Jonathan's "Kerrie Lynne II"

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When we first got our sailboat I was pretty inexperienced and I'm afraid I took Kerrie out too soon and scared her several times. Poor baby was a good sport about it but from them on it took quite a lot of begging on my part to get her to go out on the boat. But, after four years of sailing I decided I was pretty sure I could show her how relaxing sailing could be and finally talked her into going out for her first overnight on the boat. I decided on a very short trip in well protected waters with lots of relaxing. The weekend was perfect and I think Kerrie had a great time. However, I did learn a few more lessons to keep in mind for the future. First, she didn't like anchoring too far away from the shore. Even though we were well out of the channel she felt like we would be run over. Second, even though there wasn't anything I could too about it, a thick fog rolled in about 2:30 AM and that really spooked her. She woke me up and I was "yeah it's pretty isn't? good night." Well it was pretty apparent from later comments that she didn't like the fog at all and I probably should have stayed awake with her. But, the fog passed and she was excited when we held a parallel course with a cruise ship heading to Nauticus in Norfolk. All in all I'd say it was a very successful trip and Kerrie really seemed to enjoy it.

Since we had plenty of time we took a detour to the Lafayette River. This is the Hermitage museum.

Kerrie with the Norfolk Marine Terminal in the background.

This is the Norfolk Yacht Club – ODU and some other sailing club are racing.

Homes along the Elizabeth River waterfront near ODU. This is where we saw dolphins - I'm not sure how many but I think there were four or five. We were slowly motoring in this area and the dolphins stayed with us for at least half an hour. I had seen them here twice before a couple of years ago. Once we I was taking sailing lessons on a flying junior they were so close I might have been able to touch one with my hand. We weren't chasing them, they came to us. We just went slow and straight. I think they were feeding on some kind of fish.

Play Dolphins video
Dolphin Video taken off of Old Dominion University

We are under sail making a very slow approach (about 1.4 mph) up the Nansemond River. At this rate of speed steering by toe seemed adequate.

Jonathan with Newport News in the background.

More relaxing sailing.

Kerrie steering while we zoom along at 1.4 mph.

Kerrie almost asleep – but not quite. Later she lost her sunglasses overboard.

We are at our anchorage for the night – it is around 4 PM. We break out the chips and salsa – one of our snacks today.

Hey this isn't so bad, is it?

Time for a little vino and some heavy duty relaxing. Jonathan makes his best effort.

Relaxing to tunes on the stereo.

The sun is slowly fading in the western sky. I told Kerrie that she wouldn't believe how fast the afternoon would pass.

Another beautiful sky on the water.

The sun is almost gone.

It's starting to get chili so it's time to break out the shirts and fleeces.

Our final snackie snack – pudding.

Kerrie at about 7 AM the next morning. That's a pretty good smile considering the poor baby didn't sleep that well. Around 2:30 AM a fog rolled in and Kerrie didn't like that at all.

On the way back. We are traveling full throttle with the jib up to assist us. We are making about 6.8 mph.

It's not that cold really! I think Kerrie had a pretty good time. I think she might do this again.
On the way back we saw the big carnival cruise ship. I got some great video of that.

Track of trip

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This page last updated on 1/29/2012 6:49:50 AM. If you have comments or suggestions, email me at webmaster@jscheetz.com

Log #41 - Kerrie's first overnight on the Kerrie Lynne II - October 9, 2004