Plain Jane Plain Talk

Journals from the road, trails and at sea

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  • 08.13.1944 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    I have two of your letters in front of me now and am trying to figure out whether there is some question I haven’t answered. Incidentally your letter of July 27 was very hard to read as it didn’t photograph well at all. Do you suppose it is the ink you used? At any note, I’ll be looking for the package you mentioned in a couple of weeks.

    This is a beautiful Sunday afternoon here for a change, but even though there are other things I want to do, I just have to answer the mail. Besides, I have already done my washing and pressed a pair of pants. Guess I’ll go downtown to a show tonight.

    I might mention that I’m writing downstairs in the parlor here. I could go over to the office and type, but thought I’d give the digits a rest.

    Papers here seem to be full of good news and everybody seems to have the feeling that it won’t be long now. Guess that’s it this time.

    Russell

    England

  • 08.27.1944 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson and Bob:

    Well, I hardly know just how to start this letter as it was just a few days ago that I received word of Richard’s passing. I was really shocked when I read about it. You three have my deepest sympathy. But it still makes it hard for me to believe.

    I could write a lot of things here about him but such would only tend to add to your grief so I’ll purposely skip them. He just turn 12, didn’t he? So, I’m going to start writing about something else.

    I’m sitting here listening to the radio this afternoon and just listening to some good old American programs. One of the fellows in the office has a Zenith portable and we just write our letters and listen to it at the same time.

    I just got the letter from Grace giving me more details about things and also some newspaper clippings.

    Remember that red headed fellow I used to run around with back there. He told me that his brother-in-law, who is also a friend of mine, will probably be flying one of the big B-29 bombers before long. Boy I wish I were in his shoes.

    I really can’t think of much more to say this time. I’m looking for the package any day now too.

    Keep your chin up!
    Russell

    England

    Tragedy strikes back at home. Russell learns that his 12 year old nephew, the son of Helen and Wilson Wadsworth has died.

  • 08.30.1944 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Thought I’d take advantage of this little lull and bat out a letter to you as I think I’m a little behind. Yes, I was sorry to hear about Richard, but I’ve been hardened to a lot of things especially since I came into the Army I know it’s just one of those things you can’t do a thing. When you put conditions together anymore, you wonder, at least I do, why try to raise a family. So much for that.

    I certainly appreciate your efforts in trying to pick up the film and your success in so doing. Super space XX is tops as far as speed is concerned and I’m real pleased to think that you were able to get it. I haven’t as yet received the box, but am looking for it any day now. Hope you can send them soon as I’m on my last roll.

    You know, it has occurred to me that I have never mentioned this little detail about this neighborhood. It seems that in England, and in most of Europe, due to the crowded living conditions, at least in and around the cities, that there is always the fear of plagues. You remember how they used to be mentioned in history. Well, of course, a lot of those plagues were caused by rats. Consequently, practically every household has it’s own snoopers, namely cats. Now in this neighborhood, cats are so plentiful, that you practically step on them every time you go out of the house. In fact, you occasionally get that unpleasant sort of feeling that one sometimes gets in a pasture when you step on or in the stuff which cows defecate. Now you see, what I’m getting at is this; American cats seem to take a great deal of pride in concealing this matter by digging a hole and covering same when through. But these English cats, through generations and generations of experience, just step like the old contented cow, get through with the necessary business, and keep right on going. Of course, the cats are in a little predicament with regards to matters of this nature since the ground throughout the neighborhood is pretty well covered with masonry and cannot dig through to cover up. Now that is one of the main reasons why I would not want to run out of a burning house over here in the middle of the night in my bare feet. But the dogs still chase cats over here like they do back home.

    Now there are a few phrases or words they use quite commonly that I get a kick out of. For instance, you will ask for directions to so and so and after you have been told they will invariably say when you leave “you cawn’t miss it”. (accent on cawn’t) They pronounce can alright but can’t is cawn’t. I won a little argument on this point one evening. A lot of people when asking if you like a certain thing will ask “do you fancy this?”. So much for that.

    Thanks for Jack’s address. Will look for pictures soon.

    Russell

    England


    An absolutely delightful read, about the differences between English cats and American cats.

  • 09.26.1944 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    Well you can see now that I’m in another country. And so far it has been quite an experience. Have certainly seen fresh results of war. Saw the City of St Lo which was totally destroyed. You can’t imagine it. You may have seen newsreels of it by this time. People smile and wave at us though.

    I learn too that this is the rainy season here. Well I got used to rain back in ___. I think the people themselves provided the sunshine. They treated us swell.

    Of course, I have one main difficulty. That’s speaking French. However quite a few French speak a little English.

    Am in quite a nice place at present. Am sleeping in tents — no beds either. I’m looking forward to an opportunity to visit Paris soon. That too will be an experience.

    More later.

    Russell

    France

  • 09.26.1944 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    This is the first chance that I have had to bat out a letter to you since I got over here. You can see now that I will have to try to pick up a little French. The few French I have had occasion to meet, couldn’t understand me nor I them. So we were even.

    They all greeted us with a smile, however, and seemed quite happy to see us. I guess the kids still say “any gum, chum” but in French. One little kid offered me a 50 centime piece as a souvenir. She was probably 6 or 7 years old.

    French money isn’t going to be hard to learn or understand. It’s on the decimal system like our own. A one thousand Frank note or a two thousand Frank note is a sheet of paper about the size of the top of a cigar box. You really think you have quite a document when you have one, but they are only worth five and ten dollars respectively.

    I’ve seen some places here that were making history a short time ago. Have seen St. Lo which is just about totally destroyed. You may have seen it in news reels by this time. But to really appreciate it, you should see it. Have seen a lot of German stuff that was either captured or destroyed too. Quite impressive.

    We are situated in a beautiful spot for the present anyhow. But it can’t compare with the _____ back in England. I spent some time there and the people around there were wonderful. I wouldn’t mind stopping back there again someday. Of course, I’d like to see New York first. Will write more when I get a little more time.

    Russell

    France

  • 10.04.1944 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    I have received the pictures — about 5 or 6 different letters. Don’t send any more though, because I should have liked to have had them while I was in ___. So hold back for a while.

    As for Christmas package – I’ll tell you how I feel about. First, I appreciate the sentiment behind it. I can keep myself pretty well supplied with necessities from the PX — like shaving stuff, soap, blades, washrags, towels, candy etc — at least for some time in the future.

    What I do appreciate as much as anything right now are those rolls of film that you may be able to send from time to time. I think there’s a new postal ruling that we G.I.s must request specifically just what we want or the postal authorities won’t accept a package. I request the film – ANY AMOUNT. That ougth to satisfy them.

    Your last package arrived OK — that is, with chocolate, dark stuff, gum, candy etc. that will be enough to last for awhile. Besides, I’d like for the rest of the packages to catch up so I can keep some.

    Now, I intend to send a package home as soon as I get all the stuff I want to put into it. Then I’ll send it to some one of you to distribute to all.

    With me, and I get too much on hand, I can’t always take it with me.

    I’ve visited Paris and it is certainly a beautiful city. Saw such famous places as the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Napolean’s Tomb, Chamber of Deputies; walked the Champe Elysees, which is the world famous street. Never imagined that I would one day do that.

    Anyway, alot of stuff has happened. Everything is out of doors now. A fellow down at the outdoor latrine that we now use remarked that he had defecated in better places but never had the beautiful view to go with it. With that I guess I’ll close.

    Russell

    France

    P.S. No magazines yet. Hand cream is damn good.

  • 10.04.1944 Letter

    Dear Elizabeth;

    Well, what do you think of where I am now. It sure was some experience coming here though. I saw a lot of stuff. If I could write every detail as I saw it I could probably write a book, but there’s a lot you can’t write, and eventually I’ll probably forget some of the interesting highlights.

    Anyway, on the way here, I was separated from my baggage — the only clothes I had were those I wore. Naturally, that was the time for me to meet with an accident. Sure!! I split the seam in the seat of my trousers and could do nothing about it. It was that way for days, and every guy who watched me walk away sure did his duty in calling the fact to my attention.

    Now, I have my hair cut so short that there really is nothing there.

    Of course, I’m picking up a few things in French. I really wish that I had studied it. A lot of our fellows speak it like a native. But, I’m also surprised at the number of people who speak some English or speak it well. I noticed this especially in Paris. Yes, I’ve seen it, and in a lot of the shops, they speak English. It is certainly a beautiful city and has hardly been maimed by the war.

    I walked down the Champs Elysees, saw the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, Chamber of Deputies, Napoleon’s Tomb and many other places. I also dropped into the IBM office, and they told me that it has been operating all during the war.

    Taxis are either bicycle or horse drawn carts, all sizes and shapes, and usually haul one person. Some of the bicycle type look like miniature auto coupes, others are open.

    It was interesting enough so that I hope I can go there for another day.

    Mildred says you got some Nescafe for the package which she says is on the way. Thanks!

    So long for now.

    Russell

    France

  • 10.24.1944 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Thought I’d better get this letter out to you while I think about it. It’s to let you know that reverse lease-lend is at work. Yes I’ve sent a package addressed to you, and if and when it comes, here’s how I would like you to dispose of it.

    There’s a lot of liquids in it; it’s all packed in a wooden box — perfumes. One of Coty’s for each — Helen, Elizabeth, Ida, Mildred and yourself. Give the Guenlair to Mom. The German after shave lotion give to Willard and Wilson. Give Bob and Romayne a set of the English coins. I think you’ll be able to figure those out. There are three books in it. Maybe you will find these interesting. Pass them around, but don’t lose them. I have sent two more books to Mildred and asking her to pass those around.

    So much for that. Another V-Mail follows.

    Russell

    France

  • 10.24.1944 Letter

    #2
    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Now that I have told you what to do with the package, I’ll give some of the latest dope.

    Am not in the same place where I wrote to you from the last time. We’re in a place that was once used by the Germans. Might just as well be in prison. Can’t get any passes. It’s pretty monotonous right now, but it may improve. I hope!!!

    It’s the rainy season over here now. No matter where this gang moves, it just follows a seasonal rain belt. Sometimes it rains steadily all day long. On others, we just have showers.

    However, our eats are good and I am beginning to wonder how much I weigh. Had my hair clipped to about one thousandth of an inch in length. Right now, I’ve got a head cold but have lots of company.

    With that will sign off.

    Russell

    France

  • 10.29.1944 Letter

    Dear Howard;

    Now after you read this letter, why don’t you sit down and drop me a line and let me know just what the hell you are doing. The only way I find out anything about you is when your wife writes to me. Yeah, I got a letter from her today, and in it was your address, which I didn’t know before. Do you know where I am. No, you don’t. The best way for you to find out, is to place your finger somewhere on a map of France and take a good guess; and one thousand to one you won’t guess right.

    But away with this idle chatter — this will give you some idea of what has happened or what I have been doing with my time… For a time we were stationed at a beautiful chateau – or was once a beautiful – and slept out most of the time, you guessed it in our pup tents with good old hay for a mattress. From there I managed to see Paris a couple of times. Since Elizabeth said she sent my last letter to her, to you, I don’t believe that I will have to tell you much about that. By the way, I did buy some perfume for her while there and have already sent it to Grace with a lot of other stuff.

    Right now, though, we have conquered the confining walls of what was a place used by Hair Schicklegruber and his Heiling Henchman. We eat in buildings that he once built and work as well. Good buildings these Heinies built too. There no pikers along these lines. However, we G.I.’s really go to work on a place once we come in. The other day, the whole company had to report for a policing detail at 12:45. At least we thought it was the ordinary policing detail; however we did the job. I will always regret not having the film on which to record it. You see the company street is a concrete road and it is several hundred feet long. A battery of brooms was brought up and the command to sweep street was given. It certainly was a wonderful sight to see former schoolteachers, college professors, athletic directors, lawyers, and master sergeants and me just sweeping the dirt off the company’s street. We stirred up enough dust so that one would think a company of cavalry was going through. A few hours later it rained and got the street all muddy again. We’ll probably sweep it again because I don’t think rain was mentioned anywhere in the order.

    One night awhile back, another fellow and I decided to go out on pass to a little town about five kilometers from where we were stationed. Plenty of G.I. traffic along the road, and it wasn’t long before we were picked up by a Red Ball express truck – that’s what particular supply lines are called.

    We got into town OK, spent the evening at a Frenchman’s house, there being a femme that this buddy of mine had met previously at a dance a couple of weeks before. He could speak French; so that cut me out along that line. But Pop – her Pop – and I had a good chat as he spoke English very well. He related to me just how the people in this town which bore no scars of battle, but which had been used by the Germans, felt at the coming of the Americans. He stated that he first saw an American patrol in the town and at first he was so surprised that he could hardly believe it. But when he observed more closely he was sure of it. They remained in the town for about two hours before departing. A day or so later, they returned again, to see if anything new and different had turned up. From then on, nothing but French flags were flown in the town. “I’ll have to continue on sheet 2”

    #2
    Only a short time has elapsed before the main body of the outfit passed through this little village. His own words best expressed just what his reaction was. They were to the effect that the parade through Paris “down Champs de Elysees” was probably the more beautiful to look at but the parade which passed by his front door was the real thing. “Tanks, tanks, tanks” he explained. “Always the Americans ride”, he said. The Germans had nothing but carts. Horse drawn, and bicycles for their transportation. This particular outfit or outfits must have taken four hours to pass through he said. Everybody in town or in near it was covered with the dust that it stirred up. He expressed the feelings of most Frenchmen by giving a sigh when asked how they felt about the Americans coming. He stated that it was hard for one to exactly imagine just how it felt on such an occasion if one hadn’t undergone similar conditions. It was particularly impossible to speak freely while the Germans were there, at the same time pointing out that someone in this community was working for the Gestapo, and he had not been suspected simply because he had lived in the community for a long time and apparently acted the part of a stalwart citizen. But the marquis found out and shot him. They wasted no time. So said he….

    Anyway, on the way back from this particular town, he picked up a ride with a couple of G.I.’s deadheading on the Red Ball Express. They had a few shots of cognac which is what I call “rot gut” and when we arrived at our camp I was sure glad to get out of that truck. There were a pair of trucks in the deal and we were in the land truck. Well, these French wind about like some of the country roads back in Pennsylvania and whenever they came to a curve in the road, they made it as short as possible straightening out the road wherever possible. Most of the time, I just sat there ready to jump if anything did go wrong. But I guess being fortified with cognac just makes them better drivers, because we arrived save and sound thought we did have to just about yell our brains out to get the driver to stop.

    But as long as we’re in France, I’m going to see just how much French I can pick up — I mean the language. A fellow here in the office speaks it fluently and spends quite a bit of time with me on it, for which I’m very grateful.

    But I guess that’s about all I have to offer for now.

    Russell

    France

  • 11.03.1944 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace:

    I now have your V-Mails of 5 and 21 Oct and needless to say I was glad to receive both. One I received yesterday, and the other today.

    There seems to be some delay in the mail somewhere along the line or else most of my customers are not writing. I think it! held up somewhere.

    Now, about the packages. I can now say that I have received both of them as one came in this week. That was the one with four rolls of film in it. I also received one from Mildred at the same time.

    I am happy to hear that you have another on the way with more film. That will put me in good shape.

    You know, the last roll of film I had developed didn’t turn out at all and it’s the first time that this has happened on any that have come out of that camera. They were all fogged up or didn’t come out at all. I’m inclined to believe that the fault lies in the developing, as some which I took while I was in Manchester turned out fine. It it happens on my next roll, I’m seriously thinking of sending for my developing outfit and develop my own negatives. It looked to me as though the films were developed in a room with some light in it. I don’t believe the fault lies with the camera. If it does, I’ll send for one of those, as I know where there is one at Mildred’s not being used.

    I’m trying to learn a little French and have been able to speak a few words. That dictionary will come in handy. I look forward to learning as much about it as I can. There’s probably no better place than France to learn French. Don’t you agree? A fellow here in the office knows it real well and helps me out whenever he can.

    I think I’ll drop Jack a line later on and forward it to you and you in turn can then forward it to him, as in the shuffle, I’ve lost his address.

    What are Helen and Wilson doing? Not any letters at all from them anymore.

    Guess I’ll close now.

    Russell

    France

  • 11.09.1944 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    What a country this is. All people are strangers. You can’t speak with them, nor they with you. About all you can do is gesticulate. At least it was that way when I first got here.

    Each town has its narrow winding streets with portions of most buildings overhanging same to make the most of a crowded space. People gaze at GIs when they pass from open French windows. Every building has French windows. Why not? It is France.

    The French seem doubtful about there own money though. They will pay 100 Francs for a dollar, which at our rate of pay amounts to two dollars for one dollar. It shows how much faith they have in the American dollar. But just don’t get caught selling a dollar. It’s rough.

    They use every type of conveyance conceivable in moving from place to place. You see people riding bicycles; old, high, two-wheeled, horse-drawn carts; autos using charcoal burners; or some other type of just plain push-cart. Yes, shanks mare.

    The people all seem to be well dressed, especially the women. The clothes are good, and make up is good, and because of the perfume they use, you can smell them a block away. They do have plenty of perfume, and all kinds of it. And there seems to be plenty of women’s clothing– a lot more than I saw while in England.

    But when I walk down the street, I just get the feeling that I can’t trust anyone. Some of this is probably due to the lack of knowledge of the language. And then you have to remember that the Germans were around here for about 4 years too, and you really don’t know who’s who. In this respect, you may ask a question in French and get the surprise of your life when the party answers in English. There certainly are a lot of people who speak several different tongues.

    I guess the black market is pretty strong too. Especially so in gas and cigarettes. They steal gas from GI trucks just like they used to steal coal from slow moving coal trains at home. People will stop you on the street and offer to buy cigarettes from you at prices, which if we were paying for same anywhere, would be exorbitant. You know there are a lot of GIs who don’t smoke.

    There’s no entertainment to speak of at all. I have seen one movie since I have been here, and then the projector was on the blink and no one could understand what they were saying. If one goes into town, there is still nothing to do. Of course, there is plenty of champagne to drink and it costs about three dollars or better for a quart bottle. And at home it’s a luxury.

    We have a shower room now which is probably a lot more than some guys over here have. Went without a shower for a couple of weeks here about a week ago. But I’m back on schedule now. I think I had B.O. That reminds me; the Army must think there is a lot of B.O. too as our soap ration now is nothing but Lifebuoy. But as a soap it isn’t bad; but the odor!

    But there’s no excitement, at least in our end of the business. Oh, I read a lot of interesting stuff on paper, but that’s about all. I get the biggest kick out of the whole think when we change our address from time to time. That’s when I see some of the country.

    We are near a town right now, but as I mentioned before, there’s no excitement or entertainment there.

    Other than that, I am picking up a little French and I’m going to see if I can’t cook up a deal to teach some Frenchman or women English while they teach me some French.

    That’s all for now.

    Russell

    France

  • 11.28.1944 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Have your V-Mail letter of the 11th. You apparently haven’t received the package I sent to you nor the letter explaining how the contents should be distributed. Anyway, both are on the way somewhere.

    Have been away from here about a week, having been in four more countries — Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and last but not least, Germany. A real interesting trip. Here’s how I got it.

    The Mayor walked into the office one morning and said that he needed one enlisted man to go with, explaining that he would be exposed to danger and that if anyone didn’t want to go, to say so, no one backed out. Then our names were put on a piece of paper, put in the hat, and he drew. Well, he drew mine.

    We first went into a town in Germany over a road that was registered by enemy artillery. It was a bad day, and though there was fine, it didn’t come near us.

    We stayed in this particular town for a couple of hours, and believe me, I kept my carbine ready all the time.

    It was a picturesque little German town, setting at the bottom of a valley, with steep hills rising sharply from three sides of the town. A stream meandered through the heart of it.

    While I was standing in the street, a car pulled around the bend, without any insignia, and came to a halt. I recognized a couple of share-tails and saluted, but to my amazement, they all spoke in a heavy German accent and I admit I was a little uneasy for a minute. But, then it turned out that they were Belgian liasion officers with our Army and probably spoke Flemish, which is a little like German I guess. They wanted some information, and I showed them where to get it. Then we chatted and I passed them some cigarettes which they were glad to receive. Then they drove off.

    We were in Germany again on another day, this time at Aachen. They sure raised cane with that place. People don’t speak, but would if you spoke to them. However, the policy over there is not to fraternize and it’s being enforced.

    You know, our side is after an unconditional surrender and the Germans have known that for a long time and are making us fight for it. But then Morgenthau has to throw in his two cents worth and it sure makes wonderful German propaganda. On announcing something that he thinks should be done to Germany only arouses a natural reaction in people anywhere when told that they should or would be reduced to a slave state. He should keep his trap shut, and it would probably save a lot of lives on our side.

    Well guess that’s the limit for this time.

    Russell

    France

    Russell was selected to make a visit to Germany. Fabulous accounting of Germany during this time period.

  • 12.13.1944 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    I received your 2 V-Mail letters of the 28th of November, and they were the fastest mail that I have received from the states in some time. No, I haven’t received any letter from Willard at this writing.

    I’m glad to hear that the package arrived and in good condition. The amounts of the perfume were small, I know, and about all it amounts to is something from over here. I may be able to get some better stuff some other time — provided I get lucky enough in a crap game some time. Guerlain perfume is really the best and I hope I can get some of it for all of you. There are some other good brands I will substitute if I can’t get that.

    You mentioned S-Sgt. Pierson. Well, it’s hard to tell just where his APO might be. Even though his number is close to mine, it’s only remotely probable that he’s located near me. I’ll look into anyhow. You know that red-headed fellow that I used to run around with back there. Well, he too is over here somewhere as I had a letter from him just the other day telling me that he had been to Paris. He has come over here only recently. I also sent a letter to Romayne, and enclosed in it a letter to Jack. So please forward it to him. I’ll use the address you gave me from now on.

    I have not as yet received the magazines. However, all mail is slow right now as even some of the newspapers I used to receive are not coming through.

    My French is only slightly improving. I can make my wants known and that’s about all! But just give me time. That’s why I requested a pretty good French grammar book if it is possible for you to pick one up back there. I’ll send you some money to cover these little purchases out of my next pay period.

    You mentioned something about Emma’s sister wanting to start corresponding with someone overseas. Well, I can always use any additional subscriptions to the writing list. Of course, it may be kind of hard to know what to say to a stranger, but I can probably manage.

    Have you been reading anything about the political action committee of the CIO. If so, what do you think about it. There’s a good article in October Readers Digest about it. I think there’s something that ought to be nipped in the bud before it gets too strong. See what you think.

    Received packages from Ida, Mildred and IBM so far. Ida’s was soaked. Salvaged only soap and coffee. Mildred’s had absorbed some gasoline so all unsealed food absorbed gasoline. Rest OK.

    Russell

    France

  • 12.14.1944 Letter

    Dear Romayne;

    It seems to me that I got a letter from you a long time ago and never answered it. So I thought I’d drop you this line today.

    We’re having floods on this side of the ocean right now and it’s pretty sloppy. The water has been higher than at any time in over 30 years.

    When I was in Germany, I met a couple of Belgian officers and they gave me a linen handkerchief with an address of a girlfriend on it. So I’m sending it to you as a souvenir. It’s a little dirty now, but you can wash it if you want to.

    I want to enclose in this letter a letter to Jack. Please have your mother put his right address on it. And Romayne, ask your mother to be on the look out for a good French grammar book sometime when she is in town. I’ll pay for it.

    Russell

    France

  • 12.21.1944 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace:

    Just thought I’d drop you a line and tell you that yesterday I received the first copy of the Saturday Evening Post. The date of the copy was Nov 18. Glad to get it at last.

    Got a letter from Mildred this A.M. and she told me it was sort of cold. I wish we would get some freezing weather here. Not that I enjoy ice cold weather, but I believe it would be much better for military operations.

    Suppose you have heard about the drive by the Germans. A thing like that has great repercussions. Like dropping a big stone into a pool of water where you have ripples that roll to the farthest shores, gradually diminishing.

    Russell

    France

  • 01.01.1945 Meal Ticket

  • 01.07.1945 Letter

    Dear Elizabeth;

    You’ve probably been wondering whether or not I’ve received the package which you sent. I got it just before Christmas and in good condition. So I want to thank you all for it.

    We’re having our first taste of winter here now, with the ground being covered with snow, but it wasn’t very cold though.

    Had an enjoyable Christmas and New Years and had champagne which cost us about 2.28 for a quart bottle. It’s delicious, but not at the price one would pay for it back home. Went to a party Christmas eve which lasted all night. We ate for half the night. The people were very nice, or as the French would say “tres bien”.

    So long for now.

    Russell

    France

  • 01.10.1945 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    Guess it’s pretty nearly time that I dropped you a line and let you know where I stand again but I hardly know what to begin to say.

    Anyway, winter has finally caught up with us over here and the ground is covered with a fine layer of snow. The snow hasn’t been on the ground very long, but the first day that it came we were issued long undies and though I haven’t started to wear them regularly as yet, I may have to before very long. Frankly, I’m glad that it’s colder now than it was a few weeks back, a few weeks ago as I prefer to walk on frozen ground rather than in mud.

    Got a letter the other day from a friend of mine who I met back in Niagara when I first came in the Army. It was the first that I had heard from him in two years, and I hadn’t expected to hear from him at all. Anyway, he ended up in India, and his letter came to me by way of Niagara. So, you can imagine what a journey that letter had. It was almost three months on the way having been mailed last October.

    As far as I know now, I’ve received all of my Christmas packages except one and that’s the one that Grace said she mailed to me. I got three from IBM alone, one from New York and two from Endicott. And now I’m getting both Collier’s and the Post and they’re coming in so fast right now that I can hardly keep up with them. They’re dated from October.

    Went out and got a little French lesson tonight, and though it is still difficult for me to understand them, I am getting successful enough to make myself understood and I guess that’s progress. Not much I can add for this time, so will close.

    Russell

    France

  • 01.12.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    I know that I owe you a letter, but have been holding off just to see if the package you had sent would arrive. Said package arrive this morning and the contents were in good condition. Thanks a lot for it. I want to especially thank you for the pocket dictionary which you included; it is the best dictionary of its kind that I’ve laid eyes on, and another fellow here is going to write home and get the same thing in German-English. I certainly would like to get the French grammar book which is put out by the same author – HUGO -.

    As for myself, everything is fine for the moment at least. Snow now covers the ground and it is considerably colder than it was a month or so ago. It freezes ice in our barracks, or I should say warehouse, every night, and I use all the blankets I have plus my tent half and overcoat when I go to bed at night.

    I am now receiving both Collier’s and the Post and some of the copies are dated back as far as Sept.

    Another fellow and I are doing our housework tonight, namely ironing. Of course we do it the old fashioned way of heating the irons on a stove, not because we don’t have electricity but because we don’t have any electric iron. This way is just as good anyway / two irons going, one on the stove and one off.

    Sunday we had our pictures taken — in German uniforms. The uniform I had on was that of a German tankman. My buddy had on that of a German officer. Then we had another friend point a gun at us and we placed our hands over our heads as though we were his prisoners. We’d probably been shot if any guards here had seen us as they are a trigger happy lot.

    You know, I’ll be the stores at home are not as cold as they are here in France. I was in one the other day, and of course, the clerk came up and waited on me just like in a department store at home. But most of the clerks dress just as you would when going outdoors here. It was almost as cold inside as out.

    But the French know how to decorate store windows. No matter how shabby the shop may look from the outside, it is usually quite orderly and neat on the inside. But prices of practically all articles are very high. I looked at silk scarfs in windows (I took them to be silk) and they were priced up around 800-900 francs- around sixteen dollars in our money. That’s too much for me. The French do dress well, however.

    I’m enclosing a money order for $3.00 in this letter, which you may have for buying all those different items for me. It isn’t as much as I would like to send, but is about all I can manage at present. Will drop you a little more at some future date.

    That’s about all I have to offer for this time.

    Russell

    France

  • 01.21.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Haven’t had any mail for several days now, but neither has anyone else. Won’t have any for a few days yet, and then there’ll probably be a lot of it. I have received several packages that I never expected, and if every guy over did as well, it can be readily understood why mail might be delayed. Most of us in here did well in that respect.

    Am still feeling well, even though the weather has been bad. Only had one cold — the one I told you about in a previous letter a while back. We had quite a bit of snow for today.

    I am enclosing some pictures in this letter, some which I took in England, and some which were taken by other fellows. That picture of the tent in the thickest pines is the one I slept in for some time since coming over here. Notice how we put sides on it, and built it up. Some of the pictures were taken in the office. I have sent in some that I took in color. They haven’t been returned yet. Pass ’em around, but don’t lose them.

    Things look pretty good on the Russian front right now. If they keep going at their present rate, they’ll be in Berlin before we are. What care who gets there first as long as the thing is over with.

    I don’t know whether I mentioned it before or not, but we have movies here twice a week now. Get some pretty good pictures too. The screen is a makeshift one, being a big piece of plywood painted with silver. It works good now, but at first you didn’t know whether you’d see a complete picture or not.

    Guess I’ll close off for this issue.

    Russell

    France

  • 02.05.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    By the time you receive this letter you probably will have received a letter which will answer most of the questions in your V-Mail of the 14th.

    There seems to be a “nigger in the woodpile” as far as Don is concerned, as we have a lot of fellows like him here.

    I got a letter from Bertha and Miles today. I guess mail is pretty slow both ways across the water. However, I think it’s improving slowly.

    News reports are sure looking good these days. At 10PM a transcribed home news broadcast is heard here right after a regular newscast. Sometimes we listen to German propaganda broadcasts. They certainly are a bunch of stupes to think we believe their hooey. But they play good music.

    Russell

    France

  • Life under the Big Blue Tarp

    Bracing for high winds, cold temperatures and rain, topped off with a cracked salon window, meant we needed to protect the salon from the weather. We purchased the largest blue tarp sold by Home Depot, “Big Blu”, and spent the afternoon trying to tie it down. Big challenge. Our first big test was just hours away. A cold front was moving in bringing 50 knot gusts.
    Notice our attractive view of the world…thru a blu home depot lens (sigh).

  • 02.19.1945 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    Well, I can understand that you are having a real winter now. It should be swell for skiing with all that snow. But how about the floods later. Now listen to this. The weather here has been so warm for the past few days that we’ve been tossing baseballs around. I’ve never been so warm in February.

    The other day I sent you some stamps that I got in town. Let me know if you like them. I’ll send you more from time to time. I meant to send you some long before this. You’ll have a collection when I get through finding stamps because there’s all kinds of them.

    Sorry for such a short letter, but I just haven’t anything more to write.

    Russell

    France

  • 02.21.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    I thought I’d better answer your V-Mail of January 26 which I’ve had for quite some time now. From all indications up to the time I received it, you had no word that I did receive the package with the French-English dictionary in it, but I did mail you a letter shortly after it’s receipt letting you know that I did receive same. Now you tell me that you’re sending another dictionary along with some other stuff. I’m sorry that you did not receive my letter, or receive it in time, to prevent duplication of this item. However, when it comes, I’ll sell it to somebody else as there are plenty of guys looking for just such a book. How much is it anyhow. In the meantime, I’ll get another money order off to you as I feel that you are spending quite a bit of money for these things. Did you get my last money order?

    In regard to these packages which you send out to me from time to time, I wouldn’t worry too much about them after you once put them in the mail as, to the best of my knowledge, I have received every package that has been sent to me. However, the time element varies anywhere from 1 to 4 months. Mildred mailed two to me in the later part of November, one of which I received a couple of weeks ago and the other I’m still waiting for.

    No, I have never received a letter from Emma’s sister…. Maybe she’s the bashful type.

    But don’t forget me on the film. If you can’t get the regular black and white film, I’ll take the Kodachrome daylight same size. It costs considerably more money though.

    Our weather here is just the opposite of what you are having or had. We’ve been tossing baseballs around for several days now. Maybe it’s unseasonal though and we’re a little premature getting out the baseball equipment. If you have any newspaper pictures of all that snow, enclose them in one of your subsequent letters. You’ll probably have plenty of floodwater this year too. If it goes out all of a sudden.

    The other day, we had a delicacy here. One of the fellows managed to latch on to a dozen eggs. We fried them here in the office in our mess kits and they sure tasted good. I’ll probably make a good hobo when I get out of this Army.

    Guess I’ve about run out of stuff for this time.

    Russell

    France

  • 02.25.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Well, I guess the best way to start this letter is to tell you that you can certainly anticipate my needs to a “T”. I had a hunch all along that you would probably return the money I sent, doggonit…Anyway, I want to thank you for your thoughtfulness..

    I certainly glad to see your paragraph on getting film too. PLEASE get me six (6) rolls of film, size 828, and if at all possible I would like SUPER XX… Of course, I’ll take anything I can get. If and when you do obtain this film, I would appreciate your sending to me by first class mail. Send it alone.

    Thanks also for the clippings which you sent showing the snow back there. I had just asked you in a letter the other day to send some to me if they could be found. I had one that was sent to me by John, my red-headed friend over here, but I don’t know where the picture was taken. Anyway, it showed some street with only the roofs of cars sticking out of it, and I don’t believe I ever saw that much snow back there…not since I was a kid anyway, as I remember it used to come almost to the tops of fences at one time. It seems that our winter is about over, over here.

    You should see the sleeping bags we now have. They cover up everything including the top of your head, leaving only the opening for your face. I might mention that they have a big zipper on them and you can pull this up to suit yourself. But I can’t get used to having something around my head. I’m zipped right up from head to foot and feel like a snail, as I can stick my head out every once in a while and a tentacle-like hand moves out every once in a while as well. We get into one of the things and feel like a bunch of mummies or a bunch of seals.

    As regards to my French, though….There’s only one way to really learn it and that is to get out and talk to people. Therefore whenever I go out, I always take the dictionary with me, so that when I get stuck for a word, all I do is look for it in there, show it to the French and have them pronounce it for me and try to remember the pronunciation. I have made progress, but I cannot measure my progress until I go out with someone who does not or has not made an attempt to speak French. Then I feel fluent in comparison. You take words in English that end in TION, change the pronunciation a little, and you have a French word. The same is true of many of our words that end in ABLE or IBLE. So once I get a working knowledge of the verbs, my progress will be a lot better. It’s surprising how, if you twist the pronunciation of some of their words, you can draw out a diminutive of the English word (Boy, is my typing lousy tonight). It really helps one’s vocabulary to know French due to the similarity of many of its words with English.

    I have both the addresses of Jack and Don now. Did you forward my last letter on to Jack? I sent it in one to Romayne.

    During the past week, we have had fried eggs and oranges for a change. A fried egg is just about as popular as an ice cream cone to me, and to everyone else as well. I had four this morning, getting two in my first trip down the line and going back for seconds. Have also had oranges during the same period. Boy it sure seems good to get something fresh like that.

    Guess I’ve run out of stuff for now, so will close and go see the movie we’re having here tonight.

    Russell

    France

  • 03.13.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Guess I’ll have to call this a business letter. To start things off, I am going to ask you if you will do another favor for me. Enclosed are two numbered packets of colored negatives; one is marked No. 1 and the other marked No. II. I would appreciate if you would take them to Hamlin’s and leave the following instructions:

    1. Have the negatives mounted in slides (they don’t do it on this side of the pond)

    2. Order 4 prints each of all the printable negatives in packet No I

    3. Order 3 prints each of all the printable negatives in packet No II

    When you look at these negatives, please hold only the edges between your fingers as otherwise you will get fingerprints on the face and thus mar them.

    When they are returned to you, which may be several weeks after you leave them at Hamlin’s, return only the prints to me. Keep the mounted negatives as I don’t want to lose them, and after seeing them, you will understand why. Just return them by regular first class mail as I’m not even taking a chance on air mail.

    Since this sort of work is quite expensive, and I’m not sure of the cost, I am enclosing a money order for $15.00 to cover the job. This is plenty to cover the cost, I feel sure, but let me know the exact cost so that I will know exactly what to charge the other fellows who ordered these prints. If there is enough left over, see if you can pick up some Kodachrome Daylight film; it costs around $1.50 per roll.

    Otherwise, there is very little new around her. I have three letters that I received from Helen just yesterday – two V-Mails and one regular.

    Got a lot of work to do right now, so will close off.

    Russell

    France

  • 03.25.1945 Letter

    Dear Elizabeth;

    Well, I received your Easter Card with the letter. I intended to write a lot sooner, but I simply had nothing about which to write and consequently, just kept putting it off until this afternoon.

    To start off, thanks for sending me the pictures. That one is the first one that I’ve had of Howard since he got in the Army. I shoved off the day he was being inducted. When he wears that hat, I think that he should cock it a little more on the side of his head. Ahem. From those pictures you and Grant are looking as good as ever.

    I had some colored pictures returned to me recently and I sent them on to Grace to have prints made of them. If you happen to be up that way, and she has them, ask her to show them to you. Some of them turned out beautiful.

    Our company had a party in a city nearby recently and it turned out very well. Nobody got too drunk, and we had music by an American Negro orchestra, soldiers, they played real well. Of course, girls came by invitation only, and had to be approved by the local “Elsa Maxwell” who happens to be really known as Countess McMahon. The Irish operate everywhere. I don’t know where she got the title of Countess, but the story goes around here that she married some relative of Napolean. Perhaps, but how come she retains the name of McMahon. But, she ruled the dance with an iron hand just like hague rules Jersey City.

    I know I owe Howard a letter so I may get at that shortly.

    Russell

    France

  • 04.01.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Well, I was a good boy this morning and went to Church, it being Easter Sunday. To give you some idea of what the surroundings were like, I’ll give you a short description. The services were conducted in one end of what was once a truck garage used by the Germans. The ceilings were so high, it being a hip roof, that canvas was strung from end to end to lower the ceiling and make it easier to heat in winter. The walls concrete. The roof is supported by light steel girders and braces. There are some chairs and some benches to sit on. There’s about 25 electric lights in the place since there are only 4 windows.

    I sent a letter to you via regular mail, but after it left I realized that I had not enclosed the money order. That’s censoring for you. So I’m putting it in now.

    As you can see, I am not a sergeant. Three of my close friends right in this office are now Lt’s. Maybe I would have been too, but I made no application. I worked with those fellows for about ten months and I’m really going to miss them for awhile. All good boys.

    Will close off for now.

    Russell

    France

    Promoted to Sergeant

  • 04.04.1945 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    Yesterday I received three packages; two from you, with jam cookies and candy and the other with cheese spreads, etc, all in good condition. The one from Mildred was in good condition and had been on the way since Nov. Oh yes, I got the film OK, Thanks. I showed the little German dictionary to some German linguists, and they claimed it to be very good. I can literally put the German vocabulary right in my mouth now.

    I spent a little time in Paris a couple of weeks ago. It’s almost like a city in the States, so many soldiers on furlough.

    Boy, if you don’t think this is a problem to sit down here and try to think of something to write. But everybody’s having the same trouble.

    Oh, you used some papers in packing the package. I like that portion of the Syracuse Herald American with the section about Binghamton in it. When you’re finished with that part of the Sunday paper, will you send it to me. With that cotton packing, I’m going to have a little pillow made.

    Have you received the stamps yet. For another little souvenir, I’m enclosing a 5 Franc note.

    I guess I’ve said it for now. Thanks very much for the packages.

    Russell

    France

  • 04.17.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace:

    I thought I’d get off a few lines to you to let you know I’m still kicking.

    Lately we have been able to buy Coca Cola in the PX here just about every day. They sure taste good the last few days as it has been quite warm and skies are just about cloudless.

    Been looking for the “Guide Book” every day now, but it hasn’t shown up. I’m not worried about it though. I could sure go for a good glass of cool beer right now and that gives me an idea. You know they used to put that up in tin cans. Do you suppose you could pick up a couple of cans and send them to me. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be alright since they are in tin cans.

    The news on the western front or what was a western front looks better every day now. Have had a few prisoners working around her the last few days.

    In your V-Mail you mentioned Jimmie McFall having been wounded. If he is wounded as badly as you say, I don’t think there’s much chance of my seeing him as he’ll probably be sent back to the States. A friend of mine had to be shipped back to have a specialist operate on his toe.

    Guess I’ll sign off on this one.

    Russell

    France

  • 04.18.1945 European Civil Affairs Division

    Headquarters
    European Civil Affairs Division
    G-2 Section

    MWB/rfw
    APO 658
    18 April 1945

    Subject: Information concerning S/Sgt. Russell F Wadsworth
    TO: Commanding Officer, Headquarters Company, E.C.A.D.

    In compliance with your request for information concerning subject enlisted man, the following data is furnished:

    A. Superior
    B. Excellent
    C. This non-commissioned officer has demonstrated for a period of one year the ability to take charge of the administrative aspects of any function of this office and to follow same through to a successful conclusion. He has further demonstrated qualities of leadership and the soldierly quality of undertaking any task assigned, whether in his line or not, and execute same without complaint. It is the opinion of the undersigned that he has great potential value as an officer.

    Milton W. Buffington
    Major, Infantry
    A.C. of S., G-2

  • 04.30.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Happened to think that it is just about time that I dropped a few more lines to you.

    I was in a French home the other night and was asked to sit down. Now there is nothing wrong with being asked to sit down, but the expression itself was funny to me. Since I can understand just a little French, I pieced together the invitation to sit down and in English it would go something like this “put your behind in the chair”. Of course I had to laugh, and then of course had to explain just what I was laughing at. When they saw just how I took it, they too had to laugh.

    By the way, a while back I sent you some colored transparencies and later followed it up by a $15.00 money order. Since I haven’t heard from you in quite a while, I was wondering whether same had arrived. If this letter follows the usual course, your reply to this letter will probably come in tomorrow’s mail.

    I haven’t received the Blue Book Guide at this writing, but it should pop in here any day now. It’s first class mail, and it is hard to understand what is delaying it.

    Today I received three rolls from a fellow back at the plant. I wrote and asked him quite some time ago to be on the lookout for some. Where he got them I don’t know. The roll of film (colored) that I got from Helen I can’t use unless I can get my mitts on a “Type A” filter for my Kodak Bantam.

    Yesterday I received some colored transparencies back from developing and they turned out beautifully. I believe that I will continue to take more and more colored pictures. They cost more, but the difference is worth it, especially where scenery is involved. That’s why I asked you to buy some colored film if there was any money left over from what I sent to cover the cost of printing the one’s I sent to you. If there is sufficient left to do any of this kind of buying, make sure it is Kodachrome Daylight as that is all I can use until I get a filter.

    It has turned a little colder for the present, at least, following some badly needed rain. In fact, we’ve had the fire going all day again, after usually only building it in the morning. People are eating some things out of their gardens (which, incidentally is “jardin” in French) now.

    Well, I guess I’ll close off for this issue.

    Russell

    France

  • 05.01.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    A new location to write from and, consequently, a little something to write about.

    Had a good trip down here, and incidentally, drove a truck with a small trailer down. The first real driving I’ve done in several years. Fortunately, the men and material with got in unscathed.

    Saw some beautiful scenery in this neck of the woods. Got a good first-hand glimpse of the accuracy of Allied bombing and believe you me, it is accurate. Nothing but ruble in many places. Gaping holes in railroad locomotives and many railroad tracks a mass of twisted steel.

    I noticed many neat farms along the way with farmers planting potatoes. On thing missing from these farms were fences. I saw very very few fences. I might add also, that I saw no cattle.

    Before coming down, I got in on the French victory celebration. It may still be going on. It was in many places when I left. Dancing, drinking in little cafes, dance halls, on the streets, yea and lasting until 5 in the morning. They knock themselves out.

    Am living in a hotel room here with two other fellows. A bathroom adjoins our room and has all conveniences including hot and cold water.

    Tell you more in my next letter.

    Russell

    Germany

  • 05.14.1945 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    First England, then France and now Germany. Yes, I’ve arrived in the land of the “Super-race”, but they’re not so super right now. In fact, more or less submissive.

    But coming here I had a little different experience in that I drove a small truck and trailer much of the way here — the first real driving I’ve done since I’ve been in the Army. I didn’t forget much though as we arrived here in one piece. It was beautiful weather to travel too.

    I passed through some pretty battered German cities coming here, and all attested to the accuracy and might of Allied bombing. Many places are nothing but a heap of rubble. Railroad yards were a mass of twisted steel and shells of locomotives. You really have to see it to appreciate it.

    The place we are in now has not suffered much war damage. In fact, it is quite attractive. Sunday I went to church in the local Protestant Church and I must admit that I believe it to be the most beautiful Protestant Church I have ever been in. It is one of those immaculately neat and built-to-last forever churches. Probably Lutheran.

    I’m living in a hotel right now and have a very nice room which is shared by three of us. A bathroom adjoins the room and has every convenience including hot and cold running water. It sure seems good to take a bath in a tub whenever one feels like it. Until coming here, I hadn’t enjoyed this pleasure since leaving England.

    We eat in the same hotel. Displaced persons and some Germans do the work in the kitchen. We eat off plates. now and drink coffee from real cups for a change. The food is prepared much better and even if it weren’t it would taste better of the plates anyway.

    Well I guess I’ll close this off for now. More later.

    Russell

    Germany

  • 05.14.1945 Letter

    Dear Elizabeth:

    Just imagine this set up. Living in a nice hotel room which I share with three other fellows. My particular bed has an inner spring mattress — at least it feels like it. Adjoining the room is a bathroom with all conveniences including hot and cold running water. It sure feels good to take a bath in a tub again. The water here is soft too. Tomorrow I send my laundry out and it’s done free — by the Germans. We make them do it.

    To make life complete, all I would need are sheets and pillowcases for my bed.

    We eat in the same hotel and waitresses do the KP work. The meals are so good as any I’ve had in the Army. And it doesn’t detract from a meal when you eat it from real plates, and coffee from real cups.

    But there’s a dark side too. No fraternizing. It may get a little monotonous after a while. But I understand the furloughs and passes will be pretty liberal after a bit.

    This is a picturesque little place. It reminds me a little of Endicott – neat and clean. There is a beautiful park just across the street here with various healthfully good spring water, if you can stand the taste!! When you see all these things, you wonder why this country insists on making war all the time.

    I saw it first-hand the results of much bomb damage though. You can’t imagine what it is to drive down a street amid mountains of rubble and ghost-like walls and shells of buildings.

    There were big celebrations of victory in France. Some fireworks. Dancing whenever there was music in the middle of the street. I stayed out until 5:30AM. Was I fagged.

    I’ll close off for now so I’ll have wind for the next letter. More later.

    Russell

    Germany

  • 05.17.1945 Letter

    Dear Howard;

    Well, how many points have you. I’ve only 59 so I’ll sweat out the Army for some time. You know, in a week or so I’m going to tack on a hash mark. Yep, three years ago this month.

    A little over a year ago, I left New York and landed in Scotland on a damn big boat with several thousands of GIs. It took us eight days to make the crossing and I remember some pretty rough weather. I think I left the day you came in the Army.

    Don’t tell anybody — I wear two campaign stars now. What battles!!!

    Right now I’m housed in a hotel in this little German town. The hotel room has beds for three of us and a bathroom adjoins the rooms. One of the first things I did was take a bath in the tub — the first since I left England in a tub.

    Mess is in a real dining room with waitresses, mostly displaced persons. I don’t know whether you’re eating from a mess kit or how, but we’re giving ours a rest now and eating from china once again. Meals are a lot better tasting and a cup of coffee tastes like a cup of coffee.

    The town itself is picturesque, neat, clean modern. And from a personal viewpoint, those are all the typical German traits. It’s really a lot like say Endicott for example. There’s a beautiful park nearby with deep wells that bring various kinds of health giving water to the surface. Tennis courts are available, a baseball diamond has been laid out. A theatre is to be taken over. If a break comes on furlough and passes things will be fairly nice. We’ll need the latter because of the not-fraternization policy.

    Guess I’ll close off for now.

    PS Today is the 20th. Couldn’t find your address before. Received letter from Elizabeth today with it in so —

    Russell

    Germany

  • 05.24.1945 IBM Letter

  • Cat Maudy preps for a cold winter in Maryland

    The weather has begun to change. We’re seeing more and more days of 40 knot winds out of the north. Temperatures are getting down into the 30’s at night, and 50s and 60s during the day. Daylight hours are less. The jellyfish are disappearing, and those few that remain seem to float without purpose. Hot, homemade soups become standard fare in the galley. Kitties, Earl and Soxy, insist on sharing a warm body. Our 20 watt salon heater is running 24/7…and I find myself spending more time in the salon wrapped in blankets, and less time down in the unheated hulls.

    Reality sets in. Cat Maudy will be NORTH instead of SOUTH for the winter – due to the cracked port side panoramic window. While we are hoping for a mild winter in the Port of Baltimore, winterizing projects begin just “in case”. The cockpit is filled with gallon jugs of pink antifreeze….waiting to be poured into every orafice to prevent Cat Maudy from icing.
    Irregardless of the cooler days and chilly nights, we wake up every morning, rocked by the gentle waves of the Patapsco River. Being “on” the water, a sense of calmness prevails over the daily work schedules and routine tasks. We are ‘one’ with the weather, tapping into solar and wind power, adding new lines or adjusting fenders when gale force winds try to push Cat Maudy around. The images thru the hatches constantly change. We can watch barges and commercial ships, the Amistad Freedom Schooner, coast guard and tug boats, and connect with other sailors who dock or anchor near our cat. As the weather gets colder, and Cat Maudy remains at dockside for the winter – it’s all good

  • 05.28.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Say, no hear from you for a long time now. What’s up?

    Anyway, do you notice anything different about this letter? No, they’re not censoring them any more. But we cannot reveal our location yet.

    As it is now, we’ll soon be able to get furloughs back to England and southern France. Now I don’t know where I would like to go even after I went to the trouble of having you, send that book to me. However, I’m going to hang on to it anyway.

    By the way, have you ever received the films and the money order which I sent to you? Would appreciate your letting me know about this.

    We’re certainly in a beautiful section of Europe – Germany. This place is a health resort and there are a number of swimming pools and wells of different varieties of mineral water, supposed to be good for what ails you. I like the taste of the water from one of the springs. Soft of like soda.

    We were out watching a tennis match tonight – out in the park. One of the balls went over the fence and a civilian passerby was asked to pick it up. Well, you know the rule – no fraternization. He picked up the ball and threw it back. Then he said jokingly, “That’ll cost you sixty-five dollars”, that being the fine for one caught fraternizing. Naturally, it sounded funny to hear the civilian reply in perfect English, but it’s only an indication of the number of people who speak English around here.

    Oh yes, before we came here, we were back in Trayes, France.

    Guess that’ll do it for now.

    Russell

    Germany

  • 05.30.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    I just got through writing you the day before yesterday that I was wondering what happened to you. Yesterday, I received the package with the films and colored prints. So now, I know that you are still there.

    As for the colored prints, I received 11 all told. Of course, there were 3 of 1, 4 of another and four of still another. I presume that is all that were printable. Am I right. At any rate I was glad to get the film and prints in good condition.

    This town, Bad Homburg, is where I am located now. It’s a little place of about 16,000 and is located about 10 miles north of Frankfurt a. Main. Now as for Frankfurt, it was a nice city. At least that’s what the remains indicate. From what I saw there isn’t a building standing that is of any use. There is a theatre in operation down there, but I don’t know how it escaped a direct hit. It was damaged a little. But most of the place is just a conglomeration of silhouettes.– ghosts of what once was Frankfurt.

    I got a letter from John Veselka yesterday and he’s down near Stuttgart. He travels around quite a bit, so now he’s going to try to look me up.

    Now that censorship is more or less lifted, I have a few more things that I would like to send home. I would like to get something from here from all of you, but just can’t seem to lay my hands on more than one particular item. It seems every time I try to stock up on one item, I can’t get enough to go around.

    I’m gathering up a few postcards around here while the getting is good. Boy when the run out I don’t know where the storekeepers will get any more. Everything is caput.

    The people around here don’t know what to make of us. Some of them speak, some of them want to speak and don’t. Others just don’t do anything. We just don’t do anything.

    The weather has turned sour the past few days, so we are more than ever inactive. Every time we have moved from one place after staying there for a while, I sort of say to myself “I could fight the ware here and be happy”. But after we move and get in a new place, I get that unsettled feeling and want to move again. You know, we’ve made a lot of friends wherever we have stayed. They all want us to come back and see them before we go home. But it will be impossible to see them all.

    I’ve been kept pretty busy here in this section. You know, now I am chief clerk and there are five guys working under me. Last week I had the privilege of recommending to the captain here that they be promoted. I have trouble with only one of them. He has a lot of book learning, he’s from the south, he doesn’t like to take orders, he’s smart, but he has no initiative. No common sense. I don’t know what I’ll do with him.

    Well, I guess I’ve just about brought you up to date on things here now. Drop me a line and let me know what’s new.

    Russell

    Germany

  • 06.04.1945 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    Now that I’ve been in Germany a while, and you can tell just where I am, I thought maybe I could give you a little picture of what has happened in the past now that censorship has been lifted. I know that you will be interested in more of the details than I could have given heretofore.

    We came into Scotland (Firth of Clyde) on a Saturday — I believe it was the 14th of April — last year. We had been traveling on irregular course after leaving New York on April 6th, zigzagging all over the place. You see, we were not in a convoy, and the boat was supposed have sufficient speed to outrun most anything that might have tried to chase us. We ran into several storms, one of which lasted for about three days, and the waves were mountainous. But regardless of how bat the weather was a big “liberator” bomber managed to hang around like some mother bird circling her brood. He just barely kept above those waves too.

    The Ile de France was so big that I didn’t mind the rocking and rolling in particular. But many of the boys sure kept their meals flying into the brink. And it wasn’t because they wanted to feed the fish. We didn’t waste much as we were only getting two meals per day and they were lousy. In addition, there was a PX aboard where we could buy candy, so we satisfied ourselves with that.

    After arriving off the coast of England, which was hidden by fog, they managed to find the Firth of Clyde and we travelled up it all morning until we came to Gurock where we dropped anchor about noon. In another twenty-four hours we had debarked and were on a train headed for Manchester. Immediately after boarding the train, we had our first real cup of coffee since leaving the States, and doughnuts, courtesy of the Red Cross. From there on you know much of the story.

    But after leaving England, you know little of the details. We boarded a liberty ship at Southampton after spending three days sleeping under the stars and headed across the channel to Omaha Beach. But it was another ten days before we debarked. Our priority just wasn’t high enough to get off any sooner. But the weather was beautiful and there was nothing to do but loaf while waiting. We watched LCIs and LCTs run their cargoes up on the beach, discharges their cargoes, and take off with the high tide. We watched “ducks” scoot from ship to ship like little beetles. We also watched ships all around us unload their cargoes on lighters, LCTs, barges, etc., and wondered when our turn would come. At night we slept on the decks or in the holds.

    But one afternoon it came. The nets were dropped into the hold, our truck run on to the net, hoisted over the side and placed in the LCT. Then I climbed, like everyone else, down Jacob’s ladder onto the LCT. We were subsequently loaded and made the run for the beach about 1 1/2 miles off. The only thing exciting on the run was that the naval commander of our LCT and another tried to see how close they could come to each other without hitting. I remembered seeing a collision on one other day, so I was prepared to go for a little swim. But the other LCT got “cold feet” and went in reverse and nothing happened.

    We ran up to the improvised dock that ran out from shore, dropped the ramp, drove the trucks off and then we were in France. We went up through the hedgerows which had been the scene of that furious fighting the first few days of the invasion. You could surely tell that they were not playing tiddly winks here. Then we pitched our tents and waited for the orders to move again. Three days later they came and our convey moved off. Another two days and we arrived at Rochefort and en Y just 25 miles south of Paris. Then of course you know much of the story from there until we moved to Troyes, about 90 miles southeast of Paris. From there a few weeks ago we left for our present destination – Bad Homburg, which is very picturesque little resort town in the Taunus Mountains about 10 miles north of Frankfurt a. Main.

    In closing I’d like to say that I’ve received a package from you the other day that you mailed to me, probably in February. It had a little checkerboard, some cheese, chipped olives, pickles and some other items. Believe you me I’m putting some of it to good use tonight because we had a lousy supper. Had just plain rice, some sort of canned meat. The rice just had the water drawn off of it, so you can imagine how that would taste.

    Thanks for all of this, and while you’re at it say thanks to Grace and Willard because I forgot to thank them for sending the film you and they sent to me.

    Russell

    Germany

    Censorship of mail has been lifted, and Russell freely describes the locations in Europe that he has served.

  • 06.08.1945 Letter

    S/Sgt Russell F Wadsworth
    ASN 52288468
    G-2 Sec., Hq. E.C.A.D.
    APO 658, c/o Postmaster
    New York, NY

    Here’s that picturesque little German town that I told you about in a previous letter. This view is of the older section of it. Sunday I expect to go to another old town about 50 miles from here — Heidelberg.

    Russell

    Bad Homburg, Germany

  • 06.08.1945 Letter

    S/Sgt Russell F Wadsworth
    ASN 52288468
    G-2 Sec., Hq. E.C.A.D.
    APO 658, c/o Postmaster
    New York, NY

    The girl spoke a little English where I bought this postcard. She looked at the card and said “Beautiful”, and after a moment’s pause said, “was”. I have a picture of just how it looks now. It was just a typical example of pin point bombing.

    Russell

    Bad Homburg, Germany

  • 06.14.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    This morning things are kind of light around here so I thought I’d drop you a line and tell you a few more things while they are fresh on my mind.

    In this morning’s mail I got a letter from Howard, but that’s the first I’ve had from him in quite a while. He’s had his furlough and of course told me of that.

    Sunday I was down to Heidelberg which is the old university town about 60 miles from here. I remember back home we always associated Heidelberg and steins of beer and old beer halls. We only spent a few hours there and didn’t have time to investigate the beer hall angle, but we did see the university after which we went up on the hill behind the town to the old castle, which I now have a picture of, and will probably send the negatives to you so that you can have printed. It’s hard to get prints over here unless you do them yourself. The town was beautiful though and showed very little evidence of having been in a war. About the only thing showing were a few demolished bridges which the Germans themselves blew up.

    Our old German guide was typical. He was dressed in an outfit that would remind you of a taxi driver; he was short and chunky with a handle-bar mustache. He spoke English with a nice German twang, if you know what I mean, and on top of it all he had a sense of humor.

    If a civilian back home were to come in here, he would be surprised at what he saw walking the streets. You see German soldiers in full uniform along with their officers walking the streets just the same as we do. Only we have the guns and they don’t. Of course, the main reason for the Germans walking around in their uniforms is that they probably don’t have anything else to wear. But it sure is peculiar now that they have surrendered.

    You mentioned about Don having his last furlough. I gathered from that that he was on the move somewhere. Have you heard anything from Jack lately. Keep me posted.

    I want to mention that the magazines are coming in swell right now and I have an issue of Collier’s dated June 2nd.

    Guess that about covers things for this time.

    Russell

    Bad Homburg, Germany

  • 06.19.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    It’s rather quiet around here this afternoon, so I thought it would be a good time to drop you a line.

    It’s a beautiful clear, warm day here. We have not been bothered with the frost or the unseasonal cold weather that you have had back there. It can’t exactly be called uncomfortably hot here either. In other words it’s just right.

    Sunday I went on another tour up in the mountains near here. There are many old castles located around here and they are many centuries old. It seems that each little town has its church and its castle. Regardless of how old they may be, they are quite picturesque. I managed to buy some post cards of Eppstein, and I also took some colored pictures while I was there. The variety of color there should make a beautiful picture.

    Here is a little of the story of Eppstein. The oldest landmark there is the castle which is believed to have been constructed about the year 1100AD. We climbed to the top of this. There is a flagpole with the US flag flying therefrom. There is also a church there which is believed also to have been constructed in the 12th century. It has been Protestant since about 1525. It’s a quaint little German town sitting back there in the mountains, and though it is a little removed from the large cities, it had quite a metal industry.

    But there’s very little to do for excitement. Three shows are scheduled per week, but sometimes we only have one because some other outfit has priority on the film.

    I haven’t enjoyed the meals any too well lately. You see, being a staff sergeant puts me in what is known as the “first three grades”. Consequently, staff sergeants, technical sergeants, master and first sergeants eat in a separate room, not with the rest of the men. We sit down at the table and waitresses bring the food already on our plates to us. Of course, it’s all very nice, but when it comes to putting a dressing on my meat, for example, I know best just how I would like it to taste. So I’ve suggested many times that they put things like that on the table and let us fix the things on our plate to suite ourselves, but so far nothing has happened about it. Anyway, I don’t like this class distinction, and in an outfit like this, I can’t see why they don’t treat all the men alike. I’ve been seriously thinking of removing the stripes from one of my shirts to go in and eat with the rest of the fellows just for the privilege of taking what I like and preparing it on my plate just as I like to eat it.

    This is the 22nd of June, and I am attempting to finish this letter. I have some strange things happen to me and a few other fellows in the past few days. For the first time since I’ve been in the army, I’m in company with a couple of other fellows have been stopped in the park by officers drunk with rank and liquor. Yes, the other night when we were out walking, we gave no though to an officer who passed us walking in the same direction as we. One of the fellows was in the midst of telling a joke at the time and when this particular officer was about six or eight paces ahead of us, the climax to the joke was told. The joke itself was far removed from anything that has to do with the army too. So we let out a hearty laugh. This particular officer turned abruptly around and asked: “What’s so funny?”. We were so taken by surprised at this incident, it having never happened to any of us before, that our only reply was that we were “laughing at a joke”. After his first sentence, we knew he was drunk and he sure sensed that we knew and apologetically invited us to come with him and watch a tennis match. We politely declined.

    On another occasion we were stopped and a couple of lieutenants stopped one of the boys and asked him to correct his tie. That was perfectly alright and the officer had every right to do so, but, these two were drunk and all the time they kept talking and making the poor guy feel like a louse, they were both smiling that smile that one might have if they were pulling toenails out of Hitler. In other words, it was a pleasure to them just as if they were doing it in revenge or something. We never saw any of these officers before, but one of them we have seen since–the first one and he seems to recognize us each time and apparently feels guilty because he generally smiles and speaks to us when he salutes us now, but we neither smile or speak to him in return.

    I’m enclosing a couple of articles which will give you some of idea of the things we gripe about. Especially since we are all citizens of the same country.

    Russell

    Bad Homburg, Germany


    As the war is winding down, Russell vents frustration with how humans react when given “power”. Class, and “superiority” are not limited to the Germans.

  • Snap….Crackle…Pop….the salon windows are busted!

    …Cat Maudy’s panoramic port side salon window develops a seismic crack. We love to meet people, work with them, solve their business and technology problems and walk away at the end of the day knowing that my clients are satisfied. Designing software business solutions is what we do for a living, and there is nothing quite like the satisfaction of keeping clients year after year, and making their business lives a little bit easier. Unfortunately, not all companies tackle customer service with the same zest. Meet Chesapeake Rigging.

    Cat Maudy was busy prepping to travel south for the winter. We had a crew lined up, and the plan was to travel offshore to Charleston SC – as the first stop. We hired Chesapeake Rigging out of Annapolis to make a few last minute adjustments. Two workers arrived on 10/23 and tweaked the rigging, tightened here and there….and within a few hours after they left…our huge panoramic window splits in 2. It was after hours, and we contacted Chesapeake Rigging immediately. Mike Meers, with CR responded “the guys must have over tuned the rigging”. The next day, the owner of the company (Tom) appears to have had second thoughts. Here is a sampling of his comments:

    “we may have caused the problem, but it’s just a coincidence, and therefore not our fault”.

    “your yacht must be structurally unsound”
    “in 30 years of rigging we’ve never broken a window”
    “we have never worked on a boat with a curved window so your boat must be structurally unsound”
    “our guys are the best in the business, and couldn’t possibly have made a mistake”
    “the previous owner of your boat must have replaced the windows just to sell it and hide the structural defects”
    “the windows must have been installed improperly”
    “I can’t come to Baltimore to inspect our men’s work because it is too far to travel”

    ———————————————————-

    Huh??? Wowie-zow. Soxy, our cat sees thru all of this nonsense. Here are some Cat Maudy factoids:

    1) Cat Maudy, built by Bader Catamarane in Germany, crossed the Atlantic, was a charter vessel in the Caribbean and Florida, and under our watch has sailed 2500 miles without the window cracking.

    2) the prior owner of Cat Maudy is a world-renowned Swiss designer/engineer, and had the windows replaced (in 2006 by the professionals at Georgetown Yacht Basin) due to 5 years in the harsh Caribbean environment.
    3) the original owner of Cat Maudy came from many generations of ship builders

    4) the current owner (Capt Pat) of Cat Maudy built a Wharram Catamaran in the 1970’s, successfully sailed it on Lake Michigan….and knows a thing or 2 about yacht design

    5) John Shuttleworth, the designer Cat Maudy is a world renowned catamaran designer

    6) curved windows can be found on many catamaran designs – try Fountaine for example!

    7) the total drive time from Annapolis to Baltimore is 37 minutes

    8) without Grissom on CSI, the grim reality, is that we (or a marine survey) cannot prove the absolute cause and affect, so sadly, we are left with “it sure is an amazing ‘coincidence’”!

    The next stop is a visit to Precision Plastics (located in Beltsville, MD) , the manufacturer of our panoramic windows. The team at Precision Plastics are real PRO’s….they design acrylics for submarines, aquariums, navy boats – big deal stuff that needs to sustain a lot of water pressure. The principal of the company, Greg spent over an hour with Capt Pat, showing him their manufacturing floor, discussing the properties of thermo-molded annealed acrylics versus Lexan, why thermo-molded annealed acrylics are far better for a marine environment over Lexan, and what would be required to resolve Cat Maudy’s fissure. There is no “temporary” solution. Once a crack occurs, the entire window will need to be replaced and re-installed, before Cat Maudy could safely travel offshore. The trip south this winter is officially cancelled, and we will spend the next few months becoming “experts” on creating a mold for Cat Maudy’s huge panoramic windows, and learning from the experts how to install.

  • 06.25.1945 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    It’s just before supper time so I though it would be a good time to drop you a few lines. What brought it up was just a few civilian thoughts. First one is ice cream. Why ice cream. Well we’re supposed to have it tonight and I was just thinking how well it would taste slobbered all over apple pie. Well, I can drool while I think of it anyway.

    Now here’s another indication of just how far we’ve gotten away from civilian life. The other night as we got in bed somehow or other we got to talking about Sears and Roebuck. We talked for a good half-hour on the merits of All-State tires– of Silvertown Radios. One of the fellows worked with General Motors, so we discussed Fisher Bodies, Buicks and Chevvies.

    Russell

    Bad Homburg, Germany

  • 06.25.1945 Letter

    Dear Romayne;

    I wanted to let you know that I have received your letter and sure got quite a kick out of it, especially the part about naming that dog. If you’ve given him that name, you ought to get some stripes for him.

    I also want to tell you that I sent you a little present in the mail today. I’m not going to tell you what it is so it will be a big surprise when you receive it.

    We have been having some pretty warm weather around here lately, but I don’t think it gets quite as hot as it does back home sometimes.

    I have a little radio in our room here now, but it doesn’t work. I have to take it out and get it fixed this week.

    This afternoon I did my washing. Can you imagine me doing that? You should see me – wow! Now I must stop and go to eat supper.

    Russell

    Bad Homburg, Germany

  • 06.29.1945 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    Thought this afternoon would be a good time to drop you a few lines and let you know how things are around here.

    We now have a radio for our hotel room. But, we have to take the darn thing up to have it fixed. It seems that whoever had it before we got it burned out the transformer, and it is easy to see how that could have happened. They have all kinds of currents and voltages in the hotel where we live. The radio is made to run on alternating current. Somebody plugged it into direct current and she’s caput.

    And now for a little human interest story. One of the fellows here met a girl in Paris and one in Troyes, where we used to be stationed back in France. Both girls write to him telling him sweet nothings. He, like I, knows very little French, so what does he do. He copies the sweet nothings one girl writes to him and sends them to the other girl, being careful to change the feminine to masculine usage. For him it works out swell so far. He’s always doing things like that.

    I haven’t exactly enjoyed our eats around here lately. We’ve been getting a lot of rice which is substituted for potatoes, and many times the potatoes are the dehydrated variety. Much of the meat seems to be coming from cans lately. We did have ice cream the other night as I believe I mentioned in my previous letter. It tasted good too.

    Tonight there is the picture “Flame of Barbary Coast” in our theater. I think I will go on the second show.

    You know, I’ve developed a taste for something over here that I never had back home. Mostly because some of the other fellows had them and offered them to me I guess. That something is sardines. In many of our gatherings before we hit the hay at night, we usually have some sort of a sandwich and many times sardines fill the bill. Another thing I had was anchovies. They’re good.

    Have you been able to pick up any colored or their film lately. My stock of black and white is pretty good right now. The other day I got five rolls of 127, which if I take and cut it down and rewind it in a dark room works dandy in my camera. I experimented with a roll of it a couple of weeks ago and got beautiful results. So if you are out picking up film some time and can’t get my size, maybe you can get some of the 127. Agfa makes it and I have their German version of it now. I think the name of their film is Ansco now, isn’t it?

    Well I guess I’ll have to close off and get back to work.

    Russell

    Bad Homburg, Germany

  • 07.06.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    I received all the V-Mails you wrote to me dated June 24 at the same time, and of course was glad to hear from you once again. So I’m going to try and answer some of your questions.

    In regard to the film, do pick up whatever you can. I know one can’t be too particular these days. I’d rather not risk losing a picture just because I insisted on using colored film. A picture on whatever I can get it on is better than no picture at all.

    As for the miniature animals you mentioned, I have seen those from time to time and more so in France than I have here. I’ll see what I can do about picking some up.

    I still study the French and the book has been a great help. I noticed today that they are going to commence classes here in French and German; I’ll probably take one or the other. If you speak one or the other, you can get by in these parts.

    Was sorry to hear that Romayne cracked her arm again. What a kid!

    I do expect to have my furlough very soon now, possibly it will start the end of the month or the first part of next month.

    I received a package from Mildred today with my tan shirt in. It arrived quicker than any other package I’ve ever received. She mailed it June 16th — less than 3 weeks.

    Of course, the latest is that I’ve received another promotion, as my address indicates. That makes what is known as a Technical Sergeant. But I’m not too technical. I sometimes wonder where they get that grade from – not that I’m kicking or anything, but it is a misleading title.

    Well, it’s time to go down and eat now, so I guess I’ll close off. We had ice cream for dinner yesterday and for dinner today. Also yesterday the ice cream freezer exploded in some manner and sent the mess sergeant to the hospital. One of those freak accidents.

    So long for now,

    Russell

    Bad Homburg, Germany

  • 07.30.1945 Letter

    …

    So you see we’re still civilians at hear regardless of what you might read in newspapers magazines or other sources to the contrary.

    Something has happened to our mail here though. We just haven’t got any in a couple of weeks. We know that people are writing, but I’m of the opinion that this redeployment program has sort of bawled things up.

    A couple of weeks ago I sent a little gift to Bob and the other day I sent one to Romayne. Has Bob received his yet?

    Oh yes, I want to thank you for sending those papers to me. I enjoyed looking them over. Just the section I was interested in.

    By the way, did I by any chance leave any light tan shirts with you before I left. If I did I would appreciate if you would send one to me. If you have them, you might throw in a jar of olives too.

    It’s time to eat now, so I guess I’ll close.

    Russell

    Bad Homburg, Germany

  • 08.05.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Well, if you look at a map of France, you will find this place on the channel coast not far from Le Havre. It is here that we have come to be “processed” for our furloughs to England. By that I mean, getting clean clothes, money changed, showers and getting all that stuff out of the way so that we won’t have to do it once we set foot in England. The only hitch to it is that we have to stay here from 1 to 3 days waiting for shipping space.

    That I won’t mind as long as the weather stays like it is now — beautiful. This afternoon I and some other fellows went down to the beach for swimming and sun bathing. I’ll really get brown if I stay here long.

    Anyway, after I get in England, (the furlough starts after arrival) I intend to go to Wales to spend a few days looking over the scenery there.

    I suppose you wonder what made me decide at last to take the furlough to England. Well it’s the travel time. I could have taken it to southern France with travel time on to England, but nowhere else with travel time. Many of the fellows who went to southern France claimed that they didn’t have such a good time whereas mostly everyone did have an enjoyable visit to England. Consequently, since I couldn’t take a furlough to any other place on the continent with travel time, I just picked England.

    Guess that will be all for now. More dope about the trip later.

    Russell

    Etretat, France

  • Caught in a Schooner sailing race

    Departed the Baltimore Harbor at 9AM along with a fleet of Schooner Sailors – who were en route to the start of the annual Schooner Race, just south of the Bay Bridge on the Chesapeake Bay. We were accompanied by our friends salty sailor Dan, and professional photographer Randy Santos. The winds were light and out of the south, so it would be a 3 hour motor-sail to the Bay Bridge. Three hours at 6 knots of speed, gave us plenty of time to trade stories about eating healthy, getting fit, losing weight, eating 5-6 times a day and with all this talk of FOOD….it was time to FEAST! While Randy captured hundreds of photos, the remaining time was spent eating multiple helpings of fruit-veggie salad, BBQ chicken, fresh apples, pasta, tabbouleh – and a special “sail-mix” consisting of cashew nuts & dried cherries.

    OK, back to the Schooner Race. It was a rather confusing start. Schooners appeared to be moving in all different directions…. Every time we heard the RACE HORNS go off – it didn’t appear that the sailors were moving toward any goal. What are they waiting for? A few minutes later, another RACE HORN blast…and still no synchronized movement other than mass confusion from these multi-masted yachts. Maybe we could get closers to the yacht-ies, so that Randy could snag some good pictures? We maneuvered to a very nice spot of open water – with no other boats within yards of us – and close proximity to the schooners. Did I say this was a VERY nice spot? Maybe a little TOO nice? The Coast Guard was now heading our way. You guessed it – we had to move. We were positioned directly on the starting line.

    As we made our way toward the Schooner yacht “The Pride of Baltimore” for a photo op – one of those RACE HORNS went off again – and now, all of the sailors decided to head south on the Bay. The race had started. And there we were, in the middle of it all. See Randy’s schooner pics!

  • 08.07.1945 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    Thought I’d drop you a line from this little resort town located here on the northern coast of France, right on the channel. We’re all set to go on furlough to England and are scheduled to cross tomorrow sometime. We have to get up at 4AM.

    Down at the beach yesterday afternoon and the day before it was nice and warm and we were able to get a nice burn, but last night and today the wind has come up and the breakers are really rolling in. But the weather is clear.

    We go back to Le Havre tomorrow as we have now had our money changed, got new clothes, had baths and are otherwise all set to get on our trains when we arrive and proceed directly to our destination. I want to spend some time in Wales and maybe a little in Scotland.

    There’s very little to do around here once you have been to the beach, which is still mined and covered with tank obstacles set by the Germans who expected a possible invasion through here, but which never came.

    The Red Cross Club here is a nice little spot set on the side of a steep hill here. We can get coffee and doughnuts here or coca cola. Bu there’s little else other than reading or writing.

    Well, I guess I’ll close for now. Will write more about the trip later.

    Russell

    Etretat, France

  • 08.26.1945 Letter

    Dear Helen and Wilson;

    Now I’m back at my home station again and have to resume my writing activities again and I’m really behind as these are the first that I’ve written since I’ve returned which is a week tomorrow. It takes time to get around to it now. There are quite a few activities to take up one’s time here now and I hope it stays that way. In a way the waiting from here on in may be harder than during the war itself. It’ll probably be a long time before I make it since I have only 63 points and they’re only dipping into the 90s here now.

    But I had a good time while on my furlough as most everyone does. I had nine days in England and the whole thing was wonderfully organized. I arrived at my destination – Manchester – about 9 hours after I got off the boat at Southampton. As soon as we got off there was a train waiting to take us to London. From London everyone begins to shift for himself. Some go to Scotland, some to Wales, etc. From Manchester I went down into Wales and it was beautiful. The northern part of Wales is very mountainous and it was the more beautiful because the weather was perfect. Also the fact that the finish of the war was imminent helped in making everything very pleasant. One of my first surprises there was having ham and eggs for breakfast. Delicious and first I’ve had in a long time.

    The official word of the Jap surrender did not come until the last day of my furlough, so I didn’t do much in the way of celebrating there. But I watched some of which consisted of impromptu parades, buses and streetcars running around with multi-colored lights glowing. Of course some people were glowing too, but that’s about all because they couldn’t get much to drink.

    I went back to London that night and the following afternoon I was in Southampton and the following morning we boarded the “Exchequer” and headed across the channel. It was an American boat and we had some delicious ham for dinner on the way across. A couple of huge floating mines were sighted and the gun crew fired on them in an attempt to destroy them but they were too far away to hit, so maybe they’re still out there.

    Guess I’ll close off for now, as I have to shave for dinner.

    Russell

    Bad Homburg


    Russell goes on a 9 day furlough. He traveled to Southampton England…to Manchester England…Wales….London England…then crossed the English Channel. Sighted a few very large floating mines during water travels. The Japanese surrender came at the last day of Russell’s furlough.

  • 10.02.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    I have your letter of Sept 14, so I’m going to drop you a line tonight.

    First is the 71 points and according to the latest orders all men with 70 or more points must be out of the theater by November 30. So that’s the most definite word we’ve had on it and this time it’s and order. So on that basis don’t send me anything but your letters from now on.

    Yes, I’ve received about everything that you have sent. I haven’t received the latest two rolls of colored. I did receive some film from Elizabeth.

    I heard from Mildred about Uncle Sim a week or so ago. Yes, I can imagine that you must be pretty busy canning all the stuff now. How have beans, peas, tomatoes and thing turned out this season. We had bananas twice for the first time since I came overseas. They were small though and over-ripe. We seem to get plenty of oranges. A few tomatoes. Lately we’ve been getting fried eggs again. The eats are good here.

    Tonight I’m going to a nearby theater to see a stage show. I went to a football game Sunday and it was a honey – 7-0 final score.

    I’m enclosing a couple of souvenir programs of things I’ve been to which you might like to look over.

    Russell

    Frankfurt a. Main, Germany


    Russell recieves “word” that he has enough US Army POINTS to return back to the States. There is an official ORDER that he will be shipped back no later than November 30, 1945.

  • 10.07.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Well, guess what I’m doing tonight. It’s about 9PM and I’m listening to the World Series and what a game it is tonight. The Tigers have just come out on top in this fifth game and I’m listening to the steady chatter by Bill Slater, the announcer. He is probably the best in my estimation with his vivid descriptions of all plays. When there’s nothing in particular to talk about so far as the game is concerned, he gives backgrounds of the players etc. That’ll give you a little idea of how good the reception is here tonight.

    Well there are plenty of opportunities to take a job over on this side of the water at good pay. I sometimes wonder if I should take advantage of it. I do know that with the 25% increase in pay for civilian employees working overseas. Under the circumstances, I do know that I could make $3,400 (the least) here for staying one year, but I don’t feel that I would like to jeopardize my chances with IBM. The cost for quarters is $15.00 per month and meals are 75 cents per day. Due to my experience in military government (I know the set up administratively very well, I believe) it might even be possible to get a $4,000 a year job with the option of staying for perhaps two years. But I’ve been thinking that perhaps it would be better to go back and try things out with the Company, and then, if I weren’t satisfied, take a crack at this over here. I’ve been giving this considerable thought in light of the labor situation back there now, and the fact that some of the things I would like probably won’t be available for quite awhile. I write this so that you will know what I’m thinking along that line and feel free to make any comments you like. I’ll appreciate them.

    Well, this morning I went to Church, at dinner and then went out to a football game. Then I came back here and waited around for the series broadcast.

    I’ve got a letter to get out to Elizabeth now. I just got a letter from her Saturday of her, Mildred and Ralph, Howard and Grant.

    Guess I’ll sign off for now.

    Russell

    Frankfurt a. Main, Germany


    Russell contemplates life after the military. He is not sure if he should stay in Europe – or return back to the States. Better paying jobs in Europe.

  • 10.28.1945 Letter

    Dear Wilson and Helen;

    Here it is Sunday night and nothing special to do. I was out to a football game this afternoon as that seems to have been the program for the past few Sundays. They get quite large GI crowds there every Sunday. Two weeks ago there were about 20,000 there including Ike and Patton. Boy the cameras were really clicking around that Sunday. They both got up and posed for pictures for the fans. I had color film in mine and believe I got good results. There was considerable color to the game with a couple of bands playing and a drill by the paratroopers. Yeh, nothing there by 20,000 men in uniform.

    Well, I reported into the orderly room the other day and was informed that I am scheduled to leave here the 6th of November. That will be the first lap of the journey back. It will probably be several weeks after that before I actually board a boat, but I’ll dry to keep you all informed from time to time. I’ll let you also know when to stop writing. As you know, there’s always the possibility of last minute changes. I don’t believe there will be much delay.

    Guess that’s about all the news for the present.

    Russell

    Frankfurt a. Main, Germany


    Russell attends a Sunday afternoon football game….and discovers President Eisenhower and General Patton are in the crowds.

    Learns that he will depart from his present location, to begin the trip back to the States on November 6, 1945.

  • 11.06.1945 Letter

    Dear Willard and Grace;

    Just wanted to get these few lines off to you to let you know that I have begun the return trip. Consequently, don’t write any more letters. We will be at this depot anywhere from 8 to 30 days, although we were told that we are scheduled to leave in about a week — which would be the 12th. From here we go to the port for another few days, wait.

    We won’t return from that port on anything but a small boat, so there’ll probably be plenty of rocking and rolling.

    Right now, we are being “processed” which consists of clothing and equipment check. We discard extras and pick up shortages. There is very little else to do.

    Thought I’d keep you informed with these few lines for the time being.

    Russell

    3rd Reinforcement Depot


    Processed for returning to the States.

  • 01.20.1946

    Dear John:

    I’m taking a few spare minutes here this morning to drop you a few lines. I dropped in at your home the other night to pick up your address as we have sort of lost contact since moving around these last few months.

    Anyway, I am out, and have been out since December 8th. I arrived in the country through the port of Boston on December 4th, having made the crossing in 9 days from Antwerp aboard the “Rennselaer Victory”. We hit some real rough weather on the way over this time too, but not as rough as some of the ships that came after we did.

    While I was at your house, your mother let me read one of your letters, and I guess you were pretty disgusted with things over in that neck of the woods. I can understand all of that very well though. After I was separated from my unit in Germany, it took just a month for me to arrive in the states. So you can see that there was a lot of waiting in between. But once you are on your way, the waiting around comes easy. At least that’s the way it seemed to me. We spent ten days around Antwerp alone. They had nice camps insofar as shelter and entertainment was concerned. Yes, even the food was better there than it had been in most of the other places on the continent. We had our Thanksgiving dinner while there, or at least one of them. We had another aboard the ship at sea.

    After I arrived in this country, things worked out pretty fast. We went immediately to Camp Miles Standish which was the distribution point for the port of Boston. We had a delicious steak dinner there. About 24 hours after our arrival in Boston, we were on a train and on our way to Fort Dix. We were there from the night of the 5th to the 8th and was discharged then. It took about 36 hours after we got our names on a roster before we began processing, and the last 36 hours there were getting our records ready, having our physical, etc. in preparation for discharge. Considering the number they discharged daily, I don’t think things were handled bad at all.

    But now I am back with IBM at the same old job. At times it does become a little monotonous, coming to work every morning at the same time in the morning and quitting the same time every night. But I have the car running — yes, the old Chevy. I managed to buy two new synthetic tires for it and am going to have a couple more recapped which will fix me up in pretty good shape. I am living with my brother in Twin Orchards, and so far everything seems to be working out fine. I haven’t done any skating as yet since I have only had the car running for less than two weeks and have been quite busy with other things such as relining the brakes, trying to go to night school and take advantage of the G-I Bill of Rights. You’d be surprised how many guys are trying to take advantage of these too. With the government allowing 65 bucks a month for living expenses and 500 bucks per term for tuition, it is really something to be considered.

    Well, I could ramble on and on here, but I better get back to work. Drop me a line when you can and I hope you’ll be on your way back soon.

    Russell

    Vestal, NY USA

    Russell returns to life as a civilian, and his job at IBM.

  • WWII Photos

    Bad Homburg, Germany 1945

  • WWII Photos


    The Autobahn between Bad Homburg and Frankfurt Germany. June 1945

  • WWII Photos


    Russell Wadsworth (left)
    Judd Lewis (right)
    Camped near the Chateau, Southwest of Paris

  • WWII Photos

    Russell Wadsworth
    Fort Niagara, NY 1213th Reception Center

  • WWII Photos


    Russell Wadsworth (lower left)
    Next to Eisenhower’s car
    Frankfurt, Germany
    I.G. Farber Building, headquarters 1945


    Russell Wadsworth (left), Wendell Strom (right)
    Eisenhower’s staff car
    Frankfurt, Germany
    USFET Headquarters 1945

  • WWII Photos

    Heildeberg, Germany 1945

  • WWII Photos

    (left to right)
    Bob Barker, Russell Wadsworth, Judd Lewis
    Headquarters ECAD (European Civil Affairs Division)
    Troyes, France 1944

  • Pamphlets – US Army Guide for Leave Troops (Paris)

  • Why TRI? Iron Girl 2008

    It is a tad embarassing (let alone dangerous) to live on a boat…and not know how to swim. But that is my reality. And the remedy? Go sign up for a Triathlon!

    February, 2008: Who’s idea was this? My stepdaughter, Emma calls me while I am in Charleston SC. “Wouldn’t it be cool to do the Iron Girl triathlon as mother-daughter? Let’s get Jill to do it with us too — as a family!” “NO.” I replied. “I don’t know how to swim.” End of story.
    A few days later, Emma persisted.

    I had a weak moment that day. The word “Yes” came out of my mouth. Then, I proceeded to talk more family, Jill into signing up too. What was I thinking?? I never swam as a kid (too busy chasing tennis balls!)….and have always avoided any “triathlon” that included a swim leg. Now, I was committed.

    May / June 2008: TRI training season starts in earnest…Pat was keeping my upper bod fit with endless boat painting projects, and Emma and Jill got me into running races and “bricks”. Emma taught us new lingo. A “brick” is a back 2 back workout of 2 different activities….such as a bike ride, immediately followed by a run. We did lots of bricks. Bricks became the norm.. Luv the land sports. We even signed up for the “Run for the Roses” 5K run. (Mainly because the t-shirt bonus was pretty cool.) All is good. Let’s see how long I can procrastinate adding the swim component. Endless boat Painting – upper bod workout A zillion runner types at the starting line… Rosy runners at the finish! styling our new T-Shirts ??

    July, 2008: Learning to Swim for a Triathlon: What NOT to do! Still scratching my head on this. Why did I sign up to do a triathlon if I don’t know how to swim? What’s a girl to do? I tapped everyone’s knowledge. Even strangers. “Hey – do you know how to do the backstroke? Freestyle? Can you give me some tips”. It was sad. Jill signed us both up for swim lessons at a local pool. The lessons were a disaster. I discovered that Jill swims like a fish (she doesn’t need swim lessons!)….and I was freaked out just putting my head under water. The instructors were not very patient with me. It was pitiful. The Iron Girl was now less than two months away. Open water swim. And I still hadn’t put my head under water. Oh boy. I needed a plan. So, I signed up for a month-2-month membership at my local gym – which included a salt-water swim pool. I could kindof swim the sidestroke….as long as no one else in the pool created a wake. Otherwise, I would end up sucking in the water.

    At my local gym…I took advantage of the saltwater pool. Didn’t even know what other workout opportunities were available – I made a beeline everyday for the pool. They offered a “Century Club” program — where you win little jock trinkets if you show up 100 times at the gym in 1 year. Little did they know! Within a mere 3 weeks…I was 20% of the way to becoming the fastest Century Club winner they’d ever had!

    So, I swam lap after lap of the sidestroke…at NON-PEAK times at the pool. If someone wanted to share a lane with me…I was in trouble (choking on water from their wake or splash)…so I swam LARGE…and PATHETIC (which was easy to do) making my swim lane unattractive to other swimmers. Geeezzz.

    Aug 1, 2008: Open Water Swim at the Iron Girl Dress Rehearsal

    It was “rehearsal day’ for the Iron Girl Triathlon, and at 6AM, I felt calm mentally, and prepared physically. We’ll call this a “swim state of denial”. The dress rehearsal was open to any Iron Girl entrant who wanted to practice swimming in open water — followed by the run. 600 of us took up the opportunity. Wasn’t sure what to expect in the open water but was hopeful that there would be MANY MANY kayaks of support crews, lifeguards, expert swimmers, emergency boats — YOU NAME IT — just in case I needed someone or something to hang onto.

    Groups of women would be called “on deck” in waves based on their age groups — paced 3 minutes from the next group of swimmers. We would walk into the water, start swimming around an island, and then look for 3 buoys — the third being the last buoy to swim around. Outgoing, we would pass the buoy on our port side…and returning back, the buoys would be to starboard. Yes, I would rather be passing buoys in my boat.

    Where are all of the buoys? From land, I couldn’t see any buoys. Jill assured me that they were very close together once we were out in the water. The distance JUST to the island (which blocked the view of the first buoy) seemed pretty long to me. A LOT bigger than my local lap pool. We met a lovely lady (Betsy) – who had done the Iron Girl last year. She explained how the open water swim would work. She suggested that I start at the END of my wave, to avoid swimming into anyone. Betsy mentioned there were lake grasses that wrap around you before you reached the island.

    I guess this was good information. Didn’t like the sound of it tho. Tears welled up in my eyes….I was suddenly terrified of swimming in open water. What am I doing here with all these ladies who KNOW how to swim???

    Our wave was called to the waterfront. We were the VERY LAST group of swimmers to be called to the water. This was good — no swimmers behind us to catch up and swim into or splash around me. Jill and Emma walked into the water with me, like true “sistas”…. I think they were thinking I wouldn’t get into the water if they didn’t stay close. They were probably right!

    A “swim” gone bad…real bad! I took a few steps into the water, and attempted to swim. I needed to just relax. This proved harder said than done. Within 5 strokes, I was breathing heavy, tense about the grasses grabbing at my legs and arms, and panic was setting in. I couldn’t stand up. The water was deep. I was fighting with the water, choking, inhaling the most awful smelling water, and had already raised my hand for kayak assistance. I had barely left shore.

    With kayak assistance, a kayak comes near you, and you reach over the bow to hold on — to regain your composure. I tried to slow my breathing, but was not having success. I needed to let go of the kayak and keep going…Jill and Emma were treading water and waiting for me. So I pushed off from the kayak, and attempted side stroking again. It was incredibly laborious…whatever I was doing was completely a struggle….and I continued to flail about.

    The buoys seemed to be MILES apart….and somehow, using a combination of floating on my back to slow my breathing, sidestoking and holding onto a kayak a countless number of times….I managed to keep going. I had plugs in my ears (to keep out the water) — so I didn’t hear what was going on around me, but I was doing a lot of zig zag swimming…never a straight line. Jill and Emma were still with me….treading water….smiling, laughing….and trying to encourage me to keep going.

    They were having a happy-time swim party, while I continued to choke and suck down water. I was NOT having fun. I had reached the halfway point in what seemed to be eternity, and a woman on a kayak allowed me to grab on. There was another lady who had grabbed on the other end of her kayak…At least I wasn’t the ONLY person out there struggling.

    I continued to sidestroke and backstroke, but at this point the fatigue factor was setting in. Panic makes you very tired. I did more backstroke heading toward shore, and the lady on the kayak was yelling something at me — but I couldn’t hear with my earplugs in place. We rounded the island, and the pond grasses reappeared. It was pretty awful and stressful. More panic set in. I was very close to shore now, and called out for the kayak one last time. Emma and Jill were out of the water now and encouraging me to finish. I was gasping so heavily for air, there was very little left in my fuel tank. I think the kayak lady was growing weary of me… so I let go of her kayak and muscled my way thru the last 20 feet of thick grasses and duck pond water. Ugh. I stood up, and there I was, heart racing. I looked like a Green Monster covered with long slimy pond grass…gasping for air. I am so grateful for Emma and Jill staying next to me during that open water swim – but the trauma left me shaking and my legs wobbly.

    We transitioned to the run. I took 10 steps, and gasped for air again. My heart rate was racing out of control. The best I could do, was to walk…slowly. I was not feeling right. It would take me the whole day, for my body to find equilibrium.

    Reality sets in:
    1. Time’s up. I need to learn to swim…and somehow swim so that my heart rate does not go thru the roof …I’ve got 3 weeks to figure this out

    2. I need to deal with some deep-rooted fears. Deep water? Drowning? Holy crap!

    3. When you flail, panic, and thrash about in the water for nearly an hour – you burn A LOT of calories. Brings new meaning to the phrase “running on empty”.

    Having a bad day?….EAT! After this wonderful start to my day (aka swim traumatized!) Emma and I needed food – and the Double TT diner had the fastest service in town. While waiting to be served, Emma opened the little jelly packets and devoured them. It appears that treading water burns a lot of calories too! Devoured a huge omelet, potatoes and two slices of bread. Could have eaten more. I have never eaten so many calories at one sitting.

    Retail therapy: Emma and I spent the rest of the day together. My ego was smashed at this point….so Emma suggested “retail therapy” to prop-up my mood. Since my Trek bike had been stolen a week ago at the marina….maybe this was a good time to buy a bike?

    We trudged over to the local bicycle shop “Race Pace Bikes” — so I could check out the road bicycles. I was fitted for a Trek 1.2 WSD road bike, and went out on a test drive. The bike felt great — this model would do!

    Somewhat hesitant on spending money on a bike — as it was entirely “possible” that I may not be able to complete the Iron Girl open water swim. Hmmm…what’s a girl to do? Bought the bike anyway (hello retail therapy!)…and would return back to the bike shop later that day to pick it up.

    Ya never know who you’re gonna run into. Upon returning to the bicycle shop, we met a salesperson named Patty …and the conversation turned to Iron Girl. Emma thought that Patty looked familiar….Yep — turns out, Patty — was the kayak lady – who saved my pitiful swim ass on countless occasions during the IG dress rehearsal earlier today. Patty laid it on me pretty hard. She told me I needed to learn to swim. She told me I would be yanked outta the water on race day, if I attempted to float on my back, or cling to a kayak like I did today. She said I had no forward propulsion… Yikes – I’m already in a Debbie-Downer sort of mood, and I had to meet Ms. Meany Pants (aka Patty) in the bike store. Thanks Patty…lets smash my ego more. I’m in tears now. I walked away from the mean lady. Patty wasn’t done. She chased me down and proceeded to hug me. Then Emma started tearing up…then Emma hugged me. It was the most bizarre experience in the Race Pace Bicycle Shop. There we were, three women doing a lot of eye drainage and hugging. Very odd approach to bike sales. Turns out that Patty is a swim coach and triathlon coach for Leukemia Team-n-Training. She told me I needed to find a Total Immersion swim instructor….and work my butt off for the next 3 weeks if I hoped to be an Iron Girl.

    I had nothing to lose at this point…so I google searched “Total Immersion” – as recommended by the my new friend Patty in the bike shop. It’s an approach to swimming based on balance and core technique – enabling effortless swim. The emphasis is not on kicking so hard that you tire out…or how your rotate your hands and all sorts of subtle details…but more on being fishlike and aerodynamic….You gain all of your power from your “core”…and not your extremities. Maybe there is hope? I ordered every book and DVD (total of 5)…at expedited delivery. I have less than 3 weeks to digest, learn, and apply…and ultimately swim. I can’t repeat the trauma of swimming in open water.

    Blowing bubbles. Three “Total Immersion” DVD’s and two books arrived the following Monday, and I was prepared to do whatever it took to learn how to swim. I watched the first DVD “How to breathe” about a dozen times. Step one – is to get comfortable with the water. The instructions were, to fill a really large bowl with water….then, stick your head in it ….blowing bubbles out your nose….and turn your head to breathe thru your mouth. Wow. This was all new to me. Having never learned to swim as a kid…I had no idea how you were supposto breathe in the water. I practiced breathing in a bowl for nearly an hour. Here I am….48 years old…and I had mastered breathing in a bowl full of water. Woo hoo!

    The next step, is to practice the bowl breathing concepts…in a pool. I held onto the side of the pool, and plunked my head underwater for another hour. Lots of adults and their kids looked on as blew bubbles out my nose….and turned my head to inhale thru my mouth. It was quite the spectacle. Motionless and bubbly in the pool. I had less than 3 weeks to learn to swim, and armed with my DVD’s and books – we were making progress.

    Getting buoyant. The next day, I learned to be buoyant – and float on my back. Keeping my hips up high, helped me stay higher on the water. Wow…this is exciting…each day I was learning something new. Maybe I could do this??? Didn’t take much to pick my roadkill battered ego off the ground.

    Learning to swim obsession. I was going to the pool twice a day now…intent on learning something new that would help me swim each day. I learned how to kick…without making myself completely winded. The Total Immersion Swim instruction DVD’s were perfect. They gave me drills to work on to become more aerodynamic, buoyant and more efficient in the water. I was now trying desperately to learn how to swim the freestyle. I could get the core “roll”….but still struggled with breathing rhythm. I spent so much time at my local pool, that one day, the lifeguard asked me “…will I see you a 3rd time today?”.

    Everything else in my life went on “hold”. This went on for two weeks….and I got FAR more comfortable in the water than I thought I would ever be….but I still hadn’t mastered the freestyle. My naysayer inner voice had returned. Maybe I just won’t be able to do the Iron Girl? Who is this negative person with the big voice in my head? I would never forgive myself if I quit now…so I had to keep going – and let the final day make the decision.

    Nine days before the Iron Girl, a new reality sunk in. I did not have enough time to learn the freestyle. Time to work with what I’ve got – which isn’t much – but it’s my old standby – the sidestroke. I would remake it into a custom stroke. I could tweak my old stroke to keep my hips higher in the water for buoyancy, rotate halfway to sweetspot for breathing IN….and roll to an aerodynamic position for stroking and breathing OUT. By golly Miss Molly….this seemed to be working. I did 20 laps in the pool….effortless….not winded…and had lopped off 10 minutes from my previous 20 lap best time. I’m feeling much more confident now….at least in the pool where I could see bottom.

    Open water swim attempt #2 – Gunpowder Lake. The weekend before the Iron Girl — Jill, Emma and I trudged up to Gunpowder Falls State Park….to test drive our swim skills in open water. Now, trust me — Emma and Jill did not need to test their skills — they are both superb swimmers. This was a test for me. This is the picture from the website for Gunpower Falls State Park. Looks like nice clear water right? NOT!

    First let me explain a bit about Gunpowder Falls State Park. It is touted as one of the best places for swimming in Maryland. If this is TRUE – then I can assure you that you never want to swim in any open water in the state of Maryland. The water was nasty, brown, silty – you couldn’t see 1 inch below the surface. Lake grasses growing strong enjoying the likely fertilizer runoff that torments the Chesapeake Bay region. I digress.

    Clearly – I did NOT want to get into the brown murky open water. Deep seated fears took over. I stayed in the shallow areas, and just practiced my new “methods” for swimming the sidestroke. The swimming techniques worked great – I did not inhale the nasty water like I did on the IG dress rehearsal. But, I like to know I can stand up in the water – and this won’t be an option during the triathlon. I was not ready for open water swimming.

    All consuming anxiety. By swimming 2-3 times per day, I had greatly improved my aerobic capacity, and physically I was feeling GREAT. The mental side, was taking a toll. I wasn’t sleeping well, huge bags were growing under my eyes….and found myself reduced to tears when I thought about doing the DEEP and DARK open water swim.

    Then one day, my dad said to me…”Jane – if you can swim in 3 feet of water…you can swim in 6 feet of water”. He was right – I needed to stop thinking about the “depth”. After all, I never stand up while doing laps at the pool….so what was my problem?

    It was now Friday, two days before the Iron Girl event. My confidence was a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 – and I my eyes welled up whenever I thought about doing the open water swim. I needed to take a sharpie and tattoo on my brain — I CAN DO THIS.

    Saturday, August 23, 2008

    It’s the DAY BEFORE…the big event. Our pink Iron Girl wrist bracelet (that was affixed during “packet pickup”) gave us access to the bike/transition area. We would bring our bicycles to the transition area….find our race number…and RACK the bikes. The bikes stay racked thru the nite in an area secured by the event organizers. Only those individuals with a PINK ID bracelet – were allowed into the bicycle transition area. It is becoming very “real” now. No turning back. This email just in from the Iron Girl Event Director….it says it all.

    Sunday, August 24, 2008 — Iron Girl Race Day

    Up at 5AM on Sunday, Iron Girl Event day, I drank my protein shake while sharing breakfast with Emma and Jill. Pat entertained us with his Joe Pesci impersonations. I needed humor to break the tension! We packed our transition bike shoes, running shoes, towels, water, food etc in the car, and headed over to Centennial Park. .

    We quickly setup our transition area, and proceeded to get “body marked”. Body marking is for the swim leg — where your arms and hands display your race number….I guess this is to identify you, while in the water – or stuck in the pond grasses!

    Our swim wave was scheduled for 8:25AM. We would be the very LAST wave to go into the water that morning. Perfect! I wanted to be the last wave — no swimmers coming up from behind me. I had worked out a swim strategy with Jill and Emma. They would remain on my left side (I can only sidestroke looking to my left)….and I would use their position as a visual to guide me along the swim route. Sortof a water version of a seeing eye dog.

    By now, I was both nervous, and methodical. I scoped out the swim course….looking at all of the bouys and their distances. It appeared to be 2-3 “pool laps” between buoys. OK…this is do-able. I can do 2-3 pool lengths at a time. I was breaking down the swim into manageable portions – in my mind. I looked at all of the kayaks and support boats. There were many. Good.

    We watched the other 12 swim waves enter the water in 8 minute intervals. Those who went in first, would be treading water for up to 8 minutes. Those who lingered behind in the wave, could stand in the waist deep water…. I would be lingering.

    It is 8:17 now. Wave #13….our wave, was called up. It was show time – and strangely, I was very calm. Patty, the lady whom I had clung to her kayak 3 weeks ago — was supervising the entry of each swim wave. She spotted me – and gave me a hug. She told me I would do great. I looked her in the eye and said “I CAN DO THIS”. I proceeded toward the water. I had only ONE thing to think about — and that was to regulate my breathing. Nothing else. No other details were allowed into my head. As our wave started swimming….I looked at Jill and Emma. We were still standing. We waited 10 seconds to let the group depart. It was time….I nodded to them….and as planned…we began swimming, and they remained to my left. I thought SOLELY about breathing. Breathe IN when I’m in sweetspot….breath OUT close to the water. I had a rhythm. Yessirree…I was the QUEEN of the sidestroke, baby!

    Occasionally, I would come close to other swimmers – but Emma and Jill looked out for me – and coaxed me toward them if I was about to collide. They called out each buoy for me…and gave encouraging words. We rounded the first ORANGE buoy….and made our first turn. Soon….we rounded the next ORANGE buoy….and now we were heading in the direction of the island. We passed 2 yellow buoys and we were closing in on the finish. I started to get tired and suddenly my breathing rhythm was “off”. Yup…that’s me – sidestroking like there is no tomorrow…with Jill and Emma to my left.

    Oh no. I was breathing hard….so I turned to float on my back to relax. I knew we were within 200 yards of the finish. I tried to regain my breathing momentum….but I had lost my concentration. I would have to muscle it in thru the final stretch. It wasn’t far. Was fully expecting to have a rough stretch of the “pond grasses” – but I think someone took an underwater mower to this area — as the grasses that clung to me during the dress rehearsal — were gone.

    I sidestroked….and sidestroked….and sidestroked….push push push….until FINALLY….I could stand up OH JOY!! Emma, Jill and I hugged. I had done it….I somehow beat my open water demons ….and I was so grateful to Jill and Emma for seeing me thru this as my personal lifeguards. They were my swim angels…they never let me out of their sight. It was very emotional… NO kayak support, no gasping for air, no “near drowning experience” -I had done it…I swam 1100 meters in open water.

    We half-walked / half-jogged up to the transition area — while I caught my breath. I looked at my watch – 8:58. Wow…we had done the swim in 33 minutes. Considering that I had swum ¾ of the distance 3 weeks ago in over an hour….this was huge. I was so happy to be getting onto my bike in the transition area! I would be an Iron Girl today.

    O Happy Day — on my bike!! Jill set the bike pace, I was in the middle, and Emma brought up the rear. We pedaled out route 108 – and watched a zillion IG cyclists coming at us in the opposite direction. We were the last wave of swimmers to go out, so naturally – we were at the back of the pack. We turned into the hilly sections, and enjoyed the wind flying by on the downhills. My large detailer decided to have ‘issues’. I could downshift…but upshifting felt like the chain was gonna fall off. I decided to stay in 3rd gear – avoiding any possible bike malfunction. For 17.5 miles, 3rd gear was my friend.

    Jill and I had gotten a bit ahead of Emma (Emma was on a 50lb mountain bike, and Jill and I were on fast, lightweight roadbikes) -so we waited for her at one of the intersections to catch up. Got to the “turnaround” point at the school parking lot…and now we had only 7 miles to go. We stayed together – true sista-hoods, enjoying the bike ride, the hills, the great vibe out on the roadways — including spectators, police, and fellow IG’s cheering you on. We were on autopilot now. The bike ride was “cake”. We just needed to make sure that we avoided any potential snaffu’s – such as hitting a pothole, blowing out a tire, avoiding traffic and in my case – shifting gears.

    We rounded the bends into Centennial Park….and were greeted by an escort of race officials guiding us to the transition area. Walking our bikes to the designated bike rack location – we proceeded to de-bike and prep for the run. The IG was 2/3 complete now….The run was the only remaining segment.

    After a quick change into running shoes, the three of us started into a slow jog along the run course. My breathing was a bit heavier than I would like….that last 200 yards of the swim had gotten my heart rate up.

    We passed many IG’s on the run…many had been reduced to walking. As we reached mile 2…Emma announced that we would be done in 10 minutes. Wow, 10 minutes and this insanity would be over! Nearing the mile 3 marker….my right calf suddenly cramped up. Lovely. I had to slow down the pace…. We had less than ½ mile to go….it was time to ignore that muscle pull…we were gonna run it in. Jill and I were pretty focused on breathing and keeping up a running rhythm….while Emma was chatting the whole time about “how fun this is!” and her thoughts had already turned to her “next” longer distance triathlon. Geeez….

    The end was now in sight…and the cheers from the crowd gave us added incentive to finish strong. Within 20 yards of the race finish…we grabbed each others hand….and held them high. We completed our journey. We had done it. Together. As family. We were Iron Girls….

  • Can anyone guess why the fish are dying?

    On a bright sunny day, the Patapsco river (a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay) glistens and begs you for a swim. But don’t be tempted, as the polluted waters in and around the Baltimore Harbor are filled with poisons and other dangers. Oh my!

    Every 6 months, we hire divers to dip below Cat Maudy’s surface – and inspect the hull for excessive algae growth or barnacles. Aside from the fact that there is very little growth on the hulls, marine antifouling bottom paint for boats in the Baltimore Harbor can last 5-6 years (it should only last 2 years) before this special paint needs to be re-applied. “Don’t even think of getting into this water” one diver recently told Captain Pat “we have to get shots for hepatitis and a host of other ills. Do you see that jellyfish with the red markings”, the diver continued pointing at an unusual jellyfish just beneath the surface…”these are not native to the eastern seaboard. That deadly jellyfish is native to the Pacific Ocean – and was probably released from the ballast of a commercial ship in the Baltimore Harbor.”

    Despite what your local politician or news media may tell you, a “fishkill” is not a natural phenom. There is a reason why the fish die “all at once”. Lack of oxygen in the water. So here you have it, one fine day in the Baltimore Harbor, when the smell becomes wretched, and suddenly fish appear on the surface (including eels – which are supposed be the most resilient!). Algae fed by excessive nitrogen (from fertilizer to get that dark green lawn, and fertilizer run-off from farms) – ends up in the water, and sucks out all of the oxygen…leaving the fish to die by the thousands.

    And surely, all of those Utz potato chip bags, plastic soda bottles, and garbage galore didn’t just accidentally end up in the water. Garbage and waste, thrown into the streets, or overflowing from garbage containers, gets washed away into storm sewers on each and every rainstorm. These storm sewers dump directly into the waterways. help!

    Walking along the Anchorage Marina waterfront (home of Cat Maudy)….I spotted a news photographer standing near the waters edge. Being the curious sort, “Hey – are you guys reporting on the Baltimore Harbor water pollution?” Please?? Doesn’t anybody notice this??

    But NO. Something FAR more juicy. They were data mining on Clark Rockefeller’s “Yacht” (more like an oversized hobie cat) that was docked at our marina. Clarkie-boy had kidnapped his daughter, and the FBI chased him down to Baltimore MD. There I was….amidst the blathering breaking news.

  • Cat Maudy gets a makeover…and fixed steering!

    Dockside in Baltimore MD. It would be nice to enjoy some downtime after 30 days of cruising. But no.

    Since arrival into the port of Baltimore:
    Day 1: Skate 25 miles
    Day 2: Can’t move. Realize I was too outta shape to skate 25 miles on Day 1
    Day 3: Still recovering from Day 1…tho my new PINK custom speed skates arrived Fed Ex from China
    Day 4: Now I skate in pink boots – energy has returned!
    Day 5: Start training for sprint-triathlon…add running and biking to the exercise mix. Notice that I can no longer afford to gas up the car. Holy crud! Good thing I’ve got a bike! Soon I’ll need solar powered legs.
    Day 6: Captain & I decide that Cat Maudy needs to get hauled out in early June – at Georgetown MD- for rudder/steering repairs plus 3 weeks of exterior restoration projects (sanding, grinding, painting). I was really looking forward to this.
    Day 7: address the mold problem that began in Charleston SC on the entire interior of Cat Maudy. She will require complete restoration to all painted surfaces to be completed by end of May. More fun!

    Yep, I’m really enjoying some downtime.

    We decided the best place to begin interior restoration would be the starboard forward berth. What originally appeared to be a 2 day project…. morphed into an 8 day project. All clothing and bedding (which had been stored in airtight bags after a mold infestation in Charleston SC) had to be moved to the salon. After we removed the bed frame and mattress, we discovered about 30 gallons of stagnant water sitting in the hull. The water had gotten into the hull during the ICW portion of our prior cruise — where we overfilled the water tanks in order to get low enuf to pass under 65′ bridges. Some of this water spilled out when powerboat wakes tossed us around in shallow waters. Sooo, we had to pump out the water from the hull, let it dry…and disinfect for odor relief.

    After a shopping excursion to Home Depot for all sorts of fun things (ventilators, white paint suits, painting supplies, sanding stuff and more) – we were ready to tackle removing the latex paint. That’s right, latex paint. I had it in my mind last year when I originally painted all of the staterooms — that maybe I should TEST using latex paint on just the starboard forward berth. After all, glossy latex is used in home settings that get wet a lot (bathrooms) — so it seemed logical that it would work well on a boat. Nay nay. One year later, the mold was everywhere, the latex did not adhere well to the prior layers of marine primers…and overall it was a big mess. Best to stick with pricey marine paint. Fortunately, I did not use latex paint in any of the other berths.

    While we had sealed off (so we though!) the starboard forward berth from the rest of the hull — we soon realized that sanding would propel all dust particles throughout every surface of the boat. It took 2 days to clean off all of the particulate matter throughout the boat. Unfortunately, the sanding wasn’t too effective, as we discovered that the original layers of paint (pink) was not adhering well to the fiberglass. Off to West Marine to get some fiberglass-friendly stripper chemical. Next, we applied a layer of ooze (stripper) to the entire berth area….and waited for all of the paint to come peeling off. Ok, it didn’t exactly work that way. First you have to scrape off all of the ooze, and only SOME of the paint works its way off too. So, we spent a lot of energy scraping and giving our upper bodies a good workout. Who needs a gym? Then, we decided to apply a second layer of ooze (stripper) to try to get off the remaining paint. That seemed to work better – but it still burned many calories to get little chips of paint to come off the hull. To remove the remaining gummie stuff from the hull – acetone did the trick. One more treatment of sanding…followed by a layer of cleaning chemical – and we are now ready to paint the first layer of primer.

    Needless to say, all of the chemicals AND paint smelled really bad – so we had to keep as many hatches open as possible in order to breathe. One night I even slept in the cockpit – the fumes were that bad. Soxy, our cat – discovered that all of these open hatches were a perfect opportunity to escape off of the boat onto the dock (luckily, she returned later that eve!). This project seemed to be going really well.

    By the time we applied 2 finish coats of paint to the starboard forward berth – I thought my arms were gonna fall off. They somehow managed to stay on – and we returned all mold-free tie-dyed clothing to closets and compartments – and put the bedding back onto the bed. It looked fantastic – like a hippie boat bedroom out of the 60’s. With this berth complete, we rode the momentum and moved on to the starboard stern berth.

    …this sanding technique did NOT work too well, tho we did manage to get white paint dust all over ourselves and the entire boat.

    Fortunately, the starboard stern berth did not have a layer of latex paint, and we had learned a few tricks from the 8 day adventure of fixing up the forward berth – that would make the job go faster. One trick – was to attach the vacuum directly to the sander — so that all of the particulates would go into the vacuum and not permeate throughout the boat. The next trick, was to mix 50-50 primer with finish paint – so that we would only need to apply a 50-50 layer, and then a finish coat (as opposed to 1 coat of primer…then 2 coats of finish).

    And finally, we avoided leaving certain hatches open that allowed Soxy to jump directly to the dock. Full speed ahead now! The entire starboard hull was now complete — ie. Mold removed, completely sanded, primed and finished with the appropriate marine grade paint. Exercise diversion. Time for a few days off of boat projects…for some skate and triathlon training.

    Skated 40 miles one evening on my new pink Bont speed skates. The workout was great – but this was a bit too much time in my new pink boots since they haven’t yet been broken in. My inside right ankle was heavily bruised. After a few more days of painful skating (due to inside ankle bone), it was time to do what I do best. Obsess. It was time to get serious…and drag the Captain to the local Safeway parking lot — to video my skate technique, and help analyze this ankle issue. Sure enuf – that pesky right ankle collapses inward. Bought some arch supports for my skate boots, arch inserts for my running shoes….and it appears that the collapsing ankle problem is now history.

    Returning to boat projects now…with my arteries full of exercise endorphins. We would now prepare to tackle mold and painting on the port hull. We chose the port stern berth as the next job. The mold was fairly advanced on the port side – so the entire berth area needed to be “bleached” in a toxic Simple Green solution. I wore the respirator for this – and with 30 knots of wind – the hull aired out pretty quickly.

    By the time we were ready to begin painting, we had the prep-n-paint routine down to a science. I had even packaged up Tupperware bins with all of the necessary paint items – making it easy to pull out whatever was needed. Before stepping into the staterooms, we suited up with latex gloves, white suits, respirators, plastic bags for our feet, and each had our own set of rollers, paint brushes, stir sticks and pan liners. Pat would paint the “bed” area, and I would work the closets & entryways.

    Both ‘heads’ on the port hull were out of service while fiberglass repair and painting renovations were underway

    …and a finished look for the staterooms on the Port side. Can I be done with painting now please?

    After a year and a half of steering Cat Maudy in circles, she was finally getting a tune-up by the finest boat mechanics at Georgetown Yacht Basin. Bent rudder shafts were getting straightened, bearings re-lubed….we would soon have to learn how to steer the boat without massive over-correction!

  • Avoiding fishing boats and crabpots: Solomons to Baltimore MD

    Solomons to Baltimore MD
    Chesapeake Bay

    Barring any mishaps, or significant changes to weather (like GALE force northerly winds) – we should be able to make it back to Cat Maudy’s home port of Baltimore today. We motored north up the Chesapeake bay to mostly calm seas – and a light northerly breeze. It must have been an excellent day for fishing – because anyone who owned a fishing pole and had access to a boat – was either anchored or trolling. I thought about making use of our new fishing pole – but somehow we had managed to misplace the only lure that we owned (a Wahoo Wacker) – so there would be no fishing on Cat Maudy today. Probably not any Wahoo ocean fish in this section of the bay anyway! We motored just outside of the shipping channel, in deeper waters — to avoid any altercations with crab pots in more shallow waters. There would be no diving for crabpots on this final leg of our cruise.

    This section of the Chesapeake Bay is familiar territory to us – and we took note of the recognizable sights: Little Choptank River…Choptank River…Poplar Island…Rhode River…Eastern Bay… South River…Severn River…Annapolis…and the Bay Bridge. We were not making the best time, but it didn’t really matter. We knew we would be back to Baltimore eventually. As we approached the Bay Bridge — our speed dramatically slowed. A strong ebb tide kept us at about 4.5 knots for the next few miles. Near the mouth of the Magothy River – a delightful breeze showed up from the East-Northeast. We hoisted the main and unfurled the jib to see if we could gain any speed for motor sailing. Not bad. Within a few more minutes the breeze had freshened up sufficiently — allowing us to turn OFF the motors and cruise at about 6.5 knots! Woo hoo — we’re sailing now!
    Sailing. Not motor-sailing….just sailing. Finally, it was quiet, without the incessant noise from the diesel engines. Sailing. It was a fitting end to our cruise originating from Charleston SC nearly 4 weeks ago. We sailed up the Patapsco River — into the Port of Baltimore – enjoying a beautiful sunset along the way.

    Charleston SC to Baltimore MD Trip Stats:

    • 650 miles (250 miles offshore, 200 miles on ICW, 200 miles on Chesapeake Bay)
    • 9 travel days
    • 25 calendar days
    • 0 days 90% or more of time pure sailing (i.e. no motor)
    • 2 days 50% of time pure sailing
    • 4 days 30% or less of time pure sailing
    • 150 gallons diesel consumed (ouch $$)
    • 0 days the steering worked properly
    • 5 days operating the boat with one rudder
    • 2 days operating the boat with the wrong rudder (i.e. the one that didn’t work!)
    • 1 day of kitty motion sickness (Soxy & Earl felt a bit queasy on the first day offshore)
    • Repairs made: topping lift, stack pack loop, reef line
    • Repairs TO DO list: steering, dinghy motor, autohelm

    What I learned on this trip:

    1. Offshore GRIB charts are probably the most reliable weather predictions for offshore sailing. Either download GRIB files (Atlantic 5day) or use http://passageweather.com . Offshore forecasts from the National Weather Service are also handy http://www.nws.noaa.gov/. Weather forecasts for port cities might be interesting to review, but rarely reliable. Check radar forecasts to monitor the path of stormy conditions.

    2. Leave behind any time schedule you might have. If you think the trip might take 2 weeks — double the time to be realistic.

    3. Get comfortable with the concept “Waiting on Weather”. You may have to wait longer that you would like, and often times – the ideal weather just never appears. Make the best judgments you can and be prepared for anything goes.

    4. Stockpile staple & favorite foods where possible (rice, soups, pasta) – as you may find yourself at anchor more than you think, and not every harbor town has a grocery store nearby. Use green bags to preserve produce. (http://greenbagsdirect.com) Have easy to prepare foods on hand – as often you are too tired at the end of the day to do any gourmet cooking.

    5. Know the systems on your boat — hydraulic, electronics, engines — so that if an emergency arises you can troubleshoot quickly. I have a lot to learn in this department — but that will change!

    6. Have wetsuits (that fit) for both the Captain & First Mate handy on the boat — in case you need to dive under the boat in cold waters the fix a problem

    7. Safety: I can’t tell you how much more comfortable I felt offshore — knowing that I was tethered to the boat at all times.

    8. Have a bailout plan in case the sea state changes sufficiently – preventing you from maintaining your original course. The sea state (waves & swells) can change SURPRISING quickly with increasing winds or storms.

    9. If something can break at the most inappropriate time — it will. It’s up to you to deal with it, fix it or come up with an alternate plan to keep going. Cool heads prevail. No one else can help you until you are at a port with lots of marine specialists and money.

    10. Use a combination of GPS & backup GPS systems, plus reliable computer navigation software. We use “The Captain” software — and it was incredibly on target for guiding us into unknown ports, as well as through shallow waters in the ICW.

    11. Be humble. Talk with other cruisers along the way – and learn from their experiences (and share yours too!). You never know when a cruising tip might just save your butt!

  • Downtime in Deltaville VA, and northbound to Solomons MD

    Deltaville VA…and north to Solomons Island MD 4/22-4/23/08
    Boat Repairs in Deltaville VA

    We couldn’t have picked a better spot to have some down-time, while waiting for southerly winds. I can’t say this with any certainty, but Deltaville appeared to be the kind of place, where everyone knew everyone else in town. You could leave your car unlocked with the keys inside, and no need to lock your house door at night either. If you needed a cup of sugar to bake a homemade pie, you could always ask your neighbor for a little sugar to spare – and share some of that pie as well. This is the kind of town I imagined Deltaville VA to be.

    We decided to make good use of our time in Deltaville – by first visiting the local attractions (West Marine) and make necessary boat repairs. As small as a town that Deltaville is (just a little dot on the map), it was overflowing with marina specialty stores to service the boat industry.

    The boat projects that required the most immediate attention include:
    1. Replace topping lift line (140 feet of new rope — ouch $$$)
    2. Sew up Sail pack
    3. Replace 3 reef line blocks on main sheet
    4. Re-install all electronics at the top of the mast (anemometer, VHF, windlass & tri-color light) that had to be removed prior to the inter-coastal portion of our trip

    With the local West Marine just under 2 miles from our dockage, we determined the best way to get there – was to use two bicycles, courtesy of the Fishing Bay Marina. Fitting perfectly with my view of Deltaville, these were delightfully vintage bicycles — single gear, white-walled tires, pedal backwards to brake, plus a huge basket attached to the handlebars — and proved to be the ideal mode of transportation. I’m not sure if it is “normal behavior” in Deltaville, but EVERYONE we passed (on car or on foot) waved to us. Very friendly town (plus we looked pretty snazzy cruising along on these bikes)!

    After a costly trip to the West Marine store, and a trip to the local grocery store (i.e. 7-11!) — we rode back to the Fishing Bay Marina to get started on our projects. By Wednesday, the storm weather had subsided, and the winds had settled down enough to allow Pat to be hoisted to the top of the mast – to reinstall the electronics. We completed the remaining projects on our “Deltaville To Do” list….and decided to take in more Deltaville sights — this time, without spending dollars on boat projects.

    We hopped back onto the courtesy bikes with the big white-walled tires, and took a spin out to Stove Point – the tip of the peninsula that borders Fishing Bay Harbor on one side, and the mouth of the Rappahannock River on the other. The residents on Stove Point – have obviously had problems with “trespassers” — as there were 3 huge signs warning us to “GO BACK NOW”…”PRIVATE PROPERTY”. How silly. We ignored all of these signs, and continued peddling our bicycle classics along this beautiful peninsula. I had scenery to absorb, and pictures on my mind – and a few little No Trespassing signs would not stop me. I’m guessing the residents on the Stove Point peninsula are not native Deltaville folks — as they haven’t quite gotten into swing of the otherwise friendly local flavor.

    In any event, it proved to be well worth the cycling adventure out onto this private peninsula — as the views from the shoreline were magnificent (from a land owner perspective) — and if you had to live on land — then this would be the spot.

    Along the thin peninsula called Stove Point – you could see views of the Rhappahannock River on one side, and views of Fishing Bay Harbor on the other. And in between, the azaleas were in full bloom! Rhappahannock River in background Fishing Bay Harbor

    4/24/2008
    On the Chesapeake Bay
    Deltaville VA to Solomons Island MD

    Weather predictions called for a brief period of VERY LIGHT northwest winds…changing to VERY LIGHT southerly winds. We decided it was time to try to motor sail to Solomons Island MD. For some reason, we continue to believe the weather forecasts (and yes we compare about 5-6 different sources too!). I guess we figure just ONCE it will be right.

    We departed Fishing Bay Harbor with patchy fog chasing us out into the Rhapphannock River. Fortunately we were traveling a few knots faster than the fog — and we reached the Bay without losing any visibility. Once on the Chesapeake — we hoisted the main sail, and unfurled the jib. The winds were light from the northwest – and with our tack, we got about ½ knot boost from the sails to help with speed. So far, the weather predictions were right on target.

    Steering was by far our biggest challenge. With use of only the port rudder for steering the boat — it was very difficult to hold a course. We experimented by hoisting the starboard rudder completely out of the water – and securing in an upright position to the stern cleat. Not sure that this really made any difference, but we convinced ourselves that steering was a tad improved. Amazing what the mind will believe if you tell it so!

    In any event, we were constantly veering off course 10 degrees to starboard, then 10 degrees back to port to correct. Cat Maudy wanted desperately to come to starboard — and we had to hold her back. The light winds eventually became “no” winds – so we furled in the jib…and motored past the mouth of the Potomac River.

    Somewhere in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay — across from Point Lookout the winds picked up. Yep, they picked up all right — to 20 knots from the north. Not the south…and not light winds…but instead 20 knots strong from the north hitting us head on. The waves were building, and once again, the weather weasels got it wrong. Oh well – time for a new plan.

    We motored closer to the western shore to see if we could escape some of the larger wave action. Much to our surprise – the seas were far gentler along the western shoreline – even though the winds appeared to be gaining strength. I looked at the topography – and it appeared between the northern mouth of the Potomac, and the mouth of the next river north (the Patuxent) – the angle of the shoreline protected us from the brunt of the wave action. If we ventured back OUT toward the middle of the Chesapeake — we would lose some of this land protection from northerly winds – and the waves would be bigger. This is a no-brainer. We’re staying close to shore!

    That is, until the Coast Guard boats came chasing after us. It appears, that the nice protection close to shore, put us into a military “TARGET RANGE” (no trespassing zone) – and within 20 minutes the TARGET area would be surrounded by fighter jets who would be shooting at targets in the water. Come on guys….give a first matie a break here? Do you really need to shoot at the water right now? Can’t you see there’s a lot more wave action out in the middle of the bay?

    Water targets line the area — along with Coast Guard boats protecting them! So, we had to change course again — and head back out to the middle of the Chesapeake — to avoid being a TARGET …in the TARGET ZONE…of the US Navy. Having survived being a pleasure boat target for some TOP GUN fighter jets further south on the Alligator River (in North Carolina) – I didn’t want to mess with a possible encounter. However, I would be ready this time — for the air show. Despite entering back into bigger waves, I was looking forward to our front row seats for the shoot-out at the OK-Corral on the Chesapeake Bay. “Maybe I should make some popcorn?” I suggested to Pat. We motored on in our new course farther out in the Bay….and kept a watchful eye for the upcoming air show. 30 minutes passed….45 minutes….an hour…and by now – we had motored far enough beyond the target range that we no longer had front row seats. The US Navy vs water target battle never happened. I guess they just didn’t want us around.

    By 6PM, the STRONG 20+ knot northerly winds…had subsided to nil. We were motoring up the Patuxent River — some familiar territory — for anchorage at Solomons Island. Cat Maudy would be spending her first night in Maryland since November 2007.

  • Diving for crabs – Norfolk and northbound to Deltaville VA

    Norfolk VA…and north to Deltaville VA On the Chesapeake Bay 4/20-4/21/08

    Sunday 4/20/08 Norfolk VA

    The lower Chesapeake Bay weather forecast was predicting east winds for Sunday 4/20 (which would be good for us). Unfortunately, the forecast was also calling for severe thunderstorms and even tornado warnings. Not sure I really needed to write another survival story due to tornado activity — so we opted to stay the day in Norfolk. We would make good use of our time here – by experimenting with how to operate the emergency tiller — our final backup plan in case whatever is left of our steering completely goes kaput.

    Steering problems re-evaluated. The emergency tiller is a heavy piece of 6 foot pipe – that you fit over the shaft of one of the rudders. Once on the shaft, you should be able to push or pull on the pipe to turn the rudder with relative ease – thus being able to steer the boat. We weren’t sure which rudder it should go onto — so we first positioned it onto the port rudder. It seemed pretty hard to turn (to me), but the biggest problem – was that we were prevented from turning the tiller rod sufficiently in both directions. The tiller was obstructed when turning to port, by a post used to hold up the wind generator. We would have to remove the wind generator in order to use the emergency tiller on the port side of the boat. Hmmm. Obviously whoever installed the wind generator – wasn’t thinking about emergency situations. Ok, we’ll give this a try on the starboard side. So, we positioned the emergency tiller rod over the shaft of the starboard rudder….and much to our surprise….it would not turn AT ALL.

    The starboard rudder was supposto be the “good” rudder (so we thought). However, the starboard rudder was completely stuck – and even with 6 feet of leverage – you could not budge it. I think we just discovered our steering problem – and it is completely opposite of how we have been attempting to steer the boat for the entire trip north from Charleston. Smooth. We did a few more tests to prove out which rudder was causing the steering problem. First, we disengaged the starboard rudder from the hydraulics. The steering wheel turned smoothly and easily – moving the port rudder in the direction that you turned it. Then, we re-engaged the starboard rudder….and disengaged the port rudder. The steering wheel turned hard, clunked and it was difficult to turn the rudder. Time for a new plan for steering the boat.

    New steering plan. Apparently the bearings of the starboard rudder are completely locked up – preventing it from turning. Our guess, is that since it is so hard to turn — it keeps blowing a fuse on the autohelm. The autohelm controls the starboard rudder only. By removing the starboard rudder from the mix — we should be able to hand steer using just the port rudder. We disengaged the starboard rudder from the hydraulics, and pulled the rudder completely out of the water. Unfortunately, the rudder was too heavy to remain upright – so we would have to let it just “float” back in the water — aligned in the center. Guess we’ll see how she steers when we depart Norfolk.

    But first, a little R&R in Norfolk. We are docked at the Waterside Marina in the revitalized section of downtown Norfolk. The place is crawling with tourists and humans so it is a bit of a culture shock to us. It didn’t take long to locate the nearest grocery store (about 5 blocks away) and sushi restaurants (two of them within 5 blocks – so we were pretty happy! Spent some remaining time getting caught up on computer work, along with various boat prep tasks – as we were carefully watching the weather for a potential departure early Monday. I was feeling better knowing that we may be able to steer Cat Maudy…albeit partially handicapped…north up the Chesapeake.

    Monday 4/21/08
    Norfolk…to Deltaville VA

    Winds were predicted from the east (10-20 knots) in the lower portion of the Chesapeake Bay, and waves estimated to be in the 3-4 foot range. Three and four feet sounded pretty tame as compared to the 9 foot waves we encountered on the ocean coming into Beaufort NC – so I wasn’t too concerned.

    The only aspect of the forecast that would be a question for us — was the stormy weather part. From what we could tell — it was only rain. We would just deck out in our high-fashion foul weather gear — as rain would not be a problem for us. As you can see, I’m feeling pretty “salty” these days….would have never had these thoughts 6 months ago. We departed the Norfolk harbor by 7AM with overcast skies and light winds. We had to stay out of the shipping channel – to make way for a variety of tug boats, barges and war ships. Yikes – war ships. It’s really one thing to hear about “war” stuff in the news — and another to see the warships close up.

    There is a military dockage in the harbor with at least 50 dark gray super high-tech warships & aircraft carriers of different sizes — ready to go to war somewhere. OK…a little green observation here. Our war budget must be downright huge just fueling up these big flotillas. May I suggest (incase the NSA is reading my boat logs) that you add some wind generators, solar panels and perhaps some sail power — to keep the costs of running these down?

    Maybe then, considering the current price of diesel – all countries will have to fight each other using sailboats equipped with solar powered cannons.

    Fighting would occur only on sunny days – and you’d have be in close range of each other. May the greenest country win!

    …back to the moment.

    As we leave the protected harbors of Norfolk and Willoughby Bay and enter into the mouth of the Chesapeake – the winds and waves pick up considerably. I went forward to hoist the main – and would need a little extra time to remove all of the reef points leftover from our last ocean sail.

    The winds were kicking up – so there was a fair amount of force on the sail — when suddenly a loud POP! It sounded like something had broken on the main sail — but we couldn’t see where.

    We didn’t notice (until some time later at dockside) that the line holding up the boom (topping lift) had severed — and all that was remaining was a thin core with far reduced strength. The braid of the rope had separated — exposing this thin core. If the line had completely broken while at seas, the boom would have crashed on top of our bimini. We got lucky!

    We did notice that our yellow sail pack was limping toward the back of the boom. Appears that one of the sail pack lines had broken free. Oh well. We could fix that later — as it didn’t interfere in the operations of the sail. We continued on, and unfurled a full jib sail. We were cruising up the Chesapeake Bay now. We were making 9 knots of speed – and decided to turn off the engines — no need to motor sail anymore with all of this wind! In order to get out of the shipping channel (and away from the war ships) – we decided to head north into shallow waters. It didn’t take long to realize this was a mistake — as we became engulfed in a minefield of crab pots.

    Our general rule, is to avoid the crabpots – and never go over the crabpots, as the lines can easily get tangled in your props or rudders. We learned this the hard way from past experience. However, one crabpot in particular came a little too close to our port side – and it looked like we had run directly over it. Rut-row….It is harder to make quick turns to avoid crabpots — with only one good rudder. I kept looking back to see if the surface float would pop up (indicating that we weren’t dragging a crab pot) — but I couldn’t see it. Finally, off to the right – I saw a green and white buoy — and guessed that was the crabpot that we ran over.

    We were now sailing at nearly 10knots, and began to have all sorts of grandiose thoughts — that at this good pace – we might be able to get to Solomons Island by dinner time. But alas, the wind began to fade out – and it was time to turn the engines back on. I noticed a tremendous vibration in the cockpit when we were under motor. This doesn’t seem quite right. Within a minute — the port engine cut out. We tried to restart — but she wouldn’t go into gear. Pat did a quick check in the port engine compartment – and everything appeared fine. Aiiii….Why won’t the port engine go on?

    Upon a visual inspection over the port rudder — it confirmed we were tangled on a crabpot. The crabpot that we ran over and thought we had left behind — was indeed wrapped around the port engine prop — along with a basket of crabs far below. We had actually sailed, dragging a crabpot wrapped around the engine prop for nearly 10 miles. I’m guessing those crabbies were having a grand ol time checking out some new scenery further up the bay!

    Uh oh…what are we going to do since there is only 1 engine that is working? Captain Pat had it in his head that the only way to set the crabpot free — would be for him to dive under the boat – and cut it free. OH MY this is like a bad dream. The waters are NOT warm this time of year and I was not liking this idea — of having Pat get into cold waters, possible hypothermia, and me not being able to haul him out. NAY NAY. Very bad things COULD happen – and as First Mate, I did my best to try to talk him out of it. However, I was overruled by the Cap – so, we need to make the best of this.

    The first step — was to take down the sails, and motor back into shallow waters (with more crabpots) — so that we could be as far as possible from shipping traffic. Pat proceeded put on ½ a wetsuit that the previous owner had left on the boat. With a rope tied around him — and the other end of the rope tied to the boat – Pat got in position to jump off the stern of the boat. I was prepared with towels and blankets for when he got back out of the water — so that we could quickly warm him back up. OH MAN….I am sooooo not liking this idea. Pat jumps in to the cold bay waters — and the shock of the cold water nearly brought him back up onto the rudder platform. “OH GOD THIS IS COLD” he yelled out. Actual path – shows deviation to shallow waters in order to rescue port prop from crabpot

    I’m stressing big time. “There must be some other way to release this dang crabpot — can’t we try using a boathook” – I pleaded? But no, the Captain insisted that the only way to release the crabpot was to take the Jacques Cousteau route.

    After about 7 or 8 dives — Pat was finally able to get the crabpot released from the prop — and the line, buoy and crabpot – went floating off. I wasted no time helping Pat get back onto the boat. He was exhausted and cold. Got him back into the cockpit – where we quickly dried him off — and then wrapped him up in a blanket to get warm. Geeeez louisey! Once he appeared OK…I went back to the helm, fired up the port engine — and motored Cat Maudy out of the NEW crabpot field that we had floated into. Could have done without the diving-4-crabpots drama today. After about 10 minutes of motoring, it appeared that the lull in the wind was over…and the winds were picking back up again. Time to hoist the sails. By now, Captain Pat was back at the helm, drinking a large mug of hot tea. I went forward to prep the main sail.

    Hoisting hoisting hoisting….more hoisting hoisting hoisting….and suddenly my Rambo battery powered drill that I use to hoist the big sail (which I’ve named Jane Rambo) — ran outta juice. I would have to hoist the remaing 30% of the main sail manually. Oh joy. By the time I had finished, my body was drenched in sweat. I immediately returned to the cockpit — and started re-charging the Jane Rambo battery. Guess I need to work out more (or get an extra battery for Jane Rambo)!

    As we continued sailing north on the bay, it became apparent that the wind direction had changed. Instead of projected winds from the EAST — the winds had shifted to be more out of the NORTH. This means we were getting the winds nearly head-on. In the Chesapeake Bay — when the winds come out of the NORTH and you are trying to travel NORTH….well, good luck. Get ready for a bumpy ride & no speed. The waves were increasing to about 4 feet — which wouldn’t be so bad– with the exception that in the Chesapeake Bay the waves come at you in rapid intervals. So, when Cat Maudy goes down into the trough of a wave…the next wave is already over her bow. I don’t remember EVER having so much water come crashing over the entire topside of the boat. We were drenched.

    Bailout plan…heading to Fishing Bay

    Somewhere around the mouth of the Rhappahannock River (50 miles north of Norfolk)– it became obvious that we would not be able to get to Solomons Island with the winds and waves coming at us from the north. We needed a bailout plan. I quickly scoured the navigation software to see if I could find a creek or small cove with deep waters that would provide protection from north and east winds. We were getting bounced around pretty good by the waves, so it was a bit of a challenge operating computer software thru this. THANKFULLY, I located at the southern mouth of the Rhapphannock River — an area called Fishing Bay. Fishing Bay appeared to have plenty of deep water, and great protection from the winds.

    We changed course to head for Fishing Bay — which meant for 6 miles we would get smacked around from large waves in rapid succession hitting our beam. What fun! We dropped the main sail. Since the sailpack had gotten torn — a large portion of the main sail drooped over the back of the bimini. I tied up the main sail with extra rope the best I could — so that the sail wouldn’t decide to open back up in the winds. Finally, we made a turn into Fishing Bay from the mouth of the Rhappahannock River — putting us on a run with the waves. This was much more comfortable riding.

    After a few quick turns thru a well marked shipping channel — we found ourselves in a delightful cove that was well protected from northern or easterly winds. It almost seemed like different weather in here! I hailed a marina called “Fishing Bay Marina” (of course — what else would they call it?) — and they had room for us to dock up. It was a bit tricky docking — partly due to the wind direction and use of only 1 good rudder — and also partly due to the fact that the marina guy helping us was having trouble tying a knot that would hold. He would get a wrap on the piling for the bow line….run back to tie up the stern line…and by now the bow line had come undone. He then went to retie the bow line…and the stern line came undone. This went on for a few minutes. It would have been comical if it wasn’t for the fact that Cat Maudy was drifting toward other boats in the marina. Finally, Captain Pat threw a 3rd line to him and instructed him to put it on a cleat….and Pat used the winch to bring the center of the boat to the dock. Pretty nifty trick – winching the boat to the dock. Anyway, we’re in safe harbor now…and I was looking forward to unwinding!

    Finding this little harbor at the mouth of the Rhappahannock River is like finding a pot of gold. The folks at the Fishing Bay Marina (Deltaville, VA)– are the most delightful down-to-earth people you could ever hope to run into. Deltaville is a rural community with lots of farmland, which used to boast up to 20 boatyards in its prime. It is one of those rare places that you think doesn’t exist anymore….and when you find it, you want to just stay for awhile and take it all in. The folks at the marina are soooo friendly, soooo helpful, soooo very kind….we couldn’t have asked for a better ending to our day

  • Bridges and locks – North River NC to Norfolk VA via the ICW

    North River NC to Norfolk VA Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW)
    Saturday, 4/19/08

    Up at the crack of dawn – only to see the hatches and boat completely covered with mosquitoes. Literally thousands of them. Ugh. Neither of us wanted to step outside until we were absolutely ready to bring up the anchor. Weather reports were showing clear skies, warm weather and light winds. It seemed likely that we would make it to our destination for today – Norfolk VA. This final section of the ICW – would be filled with a combination 15 bridges to navigate under. These included three 65′ fixed bridges, and an array of swing bridges, drawbridges, lift bridges and one lock. Some of the “movable” bridges open “on-demand” — i.e. as soon as the bridge tender sees you — they open the bridge for you to come thru. Other bridges only open on the half-hour or the hour….thus you must wait if you get there too early. And of course, we would need to hope for low water going under the remaining fixed bridges.

    As we approached the Coinjock Highway fixed bridge — we noticed a motor yacht coming up behind us. I hailed him on the VHF and requested for him to pass us prior to reaching the bridge — so that his wake wouldn’t elevate Cat Maudy under the bridge. He motored by, and after passing to the other side of the bridge – radioed back to us that the measuring stick (appears only on the southbound side) was showing 65 feet. OK…I’m guessing this guy was vision impaired. We got thru — but the clearance at the top of the mast was very small. When we got to the other side of the bridge, I looked back at that southbound measuring stick…it showed 64′. Aiii.

    We now have the port rudder completely disengaged from the hydraulic steering. Steering is still a challenge….a major challenge. The port rudder just drags along – and the starboard rudder does all the work. Turning the wheel takes A LOT of effort. On top of that, Captain Pat had to steer thru numerous creeks in which the channel is at most 50 feet wide. Cat Maudy is nearly 30 feet wide…so any oncoming boat…or boat trying to pass us – makes for a real good time!

    Here is a quick inventory of the growing list of challenges for Cat Maudy
    1. Dingy engine is dead — cannot dinghy to shore from anchor in high winds
    2. Windlass battery is kaput — can only raise/lower anchor when attached to house batteries
    3. Autohelm is toast – no more magic electronic dude to steer your boat for you
    4. Port rudder has a mind of its own
    5. It’s nearly impossible to turn the wheel to steer the boat

    Wow…it’s time to rock-n-roll and get Cat Maudy back to Baltimore before anything else goes wrong….

    As we reached the North Landing Route 165 pivot bridge — boat traffic on the ICW heading north was increasing significantly! We became one of a chain of sailboats and motor yachts – accompanied by 2 sailboats hoisting a Canadian flag. We all had to wait approximately 10 minutes for the pivot bridge to open – which made for some interesting bonding with your fellow boaters. Small channel…very little space to maneuver in….currents, winds…and in the midst of all of this — try to hold your position and not hit any of the other boats. Sure glad Pat was at the helm.

    Cat Maudy was the leader of the pack of sailboats…and within a short time we had made it to the next swing bridge – the Centerville Turnpike Bridge. The bridge tenders use VHF channel 13 to communicate with boat traffic. While this bridge was only supposto open on the half hour — the VERY NICE bridge tender man said he would open as soon as the 2 Canadian sailboats had caught up to us.

    For some reason, the two Canadian boats seemed to be in their own world – and obviously not listening to VHF 13. They must have decided that they needed to wait for the half hour opening…so they slowed to a crawl nearly ½ mile away. The bridge tender hailed them repeatedly to come up and he would open the bridge….but noooooooooobody was listening on the Canadian boats.

    Finally, I took things into my own hands. Positioned myself on the stern of Cat Maudy — and began waving my arms frantically for them to move closer! Come on!!! Pay attention back there….déplacer l’expédie!!!!! Finally, they noticed…and moved forward….and the bridgetender opened the bridge for us. I think I’m getting weary of ICW travels…and looking forward to getting back onto open waters. No more patience for slow motion!

    As we approached the Great Bridge Highway Bridge — our final 65′ fixed bridge – we proceeded slowly, purposely losing all boat traffic north and southbound. No wakes allowed for this final fixed bridge. I searched the pilings and shoreline to determine if water levels appeared to be up or down. I wanted them to be down…watermarks looked to be higher than the current water line… The moment of truth….and…we cleared. Barely. Hallelujah — done with the fixed bridges!

    It didn’t take long for us to catch up with the motorcade of northward bound boaters – and we sat in a new “queue” waiting on the Great Bridge Highway Bridge (round 2). Yes, this bridge is named the same as the fixed bridge that we just went thru. Guess they ran outta names for their bridges. This swing bridge was the most modern that I’ve seen on the ICW — as most of the bridges appear to be quite old and under-funded. Actually, the entire ICW is in dire need of funding…but hey, our government thinks it is more important to send out fighter jets to dive into pleasure boats on the Alligator River than spend money on ensuring boats can travel safely along the Atlantic coast…Ooops…I digress.

    Great Bridge Lock. Yes, a 3rd structure in a row named Great Bridge. Definitely a lack of imagination here. However, going thru the lock was pretty cool. The Great Bridge Lock is a tidal guard — that lifts boats between tidal and non tidal waters. In our case — we would be entering INTO tidal waters. Southbound traffic would be entering into nontidal waters. You motor up to either the starboard or port side and tie up your boat to some very large pilings. The lock “lady” will help you get your lines around the big pilings. Basically, you then hold your boat when the front gates of the locks open. The water levels only change just over 2 ½ feet — so it is barely noticeable. You then untie your boat…and keep on motoring! About 10 more miles to go – and we will be in Norfolk.

    The landscape was quickly changing now. Rural is OUT…heavy industrial and military are IN. As we approach downtown Norfolk – it is obvious that this is a serious commercial shipping port AND military port. This will be quite a change for us after spending the last few weeks in quaint towns or uninhabited anchorages.

    We hailed the Waterside Marina for a dock slip for the night. The marina is located in the downtown tourist section of Norfolk. It is loaded with shopping, restaurants, harbor ferries, and an amazing amount of things to do! I take a few moments to get used to urban again. We have completed the second leg of our journey north — 200 miles on the ICW in 3 days. The final stretch will be 200 more miles north on the Chesapeake. For now, we’ll “Take Five”, enjoy some sushi for dinner – and leave travel strategies on a handicapped boat…for tomorrow.

  • Top Gun jets swoop over Cat Maudy on the Alligator River

    Hobucken to North River NC Inter-Coastal Waterway (ICW)
    Top Gun – Friday, 4/18/08 Sunrise on Goose Creek

    We departed our anchorage at Eastham Creek at 6:30am heading toward the Pamlico River. Today would be a pivotal day on the ICW. If we can get under the 64′ Wilkerson Bridge – we would be able to continue northward on the ICW into Norfolk VA. If not, we had to turn around and go back to Beaufort – where our only option would be to sail north via the Atlantic Ocean – with a boat that has steering issues. (oh joy!) If all goes well, we would motor as far north as CoinJock NC – putting us within 1 day of reaching Norfolk.

    The fixed bridges along the ICW are supposto be 65′. So, why is this ONE fixed bridge short 1 foot? Apparently the Wilkerson bridge was designed to be 65′ when it was built. Rumor has it — that when the bridge construction was complete – it was only THEN that it was discovered to be short by 1 foot. Duh? Apparently, someone on the construction job could not follow the schematics.

    By 10:30AM – we were about to find out if Cat Maudy could get her tall body under the Wilkerson Bridge. Pat slowed us down to a near halt….and we inched forward toward the bridge. I was belly-flopped on the bow – with my tool buddy Stanley. As we inched up….I repeatedly clicked the “Measure” button….until I got a read. The first read was 68 feet. This meant I had reached a high point of the bridge. Finally, I got a read of 60′ 8 inches. Add this to our 3′ 7″ bow above the water line….meant the bridge would give us clearance of 64′ 3inches.

    We needed 62′ 10inches — so we should be able to clear. Oh…this would be close – and hopefully all of our Cat Maudy boat measurements were accurate. It was now time for visual analysis. As I compared the top of the mast from the bow to the top of the bridge- I should be able to see clearance. Unfortunately, I could not see much if any, clearance from below. Pat carefully inched Cat Maudy to a point where we knew she was under the first beam (lowest point) of the bridge…and we cautiously decided that it was safe to proceed. We were sweating bullets on this one — this was REALLY close.

    A tremendous sigh of relief – as Cat Maudy cleared the far side of the Wilkerson Bridge. With any luck – the wind tides would be diminished as we continued our journey to Norfolk — and we would not encounter any more problems with the 65′ fixed bridges. (so we hoped!) At bow – measuring the bridge clearance using Stanley! Cat Maudy CLEARS under the Wilkerson Bridge!

    Our next 65′ fixed bridge encounter – would be at the Fairfield Highway Bridge – along the Pungo River Canal. While we thought this bridge would be a ‘piece-o-cake-o’ — we were dismayed to find that the water levels appeared to be high. The bridge turned out to be far less than 65′ of clearance – and we BARELY cleared. Sheeez…talk about sweating bullets. I’m at the bow of the boat – and if our mast touches the bridge – all sorts of rigging and artifacts will come crashing down on top of me. Ok…back to positive thoughts!

    We motored thru a 23 mile land cut. This man-made section of the ICW is lined with stumps and dead tree debris — so we tried to stay centered in the middle of the channel at all times. Once through this long stretch – we would be in bigger waters (tho very shallow) — starting with the Alligator River.

    We began to realize the severity of Cat Maudy’s steering issues during this 23 mile stretch in very calm waters – as the autohelm routinely blew fuses – and could no longer keep a heading. The steering problem has definitely become worse. Probably whatever steering that we “had” prior to our last ocean adventure in 9′ seas — is now nearly gone. This meant that we had to hand-steer the boat at all times.

    Under “normal” conditions, this would not be a problem – however with the port rudder constantly meandering and not being able to synchronize with the starboard rudder – it made for difficult steering even by hand. Think of it as if you are driving your car along an empty stretch of I-95. No cruise control. The front & back wheels on the driver side of the car work as they should (in relation to the direction you turn the steering wheel) — and the front & back wheels on the passenger side — just turn in any old random direction. Sometimes the passenger side of the car goes to the right…other times to the left — you never know when or how much it is going to pull. This is what is is like steering Cat Maudy. Whenever we noticed that we were losing speed – this would become our trigger to make adjustments to the port rudder. Captain Pat would have me disengage the hydraulics to the port rudder – allowing him time to re-align the rudder to the starboard side. Once aligned – I would re-open the pressure valve – and the rudders would become synchronized – temporarily that is. This method of re-alignment was occurring at least once an hour.

    La-la-la-la-la….it is a beautiful day, light breezes and we are relaxing. The autohelm appears to be working again for the moment, and everything is lovely in the world of Cat Maudy – lazing along on a Friday afternoon in the Alligator River. We were in remote countryside – no houses, no cell phone service, no internet. We had the jib sail out – and gained about a knot of speed. When suddenly, out of the clear blue sky (literally!) – a US Air Force fighter jet traveling at what appeared to be super-sonic speeds roared less than 300 yards over our mast.

    The sound was so loud at this close range – that our cats (Earl & Soxy) bolted from the cockpit to hide in the hulls. We instinctively covered our ears – and then Pat & I stared at each other in total disbelief. Holy-karumba! That fighter jet was DANGEROUSLY close to our boat! Did we drift aimlessly into a restricted military base? Did Cat Maudy’s steering take us way off course? The military boys could have just hailed us – and we would be more than happy to change course! I quickly checked the chart — and there was no military restricted zone anywhere on the Alligator River. As a matter of fact – we were completely ON COURSE within the channel of the ICW.

    It was a bit unnerving to have a fighter jet swoop out of the ‘friendly skies’ toward your boat. Unfortunately, we found that the aggression was about to escalate. The skies are not so friendly today. For the next 10 minutes – this same US Air Force fighter jet — occasionally accompanied by one of his “Top Gun” fighter jet buddies….swooped, turned, and buzzed in and around our boat as if they were practicing how to terrorize pleasure boats on the ICW. They would dive down toward us, turn on their side in the final seconds….and disappear off into the horizon….only to reappear time after time. I tried to capture this on camera – our very own US government air force gone completely insane – taking on a catamaran trying to go north on the ICW. These fighter jets were so close to our boat – I could have seen their serial number – if it hadn’t been for the fact that they flew at warp speeds. While I took a ton of pictures – only 2 pictures shows a glimpse of the fighter jets (at further distance). My camera could not capture these jets at close range — within a split second they would disappear….and by the time my camera clicked…they were long gone.

    Eventually, the fighter pilots got bored with toying with us — and we returned our thoughts back to sailing, steering a handicapped boat, and navigation. A huge bridge crosses the mouth of the Alligator River – with a single pivot swing bridge located in the mid-section. Apparently, if it is too windy – the bridge-tender will not open the bridge allowing boat passage. Fortunately, the winds were light (15 knots) – and we were able to continue north – into the Albemarle Sound.

    We raised the jib – and motor-sailed across the Albemarle – with Captain Pat hand steering the boat. It was getting to be a bit of an upper body workout to control Cat Maudy – even in light winds. She wanted to wander – and getting her to stay on any course was quite a struggle. Finally, we decided to bypass the port rudder – and simply let the port rudder stay in a fixed position. All steering would come from the starboard rudder. Still not the best – because the port rudder no longer synchronizes with the starboard rudder — but at least we can prevent the port rudder from meandering. This seemed to help a little — but no significant improvement.

    Eventually, we crossed the Albermarle Sound, and motored up the North River in a very narrow channel with shallow waters on either side. By 7:30PM, we found an anchorage in 7 feet of water just north of Buck Island – and made that home for the evening. It was a beautiful, completely remote spot, but there was no chance of sitting outside to enjoy it. Within minutes we were covered with mosquitoes. We huddled inside the salon – with doors and hatches shut tightly. It was a long day of motoring – and we were within 5 miles of our goal for the day – Coinjock NC.

  • Wind tides – Beaufort NC to Hobucken NC via the ICW

    Beaufort to Hobuken NC
    Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW)
    4/17/08

    On Thursday, 4/17 – the weather reports were still calling for northerly winds — but much diminished from prior forecasts. It was time to start moving north – via the ICW. We were expecting coastal flooding to be back to normal water levels by Friday — which would be perfect for the leg of our journey that had us under the shortest fixed bridge – 64′.

    There is no question, that Cat Maudy was loaded down. 400 gallons of water…and 90 gallons of diesel – is probably the heaviest she has ever been.. Combined with my stockpiles of rice (at least 100 pounds) — helped Cat Maudy to sit even lower in the water. Hey — my obsession with hoarding lots of rice on a boat turns out to have more than one use!

    To better enable us to safely travel under the fixed bridges, we purchased a high-tech Stanley laser distance measuring device — so that we could accurately measure a) the true height of Cat Maudy off the water and b) the true height of fixed bridges as we maneuvered under them.

    Unfortunately, we got a bit of a late start leaving Beaufort – so we had currents, winds, steering issues and a loaded down boat working against optimal speeds. At one point – with the diesel engines running full out — we were only making a whopping 3.5 knots. At this rate — we’ll only be able to make 35 miles (and we were hoping for 70) on the first day. The first 30 miles of the ICW from Beaufort NC (heading north) is affected by coastal tides and currents. After that — the water levels are only affected by wind tides.

    With Stanley (our new good friend & digital laser measuring tool) there would be no more bridge height guesswork. We knew that the 64′ Wilkerson Highway fixed bridge on the Pungo River — would be dangerously close. After a few practice tries with Stanley – we determined that Cat Maudy rested at 62′ 10″ (down about 7″ from her “stated” height of 63′ 5inches above the water line). If the water levels are UP (due to wind tides) – then we may still have a problem getting under the 64′ bridge — but hopefully the bridge gods will be in our favor.

    We practiced a few more times with Stanley — only to determine that you could not possibly see the itsy-bitsy laser dot sixty some feet away – in any mid-day sunlight. Hmmmm…. In order to be able to measure the bridges – I would have to position Stanley at the far tip of the bow….and shoot a random number of laser beams (without being able to actually see them) — until I got a hit on the bridge that registered somewhere between 60-62 feet. This would mean that I had measured the lowest point of the bridge. Followed up with a quick visual confirmation via binoculars – plus added positive vibes should do the trick. Wowie-zow – fixed bridge travel strategies have begun!

    I quickly discovered that much of the ICW we were traveling through required careful navigation and close attention to the charts. The channels were very narrow and any deviation would put us into less than 1 foot of water. The waterway is incredibly shallow – and you can easily get tricked into thinking that it must be deep water. Through many sections, I was stationed in front of our navigation software — calling out headings and ensuring that Captain Pat was on course. Our shallow depth monitor was constantly going off! Even in the ICW channel — we could easily see 5 and 6 feet of water.

    We motored approximately 50 miles on the ICW – and decided it was time to anchor in Eastham Creek — just prior to reaching the Pamlico River. We anchored in 5 feet of water. This is a first (in a while!) Normally we have to anchor where it is deep enough for a 6′ fluctuation of tide changes. The water level stayed at 5 feet all night long!

  • Waiting on weather – Beaufort, NC

    Waiting on Weather – in Beaufort, NC
    4/14/08-04/16/08

    The quaint and historic town of Beaufort (pronounced “Bo furt”) became home for the next 3 days – while Cat Maudy and crew relaxed at dockside. Gale force winds out of the north – prevented any further northbound attempts.

    Our plan was to take the Intracoastal Waterway (the “inside”) from Beaufort NC to Norfolk VA – a total of 200 miles. It surprised me to discover that gale force winds created a new challenge — when traveling on the “inside”. Wind tides. Apparently, this section of the inter-coastal is no longer affected by ocean tides — but rather it is affected by wind tides. Due to the wide and very shallow large bodies of water (Pamlico Sound, Neuse River, Albemarle Sound….) that make up the next part of our journey, a strong sustained wind actually pushes the water up into the creeks (depending on the direction) – elevating the water levels and causing flooding. Think of it like having a large frying pan with about 1 inch of water on the bottom. Then, take a hair dryer and turn it on max…and point it in one direction at the water. It basically moves all of the water from one side of the pan to the other (and over!). This is the affect of a wind tide.

    The importance of a wind tide (to us) — is that we have a very tall mast when attempting to maneuver under fixed bridges. We will be loading up on water and diesel in order to sit as low as possible in the water. Without a load – Cat Maudy stands at 63.5 feet. Loaded down – we measure about 7 inches less – at 62′ 10inches. However, if the wind has elevated the waters under the bridges — then this will prevent us from passing under the bridges. So, we wait…in Beaufort….until the gale force winds…and wind tides subside.

    Beaufort is situated just inside the Beaufort Inlet – behind the Shackelford barrier island. It provides a protected harbor for both pleasure boats and commercial fishing activities. We spent time visiting all of the nick-knack stores along a 4-block section of town…the Maritime Museum (featuring items recovered from about a zillion shipwrecks along the outer banks of NC)…and even dining out at a seafood restaurant featuring local catch.

    Someone apparently got on the “wrong foot” with the local Beaufort authorities – because the town was littered with anti-exercise signs. What’s up with that? They really don’t seem to like skaters (sigh) — though I’m not sure why all of the signs were necessary considering that the roads were in pretty sad shape making it difficult to skate anyway! I did manage to get in SOME moderate exercise — biking (limited due to gale force winds — nearly got blown off!), running, and lots of walking….

    I attempted to walk across a small drawbridge – to get to the next island from Beaufort — but was prevented by the winds. Small person advisory!

    Sometime late on Monday, we noticed a catamaran approaching the marina named Socia — that looked to be very similar in design to our cat. Sure enough – it was a John Shuttleworth design. This is a pretty rare rendezvous — as Shuttleworth catamarans are a very limited vintage. Only 6 catamarans of the Advantage design (Cat Maudy style) were built…and only 12 of the Tech design (Socia style) exist. We met Captain Jeff on Socia – a delightful captain from Belfast Maine – who was single-handed sailing north on the Atlantic from a winter in the Bahamas. Enjoyed spending some time with Jeff — observing the features of his cat — and comparing notes to ours. Jeff would be sailing Socia around Cape Hatteras…and like us, waiting in Beaufort for some southerly winds. The current gale of northerlies is producing 16 foot seas off Hatteras. A bit too raucous for sane sailors! We all wait.

  • The ocean erupts OFFSHORE from Wrightsville to Beaufort NC

    Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort NC
    4/13/2008

    “without fear. . . there would be no courage.” — Captain Blackburn infamous Pirate on Sailing Vessel Queen Anne Revenge run aground in Beaufort NC Inlet in1718

    All weather forecasts were calling on 10-15 knot winds from the west-southwest. The only area of the forecast that wasn’t to my liking was that the seas were predicted to be in the 3-5 foot range. Not sure what this would look like — as all other offshore seas I was in — were 2-4 feet. However, the winds were light as we pulled up anchor from Wrightsville – so it seemed like a good day to depart and attempt to make another leg north. The weather forecast further stated, that later in the afternoon — the winds would increase to 20+ knots. We know that the next 4 days would be gale force winds from the north — so it was either today — or lay in wait.

    The Masonboro Inlet proved to be much easier to navigate OUTbound, in the daylight, and with relatively calm seas. Our course to Beaufort NC was a straight-shot of nearly 70 miles, which positioned us less than 10 miles offshore.

    With just a main (with 1 reef point), we motor-sailed for the first few hours – as the winds were very light. The seas were a bit bigger than I had previously experienced – probably residual turbulence from the prior day 30 knot gale. But if this was representative of 3-5 foot seas — than I decided I could deal with it. Eventually we unfurled the drifter sail (used mainly in light winds) to try to improve our speed. Around 10AM, Pat rechecked the NOAA offshore weather forecast. I could sense concern.

    Apparently the forecast had changed. They were now calling for winds to increase to 25 knots this afternoon. “It might get a little feisty out here later today” Pat relayed to me. I thought about this for a bit, and got a tad nervous – but eventually decided that it would probably be fine. Maybe if we improve our speed now — we can beat the projected arrival – and projected increased winds? So, for the next 3 hours – my mission was to figure out how we could improve our time. We increased the speeds of the diesel engines – and pulled out the jib sail (as opposed to the drifter sail) — just to be safe in case the winds came up quickly. The jib sail is much easier to work with. I wanted to remove the reef in the main to better our travel speeds — but decided that we had better leave it alone. Better to sail safe….than get caught in compromising conditions where we were not able to control the boat. Unfortunately, the best speeds we could average with this mix — was barely 7 knots.

    Around 12:30PM the winds had begun to shift. The winds and waves were coming at us from our stern beam, and you could feel the air change. Every hour I recorded our fix locations, and checked remaining distances. I wished we could be moving faster. I really wanted to beat the changing weather – but it just wasn’t happening. I checked the apparent wind speeds every 15 minutes, and they were increasing by ones and twos every time I looked.

    Pat decided to check the NOAA weather forecast one more time. I knew conditions were about to change – and I just didn’t want to know how bad it was going to be. I made sure that I was out of hearing range of the weather information. I didn’t need to know what they were forecasting — and I didn’t ask Pat to relay the information to me. At some point, Pat stopped checking on the NOAA information too.

    The seas were starting to grow. The winds were increasing. I was looking around the boat to see if there were any loose lines or potential problem areas that needed to be corrected NOW — as opposed to becoming a big problem when conditions worsened. We repositioned a few reef lines that were flapping outside of the sailpac, and pulled in the drifter lines and made them fast.

    The apparent winds were registering steady 18s with gusts to 24. I didn’t want to ask Pat what the true winds were registering. Pat casually informed me that when we get to Beaufort NC — we would have to visit the Maritime Museum as they had a map of all of the shipwrecks from the southern tip of the outer banks (Beaufort) and north. I completely tuned out this comment.

    Now, the seas were erupting and there was only one option for me to get thru this. I had to shut out all elements that could cause panic — and focus only on my tasks. I checked the navigation software. We had 19 miles to go to get to Beaufort. The big picture meant that we would be in this feisty brew for at least 2-3 hours. Like the tune 99 bottles of beer on the wall, I was only interested in checking off 1 mile at a time. The seas are raucous — with large tailing swells that push us high to their crest, and then Cat Maudy surfs to the trough….only to be hoisted up again on the crest. The breaker for the autopilot blew a fuse. This meant that the boat had to be steered by hand. I furled in the jib sail to 1/3 of its full size to gain better control of the boat. Pat was focused entirely on steering – and I was responsible for everything else — so that he could steer the boat. Physically, steering the boat is no easy task. He is really doing battle with the seas.

    It became quickly apparent, that the main sail was too big for the seas and wind — and we needed to reef it in further. Oh god. I have to go forward on the boat….and muscle down the main – while Pat holds Cat Maudy upwind (directly facing the seas head on). I grabbed a winch handle and tethered to the jackline that surrounds the foredeck. The last thing that Pat said to me before I went forward was “You are going to hear a lot of wind when I head up”. I nodded OK. I knew I had to brace myself. Carefully, I worked my way forward to the mast before Pat began changing direction of the boat. I was glad to be tethered to the boat, but was also staying low and hanging on to anything I could grab. Once I was in position at the mast – I prepped the lines so that I could lower the mast, and Pat began changing the boat direction to head up – facing into the winds.

    Immediately, I was hit with a blast of wind – head on. It sounded like fighter jets 100 yards from your ears. Nope – I couldn’t think about it. As a matter of fact – I couldn’t even look at the swells and waves while on the foredeck. I knew they were crashing over the bow…but I had to put this out of my mind too. With one hand holding onto the rigging, I lowered the main to the 2nd reef point. Pat yells out to reef it down all the way….so I brought the main sail down to the 3rd reef, and then tightened the reef lines. All the while, there is a LOT of wind and swell and wave action going on all around me — but my mind miraculously shut out all of this data. My next task was to get back to the safety of the cockpit. Pat turned the boat to head back downwind – to our combination of broad-reach / run — and I crouched my way back to the cockpit. Time to check the navigation software again. We had 13 miles to go. OK…I kept telling myself, we can do this…13 more miles ’til land.

    My mind took me straight into survival mode (some might call this la-la land). I decided to think about how much I would enjoy visiting Beaufort. I was visualizing being in protected waters. Visualizing. Yes, that’s it. Kind of like running a marathon and visualizing yourself crossing the finish line — so that you could take your mind off the pain of actually running the race. Maybe we could even get a slip at the marina in Beaufort — and I would get to enjoy all sorts of sporty activities….maybe I would even get to in line skate there! Back to the moment.

    The swells and waves continued to increase in size and intensity. I no longer looked at the apparent wind gauge. I just didn’t want to know. The swells were far bigger than our boat – and I remember trying to focus on the horizon – only to be able to see land when we were at the wave crests, and not be able to see anything but water when we were at the trough. Pat was doing an amazing job at the helm, riding the crests of the waves as long as possible and attempting to remain somewhat on our course for the shipping channel into Beaufort.

    I checked the navigation software again. We were now a mile off course. Nothing we could do — Cat Maudy was just getting pushed around too much. We had less than 5 miles to go to the Beaufort Inlet. I returned to the cockpit, and refused to look behind me. Looking off the stern of the boat would reveal the huge swells towering above us. Nope, I just didn’t need this information.

    With 4 miles to go, we could start planning for our final position change into the shipping channel. We would have to jibe the boat in these huge winds. Pretty risky – but we did have a boom-break installed. A boom-break is used to slow the boom as it crosses the point of ‘no return’. We didn’t know if it would work in such heavy winds — but we had no choice. Two miles out, I centered the main as much as possible — all the while knowing full well that the waves were breaking over behind the boat. I couldn’t help but to see some of this. Refocused my attention on the main sheet. Pat changed course and the boat jibed. The boom-break successfully slowed the boom without trashing our rigging. Whew.

    The engines are on now – to give us extra power for maneuvering thru the shipping channel into the Beaufort Inlet. I spent much of this time inside of the salon, calling out headings to Pat, and letting him know of position changes to stay on course. It would be a tight channel to navigate into – especially with the wave and wind intensity.

    The waters became shallow for the final approach into the Beaufort Inlet. As if the swells weren’t already BIG enough offshore — they got even BIGGER close to land. Shallow water is easily churned by winds. I focused exclusively on the navigation software and calling out positions.

    I don’t know how Pat managed to control the boat….but he did. It was masterful. Soon, we were inside of the barrier island and in calmer waters. We had made it. Once behind the barrier island, I took down the main sail. “So – what did the NOAA forecast say earlier in the day?” I asked Pat — now that I knew we were safe. “35 knot winds with 9 foot seas”. Ooooh my god….I’m so glad I didn’t know that at the time. This was not on any weather prediction before we departed from Wrightsville. I truly appreciate the powers of the seas. The sea state can change very quickly. I will look back on this day, and continue to shake my head in disbelief and awe. Pat did an incredible job as captain, and I discovered a bit of grit in my soul was there when I needed it…

    We hailed the Beaufort Docks on the VHF, and got a side-on slip for the night. I stepped off the boat…and just stood on land…taking it all in….with a renewed sense of appreciation for the moment.