Shear Madness

March 13, 2015

Shear Madness is still in Beaufort, NC and I’m still in catch-up mode with our blog! Let me pick up in Deltaville, VA where we were in November and December. While in Deltaville, we did a few projects on the boat and the tender. All routine. Our good friend Susan, a high school classmate of Bradley’s, came to join us for a month. She did an amazing job of helping to clean the boat and she’s also an incredible cook! It was great to spend some time with her.

Visiting with Nancy and Ron on Shear Madness

We had a chance to catch up with several old friends. We spent Thanksgiving with old friends Gary and Patty and watched the Dallas Cowboys – I even got to try on Patty’s Cowboys shirt – it didn’t fit and looked awful (I am a Redskins fan – a difficult thing to admit these days). We met several new friends, including Sean and Louise on the steel-hulled boat Vector and Graham and Wendy on Oyster Mist, an Oyster 42 sailboat. We also met Nancy and Ron of Mandala. We had been introduced by a mutual friend two years ago and had been in touch by email but had never met in person. They arrived in Deltaville for a short stay and we had a lovely time with them. We also caught up with Deltaville locals Bill and Mary and Mike and Maxine who joined us for a party aboard Shear Madness. We also had a lovely time with Brad and Lorraine from the Nordhavn 55 Adventure (who were with us in Nova Scotia for the summer) and Ray and Susan from Copeing (Outer Reef 65 who are based in Deltaville).

Kevin’s Mom Debbie drops him off in Deltaville

In early December, my step-grandson, Kevin, joined us for a couple month stint as our deckhand. Kevin is hoping to join the Navy but in the meantime wanted to spend some time away from home and learn a bit about boats. He was soon busy with cleaning, waxing, polishing, and learning a whole new vocabulary! It was time to depart from Deltaville and head down the Chesapeake Bay to Portsmouth, VA. The trip was uneventful and was a good chance for Kevin to learn more about the boat systems. Soon he was able to do engine room checks and complete log entries on his own.

Our friends Gary and Cookie invited us to a holiday party at their home and it was a wonderful event! It was mostly work colleagues of Gary with lots of children. Good food, fun people, and some games and singing Christmas Carols made for a great time. Gary was also kind enough to invite me and Kevin to attend a basketball game at Old Dominion University. Front row seats no less! It was a great game – ODU won handily – and I made friends with the mascot! We also met up with another of my step-gransdons, Brian, who was working for the week in nearby Chesapeake, VA. Kevin and I also had a chance to get out for a round of golf.

Kathy and the ODU Mascot

We made a trip to Northern Virginia for Kathy to have some business meetings and to visit friends and family. We met Bradley’s newest grandson, Austin, for the first time. We spent Christmas Day with Lloyd and Arlene and our dear friend Fatiha, who had lived with us for many years in our Oakton house and took good care of us and our dogs. We all watched the movie The Interview, which turned out to be much funnier than we had expected. We then had a wonderful dinner.

Bradley with newest grandson Austin

Upon returning to the boat it was time to head south to Beaufort, NC where we planned to haul the boat out of the water for a few months of maintenance and for us to spend some time in Colorado. Just before we were to leave, fellow Nordhavn owners Bob and Jan on the 57-foot Emeritus pulled into Tidewater Marina. They are an amazing couple – still handling the boat on their own well into their 80’s. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner out with them. It looked like we had a good weather window on New Year’s Eve, so we departed to head around Cape Hatteras and on to Cape Lookout. Conditions were ideal and we enjoyed our New Year’s Eve at sea, as we were able to see a few fireworks displays on shore. We also saw plenty of dolphins – Kevin’s first time seeing them up close! We also saw several whales. We made it to Cape Lookout where we anchored for the night before heading to the Beaufort Town Docks for a few days before moving to Jarrett Bay for our haul out. Soon the boat was safely out of the water and we had moved all our food, clothes, and various other things into the house we rented in the nearby Sea Gate community where we have stayed before.