No Mas has new home.

[peterg]

Colonial Beach has a bunch of restaurants, though I have only eaten at one of them. In fact, I've been to CB only once. It is about 1 1/2 hours from my home, but I'd be willing to meet there for a Fall end o' season Compac gathering, sans boats!  Heave To- any suggestions on passable CB eateries?  Open to all suggestions!

[HeaveToo]

Dockside is a great place to eat.  Their food is usually pretty good.  Good food and it has interesting local nightlife!  LOL

High Tides has the best view in town.  Usually the food is good.

Colonial Beach is a good place for a location.  If there are any Southern Maryland Compac Yachts out there it wouldn't be too bad for them as it isn't too far from the Rt. 301 bridge.

Timing has to be good because my weekends are booking up quick.  I work every other weekend (Life of a LEO) and I am on nights so that really stinks.  I don't think that I have an open weekend until around December 20.  We may be best to plan something in January to get the holiday madness out of the way.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Darn!!!  All of this planning, holidays, etc. and I am still trying to figure out when I can get down to the boat to wire in the new radio.  Oh well, no rush, spring is a long ways away right now.  Ugh!

[Mas]

So....calling all Middle Peninsula and Northern neck Comoac owners, lets find an excuse to get together during the Not Sailing season to talk about the Sailing Season!

We got three of us ready to meet and apply some 12oz ballast and grub! Love to have a good slip warming party for No Mas, she's never been on the east coast, wanna make her feel welcome!

[Shawn]

http://www.frontier.net/~chappell/

Very nice boat!

Shawn

[Mas]

Thanks Shawn, she has seen much cruising time since that piece. Some of the items have long departed from the boat, such as the dodger, propane grill, zip on flys and one of the anchor/rode combo's. She has gone from Bristol to Very Good condition but all she really needs is a little TLC and to cruise the Chesapeake!

Has traveled from Clearwater Florida to the Great Lakes, to Colorado, to Alaska, to Sea of Cortez, back to Colorado, to Mobile Alabama, to Topping Virginia. We were saving the best for last!

[HeaveToo]

You will get her back to that order. 

The canvas work stuff is really not that hard to do.  If you find a good used sewing machine with metal gears that is half of the battle.  It saves you a pile of money.

If you can't do it my last boat had bimini, dodger, connector, main sail cover, and a hatch cover made by the Ship's Taylor in Deltaville.  This was VERY high quality work and impressive.  The previous owner did it so it was probably expensive. 

The previous owner had a bimini, dodger, connector, and main cover on the boat prior to my purchasing it.  The material is not sunbrella and the frames are aluminum.  This is fine but I wish I had stainless steel frames and sunbrella.  I may eventually fabricate my own.  Getting new frames would be the expensive part.

One of the most important pieces of cruising gear is screens on a boat.  Trust me, if you find the black flies or mosquitoes you will be thankful you have them.  Most areas can be prone to this.

[Mas]

Thank you so much HeaveToo! I hear you on the bugs! We have camped extensively on the outer-banks of N.C. We simply don't go in the dead of summer, but have spent as much as a month in remote camping situations. Having good fans. good awnings and GOOD SCREENING, is paramount to enjoying the remoteness. One of the reasons we went solar 20 yrs. ago. Liked the fans and refrigeration. Can't go get ice!

Not sure about lots of summer sailing, will just have to see. Gotta assume the nettles have gotten no better, and airs can be kinda iffy. Still the long daylight hours, the water temp. and lazy feel of a summer's day are pretty good draws! A bad day on the boat is better than a good day at work most of the time.

[HeaveToo]

One other warning...Beware Reedsville.  They have fish factories there and in the wrong wind the stench blows miles out into the bay.  Wit that stink comes the black flies.

Other insects are the mosquitoes that are by the marshes.

There are Canadian Soldiers that look like mosquitoes but they don't bite.  They do leave green poop on the boat when they are trapped in the dew.  The stain is hard to get of of the boat.

In the summers you can expect a storm pattern where storms start hitting around 5pm and the chance lasts to about 11pm.  The sailing can be dead or it can be good. 

Spring and Fall watch the Fronts.  After they pass the wind will come out of the North West pretty hard.

My favorite months are May and then September.  September you can expect more wind. 

Fans are important.  My other thoughts are to eventually add an AC somehow to the boat.  Take a slip when it gets really hot and turn on the AC and that will extend the cruising system. 

[Mas]

Will have to see how the tides pull us, as we have an equal love of our mountains, where we spend many winter days in a little place we have at 3,876ft elevation, navigating the frozen stuff! It also becomes our summer get a way, as it sits above the usual summer weather down below. We do however love being on the water and, as mentioned, spent extended times camped with our land yacht on islands off the Carolina coast. (had taken our little 16 there as well) That season has always been late May into June and again in September into October. Same season as sailing, good wind for it, less bugs, less people, pretty chill! We certainly are planning when skills and knowledge of No Mas are ready, to ICW down to those same islands. Compacs are good for the really shoal plagued sounds there. Also some crazy water at times. We were ducking into Silver Lake Harbor on Ocracoke running before a storm that came from nowhere out of the haze and actually produced some water spouts (not near us) that were interesting to watch! Summer sailing, late June. We are planning to be on the water in April with an eye to weather and staying on the water till late October early November when we will pull her out for the winter again.

I also vote for a January meeting, though we will be down working on No Mas and getting her ready for winter over next month or so. I am available most days as we are blessed to be in charge of our schedules. I do know that MLK weekend in January will find me running away from all the crowds that come to our mountain for three days of crowded slopes and general holiday mayhem. Needless to say probably won't be huge crowds heading to the bay that same weekend but many folks do have that Monday off. Jus something to think about. We'd need to figure out the accommodation thing as my brother inlaws cottage will have been long winterized and closed as will No Mas. We can work out that though.

[Mas]

So was thinking about the up coming winter and getting a gathering together that has been suggested by some folks on this thread. Think it might be more available to start a new thread about a Chesapeake gathering, in particular Middle Peninsula and Norther Neck Virginia for a location but open to all?

Some thoughts and suggestions have been wait till after the holiday crazies and do in January. MLK weekend has Monday of for many.......what do ya think? New Thread?

Chime in HeaveToo and PeterG.

[HeaveToo]

We could do a thread in the meet-up forum. 

Northern Neck may draw some Maryland sailors.  We can make it simple, informal, but fun then it would be a good thing. 

I would love a Chesapeake raft-up someday.  That would be fun but to be our own group we could ban PBR and go with better beers and rum.   LOL  Nothing wrong with a little vitamin R!

[Bob23]

BAN PBR??? I'll bring the Gosslings, Newfy's, Pussers and Kraken!!!!!

[Mas]

So...we have had draft beer on tap since 1991. My son has a small brewery that sells another fermented product but he still makes great beer just for all of us. This could go in the "upgrades or hardware section" but seems to fit here.....a mod for small kegs on board   Hmmm...second thought, might never leave dock!

Yup, i vote of some where central to most. I am located a fer piece from our boat, 2 1/2 hours, but the Northern neck is not much different drive time. I also vote for January after the holiday crazy stuff.

[Bob23]

Mas:
   Remember that the 4th annual MWG is January 16th. Check here for the info and c'mon up!
http://cpyoa.geekworkshosting.com/forum/index.php?topic=8903.msg66690#new
Bob23

[Mas]

Good point, will have to see what makes sense. Looks like a fun gathering.