Arrrgh!!!

Okay.....the title of my blog is based on the name of my husband's boat. We sat around for a week tossing out possible names, arguing the pros and cons of each, wishing we had a really clever choice to settle on along the lines of "Cutty's Ark." We finally went with Arrrgh!!!, or so I thought. When the paperwork came back from the state, I discovered that DH had opted to change the spelling. I STILL give him a hard time about it.

The Arrr!!! is a 32 foot Bayfield sailboat. It's a cutter, which means it has two foresails (jibs) and a main sail. She's having her 20th birthday this year. Bayfields were made in Canada, so when it was time to do some serious looking for a new old boat, we went to the Toronto area to take a look at several that were for sail. Let me tell you, there's a LOT to learn about buying a boat in Canada and bringing it to the USA. We found out about it the hard way. :-(

Fred is so addicted to boating that he makes a boat widow of me from about May 15th to October 15th. I've been on the Arrr!!! a number of times. The year we bought her, I helped motor her upriver to the harbor where we moor her in Chicago. It was a beautiful day in June, and we made it through the locks without any problems, despite being novices.

Last year I went with to put her in the water, and it started raining just outside the locks where we stopped to have the mast shipped. It went downhill from there. The water on the harbor side of the lock was horribly choppy, and got worse closer to the mooring. We hooked up to the mooring ball and were rocking so roughly that I could barely keep to my feet. I began to contemplate whether I could make it to shore if I hurled myself over the side of the boat and swam for it Ya gotta know I'm not that great a swimmer.

It must have been the word "hurl" that did me in, because I got to worship the galley sink god. Again, and again, and again. FINALLY the tender came for us, and I realized they wanted me to jump from this madly rocking boat to THAT madly rocking boat. It wasn't a matter of courage. By then, I was so sick that I really didn't care much what happened to me. PLEASE GOD......DROWN ME!!!

The cheery boaters on the tender all reached out their hands to me and I THREW myself at them. They pulled me in, and I huddled in one corner praying that the trip wouldn't be long.

He can have his boat, and I'll garden and quilt and blog. I'm never gonna sail on a small sailboat again. Give me the Statendam, anytime! lol

Yep......today's the day. Fred toodled off with the Arrr!!! Anyone who is driving on the Eisenhower in Chicago....please wave as he goes by. He's the one towing a 32' sailboat.

Fred is addicted to water. I don't know where this came from, since we have lived our lives in a (mostly) land locked state. I always thought he was destined to be a pilot, and I would have been THRILLED to go flying with him. Somewhere he took a 180 degree turn and ended up a sailor instead. I wouldn't mind it if I didn't get violently ill every time I get on the boat.

We've tried every remedy known to man: Dramamine, Bonine, pressure strips for the wrist, ginger cookies and ginger tablets, ad nauseum (literally!). And nothing works. I suspect part of it has to do with the roughness of the harbor, and part of it is that the risks my free spirited husband takes scare me to death.

Soooo...each summer I become a boat widow. From today, May 17th to October 15th, he will be gone almost every Saturday and Sunday, off sailing Lake Michigan. This year, though, we have claimed two of his very early sailing days. On June 8th he has agreed to accompany me in the Walter Payton 5k Fitness Walk. And May 31st his only daughter is getting married. He asked her if he could wear his boat clothes to the wedding...... She didn't smile.

During the early and late stages of my widowhood I do all sorts of things out doors. There's an antique fair I love to visit, and the Gold Coast Art fair is fun. I do a lot of gardening, and try to get in some walking. I make plans to visit friends for lunch or brunch, and I make short trips. But when we get to mid July and August, I hibernate in my home. It's too HOT to go out!

I'm collecting books for the summer reading session, and looking for cool recipes for meals. You'll find me here, wondering where everyone else is. Come by and visit, ya hear??

Monday night, Dear Husband drove us to Chicago to see the Tall Ship Serenity. The Chicago Maritime Society was hosting a fundraiser and it gave us the opportunity to board the Serenity and visit below decks. She has two compact living areas separated by an engine bay. As you can see below, she has two masts and four sails. She’s lovingly maintained. Her woodwork is glossy and the bright work gleams.

At 65 feet, Serenity is one of the smaller ships to participate in the Tall Ship festival. She’s a steel bottomed, gaff-rigged schooner that was built 1986. Her usual compliment is three, but she is certified to carry 34 passengers.

The Serenity sails out of the Cape Charles area of the Chesapeake Bay. Her owners rent her out for special occasions. The website is www.schoonerserenity.com If my pictures turn out, I'll have some closeups of her this weekend.

DH was quietly observing the construction and the rigging, assessing whether it could be sailed solo. He had technical questions for the owners and asked about the handling. I'm sure he envisioned himself at the helm. *S*

The Tall Ships were in Chicago last week. A number of them docked on the Chicago River to provide easier access for visitors. As the Bounty motored into the Chicago River, she brushed against one of the bridges and lost three spars at the top of her masts. The general opinion at the gathering was that the accident had made her more historically correct.

The ships sailed out of Chicago on Monday on their way to other ports around Lake Michigan. I hope the'll be back next year. They are a beautiful reminder of a long gone era.

I'm practicing on pictures today, so I thought I would share two close-ups of the Serenity with you. This is a picture of her bow:

And this is a picture of her belaying pins, midships.

I thought today was the last day the ARRR!! would sail this season. I was wrong. Dear Husband spent the day taking down sails, taking down the boom, and stowing "stuff" in the cabin for the season. Because we spent yesterday celebrating my niece's wedding, he didn't get to sail this weekend. That was a major concession for him, and he never said a word about it.

I was working in the office when he got home. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and he should have been out until 5:30 or 6:00. I went to find out if he was ill, and he told me how he had spent his day.

Next Friday, he'll drive to the city and stay overnight on the boat for the last time this summer, and then he'll be at the lock early Saturday morning to have the mast stepped. Then, he'll motor down the Chicago River to the boat yard where the boat will be craned out.

It will seem odd to have DH back after a season of solitary weekends. Of course, you understand that there will be WEEKS of putting the boat to bed......*S* Maybe by January we'll have some time together.

The Arr!! has returned home for the winter. Friday night, Dear Husband went to Chicago to spend the night on the boat. He left the truck and trailer at the boatyard and then took his first EL ride to get to the boat. That alone was an experience. It seems the train didn't stop at his stop the first time around. He stayed on and did the entire trip around the Loop to get to his stop.

Neither of us have ever ridden an elevated train, so it follows that we've never purchased a ticket, either. DH put a $20 bill into the dispenser for a $1.50 fare, thinking he would get change. Instead, he got a little credit card worth $20 of rides! I'm going to make him take me to Chicago to ride the EL and go Christmas shopping. That's going to be one expensive elevated trip! lol

This coming Saturday, my husband will again make me a boat widow. The ARR!! will be banded into the Chicago river and will motor it's way up river to sailing freedom.

This year, my niece and her husband will be making the trip with Dear Husband, and Sister #1 is also going to go! Despite the fact that he'll never get me on that damned boat again, I hope for them that the weather is exceptional so they have a good time.

DH was at Strictly Sail in Chicago this winter and found a catering company that specializes in catering for boaters. It must have caught his fancy, because he bought home a laminated menu attached to a floating key chain holder. The boat could go down, but the menu will survive!

He's actually ordered a meal for the first excursion. I'll miss the meal, but I won't miss the trip. Nothing he could do would entice me back on that damned boat!

This is the menu for the day:

Tuna Nicoise Stuffed Baguette
Antipasto Stuffed Focaccia
Beef Tenderloin, Parmesan, Arrugula on a Ciabatta Role with Balsamic Dressing
Farfalle Pasta with Olives, Roast Tomatoes, Asparagus and Black Pepper Vinagrette
Kettle Chips (seems mundane after the last four entries)
Cookies
Virgin Mary Mix (add your own Vodka)

Now, if you should sail with DH in the future, you'll be lucky to get a sandwich from the deli and a bottle of water, but the trip up the river he does with class! Sign up to the right--------->

The Arr!! disappeared down the drive a few minutes ago. I am officially a boat widow for the next five months.

Yesterday I was having a dreadful day in the office. The phone rang constantly, interrupting all I was trying to wade through, and the fax machine kept spewing paper at me. My sister called to say that she could get away earlier than she thought....could she come to dinner after all?

In the midst of all this, I get another call, and it's Dear Husband, who is outside, working on the boat. He was having the kind of crisis that would leave me wringing my hands and fretting in a major way, but he calmly asked if I had a moment to help him.

I haven't been on the Arr!! for two years, and I fervently hope I will never have to be on it again. The Arr!! is a Canadian built Bayfield sailboat. It seems to me that it is about 32 feet long, and roughly 21 years old. It is my husband's pride and joy, and each year I become a boat widow for the weekends between May 15 and October 15.

Chicago has a limited boating season. Only the really hardy, or the truly addicted, sail earlier or later than those dates, but it can be done. Lake Michigan can be exceedingly choppy in early spring and late fall. Because the winds are stronger then, you can get more speed out of your boat, but you also have to have a cast iron stomach to deal with the chop.

Dear Husband is staying overnight on the boat tonight. There are some joys to being a boat widow. This list may not do anything for you, but it's made my day!

1. I slept late this morning.

2. I spent most of my day working on a quilt top.

3. I got to touch the remote control.

4. I didn’t have to cook a big dinner.

5. I watched "Don Juan De Marco."

6. I can sew as late as I like without disturbing DH.

7. I have a quilt top laid out on the floor, and it's not in anybody's way.

8. I may go out to breakfast in the morning, go to a quilt show, and stop by the nursery tomorrow to pick up day lilies, and still have some time to do some mulching.

9. No cooking.

10. No cleaning up.

HURRAY!! NO COOKING OR CLEANING!!!

Everybody needs a relaxed day like this now and then!

Saturday, I did my morning errands, and then started some chores at home. I was pruning the dahlias along the front walk when Dear Husband drove up the driveway.

Remember....it was the day the Arr!! was to return home for the winter. I could hear the stakes rattle on the truck as he made his way up the drive. When I could see the nose of the truck, I knew something was wrong. I should have been seeing the rear of the boat, backing up the drive.

As he drew even with me, I asked if he was missing something. He nodded and went to park the truck. I was afraid he was going to tell me that the boat was sitting along the side of the tollway. (Scary thought.)

The Arr!! made it down the river, but it seems that our boatyard was not lifting boats out at that site on Saturday. They are building a new boatyard, and everyone was working at the new yard. So, the Arr!! is tied to a dock at the boatyard off the Chicago River. Dear Husband will have to go back in midweek to pick her up and bring her home.

Although the Arr!! is not my favorite entity, I'm glad to know that she wasn't sunk or rear ended by a semi-trailer. We'll have to celebrate her return later this week.

About five years ago, I attended the Strictly Sail convention on Navy Pier in Chicago. It's a wonderful activity for sailors held at the end of January or the start of February when one can't sail in our climate. Sailors gather to see the newest boats, tools, clothing, equipments, sails.....anything you might need to sail a boat.

Along with the exhibition floor, they offer dozens of one hour seminars on all sorts of subjects. Occasionally we would attend different classes, but frequently we sat through seminars together. One that I attended that year was about sailing in the Pacific. It seems that atolls are ringed with coral reefs, and there is usually only one area where you can cross through the reef to moor.

Yup, it's that season again.

Two weeks ago, while Elegant Mother and I were in Iowa, Dear Husband took the boat to the boatyard and they craned it into Lake Michigan. He's spent the last two weekends getting the boat squared away.

Not a Large Mac from you know who....but the Chicago to Mackinac race up Lake Michigan. This year is the 99th sailing of the Mac, which is sponsored by the Chicago Yacht Club. Every boat competing in the Mac must have at least one member of the Chicago Yacht Club as part of its crew.

Two hundred thirty five boats were signed up in the various classes to participate in the race this year. The fastest passage was 23 hours, 30-some minutes, but most of the boats will make the trip in 48 to 60 hours.

Some people will make just one Mac trip in their lives, but the sailors who are addicted to this race can join the "old goats" when they have competed 25 times. Some families have generations of sailors who have competed.

Dear Husband is a solo sailor, so he's not in the middle of the pack tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if he chooses to do the solo sailed race sponsored by the Solo Sailing Society one day. You can bet I'll blog about it should he go!

yep...the time has come. On Saturday it becomes official....boat widowdom for 2006.

Dear Husband had to part with the Arr!! so that the transmission could be overhauled during the winter. When the boat yard worked on it, they discovered that the support, or housing, for the transmission had cracked, and it had to be replaced. They let DH have the boat back long enough for the annual scraping and patching, varnishing and minor repairs to be done, and then it had to be returned to the boat yard.

By Saturday, the yardies should have put the boat into the water, taken care of the loose wires and tested the engine. Dear Husband will collect it, and motor twelve miles north to the mooring. I hope for his sake that the rain we had today, and expect to carry over to Friday, will have abated before he takes the wheel. It's going to be COLD out there. He doesn't need for it to be raining, too.

When the boat yard was located on the Chicago River, I enjoyed the trip upriver in the spring. It was astonishing to motor though the glass canyon, and see Chicago's magnificent buildings from an entirely new perspective. Now they have moved south along Lake Michigan, so the trip is not quite as much fun.

Dear Husband is always eager to get onto the water and get squared away. After all, he's been waiting all winter to return to the water. So, the very next day after the boat returns to the lake we celebrate Mother's Day. Next weekend, we celebrate our granddaughter's second birthday on Saturday. In June, there's a family reunion the day before Father's Day. I wonder if he will get to sail at all that weekend.

Don't feel too bad for him, though. Once we get into summer proper, he'll leave here on Saturday morning, and we won't see him until Sunday evening. He hires my nephew to mow, and everything else has to wait until October 15, and the end of the Chicago sailing season.

I've been making a list of things I want to do on the weekends while he is away.... The Sandwich Antique Faire, the bookseller's fair in Chicago, a number of movies coming out shortly, the Farmer's Market, perhaps the Art Museum. I want to QUILT!!! I plan to put the frame back up in the living room and watch reruns of Gray's Anatomy, House, M.D. and Boston Public, while I improve my quilting stitch. I'm starting to collect "summer" books, and there's always weeding...

I'm a boat widow.

Boating season in the Chicago harbors on Lake Michigan starts May 15. Dear Husband will be having the Arr!! craned into the water the weekend after the fifteenth.

Today, the UPS man delivered the new sail. DH is going to be like a dog with a doggie treat when he sees it sitting on the floor!

Dear Husband did the first mowing of the lawn Monday and Tuesday. He's also trimmed a tree that is hanging over the SW corner of the house. He's trying to get chores out of the way so that he can focus on the Arr!!

He's done just about all the varnishing on the boat (I think), and he's going to let the yacht yard take a look at the engine before he takes it to his new mooring.

If you'd like to go for a boat ride on a 32-foot Bayfield, send me a note. Dear Husband takes people along for the sail. I'm going to post a message on the family message board that they need to make their reservations now! *G*

And, before you ask......no...I won't be sailing this year. Think of all the gardening and quilting I can get done, and the visits to the antique fair and the farmer's market! No sailing for me.

...I'm a boat widow.

I rose early today. Dear Husband kissed me awake as he usually does, and then he headed out into his day. I hurried to dress, but I wasn't quite quick enough. I made it to the window to see the stern of the Arr!! start it's ghostly trip down the driveway.

I fret on this day. Not because I will be a boat widow for the coming summer, but because I can envision DH pulling the Arr!! on the Chicago tollways as rush hour builds. It can't be a fun trip!

It's light out, the trees are still, so he has the advantage of little or no wind. He'll be in Chicago in less than an hour, and then I think he takes the Dan Ryan south. No one in his right mind travels the Dan Ryan, especially towing a boat, unless he MUST. You can tell what an obsession this is for Dear Husband.

Sooooooooo.......quilting, gardening, visiting antique markets, looking for garden walks to visit.....girly things rule! (If we do this long enough, one day I might actually sound happy when "The Season" is upon us. Until then, I'll just fake it.)

I was expecting my boat widowhood to end today. Dear Husband took the trailer to the boat yard last night in preparation for the homecoming. He spent the night on the boat, a last hurrah for the season, and motored to the boat yard early this morning.

He'd said that maybe 17 boats were ahead of him waiting to be lifted out. I didn't expect him to come home early today. A little after 4:00 he called to tell me that he was on one of the major Chicago tollways with a flat tire on the trailer.

It's VERY difficult to help long distance! I went to the computer and began searching in whitepages.com. A friend also searched, and sent me a more helpful search through MSN, where I found a 24 hour truck service. The problem is, the trailer has smaller tires than most trucks.

One of my family members works for the county sheriff's office, and he called the state troupers and asked to have a patrol car check the situation. Our problem is that the tire shops are closed for the night, and that boat and trailer will not be moving without a new tire.

We hope that the truck service is going to come through for us, otherwise, Dear Husband will have to separate the truck and trailer and leave the boat at the side of the road, a thought I don't want to entertain!

I'm going to go search for all night tire dealers, now. With any luck I'll get my husband back for the winter, soon.

Dear Husband called to tell me that the Truck Service had found him, and brought just the tire he needed. He chose to leave the interstate and make his way home on surface roads. When he got close to home, he called again. I pulled on shoes and socks, and a long-sleeved t-shirt jacket to protect my arms from the mosquitoes. I grabbed a flashlight and headed down the driveway. We both made it to the end of the driveway at the same time.

As he was backing the boat into the drive, a car coming up behind him turned on his brights, to light the area. It didn't help a great deal, but I thought it was kind of the driver to give it a try. DH had the boat into the driveway within two minutes, and then things went much slower.

DH drives a truck with a 14 foot stake bed. He's VERY talented at backing it up with loads like equipment trailers, cement mixers or boats attached, but backing up our driveway in the dark is exceptionally difficult. The driveway is more than 250 feet long, and has a bend in it. That alone is difficult, but at the bend there are trees right next to the drive on either side. DH told me he was trying to miss the west tree...and pointed out the scrapes, just about at boat level, and admitted that he'd had some close calls over the years. Now add darkness to the mix, and you can imagine how difficult things were. He actually had the boat in the perfect position when he stopped. Unfortunately, the truck has to be in the perfect position, too, and it wasn't.

Please make note in your Day Timers: I am going to praise my husband!

Dear Husband had the sense to turn off the motor, leave the truck, and lock it up for the night. He left it standing on the drive, and came in to have some supper. He finished the move this morning, all by himself. The Arr!! is settled in for the winter. Over the next week or so, DH will off load food, sails, cushions, and anything that might suffer from mildew. I really think he's trying to make it less inviting for the raccoons! *G*

As my sister might say...."Home again, Home again....."

My boat widowhood is coming to a close for 2007.

Yesterday, Dear Husband began clearing the boat of anything that might freeze or mildew. He carried in bags of food and began emptying them out onto the island in the kitchen. The food is still sitting there, minus a couple of Rice Krispies bars.

What is it about a cleared off counter that draws JUNK to it like a magnet?? We will be hosting a brunch on Friday morning. Knowing that I work more slowly now than I used to, I started cleaning off counters and tables and end tables. Every time I get something cleared away, someone comes along to fill it up again! It almost isn't worth trying to do this particular chore ahead of time, since it seems to make more work for me.

Salt and pepper, tea bags and other staples can be saved for next year. Some of the food can go into my pantry, but some of it just won't fit! In the past, we've stored some of the items in the basement, but we found that mice will eat through the metal packets to get to condiments like ketchup and mustard. Can you imagine what that must have done to their digestive systems??

So, one of my chores today will be figuring out how and where to store the Arr!!'s leftovers. Maybe I'll let them sit there for a while longer while I go out and play in the gardens. It's a beautiful day, MUCH too nice to waste on inside chores!

Hmmmmmmm...maybe I could store it all in a sail bag, wrapped in plastic, in the basement. Or maybe a plastic storage box! I think I've just had an "A HAAAAA!" moment!