See where we’re at: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:6165338/mmsi:368134980/imo:0/vessel:CALLIPYGIA
So! The lackadaisical updater gives himself a lot of ground (or water) to cover.
The tail end of our stay in Cape May, NJ can be described in two words: Jim Buie.
Tripp, being a logistically shrewd captain and keenly aware of the concept of a proper division of labor, decided to split the party. While he worked on the boat, doing the necessary technical things, I was sent to do something more befitting my skillset: schmooze up the locals at a bar and procure transportation over the weekend to get stuff Tripp and the trip needed.
Mission accomplished. In spades.
Over the course of my vigil at the Lucky Bones, I met:
Gwen, Deb, and (improvising the surname’s spelling) Dee Tackarino. Three incredibly pleasant ladies who were very interested in the trip I was on. Dee related that she and her family had had two boats of their own: Five Tacks and a Hammer, paying homage to the number of Tackarinos, and the noble Plunger, so named by Dee for her plumber husband’s benefit.
Kim and Pat, who were over the moon about their daughter’s recent success in becoming a Licensed Practicing Nurse. They also had some entertaining pictures of their grandsons out on productive squirrel hunts, a concept which always reminds me of a time in high school where we sat through a lockdown. Local squirrel hunters, much perplexed to run into the police, had parked their pickup too close to the school when heading out into the woods.
And finally, bartender attested local legend Jim Buie, a Pennsylvania transplant of some decades who describes himself as “a local, not a native”. His last name is not actually Buie, but his love of Rusty Nails (a potent mix of scotch and Drambuie, which is simply more scotch) gives him his name.
Though Kim and Pat get honorable mentions for trading numbers with me and checking in the next day to see if I needed a ride, Jim was first to the call on the morning of Sunday the 5th. Two trips to Sea Gears and a West Marine later, and we returned to Tripp with a jerry can, biobore, zorb pads, hose clamps, buckets, waterway guide, and a cumulative gallon of ATF in quart containers. 5/16 white spun polyester line and, somehow, a thermos were nowhere to be found.
Tripp released me for the afternoon, with a curfew of 6 PM to come back and cook our god damn rib eye steaks from Portland, finally.
Jim gave me the Nickel Tour of Cape May, pictures of which you’ll see below. Then, we went to Finn’s downtown where I met Jim’s friend Jim (a dignified looking older ex-cop who uses his poor hearing to comedic effect on the bartender) and I got my first ever local legend provided Rusty Nail of my own.
Eventually we met up with Jim’s friend Joanne and went back to the Lucky Bones, where the two of them and the bartender Kadie looked over some of the pictures I’d taken so far.
I kept the appointment for the rib eyes more-or-less promptly and, satiated, finished off the evening by attempting to walk to the Shell to fill the jerry can with 5 gallons of diesel. Alas, as is often the case on Google these days, the hours were incorrect and my walk was for 5 gallons of jack.
In the morning, Tripp slapped together some wraps with the summer sausage and Monterey jack, I hoofed it to the gas station for the diesel and the Wah Wah for sponges. The former was a go, the latter was not. How can a convenience store have a home goods section that includes soap, paper towels, and scouring pads but not sponges? The caprice of modern distributors, I tell you. Those bastards, the nebulous They.
On February 6th, at 7:38 AM we motored out of Cape May, NJ bound for Norfolk, VA and at 8:30 we set the staysail and double reefed main. I hope Tripp will forgive me the cardinal sin of utilizing civilian time as this is a personal blog for a largely civilian audience. If not, he can bring me before a tribunal. As long as I can pick the judges.
I think that’s long enough for this update. I’ll detail the trip to Norfolk in #4 and schedule it to send while we’re on our way to Elizabeth City tomorrow on the 10th.
Thanks for reading!
Hermit Thrush 