Share this postPhoto Friday: 10-21-2022www.sailingavemar.comCopy linkFacebookEmailNoteOtherPhoto Friday: 10-21-2022My photos from the past two weeksBill BlevinsOct 22, 20224Share this postPhoto Friday: 10-21-2022www.sailingavemar.comCopy linkFacebookEmailNoteOtherShareApril and I decided to have a Jack-O-Lantern carving contest using one pumpkin. I began to carve a sailboat on my side but didn’t think first about the fact cutting out two sail shapes would result in huge triangle hole in the pumpkin. I surrendered and April carved a sailingish design for her entry. She won.I have a chalkboard too. Here was the countdown to the Annapolis Boat Show and April’s arrival for a weeklong visit aboard Avemar.Big Red Willy filled with provisions at a dinghy dock in Spa Creek.Me.April and me.I have read and heard about Calypso, the famed Bristol Channel Cutter from TheBoatGalley.com podcast for years. I finally saw her in all her refitted glory on a mooring in Spa Creek. I met Nica Waters at the Seven Seas Cruising Association Annapolis GAM a couple of weeks before the boat show.Big Red Willy heading out for a fun evening of dinghy jousting! No, not really. Nica and Jeremy Waters on SV Calypso knew I needed a spinnaker pole and they sold me an extra pole they had that is a perfect fit. Avemar has a spinnaker or very big whisker pole again!Sunset over AnnapolisApril and me heading in to the Annapolis dinghy dock one evening.Over the past 30 years I’ve worn shorts and a t-shirt to the boat show and I’ve been to the show other years wearing foul weather gear. This year it was about half-way between the two extremes. This photo was taken before the Annapolis Sailboat Show opened and was on a particularly wet and frigid morning.I’ll write another post in more detail later but I met Bill and Lillie Taylor, the second owners of SV Avemar who finished the interior of the boat and sailed her for thousands of miles while living board for 7 years during the late 1990’s. It was an incredible visit with them aboard Avemar learning about their lives and travels with this amazing boat.April and me on a provisioning run for ice and gas for Big Red Willey and generator.The coolest thing about mixing sailing and social media is that you meet relly cool people online and then get to really meet them in person while in an anchorages or on shore. I finally got to meet Cindy and Ed Lowrie who sail a Passport 42, S/V Wave Dancer. I’ve communicated with them for probably a year now and they ended up sitting at the same table for the Salty Dawg Sailing Association dinner in Annapolis the night before the Annapolis Sailboat Show opened.Captain John Kretchmer. Enough said.Here’s April and me waiting in line to get into the boat show. I realized later that trying to have a vendor take you seriously while wearing a Jack-O-Lantern shirt may not be the best way to negotiate 30% off on a new battery system for your boat.Holy moly! Ambre Hasson, the infamous singlehanded Mini Transat sailor!April and me.April and I are now officially the first people to wait at this table for an Uber at 4:30 a.m.The reason for leaving Annapolis so early in the morning was to get to the Skyline Drive by sunrise. Perfect timing!We drove to Harrisonburg, VA to watch my niece play field hockey and here is a photo of my sister Bonnie and April waiting in the stands before the game.Meredith College’s Kennedy Sullivan, my niece playing field hockey against Eastern Mennonite University.Bonnie and Kennedy Sullivan after the game.It was very hard for me to fathom that someone on the East Coast has never had a “HOT” Krispy Kreme doughnut before. Thankfully, now April has had a HOT doughnut.It wouldn’t be a road trip if one didn’t follow up a HOT Krispy Kreme with a Carl’s in Frederickburg, VA.Captain April at the helm of Avemar.It was wild to wake up and see your own boat out of the galley porthole while making coffee. There were only six Liberty 38’s built and Avemar got to share an anchorage with her sistership SV Charm while in Annapolis.SV Charm owners, Kathy and Jim Bearden visited Avemar for an afternoon. It was so cool to hear about their time owning their Liberty 38 over the years and compare notes and experiences to my brief time on Avemar.April carved her very first pumpkin and she made quick work of the project and won the contest. Happy Halloween from SV Avemar!To wrap up the boat show week and cap off the end of April’s visit we shot the chalkboard 38 times with ZEP Orange cleaner, once for each number.April and me waiting for an Uber to the airport.I met Scott from SV AKA before the boat show at the Seven Seas Cruising Association Annapolis GAM and we met up to sail together down the Bay after the show.Scott from SV AKA preps lines to raft up in Solomons, MD after a sprightly sail down the Bay from Annapolis.Scott testing out his new electric dinghy motor. Amazingly quiet. I can see how these things are becoming popular.SV Aka and SV Avemar anchored in Solomons, MD.I was amazed that one boat, in one morning, with two people on board could fill a container this large with their daily limit of 20 bushels, worth about $1200. I’m not a huge oyster fan but it’s a big part of history in the Bay and it was really neat to see the boats come in and unload their catch.Alas, the sailing pumpkin fell overboard and floated underneath Big Red Willy and was never to be seen again.Sailing Avemar is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.SubscribePreviousNext