heroes... the biggest problem the re-enactment crew faced was how the rest of the crew would tastefully turn away from the bows as each member of the crew - guy or gal - made use of the open-air bow restroom.

Short Cruises in Bermuda Habour

Late June after the stress of the RivahFest Duck Races we took off for a few days in Bermuda. The Fairmont has two resorts, one in Hamilton in town, where we were based, and one in Southampton on the South Coast where the Warterlot restaurant can be explored... the wonderful menu and atmosphere drew us - Emerson, Kathy, Margaret & David - back for more. On the way back across the harbour we were hit by a violent squall and were welcomed into the shelter of the wheelhouse by Captain Damien, The next day, by chance, we boarded the public catamaran ferry to the Bermuda Dockyard and were once again welcomed to a private crossing on the bridge of the high speed cat under the expert control of Captain Damien again - his day job - what a wonderful way to get to know the people, community and lifestyle of Bermuda!

Rubber Duckies Invade the Waterfront

In late June we at RYC and friends had a lot of fun organizing a yellow rubber duck race as part of marine activities for our local festival Tappahannock RivahFest.  We sold tickets for three thousand ducks and threw them all over board when we thought the tide would be on the ebb... however they decided for a few minutes to paddle upstream until this exhausted their energy levels when sure enough the tidal stream had the last word and moved them towards the finishing line.  We handed out nearly $2,000 in prizes that afternoon.

50 Year Reunion

We met at King Edward's School Witley boarding school in 1959, both in second form, then again in College in Brighton and set off in our 1950's ex-army Land Rover to Istanbul non-stop, and later, in 1975 we partnered and bought Ellicat, a Iroquois class catamaran and restored the boat together, the long weekends of hard work rewarded by Joanne's delicious Sunday roast dinners before our long haul home to Cheltenham. A swift pint or two in the pub at Portsmouth late in September 2009 with John and Joanne brings back many memories of boarding school life, boat projects, fishing, traveling to far flung places, riding on John's Vespa and in the Isetta, sailing to destinations along the Normandy and Brittany coasts, and many other vibrant and rewarding aspects of life! Check out the scenes from those restless years.

Introducing Nautical Porta John: the Navi-John

The latest in nautical restroom technology complete with 360° all-round viewing windows  appeared in the creek, complete with small lifting hoist, monster mooring bitts and diesel engine. Danny Joe of Evansville Indiana is a little far from home, however, home is as close as the nearest loo.... just kidding, this is a mini tug used to maneuver the iron snakes into position to begin the big suck.

Invasion of the Iron Snake

What a frightening sight.... over one mile of metal tubing is dragged up the creek in readiness for the big suck...i.e the five yearly dredging of Hoskins Creek.  For the last two days tugs have been moving supplies up the Rappahannock and staging them at buoy #1 which resembles a shanty town of barges, generators, pumps, drums and tubing. Two tugs then pull the 24 metal suction pipes up the creek to be later joined together to form the pumping pipe for the dredged spoil to be sent up the creek to a receiving pond.  More to follow....

Tardis Returns to the RYC

After a bottom antifoul and a few refit jobs, Tardis is now home at RYC and raised out of the water on her new specially designed boat lift.  Now begins a longer detailed refit that will last until Spring, a list of jobs that tackled one by one make for an interesting project, if presented all at once would almost certainly invite you to take the anchor and jump in the creek.

Tardis Takes a Tow

Like a house dog that does not want to go for a brisk walk in the cold rain, Tardis was hooked up and towed reluctantly from Garretts to Hoskins... she desperately wanted to go on a tangent course so increasing the tow speed helped modify here attitude.  We did 6.5 knots over the ground, helped by the last hour of the flood tide. After disconnecting tow lines, and attempting to move Tardis between docks, I lost contact with one of the poles and we found ourselves drifting powerless and helpless down Hoskins Creek without so much as a paddle!  Fortunately Rockfish season is open and a kind angler used his 70 lb trolling motor to nudge us back to the dock and continue the docking process in the new lift.

Here comes the Hoss....

Navigating the Rappahannock is mostly a piece of (crab) cake except some days there is a different breed of navigator around.... preparing for the Hoskins Creek dredging suck means positioning loads of equipment barges on a budget, and Hoss is on a tight schedule! Heading back down river, this tug came straight at us at top speed with no hint of having seen us... so we took evading action -  with Tardis in tow -  and rolled through the huge swell that Hoss churned up.  Photographic evidence suggests there was a shape in the wheelhouse but was he dozing? Maybe two and half red balls on the mast would be appropriate - 'only partially under command'.

Gone to the Dogs

In case you are wondering what the dogs are about, they are an experiment to show how easy it is for clients to update a blog by iPhone (or other web enabled mobile) from the field.  Talking of iPhone, Aqua-Patio-1 went on a mission today to retrieve Tardis and tow her back.. yes... light winds was the excuse.  However the newly acquired Navionics app was beautiful.... charts from Maine to Florida in incredible gory detail for $9.99 and update free every few weeks.  The GPS linked chart shows realtime location, course, SOG - that speed over ground for the uninitiated, 13 knots!  What will come next? Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version....

Digital Wisdom Vacations at RYC

Much much more to come on this topic......

A typical day at Digital Wisdom.... while the boss is away...

The Old RivaHaven Yacht Club

Back in the 50's Howard Reisinger developed the Old Yacht Club above the Marina store. Age, rot and termites took care of the buildings and they were removed in early 2000 and a new three slip boat house with three electric lifting boat hoists were installed. The old boathouse had pilings that were driven into the creek bottom mud using the same steam piling hammer used for the Downing Bridge - when time came to remove them, all efforts failed and divers with underwater chain saws were called in to finish the task.

Harry the Heron takes off

Harry was a little on edge this morning... arriving early at the RYC
we disturbed his slumber and off he went on the food chain trail

Range Markers Line up the Dredged Channel

Finding your way into Hoskins Creek is easy!  Courtesy of the Army Corps of Engineers, the channel is dredged every few years giving a typical 10 foot working depth at MHW all the way up to the Purdue grain elevator.  Just make sure at buoy #1 you line up the two range markers and keep them in line all the way in - the channel shelves to 3 feet immediately outside the dredged area!  On the chart above, the range markers have been marked with a red dot - RYC is shown as a blue box.  Note the wreck of the Caponka on the right hand side of the chart - more about the wreck in a future news report.

St. Hazel Visits RYC

Amongst earlier visitors to RYC, before there was talk of the RYC news feed, St. Azel of Urbanna came alongside the end of the Yacht Club dock and stayed for a week - is 30 miles upriver far enough away from home to be called a vacation! David & Hazel Laughton, world sailboat cruisers for 20 years of their former lives, brought their newly restored Cal 246 alongside RYC pier - possibly the shortest cruise in their sailing lives! Once alongside, Hazel and David's two Airedale terriers, Hogarth and Megan, kept the resident groundhog and racoon wildlife confined and in full retreat. 

Tug Traffic on Hoskins Creek

The Port of Tappahannock has daily barge shipments of grain leaving the tortuous creek a few feet away from the RYC slips and boat sheds.  Heavy wash currents are generated as the tug captains turn up the revolutions and swing their rudders hard over and effect the pivoting turn on the two sharp bends to reach the main channel - occasionally missing the bend the barge gets stuck in the mud but the wise captains always leave on a rising tide and wait it out a few minutes before their cargo comes unstuck from the suction of the mud. 

"Miss Jean" of Norfolk VA navigates the first of the two sharp turns - looks like she was originally from Louisiana - still visible across the stern "Port of ?xxxxxN City LA" - could it be Morgan City, Louisiana....

Time Out for Tardis

"Tardis of Tappahannock" takes a tough bottom scrubbing - high pressure jets remove barnacles and algae and finally reveal the beautiful lines of her hull.  Garrett's Marina applied a coat of anti-fouling paint, a new boot stripe,  a little buffing, and removed an antiquated outboard bracket from the transom - and now we are ready for a sail back to RYC, or maybe, wind not permitting,  a tow up river.  

Fruits de Mer - Normandy Style

Late last month a RYC expedition to harbours we once visited in our Iroquois catamaran landed us in Carteret on the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy where lo and behold a dozen local oysters beckoned tasting. The taste of the ocean oyster along with lemon and a vinegar mignonette was a Proust moment, "Rememberance of Things Past", a life lived some 30 years ago sailing and touring along the rocky shores of Normandy and Brittany. One big difference: tidal range of 2 ft in the Bay, 40 ft at springs in the Baie de Mont St. Michel.

Annapolis Sailboat Show

Last day of the show.... After the Southampton Boat Show (UK), Annapolis was a bit thin on the ground and lacking enthusiasm. Hit of the show was Tomatillo Soup and Fish & Chips! followed closely by sail furling systems, electric sailboat propulsion and teak gratings for a dining table - that allows the bread crumbs to go straight to the floor.

Fruit de Mer - Rappahannock Style

After steaming it's much much less dangerous to pick up each crab and feel its weight! Depending on where they are in the moulting/shedding cycle some crabs will be fat, some will be light and not worth much effort in cleaning. Seasonally the crabs move back to the Bay for the winter and are generally fat in readiness for a dormant winter burying themselves deep into the mud of the Southern Bay, so typically crabs harvested at this time of the year are ripe for the picking!

Now, melt some butter and cut up lemon quarters, spread out the old newspapers and arm yourself with a small sharp knife and enjoy one of the best free meals in town - available on the Rivahaven Yacht Club menu when in season.  Lastly and by no means least, order up a glass of chilled Chardonnay or a light Lager - nothing compliments crab like this!  Bon appetit! 

Crab 201 - You Won't Feel a Thing.....

One hour after hauling the crab pots, the steamer awaits!  We use a tall pot with a strainer that sits a couple of inches off the bottom of the pot.  Load up with a cup of water, a cup of white vinegar, salt and a healthy splash of Od Bay Seasoning and bring to boil.  The challenge is getting as many in the pot as possible - 34 crabs took three steamings - we use tongs to transfer from the cooler to the pot and most times they have their claws so firmly attached to another crab, you end up lifting as many as six crabs at a time.  Whatever their objections, their fate is sealed.....

Crab 101 - Girl Crabs

Crab 101 - Boy Crabs

Last Crab Draws First Blood

In my enthusiam to empty the crab pots one eager Jimmy took a nip at my index finger and a painful yelp later I knew what his fate was about to be.... 34 crabs later, they were transfered from the crab pots to the cooler - I like to empty the pots back at the dock for the ease and comfort of a stable working platform, and anyway I was not putting the crab pots back out again this year.  In one of the pots we caught a catfish and he was glad to be released back to the river - he had plenty of souvenir scars from spending a few days in the same confined area with half-a-dozen hungry crabs.

End of the Crabbing Season

Bright and clear morning on the Rivah! Time to pull up the crab pots for the last time this season.  We tried yesterday but the 20+ knot wind on the river made it an uncomfortable ride with plenty of water breaking over the bows (yes it is a catamaran - two bows). Let's see what beautiful swimmers await us this morning!

Our line of 4 pots is spaced out at intervals along the 6 foot depth running SE to NW between the wreck of the Caponka and marker #1 entrance to Hoskins Creek channel. In the distance behind the marker, the Downing Bridge is visible with the Captain Thomas daily summer cruise disappearing upriver to the Ingleside Winery.

New Grain Loading Pier at Purdue

Over the summer there has been a major reconstruction of the loading pier and facilities that feeds grain into the barges in Hoskins Creek, It appears that loading time has been shortened and turnaround of the tug/barge units has improved.  One drawback to the new system is the constant billowing cloud of grain dust that now seems to be a feature whenever there is a breeze.

Harry has Breakfast!

Harry the Heron (or is it Harriette) snags breakfast from the creek early one morning. This is a sizeable fish that swam too close to Harry's favourite ramp and that was the end of fishy.  Harry looked like he did not know quite what to do with his prized catch, but eventually after a lot of fish wriggling, the fish disappeared down his gullet.  I think this was a Blue Heron Malox day.

Another Beautiful Morning on the Creek

USCG Visit RivaHaven

An expensive looking toy appeared in the creek on Thursday, October 8.  Admire the twin Honda's and gun mounting, ready for action on the Rappahannock River.  

The previous day a small grey official looking boat appeared in the creek and began a serious underwater survey, nipping back and forth, a few feet away from a previous track, nosing into slips and coves.  This probably heralds a major dredging operation in the not too distant future.

RYC's new Boat Lift for Sailboats

Just completed and installed by CamJes Enterprises, the new 12,000 lb lift is uniquely designed to take sailboats out of the murky waters of Hoskins Creek and prevent the keel becoming home to thousands of barnacles, weed and other slimy half-life. The cradle of the lift drops three or more feet below water level, the sailboat is brought in between the bunks and a "V" shaped guideway brings the foward end of the keel to a rest at the optimum point, then the lift can be raised with the vessel perfectly stabilized and balanced.

"Tardis of Tappahannock", our 24 ft Kittiwake, is currently under refit and care of Garrett's Marina [www.garrettsmarina.com] and will sail upriver back to  RivaHaven Yacht Club in October.