October 3-October 11 (and just like that, I’m all caught up!!!  The following website pages are also updated: “Floatplan” and “Cool Boat Names”.  See where we are headed after Annapolis and make your plans to come visit us!)

“A tourist remains an outsider throughout his visit; but a sailor is part of the local scene from the moment he arrives.” – Ann Davison (first woman to cross the Atlantic single-handed.  She did it in a 23 foot boat. In 1952.)

“The Scene”

Ann Davison probably made this statement after pulling into Annapolis during the annual boat show.  It’s no wonder that Annapolis and Newport vie for the title of the “Sailing Capital of the US”.  This boat show is pretty amazing.  We couldn’t walk down a dock or through a tent without bumping into someone we know from the sailing world.  And those we didn’t know, we met, and now we are BFF’s.

Porter helps out

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.  We left Rock Hall on October 3^rd, still a little shell-shocked from our passage.  The trip to Annapolis, located on the Severn River, was easy and short.  We pulled into the Annapolis City Marina for fuel and water.  Filling 220 gallons of water into four separate tanks takes a bit of time.  When we finished, we would be going under a drawbridge and heading up Spa Creek to look for a spot to anchor.  As I finished filling the last tank, the drawbridge opened.  We still had to pay and leave the dock, but I hailed the bridge operator on the VHF and begged him to keep the bridge open until we got there.  I wasn’t in the mood to hover in front of the bridge for another half hour, which is what we remembered the schedule to be.  We made it and waved frantically to thank the bridge operator as we slid through the bridge.  It felt tight and we realized we haven’t been through a narrow spot like that.  Imagine our embarrassment later that night when we learned that our new friends on a 50’ catamaran had made it through the bridge!  Their beam (width) has to be upwards of 20’ (ours is 14’)!  We’ve been teasing them all week that we are going to hang out by the bridge the day they leave just for the entertainment of seeing them go back through it.

some anchors have a hard time holding in mud, as this boat owner and homeowner found out.

We headed up the creek and the it got narrower and narrower.  No place to anchor.  It also got shallower and shallower.  No place to anchor.  I stood on the bow and tried not to be distracted by the adorable homes on either side of the creek.  We saw an empty spot up ahead and made our way to it.  Just as we got close, Chris announced that the chart ended, which meant that we couldn’t be sure what the depth was.  We decided to throw caution to the mud and carry on.  No problems and we anchored without a hitch.  Well, actually, we anchored with a hitch, which is what you want.

Touring the Annapolis Yacht Club with Bill Museler

Once settled in, we started contacting our friends on Anything Goes and Full Monty.  We toodled over on our dinghy after getting settled and said hello on our way into town.  We were excited to meet Bill Museler, who is Lana’s friend Lisa’s father-in-law.  You with me?  Because there will be a test later.  Bill extended his hospitality to us while we are in town by signing us in as guests at the Annapolis Yacht Club.  We were able to use their gorgeous showers and the dinghy dock all week.  You have no idea what a bonus this was.  The public dinghy dock for the boat show is a madhouse.  The dinghies are tied up four deep if you can even get a spot.  The dock is also located over on the other side of the harbor from Spa Creek.  Um, did I mention the showers?  I have been one happy woman this week.

As I mentioned, the show was great.  We bought a watermaker!!!!!  We have four fresh water tanks on Patronus, holding a total of 220 gallons of water.  The typical American family uses 300 gallons of water a day.  We have managed so far to make 220 gallons last a week and then we have to find a marina so we can fill them up.  When we get to the Caribbean, the marinas are farther apart, especially if we find a cool, secluded spot and want to chill for awhile.  The water quality can also be a bit sketchy.  With a watermaker, we can make 30 gallons per hour from salt water using the power from the engine or the generator.  This will work very well to tide us over until we can find a source of fresh water.  I can’t wait for it to be installed.  While we will still need to be ultra-conservative with our water usage, we will have a great back-up for emergencies, especially on our long passages.  Yay!!!

The kids talk to Doina Cornell, author of a book about her childhood cruising with her family on a sailboat.

We also attended several seminars as well as touring the new boats and cruising the tents for gadgets, electronics, furling equipment, guidebooks, and other sailing goodies.  Chris went to a seminar on weather and we all took one on safety at sea.  The kids and I loved the panel discussion on living aboard with children.  We also attended one on cruising the Caribbean.  Porter asked me today when we were going to our next seminar.  I think the kids just liked the “free” pens and notepads on each seat.

Anything Goes and Patronus join the salty group of sailors in the Salty Dawg Rally.

We also attended a get-together for the Salty Dawg Rally.  A rally is a group of boats who join up and do a passage more or less “together”.  Oftentimes there are meetings, seminars, and parties at the front end, and lots of parties at the destination.  The Salty Dawg Rally offers some nice perks for passagemakers without being as structured as some of the other popular rallies.  They also don’t charge to take part in it.  Two great features are daily weather forecasts specific to your position and a free mooring at the Bitter End Yacht Club once you make it to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands.  We attended the party with Craig and Wendy from Anything Goes and we have both registered for the rally.

More highlights included taking a tour of the United States Naval Academy, eating crepes at Suzi’s Crepes (three times), finding a great bar and grill, called Armadillo’s (where we helped a newlywed couple celebrate their wedding), ice cream at Annapolis Ice Cream, purchasing new flip flops for Reese, and doing massive amounts of laundry from our passage (everything gets pretty gross after 2 ½ days at sea.  I can’t wait to see what 10 days will look like).  We also got to see the McMillan Cup at the Inter-Collegiate Hall of Fame.  Chris competed in this regatta in college and his team won it.  It was a big deal for Cornell back in 1992, so it was fun to visit it and tell the kids all about our Glory Days.  They were very proud of Chris but really wanted to know how much prize money he got!

Billy Lockwood, Chris, some random guy, and Mark Plogh at Mark’s Doyle Sails booth.

It was great seeing our old sailing friends Mark Plough, Bill Lockwood, and Jeff Ewinson.    We also saw Jim Villone, our boat broker, which is always fun.  We finally got to meet Jeff and Mary Pernick, fellow Beneteau 473 owners.  Chris and Jeff have “known” each other through the Beneteau 473 owner’s forum online for awhile.  We both moved aboard about the same time.  It was great to compare stories about how we managed to outfit our boats for full-time living aboard.

Mark sets up the boat show.

The best story by far was getting off the dinghy at the Annapolis Yacht Club for the first time, walking less than fifty feet through the parking lot and seeing a woman waving her arms at us.  She was wearing a construction vest and a “STAFF” hat for the boat show.  I thought she was telling us we couldn’t come into the boat show yet, which we knew since it was the day before it started.  But it was Julie from s/v Rachael, the boat we hooked up with up in Somes Harbor, on Mt. Desert Island (Acadia Nat’l Park), Maine.  She recognized us from across the parking lot!  It was great to see her and her husband Mark, who are working the boat show to add funds to their cruising kitty!

Julie secures the perimeter of the boat show.

Laughing and telling stories till late in the night. We also had 8 kids on board.

We spent some fun days and evenings with the families from Full Monty and Anything Goes.  The kids all played wonderfully and we traded stories, compared boat projects that have to be done before our crossings, and started to make some headway on just exactly how we were each going to head south.  We went to town together, played at the park together, and spent time on each other’s boats.  It was getting really chilly as the week went on, so on the last night we ended up huddled all together inside our boat.

After installing our new barometer, Chris gives a science lesson on air pressure.

As friends old and new left Annapolis, we found ourselves alone again.  We had work to do on Patronus and decided to get it done while we had access to hardware and marine stores.  Chris replaced the jib halyard, cleaned out the aft starboard lazarette, took measurements to decide where to install our new watermaker, prepared the Safety Locker for our upcoming passage, installed a new barometer, dealt with an exploding holding tank, replaced all the hoses in the aft port head, fixed the generator when it wouldn’t start one morning, and more.

enjoying the quaint old homes of downtown Annapolis. I’m such a sucker for milk-paint!

I continued on with homeschooling, cleaned the dinghy, and started a few projects that will help us on our long passage.  I rearranged our food cabinets and took stock of what we have so I can provision the boat before we leave the states.  We also made a last minute list of things to have sent to us from home.  Among the items we would like to add are: our dictionary, kite, craft supplies, our Thule cables and locks to use for our dinghy, and Reese’ journal, which I forgot to pack.

On Thursday, I took the kids to the Annapolis Maritime Museum to see the Oyster exhibit.  It was small but well done and thorough.  We learned that oyster fishermen are called “watermen”.  They use long tongs to scoop up the oysters.  Due to overharvesting, they are limited to collecting 15 bushels per day.  The industry has changed drastically since the 1950’s, when it was a huge part of the economy down here.  We watched a video of a master shucker.  It looks really hard and dangerous to shuck oysters.  The kids enjoyed the aquarium, which was filled with oysters and other fish.  They also got to climb on some old oyster boats to see what it might be like to be a waterman.

Well, we leave Annapolis tomorrow.  It has been a great week soaking up the full-force, undiluted sailing culture.  Sailing is in our blood and we have been surrounded by those who have it in theirs as well.  It truly feels like family here.  We felt part of the local scene from the moment we arrived and are reluctant to leave.  The head is still a work in progress, but the dinghy is clean and Baltimore awaits.  Cowboys-Ravens this Sunday.  Chris has been looking forward to going to this game with his Raven-fan friend Mark for months.  I’m looking forward to spending the day with my friend Christina, who will visit from Vienna, Virginia!  And now for the traditional litany of photos I couldn’t fit in the post….

Wendy, Craig, Erica, and Chris on Anything Goes

6 kids. Ages 6-13. Playing for hours.

Dinking up the creek with t/t Anything Goes (t/t = tender to)

Porter and Olivia playing Legos on Patronus

Jenny, Wendy, and Erica on Anything Goes

Chris, Wil, Craig, and Simon on Anything Goes

Looks like serious business, but it was way too loud to be schoolwork!

Porter’s tooth falls out at the park….

…so the crew helps him find it:)

Olivia and Porter. Beautiful Children.

Reese and Kate. Same stride.

Sign of a good boat party: lots of dinghies tied up out back…

Porter and Reese wave across to Bryson, who is in the other pontoon of this catamaran at the boat show.

Porter sits on the heating vent to warm up in the cold mornings.

The kids stare in awe at the silver trophy Chris won for Cornell in 1992. The McMillan Cup resides at the Inter-Collegiate Hall of Fame.

snuggle time is mandatory until the boat heats up in the mornings.

Guess where I’m headed?

The bridge of a 58′ catamaran. Lounge chairs, a full-sized grill, and a sink…

Our new motto.

view: moon. that’s it.

September 30- October 2, 2012

As I write this, I am sitting up on deck.  It is 2121 on October 1^st.  We are on passage from Noyac (Sag Harbor), Long Island, NY to Annapolis, Maryland.  Patronus is sailing just south of Atlantic City after 38 hours underway.  We are headed towards Cape May and will travel up the Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal.  The canal will take us into the Chesapeake Bay.  It is pitch black out.  There is a full moon, but it is currently hiding behind the clouds.  As I sit and remember the sweeping, sunlit, sparkling views from the Southeast Lighthouse on Block Island, it is interesting to note that I am just as in awe of my current view, which is so different.  What I see in front of me are the red and yellow lights of the tall buildings in Atlantic City, set against a canvas of blackness.  I think about all the space around me, and that there are only five people (us) in all the ocean around me, as far as I can see.  Then I think about those lights on the shore of AC and how many people are in each of those buildings.  It’s mindboggling.  There are only about half a dozen more red lights visible along the coast, and the faint white of light pollution over Cape May in the far distance.  On the other side of the boat, I see one lone pinprick of a white light: the remnants of a ship that passed us astern about an hour ago.  I expect it to disappear over the horizon in about 20 minutes.  I like how everything seems to move in slow motion at night.  In front of us, to port, I just now made out the flashing red buoy that means we are getting closer to our destination.  It is the first buoy we have navigated since Montauk, yesterday morning.  It flashes once every 4 seconds, but when you stare into the darkness, directly into the wind, your eyes play tricks on you.  Four seconds feels like an eternity and you convince yourself that that buoy must not be there after all.  But then there it is again and you go check the chart for the 20th time to see if you have gotten any closer since three minutes ago.

hugging the bucket

We left at 0800 on September 30^th.  We had a smooth ride through the Peconic Bay to Montauk, but the current and tides around Montauk Point were nasty and caused one, two, three of us to go down for the count with seasickness.  Once out in the Atlantic Ocean, the seas were calmer, but I had a bit of a fit when I realized, for the fiftieth time since July, that the wind was coming from the exact place we wanted to go.  As I mentioned before, you can’t sail directly into the wind.  And our boat, being a cruiser, can’t even sail anywhere close to the wind.  We need about 45 degrees (in either direction) to sail close-hauled.  That means that we can sail very happily if the wind is coming from any one of the OTHER 270 degrees.  Ok math majors.  You know that this means, (ignoring prevailing winds, gravity, the presence of Dramamine, and friction), that we have a 3 out of 4 chance of getting a wind direction that is possible to sail in.  Why, oh why do we always seem to be going in the exact direction from which the wind is coming?  It is mathematically unacceptable.  I plan on lodging a protest.

By 1745 (almost ten hours after starting), we finally turned the engine off and were sailing in 12 knots of breeze from the Northwest.  We were just south of Shinnecock Inlet, which is where our boat “Charisma” was docked when I lived on it as a child!  Alas, by 1900 the wind had died and the iron genny (engine) went back on.  Be careful what you wish for, folks, because by 0100 (ie. dark, cold, and kinda scary), the wind had filled in and we were crashing along in big seas from the NW with swells coming in from the SE (picture the water movement in a Jacuzzi and multiply by the size of the ATLANTIC OCEAN.)  Chris was on watch and I was trying to rest in the Port Aft Cabin with Porter (anyone out there figure out yet that we named our third child after the left side of the boat?).  Bryson and Reese were in the Starboard Aft Cabin (good thing we didn’t have a fourth.  “Hey Starboard!  Time for dinner, Starboard!”).  Our cabin is useless because it is in the bow and it rises up on the waves and then comes crashing down with a violent smack.  Your body

seasickness bands, water, bed…

literally lifts off the mattress if you can actually lie there for three minutes without losing your lunch.  We were on starboard tack, which means the sails were on the port side (isn’t that confusing?).  The boat was heeled to port, which means that Porter and I were both rolling towards the hull.  I was “sleeping” with my every muscle clenching the mattress to avoid crushing him.  Doesn’t that sound relaxing?  But Porter was so cute.  He would wake up every once in awhile and ask me a question, as if it was the middle of the day.  One question was why the boat heels over.  Another was about what I do when I’m up on watch in the middle of the night.  He sounded completely awake and alert.  I would answer him and he would say, “Ok, I’m going back to sleep now,” and in ten seconds he would be completely out.

You can see Chris’ bright yellow TETHER, which is connected to the yellow JACKLINES on the deck. Keeps him from falling overboard in the rough seas.

At 0200, just as I was drifting into semi-consciousness for the first time, I heard “ERICA!!!!” from the cockpit. (Even you non-sailors have got to know that this is NOT. GOOD.)  I jumped up and grabbed my lifejacket as I climbed up the stairs.  I saw Chris running forward towards the bow and looked to make sure he was clipped into his tether.  “THE JIB HALYARD BROKE!!!” he screamed.  He took the sail down and I ran around releasing the jib sheet, turning on the deck lights, and grabbing sail ties so that we could secure the giant, crushed up jib on the deck till morning.  Don’t ask how, but I managed to get a video AND this picture after (kind of after) we had everything secured.  I really need help.

The excitement left us both stunned and nauseous.  We sat in the cockpit for a bit, not quite sure of what to do.  Chris had been up on deck for hours.  It was definitely time for me to stand a watch, but I was terribly seasick and almost threw up.  The seas were huge and I was not sure I’d be able to handle the boat in my state.  So I stayed with Chris until he felt better and then I went back down to huddle in bed again with Porter.  I came back up at 0630 and made Chris go to bed, even though he would have to miss the sunrise (he still hasn’t forgiven me).

blogging on night watch

Here I am, back on watch for another night.  The seas are much calmer.  So much so that I can bring my laptop up on deck.  The blackness around me is divided into two parts.  There is the cloudy, slightly dark gray blackness of the sky.  Smooth, soft, and blurry.  Then there is the deeper, more sinister blackness of the ocean below.  Choppy with waves, a white cap flashing now and again.  It is bottomless, velvety, enigmatic, and unpredictable.  The boat around me is dark.  Everyone is asleep below me.  I see only what is lit up by my computer screen: my hands, my mouse (can you believe I can’t use a touchpad and have to haul this little mouse all over creation?), the American flag fluttering in the breeze (are we supposed to take it down at night? Because we can’t fit one more thing in these lazarettes.), the tow line for the dinghy, hopping up and down as the dinghy jumps the waves of our wake, the striped cushion that I am sitting on, and my foul weather gear (have I mentioned how much I love my foul weather gear?  Hey, at least I’m getting my money’s worth out of this ridiculously expensive outfit!).  I’m wearing Chris’ Dubarry sea boots because I have been too, er, cheap, to buy my own.  They are huge on me, but we’re mostly up on deck at opposite times during the night, so it’s not that big a deal to share them.  They cost $300 and let me tell you something-they are worth every penny.  His boots are nineteen years old.  He got them for his Trans-Atlantic race in 1993 and they are in perfect condition.  My feet are so cozy right now.

Our red and green bow lights will alert other boats to our presence.  If they see our red bow light (hanging on the port/left side of the bow) and our white stern light, they will know that they are approaching a sailboat on its port side, which means it is traveling right to left.  If they see our green bow light and our white stern light, the opposite is true.  If they see only our red and green lights, they know they are heading right at us.  This information can be super helpful:)  Other types of watercraft have other lighting patterns, so I can tell a fishing boat from a tug boat pulling a freighter, even in the black of night.

Oh look!  Here comes a tug boat and freighter now!  Slow moving and ominous, the vertically stacked lights on the tugboat almost blend in with the lights on shore.  I have to pay attention to see that they are moving.  Far, far, far, far behind the tug boat are the horizontally lined up lights of the freighter.  Between the two boats is a dangerous cable that would destroy us if we accidentally sailed between the two boats thinking they were separate.  We are far off shore from the tugboat, so there is no danger.  I wonder if the captain sees us?  We both have AIS (he is required to have it).  AIS is the next generation of technology that allows boats to see each other on a computer, especially at night.  Even before I can see another ship, I can see her on my AIS screen, along with her name, position, direction, speed, port of call, and destination.  If we are on a collision course, it will sound an alarm and tell me how long I have until we meet up close and personal.  Likewise, other boats will be alerted to our presence.  There is a possible downside to this technology that pertains to piracy, so we may take special precautions when using it in the Caribbean.

one of many freighters that passed us

On the morning of October 2, we entered the Delaware Bay and rode the current all the way up.  Woo hoo! There was a lot of shipping traffic and at one point I had a ship coming up from behind and one straight ahead of me.  I had to move way out of the shipping lanes to allow them room to pass each other.  “Gross Tonnage Rule” applies here, as we used to say.  We took in our sails and entered the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal at 1115.  It was an interesting stretch of water, with lots of turns and bridges.  Even though we know we fit under all the bridges (their heights are published on the nautical charts), from the vantage point of the deck looking straight up, it always looks like we are going to hit.

and the next word is…Chesapeake!

The kids had really gotten their sealegs by this point, so they were doing schoolwork.  I even gave them their spelling tests up on deck while I drove the boat!  After leaving the canal, we started down the Chesapeake Bay and wondered how far we could make it by nightfall.  We had the current with us here as well and we were flying over the bottom at up to 9.3 knots per hour!  I really hoped we could just get to Annapolis and get it over with, but Chris decided we would stop in Rock Hall, MD.  It was a good call.  By 1800, we were pulling into the harbor, holding our breaths as we carefully navigated towards Waterman’s Crab House.  The depth here is a sketchy 7’, and it was low tide.  We haven’t run aground yet, which means we aren’t real cruisers, so we’ve been waiting…

a harbor never looked so welcoming

But we made it through okay and pulled the boat up to the first dock we have stayed at since we left Haverstraw on July 1^st.  Three months to sea and we have only anchored or stayed on a mooring.  Not bad.  And Waterman’s only charges $1.00 per foot for dockage.  We were pretty impressed with ourselves.

It was pretty neat to step out on land after 58 hours, having sailed 372 miles.  I was so proud of the kids.  They had played, ate, slept, and done schoolwork without complaint (once the seasickness had abated).

Reese keeps busy underway practicing her yo-yo skills

on dry land. We made it!

We made a beeline for the restaurant at Waterman’s Crab House and ordered a ridiculous amount of food, including lots of fresh crab.  We met a great couple in the restaurant, who took a picture of us as we entered the harbor.  I’m still not sure why they spoke to us at all.  We must have looked like a scary bunch after 2 1/2 days at sea (and only one of us had taken a shower in that time.) Bill is a Chesapeake ship captain, and both he and Tammy had wonderful advice for us on where to visit during our stay.  We really enjoyed meeting them and are so happy that they will be following along with us on our website.  Thanks again Bill and Tammy!  We finally stumbled out of the restaurant and down the dock.  We were delirious, full, and tired, and we couldn’t wait to get to sleep.

Bill’s photo of Patronus entering Rock Hall, MD

Going through the draw bridge at Spa Creek

The next morning, we got underway at the crack of 1000 and pulled into Annapolis’ harbor at 1350.  We fueled up, took on water, and snuck under the Spa Creek bridge just as it was getting ready to close.  Up, up, up the creek we went (not to worry, we have 5 paddles on board).  We anchored all the way at the end, which was the first place we could find.  Turns out a “few” other boats had it in mind to come to the Annapolis Boat Show as well.  Two of those boats were the familiar Full Monty and Anything Goes, which we passed in the creek.  We’ve been following their blogs since we started and actually met the folks on Anything Goes back in Martha’s Vineyard.  Looks like it’s going to be a fun week in Annapolis!

washing dishes underway

playing DSi’s underway

Reese painted a postcard for her class while underway

entering the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal

the blue line is our course. the red boat and line shows our actual path.

watching the ships go by on the Delaware Bay while eating cereal. Porter lies on the folded cockpit table.

Patronus docked for the first time

en route to Annapolis

Reese reads while we fuel up

filling the water tanks. I am smiling because a shower is in my very near future.

Last stop in the Northeast!

September 24-30

Patronus in Noyac Bay

A 42-mile leg sailed us right out of our first chartplotter chip and took us from Block Island to Noyac Bay, which is located on the north shore of the south fork of Long Island, New York.  This is home waters for me.  I grew up in several places on Long Island.  I was born in Ronkonkoma and then lived on our boat in Oakdale on the Connetquot River and the Shinnecock Canal in Hampton Bays.  Noyac is located in the town of Sag Harbor, which is not far from the Shinnecock Canal.  Off the boat, I lived in Port Jefferson Station, which is where I went to school.  Then I lived in Farmingville, for those of you who are interested in my entire biography.

Our old across-the-street neighbors from Ronkonkoma own a vacation home in Noyac.  My dad and Kathy were on up from Florida, staying at the house in Noyac, which is why we decided to anchor here.  Our floatplan allowed for a detour to Long Island so that we could attend my cousin’s wedding on September 29^th.  We were all excited to spend the week with my dad and Kathy and then see lots of family at the wedding.

We got to the beach in Noyac in the early evening and met my dad and Kathy.  My dad had a shirt wrapped around his neck and across his face.  We were completely confused until he unwrapped it to reveal a beard, mustache, and ponytail!  In 40 years I’ve never seen my dad anything but clean-shaven with his trademark swoosh of blond hair.  He looks so different and I am now seeing how much my brother Matt looks like him.  You can tell that he is really enjoying his new look, which is very cool.

Happy Birthday Bestefar!

We had dinner with them that night and the kids got to sleep over in “the house with the tiny steps”.  The next few days were filled with a whole lotta hanging out, doing schoolwork at the house, going to the park in Sag Harbor, celebrating my dad’s birthday, and doing errands like going to the supermarket and CVS.

King of the World!

the “tiny steps” provide literally hours of fun

ahhh. television….

School with Miss Mema and Principal Bestefar

next door neighbors: 30 years ago…

Midweek, we were surprised with a visit from Joe Hayden.  You won’t believe this, but Joe was our next door neighbor in Ronkonkoma in the 1970’s!  AND, Joe is my friend Keith Bernhardt’s brother.  We visited with Keith and his family in Marblehead, MA.  Such a small world.  Joe happens to work on the Noyac house from time to time and had stopped by to take a look at a pocket door that was off its track.  What a great little Garden Court reunion!  All we needed was Erik and Judy, who actually own the house!

checking out the bamboo forest

catching up with his buddy James Cecala on the phone

enjoying Mema’s appetizers before dinner

The highlight of the week was our “Field Trip”.  Miss Mema took us to the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead.  We had the place practically to ourselves and we took advantage of all the events, such as the sea-lion show, the penguin and shark feedings, and the river otter discussion.  In between, we checked out the beautiful tropical fish, the koi pond, the rays, and the jellyfish.  As always, I loved seeing the seahorses.  Porter loved the penguins, since that is his favorite animal.

practicing excavation with little brushes and hidden skeleton bones

Here is what the kids learned about their favorite exhibits:

Bryson: Shark Tank

Sharks can breathe through their gills.

Sharks eat fish bigger than minnows.

The biggest shark is the whale shark.

(Here’s what I learned: I am going to completely lose it if I run into one of these giants while SCUBA diving in the Caribbean.)

Reese: Sea Lions

Sea lions can be trained to follow people’s fists, then things such as a little buoy on a stick.

A sea lion’s back tail hops up and down to help them move on land.

Sea lions can swim up to 25 miles per hour and make a wake when going that fast.

Porter: Penguins

The penguins wear a bracelet that helps the trainers know how much food they got, if they are a boy or girl, and what their name is.

They have webbed feet.  There are rocks in the exhibit to help the penguins dry their feet.  If they have wet feet, then they might get a foot fungus.

I saw one penguin jump in the water, swim down, eat a fish, and jump back out.  I think penguins don’t like swimming.

mermaid statues

We made sure to give our respects to King Neptune

On Saturday, we spent the morning getting ready for my cousin Kari and Greg’s big day.  We dug out our fanciest clothes and I actually blow dried my hair.  We were all excited about spending the day with our extended family.  My aunt and uncle had also flown up from Florida and we would be seeing cousins from New Jersey and Maine.

The wedding was on the beach in Shoreham.  It was the most beautiful set up I have seen for a wedding ceremony.  The chairs were set up in a spiral, facing inward.  It was pretty and intimate and everyone got to see Kari and Greg up close.  When the bridal party walked in, they walked in and around the spiral to the center, so we all got to see and smile and touch hands with our loved ones as they walked by.

As I watched Kari walk down the steps to the beach with my Uncle Brian, I remembered when she was born.  I remembered her as a toddler and as a twelve-year-old.  I wished her true happiness in her marriage to Greg and thought about what it must be like to watch your daughter grow up and start her own life.  It was all beautiful and set against the backdrop of the gorgeous beach, surrounded by family.

After the ceremony, we enjoyed a cocktail hour and reception that was pure fun and celebration.  Amazing food, a memorable best man speech, great conversations, love all around, and dancing into the night with my dad, my cousin Lisa (see our post from Spruce Head, ME), and the rest of us crazy Andersens.  I loved the Kranse Kake that my Aunt Judy made.  This is a traditional Norwegian wedding cake.  She did a great job making this difficult cake and it was delicious!

Norwegian Wedding Cake: Kranse Kake

The kids had an absolute blast.  My Aunt Judy had set them up at a kid’s table with gift boxes full of toys, art supplies, and other fun stuff.  They teamed up with my cousin Erik’s daughter and hit the dance floor all night.

The highlight, as always, was watching my dad, Kathy, Tante Betsy (tante=aunt in Norwegian) and Uncle Rich perform “Paradise By the Dashboard Light”.  Somehow, the DJ always plays this song when everyone has already kicked off their shoes and when beer bottles appear to be perfectly acceptable substitutes for microphones.  When I tell you these people know every single word, including the bit by the baseball announcer, I am not kidding.  By the end of the song, all the twenty-somethings had retreated to the bar.  I think we simply scared them off.

Bryson catches the garter and gets asked to dance. Good night for him…

Uncle Brian and Cousin Lisa dancing the night away.

We got back to Noyac at midnight and had tired but happy farewells on the dark beach as we all loaded into the dinghy.  By the time we got back to Patronus, put the kids to bed, and prepared the boat for our trip the next morning, it was almost 0230.  NBD.  It’s not like we have a 375 mile passage in front of us or anything…

(More wedding photos can be found on our Gallery page.)