Slow Boat

We're off the boat for a week.  But other boats are still cruising the Loop. I thought you might enjoy a peek at what some our new boating friends are up to.

MEET THE PARRENTS
The cruisin' Parrent Family is just crossing the border into North Carolina. We first met this inspiring family at a marina in Tennessee. Craig and Danielle decided "life's too short to put work before family,"and sold their successful business. Now they're looping AND "boat-schooling" their three extremely smart and delightful children.

The Parrents' Great Adventure was punctuated recently by a moment of terror. Their boat, Negotiator, was anchored out in a cove with one other boat. During the night, a storm kicked up and both boats dragged anchor. It seemed Negotiator would be swept onto the rocks, then smashed by the second boat.  But the Parrents are self-sufficient and had planned ahead for emergencies, and that preparation stood them in good stead. Danielle tells the story on their blog.

WILD BLUE YONDER
You get to check out lots of boats on this trip, and early on, we admired a particular kind of blue-hulled boat called the Nordic Tug.  Pete and Anna Gulick are cruising in one of these sweet little tugs, which they named Blue Yonder.  We first met them on the rocky shores of Georgian Bay in Canada when both of us docked for dinner at Henry's Fish, a local institution.

SlowBoat (the boat) is docked in Hampton, Virginia, waiting out the weather.  Cap and crew are in Homer, New York with Bill's Mom.   Bill's Dad, Tom Carlsen, ended his long battle with lung cancer yesterday.

Tom Carlsen spent his life helping others.  He was a medic in the U.S. Army, an EMT in his small rural community, a firefighter, a scout leader, a leader in his church, and, to his grandchildren, the guru of good table manners.  As a professor of social work at Syracuse University, he prepared hundreds of students to do good and make a difference.  It's lovely to think of his influence rippling outward in the word.

We'll be here for about a week.  Please do check back on the blog for some SlowBoat flashback stories and some photoessays.  Your love and support means a lot to us.

WASHINGTON, DC, APRIL 1, 2011.  President Obama's position on energy policy is making headlines this week.  Hidden among the heated discussions about oil, natural gas and nuclear power was this small but intriguing detail:  The President's plan to rejuvenate America's canals--and add new ones.

Goodbye 18-wheelers.  This is the future of transportation in America.

"One key to a secure energy future is conservation," said the President, "and water-borne barges are the single most energy-efficient means of transporting goods ever invented.  It only makes sense to adjust our supply systems for greater reliance on canals."

What you see on screen: Little colored marks along the edge of the white channel.

The "Brotherhood of the Boaters" is a wonderful thing. We needed advice on navigating the Chesapeake. So we turned to the AGLCA list of "Harbor Hosts."

On Sunday, Al Miles, Portsmouth-area businessman and boater, drove us to a grocery store so we could re-supply, then took us to a marina restaurant so we could spread out charts and pore over them together. Thanks, Al!

What you see in the real world: "aids to navigation."

Yesterday the Brotherhood of the Boaters was at work again.  A local guy, Bill Mathus, spotted the story about us in the boating magazine Latitudes and Attitudes and shot us an email.  Could he help in any way, while we were in town?

We were set for groceries but turns out Bill works for the Coast Guard. He generously organized an insider's tour of the Portsmouth Station.

We were excited.  Only Monday we'd been boarded by the Coast Guard.  Now, we would get to inspect them!

Evidence of careful urban planning: A personal-szied backyard canal, property of the Colonial Governor of Virginia.  (Cap sez: "I want one!")

We're in Hampton City, VA, waiting on the weather to run up Chesapeake Bay. (Forecast today: "Waves 4 -5 feet.")

Yesterday we grabbed a rental car and burned some fossil fuel running up to Colonial Williamsburg, which the crew has long yearned to visit.

If you're not familiar with the place, it's a living history museum that lets you step back into the 1700s.  The houses, the shops, and the public buildings--armory, courthouse, jail, several churches--have been restored or reconstructed using "historically correct materials." (I DID notice, however, that the antique iron street lamps use compact fluorescent bulbs).