A Sudden Turn of Events...

By the time November rolled around we had realized that there was no way we could comfortably remain aboard No Quarter and had to retreat back to our home in the 'mountains.' We had landed some decent jobs rather quickly, I in a local eatery and Brian in a scrapyard. When winter rolled it's nasty way through the Ohio Valley, we were called off a lot due to lack of work at our jobs. We were struggling financially, but luckily Brian's sister-in-law who owns a few apartments had a lot of work for us, and without them our winter would have been just as rough back home as it would have been on the boat. We didn't expect to make it back into the boating community until mid-April or so, when suddenly our luck took a turn for the better (and warmer.) Our friend Leo Smith, whom we'd met when he passed through Chesapeake Boat Basin last summer, posted on Facebook that he needed a crew for his trip home from Stuart, FL to Oliverbridge, NY. We jumped on the chance and after a 5 hour Greyhound trip from frigid Pittsburgh to snowy and frankly quite unimpressive Baltimore and there we awaited the train in beautiful Penn Station.
After a loooong and uncomfortable 22 hour train ride we arrived in Stuart, Florida, all within three days.

Just to think a week ago we were staring out the window into a wintry wonderland. West Virginia is not a place of many opportunities, and Brian and I could never express the gratitude and appreciation we have for getting this chance. Separately, we had bad luck, but ever since we met we've tried our hardest to do good for everyone and just hope that one day our luck will turn. Well we must have some very very good karma, because this is a life/career changing experience for us.

We would never be able to do what we're doing without the help and support of family, friends, and everyone we've met along our journey (who are now life-long friends.) Every single one of you have made a huge difference in our life and we could never repay everyone who has helped us, but we are doing everything in our power to get everyone we care about to where we are now. We love all of you and we will eventually be able to pay you all back!

Expedition into the mountains

We set out on our 400 mile journey through the Appalachian mountains. It was a warm and sunny 71 degree November day when we began our expedition. We knew when it was over, 7 or 8 hours later, it would be about 30 degrees colder. We received our first glimpse of mountain between Charlottesville, Virginia and the West Virginia state border.

Our first view of the mountains.

We took interstate 64 past Charlottesville, then traversed the windy (in both senses of the word) and mountainous U.S. 250 which could easily get us from home to Richmond, but after experiencing just a portion of it, I think we're going to stick with the interstates, so thank you President Eisenhower for those. 

It was a little scary following this guy. A lot of the folks, as they would be known as here, travel these roads often, and know what to expect. Despite the intimidating road that lacked sufficient guard rails for my personal taste, it was a fun ride, with many astonishingly beautiful views. 

This was, unfortunately, the only scenic over-look of the journey, but we could see at least three different mountain distances. It was extremely windy standing close to the edge.

      
 

We went from roughly 200 feet to 4000 feet in approximately two hours and we could definitely feel it. We traveled through George Washington National Forest and Monongahela National Forest.

Finally some proper usage of Appalachian mountain power retrieval.

The day before we left we received a wonderful sailing lecture from "The" Bob Murphy.

We learned some very important and crucial turning tips from Bob that will help us every time we go out on a sail from now on. The were some very large jelly fish that we saw out that day, some with bells as large as basketballs.

It started as a really foggy day, but that lifted and gave us a decent day sail.

And so we say so long to the welcoming calls of the Chesapeake Boat Basin and the east coast of Virginia for the winter. We will return in the early spring. 

 

Blue Note Sailing

An invitation found us enjoying a windy sailing excursion this past Saturday, on the 26th day of October with a Tim & Karen Henry, of the sailing vessel "Blue Note." We took them up on their offer and set out at approximately one o'clock post meridiem. It was a beautiful and sunny 60 degree day and the winds were coming out of the south at 13 to 15 knots, causing white caps as far in as the Chesapeake Boat Basin. We released the dock lines and set out, raising sail before we even passed the first red marker. Captain Tim Henry knew right away that we would be reefing the main AND the jib due to heavy winds funneling into and out of Indian Creek.

Once we were into Fleets Bay we could tell that we were seeing chilly three and a half to four foot swells which was well in "Blue Notes" capabilities to handle, although as nautical amateurs it was an exciting learning experience to see the boat heel as far as 30 to 35 degrees.

It was an amazing day for sailing though and we had a really great time. We came back in about four hours later, sailing all the way into the creek and right up to about 100 yards from the basin, where we did the sailors dance of circles, avoiding the shallows while we lowered the sails. 

Our three week vacation aboard the 2nd Fantasy

Sierra and I are spending three weeks aboard this exquisite power yacht. There is also a young kitty here by the name of Annie and we are looking after the two of them while the owners, our friends Tom and Doris, are away visiting Texas and California. I don't feel very politically correct calling this vessel a boat, because it's more of a ship to us. But it is a pleasure for us to be staying aboard their ship for them. It has all the amenities of an apartment or home, including some things that apartments and homes don't have. Such as gorgeous nautical wood work, legions of hidden compartment, resplendent views from every direction, palliation of cramped and confined quarters while keeping our ideal minimal living. I've seen quite a bit of water crafts in the past 5 or 6 months since we've been here of all different shapes and sizes, and every one of them still amazes me with their meticulous and diligent workmanship. Shipping vessels are some of the most glorious and literal works of art that I've ever seen, with exchange values and use values that sore up from the murky depths and well into the sky.

I filmed this short video while aboard as a quick tour or walk through with the hopes that we maybe able to share some of an artists rendering of a nautical home with all the tranquility that a human being could ask for.

Fall is making its presence well known...

We went back home a few weeks ago which was nice. We got to hang out with the children all weekend and they were all super excited to see us, so that was nice spending time with them. Since we've returned it's been constantly drizzling, and we both were fighting off a cold we brought back with us. Our colds have gotten better, but the weather has not. Brian was able to get some pictures of how high the water was from all the rain. 

And according to the locals, that was only about a 2 out of 10. 

Other than that, we had oysters for the first time....eh. It will take a little longer for me to warm up to them. We did get to clean them off though. Approximately 1200 of them. Although we didn't quite acquire the taste for oysters, we had a great time hanging out with friends and making new friends.

September was a good month for diving for us. We got more jobs that month than we had gotten any other month. And as soon as we got back it all just stopped. But it's fall now and we expected business to be dropping quite a bit. After spending this week on the boat, it's kind of made us reconsider staying here for the winter. As much as we'd love to, we think it's going to be pretty cold and damp, so we'll have to see what the future holds.

Jobs are picking up

Since our most previous post, we've had three dive jobs in one weekend, and we have three more lined up! A friend of our here at the Boat Basin mentioned that he knew a girl who did diving in the area for a while and had a nice line of customers, but she has since then stopped diving, so he passed our information to her, and I think we've already received our first job from them. I couldn't stress enough still how much people have been helping us out, this really is an amazing place.

Before we heard of this news, I had to start applying for jobs in town because there's no way we can continue to dive in the winter, so we need to have something to sustain us through the cold months. We do plan on staying on board all winter, but the owner here Clay has a cottage that we maybe able to rent out if it gets too cold.

We're planning a trip home for the 27th through the 30th of this month. As much as we love it here, we do occasionally miss home. More so family and friends than the area itself, but if it weren't being destroyed by coal mines and fracking operations, I would miss it to, just like I miss the times before there were numerous fracking and coal mines. Oh well, the government will continue to profit off the destruction of the Earth, and Brian and I are forced to become successful to get our loved ones out of that cesspool of industry.

Update!

We don't post in our blog as much as I'd like. I'll try to keep up on it in the future. Since our last update quite a bit has happened. We're still pushing our dive services and finally got a real website up (chesapeakediveservice.com) Brian landed a job at Chesapeake Boat Basin where they'll let him take a few hours or the day off if we have a dive job lined up. What other job will give you a day off to make more money? These people are amazing and I could never put into words how much we appreciate what they're doing for us. We do as much as we can to help around the marina, but we could still never pay them back for all they've done for us. We would still like to have more dive jobs, though. The whole reason we came down here was to not work 9-5 jobs, but Brian seems to be enjoying his job here, and until business picks up, we really don't have much of a choice.

Since our last post we've had a number of dive jobs, though and it is slowly picking up. We've had a few repeat customers, and that's always a good sign if people are coming back to us. We were also here to greet our good friends Tom and Doris Sanders back from their trip back home to Texas. Unfortunately when we greeted them, a cart that was too close to the edge of the dock fell into the water with a few of Tom and Doris' belongings. So the next day we did a free dive (a dive with no air, just holding your breath) for the cart that fell in. It was our first search and recover mission, and luckily it was a large object and easy to spot. We tied a line to it and was able to successfully haul it up out of the water. Then, a few days later, I (Sierra) accidentally dropped the keys in the water right beside our boat. We had a floaty thing on the keychain, but it didn't help much. Luckily for us, we're divers and had all the supplies necessary to retrieve them. I did another free dive, only this time the object I was trying to spot was a lot smaller than the cart before. It didn't take too long to find them though and surprisingly the water was pretty clear and I could see the keys pretty easily. 

On a random note, one night we ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut. I didn't think it was a complicated order, stuffed crust with green olives, pepperoni, bacon and onions, I think. When we went to pick it up, it took longer than it should have due to the fact they messed our order up twice. We ended up getting three stuffed crust pizzas for the price of one. It was pretty nice. 

Back to boat business though, we went on a sail this weekend, but before we went out we decided to clean our own boat which we have been hesitant to do because we can't pay ourselves to dive on our own boat. When we got down there though, it was a whole aquarium of sea life on our keel and rudder. Sponges, anemones, BIG barnacles, bunch of crabs. It was a mess. We got it nice and clean though and went out on a sail the next day. We had a good day for sailing. Wind was about 5-10 mph, seas were a little choppy, but it was a good day.  We sailed just under our jib for a while and tried to put up our main sail along with it. I must say we were not prepared for what was going to happen next. We were heeling over more than we have in our boat before. Things were falling over in our boat and it made quite the little mess. We're lucky it didn't heel to the other side because our refrigerator would have been on the floor. It was a fun experience, but if we decide to ever do that much extreme sailing again, we're gonna have to empty our boat of all things heavy and important. It was fun though! Great learning experience.

And that's about it for a summary of the past few weeks. Again, I will try to keep up on this more often, because no one wants to read a whole book about our lives. People like things short, and I intend to keep them short in future postings.