Goodbye Old Friend

Removing the mast.

And so Silver Fox leaves the Chesapeake Bay, the salty, and gets packed up by Dave Hinton of Loyalist Cove Marina, ready for her long journey home!

Leaving the Bay.

Dave is first heading South to pick up a 28' motor boat, then making the haul North, across the border and to her new home on Lake Ontario.

I thank Silver Fox for her great service, and am proud to be sending her off in much better condition than when I got her.
 

Loaded up securely on Dave's rig.

The best of luck to Chris, Kelly, & Zach, I know they will be good custodians, and I hope she brings them as much joy and fun adventures as she did to Brigite & myself.

Ralph Out.

2010 Awards

Congratulations are in order for; Silver Fox, Brigite, & Ralph for their racing performance in 2010.

2010 LCSA Award

The overall results and annual awards ceremony for Little Creek Sailing Association was on 3/19/2011, and Silver Fox was awarded a plaque for the following 2010 results in the Race/Spinnaker Division:

Spring Series:  1st Place

Summer Series:  3rd Place

Fall Series: 2nd Place

Quite a year!

The selling of Silver Fox

In December 2010, I found on eBay a boat that looked really good for what we wanted. She was bigger, more capable of extended cruising, and Brigite loved the interior layout (& gimbled stove). It needed work, but as a result; the price was affordable for us.

We viewed her, did a test sail, got a survey and eventually bought the boat. She is a 1978 Cal 34.

I wanted to keep Silver Fox, as she is such an awesome boat, everything is in great condition on her, everything works, and she does not need any major work - unlike the Cal! Silver Fox was also easy to jump on for a quick sail, and easy to single and double-hand. Plus she was our first boat, and clearly, we had chemistry!

But we couldn't keep two boats, so Silver Fox had to be offered for sale. I was hoping to find an Owner who would love her as much as I did, and that would take as good care of her. I made a webpage to outline her features and put a post on the C&C Association website. I lowered the price below her value to try and attract a good new home.

Chris, Kelly & Brigite on the test sail.

Very soon I was contacted by Chris out of Toronto, Canada, who was very interested. Chris and Kelly came to Norfolk and we went out for a sail. They loved the boat, and we came to a deal. I am delighted to have Chris & Kelly as the new Owners, as they will be at least as good a custodian to Silver Fox as I was, and soon Silver Fox will go back to where she was built 36 years ago!

Chris takes over the helm...

Since the test sail and deal was made on Feb 24th, Silver Fox has remained at Cobbs, waiting for the docks to go in on Lake Ontario! We officially closed the sale on Wed March 23rd 2011, On 3/25/2011 Brian McCauley surveyed the boat, and she is scheduled to be transported to her new home on Monday April 3rd. It will be sad for me, but there is a silver lining, and I am excited about the new boat - which does not have a name yet...


Fare thee well Silver Fox. Thank you for all the wonderful memories, and everything you thought me in our adventure filled 18 months together. You will be missed, but never forgotten.

The Other Woman???

Silver Fox is starting to wonder why is this Cal 34 getting so much attention from Ralph & Brigite???

Weekend Outings (Nov 27th & 28th)

More sunny weather, but getting colder now. We have been keen to get out all week, and on Saturday Ralph took the boat out for a few hours, and on Sunday both of us went out for a short sail.

On Saturday I was expecting a strong breeze out of the NW going North, and I went out with the #3 and a reef, but soon shook out the reef as the wind was decreasing. Sailed out past first island and on the way back I felt I was on a collision course with a container ship that was coming over the tunnel and would meet me mid channel!

The ship was decreasing speed as it went over the tunnel, but I decided to play it safe, and gybed back North. On the way back to the South and towards the channel, I was wondering if the wake from this monster would be a problem, as I know from AIS data that they go through here at between 12 and 16 knots. This ship seemed to be at the lower end of the range, and barely put out any wake at all.

Sailed back in and was in the car just after sunset, having left the boat ready to sail again the next day.


On Sunday the wind was out of the NE around 8 knots. We sailed out in front of Ocean View and back. It was an enjoyable, uneventful afternoon cruise.

Saturday Sail 11/20/2010

Still lovely sunny weather here, with High Pressure in charge and the Jet Stream keeping all the weather passing to our west and north, so off we go...

Cruised for a couple of hours in the cool WSW breeze that dropped from 15kn to 10 as we were out there. A very relaxing & enjoyable afternoon. Air temps around 60 and the Bay is at its Nov average of 55 degrees.

The Canadian geese are flying south, in impressive V shaped formations of around 60 birds. Very cool!

All good on Planet Silver Fox.

Ralph Out.

November Sunday Sail

Has been a sunny week, with a large high pressure to our west keeping the skies clear and the wind out of the north at 10 to 15kn, I have been very keen to get out, but Saturday afternoon was spent successfully getting the water pump rebuilt and installed - which I was very pleased with the work and outcome. Another system that I am now very familiar with.

Sunday there was not much wind in the morning so we did chores and went out around 1330 to a nice breeze out of the NE and going E. We broad reached North and had a quinoa salad for lunch, then had a great close hauled sail back to the outer distance mark (K). It was good sailing in the relatively flat water, fully powered with the #1, probably 8 - 9 knots.


The instruments were working as were the other jobs I had been working on! But the speedo only seems to work at high speeds. We sailed back up the harbor as we put the boat away and were back at the dock and buttoned up by 1700.