Letter to Friends and Family, Holidays 2003+ Larger Font | + Smaller Font
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Written by Trudy and Graham |
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December 9, 2003 Hello to all our friends and family. As many of you know by now, we recently completed a 9 day passage aboard ‘Luna Azul’ taking us from the US to the Virgin Islands. We’ve captured our impressions of this trip in an article titled “Passage South to Warmer Climates”, and posted some pictures on our website. Upon arrival in Saint Thomas, USVI, it took us humans several days of well deserved rest before we felt ready to explore the new playground. The cats however, simply shut their eyes and silently thanked whoever was responsible for making their world jump around a whole lot less. Looking back, we really enjoyed our extended summer stay in Oxford MD following the unfortunate lightning strike on ‘Luna Azul’. We actively involved ourselves as volunteer race committee for the Oxford Amateur Race Society (“OARS”) Friday Night race series, took part in occasional races, and gained ourselves a mention at the annual awards dinner. A few weeks later we were also presented with a trophy for our efforts crewing on the third placed boat in the J-22 Fall Series. Hurricane Isabel kept everyone on their toes as she marched steadfastly towards the US East Coast in September. When Trudy flew out to London to visit her new niece, we still weren’t certain just close the hurricane would come to Graham and the boat, however we had an idea it might be a close thing. Thankfully Isabel downgraded herself from a Category 5 to a Category 1 prior to making landfall near Cape Hatteras, and by the time she’d worked her way up to the Chesapeake she was just a Tropical Storm. Even so, we were very glad to have moved the boat onto a private mooring in Island Creek, just around the corner from Oxford. Thankfully we also moved the car; if we hadn’t, it probably would have drowned in the 6’ storm surge and extensive flooding. Oxford Boatyard came through largely unscathed, with only a couple bumps & bruises on two boats. Elsewhere people were not so lucky; in Oxford approximately seventy cars were flooded, along with a similar number of houses and all the restaurants, and devastation on the western shore ran into the billions of dollars, with sunken boat, destroyed docks and many flooded houses & cars. Graham kept himself busy and well lubricated (both by oil & beer!) working as a temporary mechanic/electrician at Oxford Boatyard. Halloween was his last day at work, and he went dressed up as his version of the Red Baron, aptly named the ‘Red Ensign’. His flags and goofy hat were to be replaced later in the day by a sole flag strategically placed to protect his modesty while participating in a photo shoot for the local calendar ‘Real Men of Talbot County’. Apparently the calendars will be available for purchase before the New Year. Trudy’s picture of the event can be found in our Oxford photo gallery. Of course, no discussion of Oxford Boatyard would be complete without mentioning the scrumptious “Orphan Dinners” hosted by Braxton Streuber the yard manager. Thank you Braxton, we look forward to next year!! Trudy’s upholstery project making new saloon cushion covers took much longer than anticipated, and were eventually completed just days before we headed south. We’ve tried to prevent the cats from developing too much “claw-interest” in them by replacing their much worn mast carpet, and adding a mat under the saloon table to satisfy both their horizontal and vertical scratching needs. You’ve never seen either of us move so fast as when we hear the new cushions crying for mercy! During their annual heath inspection, the boys’ vet voiced his opinion that they’d both have to go on diets if they gained any more weight over the winter. Guess that means they can’t be too unhappy with life afloat... A new addition to our onboard electronic gadgets is a digital camera with a waterproof housing. We are hoping to capture some of the fantastic underwater scenery we’ve been enjoying while free diving and snorkeling. You can see our first attempts on the website in a new dedicated underwater gallery. We plan on updating these pictures as we get better at taking them. We’ve also added an external antenna for the satellite phone, which not only reduces the proliferation of lost calls, but enables us to leave the phone on and receive incoming calls. Graham also did a great job of updating the boat’s water heater so now we can have hot water even if we don’t use the engine to charge the batteries. Our plans from here have us heading north via Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, possibly Turks & Caicos then into the Exuma region of the Bahamas for a few months. Graham is really missing fishing in the Bahamas - we've had some slight success trolling on the one occasion we put the line out, but other than two small lobsters he enticed into his snare (no spears allowed), it’s been a bust. The rules are the biggest problem, closely followed by murky water from all the rain the region received during late November. Next spring we will probably return to Oxford to fix all the stuff that is most likely going to break between now and then, and maybe take a mechanics job at the boatyard to keep Graham out of trouble during the summer. We hope this reaches you all well, and wish you all a wonderful holiday season. Lot of love, happiness, understanding, giggles and smiles Graham, Trudy, Shadow and Sylvester Crew: Trudy and Graham Norbury, and their cats Sylvester and Shadow
Written and edited 9th December 2003
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Copyright © 2004 Trudy and Graham Norbury. All rights reserved. |