Day 8: Deltaville to Solomon Islands - Fly swat brigade
Position: Deltaville, MD
NM: 41
Sea State: none
The wind comes and goes. It arrived for a day and left just as quickly. Not even a ripple on the water. We motor sailed toward Solomon Islands on our 27th wedding anniversary. Ralf wins the honor's for the first to remember.
Rounding the corner into the Bay, the warning was called and repeated. "Horsefly in the cockpit." It proved to be an invasion. We got out the best ammo we had, two brand new fly swatters. "Don't spray 'em, swat em." The games began and significant blood was shed.
At first there were only a few, and I took up position aft in the cockpit - irresistible bait. I think Chris and Kelly enjoyed swatting me, and maybe they got a few flies. The big ones, actually deer flies, were fast and clever. They would hide and then come in fast and low - as soon as you rested your swatter, they'd get you.
Later, the little black flies joined in. They try to use their miniature size to their advantage, but my progressive eye glass lenses worked perfectly. They were an easy kill.
Then Kelly saw the monster, a large, mean looking wasp on the end of boom. Perfectly positioned to come in high. It looked dis-interested, but it had to go. I wounded the poor thing, and it fell into the grate in the cockpit. Every 10 minutes it would crawl back up, first missing a wing, then a broken leg, and even a smashed abdomen. Chris and I killed that wasp 4 times. We all started to feel bad for the "tough one." The flies gave that wasp a "metal of honor" and then rallied harder in vengeance.
Don't get me wrong, there are some nicer things on board- ladybugs, Kelly, dragonflies, unidentified peaceful 6 legged fliers, and even Chris (Though I am beginning to suspect he may be a double agent). I'm still trying to figure out how they found us, on a boat, heading North at 7 miles an hour, off the VA shore a couple of miles. That is a tough mission for something so small; only to get there and have Kelly going berserk with a neon orange swatter. The invasion of Iolair was memorable.
We made good time on autopilot (allowed us to solely focus on the invasion), and arrived in Solomon's around 6 PM. I called ahead and we pulled into a nice marina (Calverts) on the north side of the creek. Least expensive slip on the entire trip at $53. Staying free on anchor is definitely the better way to go. Too tired to go to town, we walked to the closest restaurant and celebrated our victory over the winged ones - in addition to our anniversary. We missed Zachary, and choose to spend extra on dinner - pretending he was with us as opposed to eating cold tuna in the Idaho wilderness. I bet he was also battling flying blood suckers.
NM: 41
Sea State: none
The wind comes and goes. It arrived for a day and left just as quickly. Not even a ripple on the water. We motor sailed toward Solomon Islands on our 27th wedding anniversary. Ralf wins the honor's for the first to remember.
Rounding the corner into the Bay, the warning was called and repeated. "Horsefly in the cockpit." It proved to be an invasion. We got out the best ammo we had, two brand new fly swatters. "Don't spray 'em, swat em." The games began and significant blood was shed.
At first there were only a few, and I took up position aft in the cockpit - irresistible bait. I think Chris and Kelly enjoyed swatting me, and maybe they got a few flies. The big ones, actually deer flies, were fast and clever. They would hide and then come in fast and low - as soon as you rested your swatter, they'd get you.
Later, the little black flies joined in. They try to use their miniature size to their advantage, but my progressive eye glass lenses worked perfectly. They were an easy kill.
Then Kelly saw the monster, a large, mean looking wasp on the end of boom. Perfectly positioned to come in high. It looked dis-interested, but it had to go. I wounded the poor thing, and it fell into the grate in the cockpit. Every 10 minutes it would crawl back up, first missing a wing, then a broken leg, and even a smashed abdomen. Chris and I killed that wasp 4 times. We all started to feel bad for the "tough one." The flies gave that wasp a "metal of honor" and then rallied harder in vengeance.
Don't get me wrong, there are some nicer things on board- ladybugs, Kelly, dragonflies, unidentified peaceful 6 legged fliers, and even Chris (Though I am beginning to suspect he may be a double agent). I'm still trying to figure out how they found us, on a boat, heading North at 7 miles an hour, off the VA shore a couple of miles. That is a tough mission for something so small; only to get there and have Kelly going berserk with a neon orange swatter. The invasion of Iolair was memorable.
We made good time on autopilot (allowed us to solely focus on the invasion), and arrived in Solomon's around 6 PM. I called ahead and we pulled into a nice marina (Calverts) on the north side of the creek. Least expensive slip on the entire trip at $53. Staying free on anchor is definitely the better way to go. Too tired to go to town, we walked to the closest restaurant and celebrated our victory over the winged ones - in addition to our anniversary. We missed Zachary, and choose to spend extra on dinner - pretending he was with us as opposed to eating cold tuna in the Idaho wilderness. I bet he was also battling flying blood suckers.
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