Virginia and Six Hours of Warm 80-Degree-Weather

Pictures: pumpkins in the city park, Chesapeake City; view of a packed Back Creek, Annapolis, from a nature area with hurricane heights marked on the post; Ken changing oil in our Yanmar; banjo practice on a rainy day

We got treated to a Canadian “delicacy” in Chesapeake City. A young boating couple we met, from New Brunswick, brought out a bottle of Sortilege which is Canadian whiskey and maple syrup, and we sipped it while standing in the town park warmed from kettle-fires and lighted pumpkins. This is probably one of those memories that will stay with us for a long time! We had already sampled the food and beers of two restaurants that were within walking distance of the park and dock.

The next day we left early, just after the Canadians who are poking into small rivers for the next week so we probably won’t see them again for a while, and after the large skipjack BIGSBEE from Baltimore that shared the dock with us but that we didn’t get to see in the daylight. We got to Annapolis that day and anchored in Back Creek, a great place if you can find room. Immediately we got a phone call from Rick, who also spent time with us in Chesapeake City, asking us to join him and his crew at a bar near the main harbor. We cleaned up, got our dinghy into the water from where we store it when traveling, and went ashore so we could walk the 4 or 5 blocks across Eastport (the east part of Annapolis) and a bridge, to meet them.

Other times our journey is a more solitary one, and we are now three days out of Annapolis and have anchored in Solomon’s, MD, the St.Jerome Creek (not sure what town was there), and now Deltaville, VA without too much interaction with other boaters. Most of the travelers heading south left Annapolis either during or just after the big Sailboat Show there, which was two weeks ago, so we haven’t seen very many other cruisers.

Here at Deltaville we have been waiting out a storm. The day we arrived was warm and balmy, then we had one day of wind and drizzle. Today is miserable, cold and wet. Yesterday we got out to take a walk even though it was raining and we found ourselves at a maritime museum nearby and gravitated to a firepit that had a roaring fire in it. We talked with the person who had set it up and he was very interesting, explaining about the history of the museum (started recently, in 2003) and current activities (they are having a Halloween event in the woods with lights and sounds) and the boats (they have several boats in the water, oyster boats, crabbers and a replica of a shallop from explorer John Smith’s time).

One other event this week is worth mentioning. Before we left Annapolis we were hailed by a single-hander behind us and he was asking for help to get going out of the harbor. He had a 30 foot boat with an outboard motor. But he was having trouble with the motor. He asked for a tow while he got his sails up, to head him in the right direction. He immediately got stuck getting his anchor up while Ken tried to assist from the dinghy, then his roller furling gear pulled away from the forestay, but he finally got underway with both sails flying and threaded his way out after Ken towed for the first 75 feet. We saw him out in the bay as we left that day; we hope he gets things straightened out, as he was a little on the edge, maintenance wise!

To fill in time on the boat while it rains and blows, Ken has changed the engine oil, I have been learning to play the banjo (one I brought along that I just bought before leaving) and we get to listen to the World Series and football games on the radio or watch an episode of past TV shows every now and then.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Pictures: 1/4 bushel of crabs in our dinghy, along with fresh water; houses along the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway, decks hanging over the water; bay side of Atlantic City, wind generators with casinos in the background; sailboat that was towed in to Atlantic Highlands after getting loose from it's mooring in the high winds (the tow boat operators have employees on the sailboat deck running the boat the last quarter mile)

As of last night we have made it to Chesapeake City, Delaware, right on the state border with Maryland. We spent our final two days in New Jersey taking a nice walk through an historic town, buying crabs from a local crab boat, eating steamed crabs for lunch on our boat and getting past the last of Delaware Bay. We also had a kind local man offer to take us to a grocery store and back. It was at least 8 miles each way, so he was a true Good Samaritan. When we asked what he did before he retired he said he was police chief for a 60,000-person city in south Jersey.

We had seen more of New Jersey than we wanted, but we were safe, comfortable, and relatively happy so it could be worse. On Thursday Oct. 20 we were anchored off of Greenwich, N.J. This is what I wrote then:

If it does not stop blowing we may not get to see what the guide book promises is a village with many early American homes. Hmmm. Sounds like Cohasset or Duxbury. To get here we traveled off of our course a few miles, along a serpentine river (the Cohansey), away from Delaware Bay because we did not have time to get all the way through the bay before dark. As it was, we were the only boat we saw all afternoon on our trip from Cape May, NJ to Greenwich. Many boats were waiting the forecasted winds out in Cape May or Atlantic City. However yesterday turned out to not be as windy as projected so we did make some progress.

Prior to yesterday, we had two days of interesting cruising in the back waters of the Jersey Shore. We were following the NJ Intracoastal Waterway which we hadn’t had any experience with before. The bridges are low, most at 30 ft. clearance or less. The depth of the channel is mostly 8 ft. or more but you have to be vigilant watching the depth-sounder. There are a lot of marshes and birds on your starboard, going south, and lots of beach houses and docks on your port.

After our first night’s anchorage on the NJ ICW we headed out from behind a low island to leave the way we had come in and were immediately confronted with dredging pipes and buoys. The workers were not too helpful about which way to go to get around this and we grounded out in an attempt to get around the buoys. We had been hopeful that with our Mainship we would NEVER go aground but here we were already stuck! The workers came out in a scow that had a 25 HP outboard on it and told us they were trying to signal us to go out at the other end of the small island; they did offer to try and tow us off the mud and they were successful. Evidently the signs warning of the dredging in that area had blown away and when we passed the dredging equipment the night before the workers were already gone for the day and we made it past somehow. We can float in 36 inches of water, so to get stuck we are in REALLY shallow water!

Backing up to last weekend, we spent it in Atlantic Highlands. That makes 5 and a half days in the Sandy Hook/Atlantic Highlands area. The weather just was not cooperating. We were able to get groceries, wine and beer, and also replaced two of our boat batteries there so it is a good stop for reprovisioning. The anchorage was secure and access to a dinghy dock was easy. There is also a great-looking bike path that evidently goes for quite a way along the shore. I wasn’t able to get my bike off the boat due to the winds and rain.

Our plans are to get to Annapolis and do some laundry, pick up a GPS chip being sent there, and other housekeeping duties before we head south through the rest of Chesapeake Bay. Stay tuned!

Heading South

Pictures: Manhattan, looking at the new WTC with the cranes on top in the middle of the picture; Ken on the flying bridge of RISING TIDE, East River, NYC; children with waders getting net ready at Sandy Hook; sunset off of Norwalk, CT, in the Norwalk Islands

We felt fortunate to have such warm weather for leaving Cape Cod Bay and starting our trip south. And it was perfect for 4 days. It just wasn’t perfect long enough! For the next 4 days we have been stuck in a windy weather pattern that is making it hard to make progress.

On the good side, we had two friends, Ralph and John, help Ken move RISING TIDE from Cohasset to Duxbury. Then before casting off for the Cape Cod Canal and Buzzards Bay we had dinner out with our sons Pete and Justin. Beautiful summer weather helped us to make great mileage to Cuttyhunk, then Fisher’s Island, then the Norwalk Islands in Long Island Sound. Flat seas each day and calm nights were an added bonus. We only got ashore at Fisher’s Island, but we took a nice walk there and found a place to watch part of the Patriots-Jets game (Fisher’s Island is off the Connecticut coast but is part of New York State so locals were mostly Jets fans).

We also had a great trip through the East River in New York City, past La Guardia Airport, Riker Island, Brother Island (where Typhoid Mary was held), Manhattan and out into NYC Harbor with Coney Island, Ellis Island and Staten Island. It was hot in the river and there were only a few other boats.

We decided to stop at Sandy Hook in New Jersey, still within sight of the NYC skyline. It seemed too rough to continue and maybe too late in the day since we would need to go 25-30 miles to the next stop, either the inlet at Snake River or Manasquan. However, the forecast for the next few days wasn’t promising. At our anchorage off the beach in Sandy Hook we could see a row of matching 3-story houses and a lighthouse. It turned out that we were in the Gateway National Recreational Area, which includes Fort Hancock, a closed Army base, and several small museums demonstrating what the 1940s Army life was like. Also there are biking trails and hiking trails with information stops about the Revolutionary War to Cold War history of the area.

Even though the next few days featured drizzle and high winds, we were in the lee and enjoyed watching locals fishing from the shore, school kids on a field trip to catch sea life in nets, lots of bikers and joggers, and a prisoner beach-cleaning- crew. Twice we took the trail to the ocean beach side of this narrow isthmus. We moved mid-day on our third day at Sandy Hook to a town mooring field a mile from our anchorage. The town, Atlantic Highlands, has a nice downtown area near the dock. We have been able to re-provision and also to connect up with friends from TAMURE, a Connecticut boat we knew from our first trip on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Last night Kitty and Scott from TAMURE gave a slide show at the local yacht club and we tagged along. It was very well done, and featured their family on an earlier four-year sailing trip with their two boys (9 and 11 at the time). We also had dinner with the yacht club officials and the featured speakers. So even though we are “stuck” in northern New Jersey, it is not a lost cause! Not sure of the upcoming weather. Stay tuned!

Summer 2011 update

Jay and Laura, Ben & Shelby, RISING TIDE at anchor in Pocasset, Mass.

Ken worked determinedly this spring to get RISING TIDE ready so we could follow through with our cruising plans. He replaced the steering cables and pumps in both steering stations, built a two-bench-and-table dinette, added an anchor windlass, and more anchor chain. (And many other projects!) I upholstered the dinette benches, and the fold-out couch, and generally assisted in most projects. Ask us sometime how much fun it was trying to prime the old steering system before we realized that it all had to go!

We hoped to cruise to Maine to attend a mid-July wedding, travel back to Cohasset for a late-July wedding, then a multi-week trip to Cape Cod and Buzzards Bay in August. All went well. Ben and Shelby Hazen threw a wonderful “country” wedding with an outdoor ceremony in a cleared field, live music from a guitar/fiddle quartet, a huge banquet held under an equally huge tent in an adjacent cleared field, and lots of fresh beer from Andrew Brewing Co. – Ben’s and his father Andy’s company.

After the Lincolnville (near Camden) wedding we traveled to Islesboro, Searsport, back to Camden, Vinalhaven, Rockland, Boothbay, and quite a few other spots in-between. Then, back in Cohasset, we attended Jay and Laura Bertovitch’s wedding. (Jay often sailed with us when it was just us and Pete taking a trip and Pete needed company.) This was another outdoor wedding, on another beautiful day, looking off at Little Harbor from Greg and Ellen Bertovitch’s lawn. Then back at Cohasset Harbor we celebrated at Atlantica restaurant, including special fireworks later that night over our boat.

The final part of our boating travels included a trip to Provincetown for a lobster feed at Long Point with the Hull Yacht Club, then continuing on with several HYC boats to warm water in Pocasset and Cuttyhunk. We took a side trip into Westport, Mass., and enjoyed the area – near enough to Horseneck Beach to walk there and the Tripp Marina had showers and a laundry. We finished up our time in southern waters with 5 days in Lagoon Pond, part of Vineyard Haven, Martha’s Vineyard, and a couple of days in Marion.

Two quick weekend trips to Marblehead rounded out our summer. The boat ran well and we only had one “accident” – a lobster pot warp wrapped on our prop, that I freed up with three freezing dives into the cold Islesboro, Maine, water.

Next up: another long cruise this fall to Florida and maybe the Bahamas. We expect to leave in two days!! (October 8).