Chillin' in da Keys!

Four years ago, Barry started a new tradition of going someplace warm and tropical for his birthday on December 3rd. It started with the British Virgin Islands for his 50th, and the past two years, we've enjoyed trips to the Florida Keys. This year we spent a week on Conch Key (including a day trip to Key West) and had a wonderful time. Please visit our Conch Key website for pictures and a trip report.

Happy Holidays to all!

Thanksgiving on Logos

Barry and I spent the long Thanksgiving weekend on our boat, and what a range of temperatures we experienced. Here we are on Thanksgiving Day, about to eat the feast I'd prepared at home. The temperature was in the mid-70s. Ahhhhhh....nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina on an unseasonably warm Thanksgiving!

Are our plates full enough?

A cold front came through Thursday night bringing high winds and much cooler air. Friday was overcast, chilly (high of 51) and very windy, making it feel even colder, so we holed up inside Logos all day with a space heater, doing interior projects. In this photo, I am stitching up a hanging mesh bag for fruit.

Saturday wasn't a lot warmer, but the winds were down some, and the sun was out, so we ventured out for a chilly sail on the Neuse. From our clothing in the pictures below, you can see that it was not quite the tropical sailing weather we favor! We had to keep taking turns at the helm to let the other warm up behind the dodger. At the helm, the wind hit us full-force.

Fall Beauty

I snapped these photos over the past few days in our wooded yard. Our leaves are late in turning and falling this year due to the warm autumn and drought, but the trees did not disappoint; in fact, this year's show may have been one of the most brilliant in the eight autumns we've owned this property. Every view seemed more beautiful than the last, especially with the sun shining through the leaves, dappling the shade and sunlight all around.

Although leaf cleanup is a long and tedious job that seems to stretch for months, these bright scenes make the work worth it. If only this wondrous time could stretch a bit longer -- but its very brevity makes it all the sweeter. The photos don't even do it justice since you have to see the full 360-degree view to really understand the beauty of these woods, but I hope you'll enjoy them.

Front yard View down driveway from house

View from side yard back towards house

Back patio/pond

East side yard West side yard (septic field) Pansies I planted yesterday on front portico Maple leaves

A fall hike

On Saturday we took a most enjoyable 7-mile mountain hike in the Mt. Rogers recreation area in Virginia. Although the foliage was just a bit past peak, we still saw quite a bit of autumn beauty and falling leaves. The best part of the hike was that we only saw two other people the entire hike (bow hunters). We haven't been hiking much yet this fall, so I am a bit sore today! Hope you enjoy the photos from our hike.

Ruffed Grouse on road when we were driving back from the hike

Red sky at night

I wanted to share a few photos from a recent sunset we experienced at our marina. Although the photos from my tiny digital camera in automatic mode don't do it justice, I think you'll get the idea. Even one of the liveaboard sailors there, who barely even notices sunsets any more, by his own admission, had to admit that it was "above average". :-)

Return of the Fledglings!

This morning we were treated to the delightful sight of five of this spring's bluebird fledglings visiting our bird bath and tray feeder. Some of their juvenile spots were still visible, and Barry managed to grab his camera and quickly capture a couple of them in this photo. We hadn't seen them since they fledged, and were thrilled to see them return to check out the yard in which we are sure they were born in one of our two bluebird nestboxes. We've typically experienced the return of the juveniles in the fall (no doubt after a summer of vacation adventures, searching out bugs far from home), and this year was no exception. The funniest thing is that a few of them were intently checking out the tray feeder in the photo. In the springtime, Barry put mealworms in this feeder to help Mama and Daddy Bluebird supplement the food they hunted for the nestlings and fledglings. Some of the fledglings had once come to that very feeder to be fed, and they apparently remembered its bounty! Unfortunately, it held no such riches today; but we are richer for having seen our precious bluebirds come home.

Annapolis Sailboat Show 2007

What a difference three years makes! We first attended the show in 2004, on our way home from a bike tour in upstate New York. We were non-sailors who were attracted to the lifestyle. We had only one day to spend at the show, and spent most of the day aboard catamarans, the type of sailboat we thought we might own one day. We signed up for our first-ever sailing class through Offshore Sailing School, and left with stars in our eyes. Three years later, we've taken a variety of sailing classes, decided a monohull was more suitable for our budget, and bought our own boat. This year we were able to cruise the exhibits and actually understand most of what we saw. The terminology, the equipment, it all makes sense to us now (well, most of it!) We were able to get some good deals on a few things for Logos, our Catalina 30, and we enjoyed touring a variety of monohulls (and a couple of catamarans, just for fun). We even took in a diesel engine seminar. Yes, we've come a long way! This year we spent two full days at the show, giving us time to see much more as well as do a walking tour of the historic Annapolis downtown, which was simply charming; I'd describe it as a blend of Boston, Charleston, and Middlebury, Vermont -- some of my favorite places to be. We were delighted to be able to meet up with our buddy Ray on our second show day. We met Ray and his lovely wife Jen when we went to the BVI for Barry's 50th birthday in Dec. '03, and Barry and Ray have kept up via email off and on since, discussing their love of the BVI and their sailing dreams. We thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with Ray, catching up, walking around the show, and having a few drinks (including the BVI favorite, Pusser's Painkiller). And Barry and Ray enjoyed jamming to the music of Michael Beans, a BVI entertainer, while I attended a great seminar entitled Women and Cruising. Please check out our Webshots slideshow for more photos of the boat show and historic Annapolis.

Boater's Blues

We had a fun weekend on the boat, but didn't get to sail because of an electrical problem. A 12-volt plug went pfffffftttt upon reaching the end of its natural life on Saturday, sending up some smoke from behind the engine starter panel for added excitement. Barry spent quite a bit of time working on the panel to understand why the blower switch no longer worked, and we appear to have a bad engine water temperature gauge on the panel now as well, so the repairs will have to wait until he can do more research. I also got in on the repair action when our bimini zipper stitching tore when replacing it after taking it down in preparation for almost non-existent Tropical Storm Gabrielle. I used real sailmaker's tools and effected an imperfect but serviceable repair. Ah well, I guess the trials and tribulations are all part of being a boatowner. But scenes like this morning fog over the creek make our blues all worthwhile....

Logos is ours!

We closed on our purchase of Logos on August 30 and sailed her to her new slip at Point Marina. We had a great trip up and an enjoyable few days over the long Labor Day weekend getting to know her, sailing her, and learning how to dock her (still working on that one!) We went back the following weekend to prepare her for Tropical Storm Gabrielle, which was forecast to come right over Oriental, but ended up passing to the east and being virtually unnoticeable at the marina. It was a good experience, though, as now we know what to do if a more serious storm or hurricane threatens.

Check out our slideshow with pictures from both weekends: Logos

Robert Paschal Burns Auditorium

On Monday, August 27, the Robert Paschal Burns Auditorium at the NCSU College of Design was named in memory of my dear father, who died in a car accident on October 28, 2005. Dad was much loved, respected, and admired as a professor and administrator at the College of Design for many years. His legacy will live on in a new lecture series to be held this auditorium in his honor. Here are a few photos of the event, thanks to my brother Adam:

Uncle Norvel (Dad's youngest brother) and Adam's girlfriend Missy; I am in background in black pants talking to my Aunt Betsy, Dad's sister Paige with her children, Everet and Walker; I am in background with Aunt Betsy From left: my niece Everet, Norma (in white top), Uncles Norvel and Paul Burns Adam and me

Survey time!

Last Friday we went to New Bern for the survey, sea trial, and haulout of Logos. What an interesting new experience it was! We had a few mishaps on the sea trial, including the mounting bracket for the autopilot breaking off, and the headsail roller furler jamming when we tried to furl the sail after the sea trial. The furler was old and pretty close to end of life anyway, so after a rigger checked it out, we decided to split the cost of a nice new Harken furler with the seller, who is also repairing the autopilot and several other small items found on the survey. There were no deal breakers, fortunately. It was such fun to take a short sail on our soon-to-be first boat! Here are a few photos from the haulout in Sailcraft Boatyard in Oriental:

Our surveyor inspecting the rigging at the top of the mast Logos awaiting haulout Logos hauled out

We spent the late afternoon playing tourists on a very hot, humid, breezy day in New Bern, along the waterfront and in the historic downtown.

Female mallard

We discovered that New Bern has the moniker of "Bear City", which pleased Barry ("Bear") and provided a few additional photo ops.

On Saturday we visited with a friend from my work, John, and his wife at Blackbeard Sailing Club. We got to meet his wife Connie and boat-owner partner Doug, as well as a few other friendly folks at the club. They ended up taking us out for a sail on their own Catalina 30, which was great fun on a beautiful day, cooler and with less humidity. Barry and I both took the helm for quite awhile. It was fun to get a feel for what sailing Logos will be like. And soon!

Meet Logos

We have a contract on a boat! She's a Catalina 30 named Logos. We took a trip to Oriental and New Bern last weekend and looked at a variety of boats. Logos was the one we had been interested in from checking out listings on Yachtworld even before seeing her, and she didn't disappoint. Now we have a whirlwind month ahead of having a haulout, survey, and sea trial, closing, and then actually sailing her to her new home marina. We're excited but anxious too....hopefully it will all go as smoothly as possible, no hurricanes will come up the east coast this fall, and we'll have a successful delivery -- our first ever. After all our sailing classes, a new chapter in our life is beginning! Here are a couple of photos of the intrepid sailors in Oriental: