Dawn may come early on a boat but it's not like we noticed. Can't imagine why but Nellie's crew was tired. Rising well after sunrise we topped off the water tanks and began, in earnest, the journey south. The winds, which delayed our departure for three days, had allegedly blown themselves out. Well, almost blown themselves out. We found 20kts on the Bay and a bit of a chop. No problem though as it fell on the stern quarter. After arriving at our Gwynn Island, VA anchorage, we were approached by a classic, gaff-rigged, Hoopers Island sharpie. At the helm was Eric Hedberg. Eric is a wooden boat builder of the old school, but while admiring his beautiful craft he told me he'd made it of PVC. Plastic--no way! He explained that since PVC comes in boards, fabrication isn't all that much different than working with wood. Adhesives like Plexus and epoxy hold everything together. For paint, he used Rust-Oleum. Since the PVC expands much more than wood he'd had problems with buckling metal rub strakes. With PVC Eric can build a 'traditional' boat which doesn't suffer from traditional wooden boat problems. Eric's sharpie is six years old and looks brand new. See some pictures at:
http://www.rionholdt.com/Hooper%20Island%20Sharpie.htmlAt anchor on the west side of Gwynn's Island, VA. 57nm today and 84nm total. DBH
