Rebel

Rebel Marina. We couldn't have chosen a better place to sit out the wind, waiting for a weather window. Last night it blew a gale, west at 50-60. Today its North 15-25.  As cruisers we get used to waiting for the right wind from the right direction. With today's technology we have the tools at our fingertips, literally on IPhone, to get a very accurate forecast of everything we need to know before setting out on the next leg of the journey. David Briggs along with his brother Steve gave us a quick tip on a really good APP called Sail Flow. Not only does it give us wind speed and direction, it gives wave height, wave direction, seconds between crests, temperature, cloud cover and all free. Dave and I have been checking it out as it gives a ten day outlook and right now the outlook doesn't look so good for traveling up the outside of MD, DE, NJ. I'd say we are here for a week. That's what cruising is all about: stop, wait, and meet new friends, hear their stories, and tell a few of ours. We have been welcomed here, even had the opportunity to go to a chili cook-off yesterday for lunch in the rain. The club house has all kinds of get togethers. Yesterday's get together was to help raise money for the local sailing club. There we met a couple who has lived aboard their sailboat for 13 years, they're from Australia now heading south to the Virgin Is. I got to be part of their conversation with another couple who are preparing their sailboat to head to Sweden, they have to be in Newfoundland by June to make the crossing without running into icebergs. We've invited them to stop in Provincetown Harbor and use our mooring if they get that way. Sounds like they might. Today Dave brought a man aboard who along with his wife bought a sailboat after only sailing on small lakes. They retired and wanted to try something different, so they set sail and went from Arkansas on the Gulf of Mexico around FL to the Bahamas and then up the east coast to here, an eight month trip for them. They are from Kansas and have decided that boat life isn't quite what they had in mind, their boat is for sale. We talk to sailors and cruisers daily, long distance blue water sailors and folks like us who wanted to give it a try. No matter what your experience, how much training you've had, or how expensive your boat, everyone has a story, that's part of the fun.
David Briggs who runs this marina along with his brothers has some of the best stories. He and my Captain Dave spend hours talking and swapping tales. Briggs has done it all, barge towing and salvage with his family, boat survey, scalloping and fishing in Alaska, hook fishing for Swordfish up and down the east coast, he teaches U.S. Coast Guard safety training classes and runs the marina. A true mariner and lover of all things boat related. His brother Steve works professional tugboats. He gave us a tour of the tugboat that belonged to his father that he is restoring. It's a tugboat/ schooner called Norfolk Roller, what an interesting little ship. He is fixing it for live aboard and for use with tall ships as tug, towing, helper and education. The boat is really beautiful, he's doing a great job.
We couldn't have picked a better place to lay low for a few days, thanks to Perry Davis owner of the Schooner Alert from an island in Maine who told us to try and stop here if we were in the neighborhood.We met him, his wife and little girl in Oriental.  Then we found out that our friend Gwen Wells who is married to Richard Quest and came to visit us with Jeff Parker all from Willmington, NC - worked here at Rebel Marina as a teenager, and Grassy/ Francis Santos has stopped in here many times, and Robert Harris who is sailing up from the Virgin Islands as I write, is planning on stopping in.  Small world this cruising business.
I can't wait to get home but I've so enjoyed meeting so many interesting, adventurous people. Fair winds ye mates.