(this story appears on page 71 of the September issue of Proptalk)
by Charlie Iliff
The weather on Sunday, August 18 was reasonably pleasant—cloudy but the rain held off. Lucy and I got aboard Indian Summer at Jerry West’s dock, along with Lucy’s brother and sister-in-law, Alex and Wendy Wise, and their Wilmington friends Grafton and Deenie Reeves. As we rumbled out of Chase Creek and into the Severn, I was struck with a thought that comes to mind fairly often: Here we have this long-range cruising power boat, and we don’t use it enough.
A couple of years ago, we did what real cruising boaters call the “little” loop. We went out through the Delaware Bay to the Atlantic, up to New York, up the Hudson, through the Erie and Oswego canals and the corner of Lake Ontario to Cape Vincent. Our partners in the boat, Bob and Linda Burnett, took her to Ottawa and Montreal and down into Lake Champlain. Lucy and I brought her down the Lake; Bob and Linda brought her back to New York, and some friends and I brought her home. That was a great adventure and the proper use of a capable cruising boat like Indian Summer, a 1982 DeFever 44. By comparison, what we’ve done since hasn’t seemed like much at all. It is a vaguely nagging guilt: we don’t use her enough.
Of course, sitting on the fly bridge on a comfortable Sunday morning, wondering if the rain would hold off, sipping a cup of coffee, talking to family and new friends, what we were doing sure was pleasant. We rumbled sedately down the river and into Annapolis Harbor. There, we saw a shiny 100-plus-foot ocean-going motor yacht. I suspect that its owner often thinks, “I don’t use the boat enough” – maybe while the professional crew is delivering the boat to Annapolis from her home port in the British Virgins.
As we puttered by all the tied-up boats in Annapolis Harbor, and then Back Creek to Jabins, I thought: “At least we’re using her today, and it sure is pleasant.” And I thought of July third, when we anchored in Round Bay with Mary and Geoff and Chas and three grandchildren. Ginevra and Avery and Charles, ages six, five, and five, had not seen fireworks before that evening. Sherwood Forest put on a spectacular display, after which we lit the boat up like the Harbor Queen and joined the parade down the River.
Last fall, when our daughter Elizabeth and grandson Bohdan came in from Wyoming, we ran down to Herrington Harbour South, ate supper in the restaurant there, toured the facilities that were mostly shut down for the winter, and ran back up to the Severn in the morning. Bohdan, then aged seven, identified every moving and anchored vessel on the touch-screen Garmin. And while his mother was jogging the area around the marina, he dug out the remote and got the TV cranked up on cartoons that he doesn’t get to watch at home.
Oxford isn’t very far away for a boat like Indian Summer. A while back, Lucy and I ran down, tied up at Mears Yacht Haven, and spent a couple of days relaxing on the boat and bicycling around Oxford. Bob and Linda joined us for the last night, and we brought Indian Summer home together. That last morning, we had a memorable walk—in driving rain—from Mears to the Robert Morris Inn, where we were treated like royalty and not like the drowned rats we resembled. And there were the several days in October at the Miles River YC, for the Electric Boat Marathon and the Cocktail Class races at the Maritime Festival...
As we ended our tour on Sunday August 18, a little light rain started. I tied Indian Summer up and thought: “We don’t use her enough, but the times we do are really nice.”
Thursday, October 10, 2013 - 13:34
(this story appears on page 71 of the September issue of Proptalk)
by Charlie Iliff
The weather on Sunday, August 18 was reasonably pleasant—cloudy but the rain held off. Lucy and I got aboard Indian Summer at Jerry West’s dock, along with Lucy’s brother and sister-in-law, Alex and Wendy Wise, and their Wilmington friends Grafton and Deenie Reeves. As we rumbled out of Chase Creek and into the Severn, I was struck with a thought that comes to mind fairly often: Here we have this long-range cruising power boat, and we don’t use it enough.
A couple of years ago, we did what real cruising boaters call the “little” loop. We went out through the Delaware Bay to the Atlantic, up to New York, up the Hudson, through the Erie and Oswego canals and the corner of Lake Ontario to Cape Vincent. Our partners in the boat, Bob and Linda Burnett, took her to Ottawa and Montreal and down into Lake Champlain. Lucy and I brought her down the Lake; Bob and Linda brought her back to New York, and some friends and I brought her home. That was a great adventure and the proper use of a capable cruising boat like Indian Summer, a 1982 DeFever 44. By comparison, what we’ve done since hasn’t seemed like much at all. It is a vaguely nagging guilt: we don’t use her enough.
Of course, sitting on the fly bridge on a comfortable Sunday morning, wondering if the rain would hold off, sipping a cup of coffee, talking to family and new friends, what we were doing sure was pleasant. We rumbled sedately down the river and into Annapolis Harbor. There, we saw a shiny 100-plus-foot ocean-going motor yacht. I suspect that its owner often thinks, “I don’t use the boat enough” – maybe while the professional crew is delivering the boat to Annapolis from her home port in the British Virgins.
As we puttered by all the tied-up boats in Annapolis Harbor, and then Back Creek to Jabins, I thought: “At least we’re using her today, and it sure is pleasant.” And I thought of July third, when we anchored in Round Bay with Mary and Geoff and Chas and three grandchildren. Ginevra and Avery and Charles, ages six, five, and five, had not seen fireworks before that evening. Sherwood Forest put on a spectacular display, after which we lit the boat up like the Harbor Queen and joined the parade down the River.
Last fall, when our daughter Elizabeth and grandson Bohdan came in from Wyoming, we ran down to Herrington Harbour South, ate supper in the restaurant there, toured the facilities that were mostly shut down for the winter, and ran back up to the Severn in the morning. Bohdan, then aged seven, identified every moving and anchored vessel on the touch-screen Garmin. And while his mother was jogging the area around the marina, he dug out the remote and got the TV cranked up on cartoons that he doesn’t get to watch at home.
Oxford isn’t very far away for a boat like Indian Summer. A while back, Lucy and I ran down, tied up at Mears Yacht Haven, and spent a couple of days relaxing on the boat and bicycling around Oxford. Bob and Linda joined us for the last night, and we brought Indian Summer home together. That last morning, we had a memorable walk—in driving rain—from Mears to the Robert Morris Inn, where we were treated like royalty and not like the drowned rats we resembled. And there were the several days in October at the Miles River YC, for the Electric Boat Marathon and the Cocktail Class races at the Maritime Festival...
As we ended our tour on Sunday August 18, a little light rain started. I tied Indian Summer up and thought: “We don’t use her enough, but the times we do are really nice.”