2006 Chesapeake Bay

Early October - Travel Preparations

10/15/2006

Morning fog at Hospitality Harbor

With all the time away from the boat in September, the past 2 weeks have been packed with activity, as we scramble to ready Orion for the trip south. Despite our best efforts, we missed our original planned departure date (which was to be just after the boat show on October 9th) and are currently still in Solomons waiting for a good weather day to depart. However, we’ve done most of the projects we had on our list and feel pretty good that we are ready to begin the next leg of our journey. We are once again without a car and must depend on other forms of transportation for the next few months. So, unless we can get someplace by water, foot, bike or mass transit, it’s out of reach.

Cruise Control for the Water

We spent the better part of 3 days installing the various components of the auto-pilot that we purchased in September. Most of the steps were pretty straightforward (although Raymarine would do well to have someone read their installation instructions before shipping the product).

We added the wheel unit to the steering wheel and drilled a few more large holes (!) in our fiberglass helm to accommodate the wheel motor (2-1/8”), the control panel (90mm), and the bracket that supports the wheel unit. (The 90mm hole for the control panel proved to be a problem, since we could only find 89mm and 92mm drill bits. So, David had to use the smaller size and carefully file away the extra millimeter so the unit would fit. It’s hard to know whether to be more annoyed at Raymarine for not considering this in their design or at the US for being the only country of any size that has not adopted the metric system.)

Dave installs wires at the Nav Station

The next step was to run wires to the computer, the compass, the nav station, and the rudder. Most of these were fed through easily, with the exception of the larger gauge wire needed for the Central Navigation breaker on the Nav Station panel. This required one more wire to be fed through an already overstuffed passageway under the floor in the head. We finally managed to fish it through after several unsuccessful attempts and a bit of swearing.

Positioning the compass had to be done carefully, since it must be near the center of the boat, but far away from metal that would affect its accuracy (such as a cast iron keel or the engine, which also happen to be in the center of the boat). If we didn’t choose correctly, we might find that we would have to re-position the compass later, if it wouldn’t calibrate to the boat’s magnetic compass heading. We chose a position behind our port settee in the main saloon, which seemed to meet all the requirements. Equal care had to be given to the location of the computer, which we decided to put under our bed in the aft cabin.

However, by far the most complex installation was the rudder sensor. This component wasn’t a requirement in the previous version of the Raymarine auto-pilot, but has become more important with the S1. It has a spring-loaded arm that is supposed to move with the rudder to indicate its angle. Given our rudder configuration, this was a real challenge. (See pictures below.) David spent a bit of time talking to anyone who had done this before and wondering around Lowe’s, looking for something he could use to create the mount for the sensor and something that would attach to the rudder itself to hold the reference arm. The Raymarine installation diagrams (and most everyone else) assumed we had access to a point on top of the rudder post at its pivot point where we could mount the reference arm. However, our rudder post ran straight up to the deck where the emergency tiller attaches. This implied that we had to drill into the post to mount the guide arm there. David was not too keen about doing this. He finally talked to John (the marine electrician who helped us on several occasions) who suggested we mount a band around the rudder post. This seemed to work. When completed, everything had to be parallel between the reference arm on the rudder and the new sensor. This wasn’t easy to verify since the rudder sensor had to be manually held back against the spring at its mid-point while we measured the angles and distances. We also had to try to determine “square” when one of the corners of the square was the 3” rudder post. This caused us to resort to some of our high school geometry to try to verify we had it right.

Rudder sensor for the auto-pilot

Since the auto-pilot required components be installed throughout the boat, almost every compartment in the boat was turned upside down for 3 days, with contents in piles everywhere. It was a relief when the last of components were put in place, so things could be returned to their proper location.

Although we haven’t completed our sea trial, we have completed the dockside calibration and the compass calibration successfully, so we know that the compass doesn’t need to be moved and we’re hopeful the first run will be successful as well.

Piling? What Piling?
Cathy began to regain her confidence at docking as we managed to dock the boat successfully 2 or 3 more times with the new method of backing into the slip at 1+ knots. However, we always had more help on board than would typically be present when we start traveling again. We had been advised that, if we had some rubrail, it wouldn’t be such a big deal if we ran against a piling on the way into the slip. (Hell, we might even want to use the piling to help with a turn. Cathy liked this idea.) This caused us to pursue adding some stainless steel rubrail to the sides of the current teak toe rail along the hull. We decided we needed to purchase 5 -12 foot lengths to cover the sides of the boat (assuming we cut one in half). However, we were running out of time to order online or even to order through a local West Marine or Boaters World. We finally found that the Alexandria West Marine store had the pieces we needed. Although this meant a couple hours of driving to pick it up, with it hanging out the back of our trunk, it appeared to be our only option. We also had to order the one foot ends separately, since no one in a 50 mile radius had those in stock. Before applying, we took a couple of days to put a couple of new coats of Cetol on the teak. The rails had had a rough summer and the beautiful finish that we started with in April had been worn away in many spots by the chafing of dock, anchor and fender lines during the summer storms. The refinished wood looked so much better.

The rails themselves went on easily once we moved the boat to the “T” at the end of the dock and enlisted the help of a third person (a fellow cruiser who had some time on his hands) to help hold the long rails and screw them to the wood. They look great, and will get their first test in the storm that’s supposed to blow in later this week, not to mention all those future dockings . . .

The Sailing Mecca – Annapolis Sailboat Show
Non-sailors may not understand what a big deal the annual Annapolis Sailboat Show is to the sailing community. It is held Columbus Day weekend every year in the heart of Annapolis, centered on “Ego Alley”, Annapolis main harbor. To allow all the boat manufacturers to display their boats in the water, large numbers of floating docks are deployed which makes all the sailboats accessible to the attendees by simply walking the show. Most cruisers who are headed south will delay their departure until after the boat show. Most vendors entice their shoppers with “Boat Show” prices, some of which are very good. There are talks by experienced boaters and experts on a variety of boat systems. It’s also an excellent time to talk to other cruisers to find out how they solved some problem or to get tips for the journey ahead.

Unfortunately, the day we wanted to go to the boat show was Friday – the same day a Nor’easter came howling through Annapolis. Winds were sustained at 25 knots with rain all day and temperatures in the 50’s. The two of us took different approaches to coping with the weather. Cathy chose a nautical route, deciding it was a good time to test her foul weather gear and suited up from head to toe in coat, bibs and boots. She stayed warm and dry, although anything in an exterior pocket was quickly drenched. David fell back on his Boy Scout days and decided to don shorts and hiking boots under his foul weather coat. He seemed to do OK, but was getting chilly by the end of the day. It’s hard to say which of us looked more odd.

Although the vendors are there to sell, sell, sell, our biggest finds of the day were not merchandise, but advice.

Water Torture
The night before attending the show, Cathy was rudely awakened by a new leak in the hatch over the bed, which prompted her to check all of the portlights on the boat. All but 2 were dripping. With the dry summer weather, we had virtually no problems with leaks until Ernesto hit. But this storm outdid Ernesto for water entering by unseen cracks. We took this up with the Lewmar folks at the boat show. The salesman smiled knowingly, as if we were just the latest in a series of soggy customers. He explained that we could apply some silicon to the outer seams of the portlights, which should solve the problem. In the event that the “keys” which locked them shut were also part of the problem, we could pop off an outer covering and seal those as well. The next nice day we were quick to put this suggestion into use, although the weather hasn’t tested it yet (until today).

Furling
We had been having a problem back at the end of the summer with our headsail furling mechanism. Based on some advice we received back then, we determined that the furling mechanism at the top of the furler wasn’t set properly. This was allowing the top of the sail to rotate on the furler, which it shouldn’t do, and was preventing us from furling the sail. We lowered the sail to check out the “car” that is at the top of headsail. The part of the car that prevents the sail from rotating had separated from the part of the car that holds the sail. We re-inserted it, and the sail worked fine, but David was never really comfortable that this solution was a permanent one. At the Facnor (furler manufacturer) tent, the salesman agreed that the pieces should not have separated and needed to be more permanently attached with glue or a screw. We are still trying to get clarification on how to do this from the company.

Who Will Buy?
We visited a number of other vendors, with some of the highlights being:
- David sought advice from Raymarine about the auto-pilot and suggested they improve their installation instructions.
- At Wichard (the French block* manufacturer that made all of the original blocks on our boat), we talked about the difficulty we had in find the blocks to replace those at the base of the mast. They don’t have model numbers on the blocks, and are an unusual design. *”Blocks” are the pulleys that are used to run the lines that control the sails.
- We found some solar-powered LED lights for the cockpit to give a small amount of light, mainly to keep from tripping when going in and out.
- We were able to reconnect with Jed and Page from Good Turns, LLC, who had a booth at the show. They had been our first guests to arrive by dinghy early in the summer.

Lectures
For the first time this year, we attended some lectures, which were of varying value and interest. The most interesting was probably Beth Leonard, a writer and sailor who has completed more than 90,000 miles sailing with her husband. We actually got to hear her again the next day, at the Seven Seas Crusing Association meeting. The other advantage of the lectures was that they were inside and therefore warm and dry.

We spent Saturday of Boat Show weekend attending the Seven Seas Cruising Association meeting. We learned about electrical systems from Nigel Calder, about circumnavigation from Beth Leonard, about surviving the Tsunami from Ed and Helen Muesch, and about women sailing by Suzanne Giesemann. They were all excellent presentations and well worth the trip as well as another day in the cold and wet weather.

Padam joins us for a sail in the Patuxent

Cruising Company
Solomons is one of the stop-overs for cruisers heading south. We’ve seen untold numbers of boats pull in to provision and then head out for southern seas. The accents and the hailing ports tell us that many are coming internationally from Canada, England, France as well as domestically from New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. We’ve met a few of them, including George, who assisted us with the rubrail. Chris and Margaret, our neighbors here at Hospitality Harbor have decided to head south this fall as well, and plan to leave a couple of weeks behind us. We’ve been comparing notes and helping with preparations over the past few weeks as we get both of our boats ready.

We’ve also managed to spend at least a couple of days sailing on the Patuxent and the bay -- once with Dave’s cousin Don, his son Noah and some friends and once with a scouting parent from Troop 1577, Padam. There have been some beautiful, warm days this October, which has been a real gift.

Cathy works on the website

Rain, Rain Go Away
The good news about the rain is that it has allowed us to get this web log entry written and posted. Also, Dave managed to purchase the Garmin charts for the rest of our trip and upgrade our existing charts. But, it’s time to get going, so we are looking for the rain to subside so we can shove off and move south. Our next update should find us somewhere in NC perhaps? We’ll see . . .

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Late September - Boat? What Boat?

9/30/2006

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David holds our newest grandson, Jayden

We spent only 2 days on the boat in the last half of September, so there is not much nautical news for this entry in our log. We spent the time on family events and projects, traveling between Solomons MD, Rochester NY, Bethlehem, PA and Jarratt, VA, visiting some locations twice.

All I need is a Tall Ship and a Star to Steer Her By . . .
Well, we don't actually steer by the stars. (Actually, we've never even traveled at night.) However, even steering by GPS during the day can be very fatiguing when staying at the helm for hours, keeping Orion on course. This will be even more challenging if (when?) we go off-shore and travel over night. That caused us to put an auto-pilot at the top of our list of enhancements before heading south. In order to be ready to complete this project when we returned to the boat, David took advantage of the time away to get estimates for purchasing and installing an auto-pilot. We ended up purchasing a Raymarine ST6002 S1 Wheel Pilot, which we plan to install ourselves.  He was able to confirm that this model wheel pilot has the advantage that it is an upgrade, not a re-install, to switch to a more sophisticated (and more expensive) below-decks auto-pilot at some point in the future.  After a bit more research, he discovered we needed to purchase a special bracket to mount the wheel pilot on our fiberglass-enclosed helm. Both the auto-pilot and special bracket were waiting for us when we returned to the boat.

Wheels
We continue to take advantage of our access to "wheels", allowing us to visit the dentist, financial planner, conduct some more involved banking business, and (of course) shop at places we can't reach by foot, bike or bus.

Please, Mr. Postman
We learned a little more about what not to do when forwarding mail. Our daughter had sent an envelope of more "important" mail to us in Annapolis on August 30th via Priority Mail. It was sent c/o General Delivery to the nearest post office. When the envelope didn't arrive in Annapolis by September 5th, we had to move on to Solomons, but requested it be forwarded there when it did arrive. However, it never did. We actually saw the envelope on September 16th, 2-1/2 weeks later, when our daughter hand-delivered it to us, after it had been returned to her.  The stamp read, "insufficient address", which was probably due to its missing the words "General Delivery".   (Oops.) However, it was good to know that it hadn't been lost entirely. In speaking to other cruisers, we learned that some have their mail forwarded to marinas, instead of the post office. Then they just call ahead to ensure the marina knows that it is coming. We will probably try the General Delivery route again, since it was less the USPS' fault than our own. Actually, we found the Post Office clerks very helpful in both Annapolis and Solomons. However, we realized that we need to take more care in planning (and addressing) for this in the future.

Heading South
So, we have our work cut out for us as we work on installing our new wheel pilot.  We've enjoyed the time spent with family (including our new grandson, pictured with David) and the change of pace from traveling on land vs. water, but we now are turning our attention to the upcoming boat show and preparation for the trip south. Until next month . . .

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Early September - Land Ho!

9/15/2006

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Well, we survived the winds and rain that Ernesto threw at us as we were making our last update to the log. We’ve since moved Orion down to Solomons, MD to a slip, where we’ll stay for a month. This will allow us not only to prepare her for the trip south on the ICW, but also will make it easier to leave her to travel by car to a couple of family events during the month of September. As we write this entry, we are in Rochester, NY, but plan to hit the road again shortly to head south to Pennsylvania and then to Virginia.

Winds of September
We rode out Ernesto staying on board Orion as she hung off a mooring ball in Annapolis’ Spa Creek, having moved further up stream before the storm approached. This proved to be a good decision. Although the winds blew with some intensity for 24 hours, and the rains came down longer than that, they were considerably calmer back in our "hurricane hole" than in the main harbor in Annapolis or out on the bay itself. And the wave action was minimal. The occasional higher gusts sometimes made us perk up, and David went out a number of times to check the mooring lines to make sure all was OK. It was also a little disconcerting being so close to shore as the wind tried to blow you back further. (Dave was convinced that, standing at the stern, it was closer to shore than it was to the bow.) However, the mooring anchor held firm, and we were able to sleep through the night.

It was not quite so rosy for the boats moored in the main Annapolis harbor. After Ernesto passed by, we went in to town to do laundry and shower and had the opportunity to hear the experience of the others who chose to stay in the main mooring field off city dock. The winds and waves were more pronounced, and, worse still, the winds had a tendency to swing the boats broadside to the waves, causing the boats to heel dramatically under their force. It was not a pleasant experience, and not one that most wanted to repeat. However, all of the boats seemed to come through unscathed.

On the water, our biggest concern was the wind and waves. However, on shore, the rain was the bigger news. In Annapolis, sand bags had been brought in to protect the establishments closest to the water near Ego Alley. With high tide during and after the storm, the water level at the Annapolis city dock rose high enough to flood the streets and didn’t fully recede until Sunday (after the storm passed through on Friday). We spoke to friends in Solomons, who described water rising 6" to 1 foot above the fixed docks there. However, Ernesto was nothing like Isabel, which had passed through just 2 years earlier, so everyone was breathing a collective sigh of relief at the minimal damage.

One of the beneficial side effects of Ernesto, or maybe it was just due to the calendar, was the arrival of more consistently cooler weather. So, by Labor Day, Ernesto’s winds and rains were replaced with sunshine and mild winds, allowing us to take a beautiful afternoon sail on the Severn River with Tony and Leslie, one of Cathy’s former co-workers and his wife.

Look out for that . . . !
Although we’re becoming experts at snagging a mooring ball, docking is still – what’s the word? – worrisome. As mentioned in earlier entries, Cathy’s confidence has sunk dramatically as time and again we experience some pretty ugly tie ups. However, in Solomons, we managed to improve our performance considerably with some on board coaching from Doris and Russ, a couple of experienced cruisers from Savannah, GA, who were at Hospitality Harbor for a short stay. They talked Cathy through the process of backing into a slip where the stern must swing to port (which is opposite of the way the right-hand propeller wants to turn the boat when backing). By getting up enough sternway (over a knot) before entering the fairway and then backing all the way into the slip, Cathy was able to make the maneuver. In de-briefing afterwards, we were also advised to get one more enhancement for the boat – rubrails. This would allow us to simply rub up against the pilings on the side opposite of where David is handling the lines, without damaging the woodwork. These are now on our to-do list.

Back Home Again
Although Solomons isn’t "home", it was good to return to Hospitality Harbor Marina, and reconnect with some of the fellow live-a-boards there, as well as meeting some new faces, such as the couple who helped us with our docking.

Family Ties and Other Business
We are in Rochester to enjoy the first of two receptions for our daughter and new son-in-law. We have also taken advantage of the opportunity to visit with relatives and catch up on some personal business. with visits to our financial planner and our dentist. Although we hope to get a little sailing done in September, it will have to wait until we return to Orion later in the month. So, it may be a few more weeks before we return to more nautical topics.

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Late August - Top of the Bay

8/31/2006

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As Ernesto howls around us, we thought it would be a good time to write our latest update, since we don’t plan on going anywhere till the winds die down. The last 2 weeks have allowed us to travel to new ports and have taken us to the top of the Bay for the first time. There’s definitely a different feel to that part of the Chesapeake.

North!

As we’ve read in our guidebooks and can now confirm from our travels, the further north you go in the Bay, the fewer the ports available. This is due, in part, to the narrowing of the Bay and, in part, to the large amount of territory taken up by the Aberdeen Proving Ground, just south of Havre de Grace. Also, since we are not the hard-core “gunkholers” who are willing to try any anchorage that may or may not have the depth for their boat’s draft, we tend to be pretty selective about where we go. Advice like “this entrance is tricky, but the scenery is well worth it”, or “just stay near the middle of the channel and you’ll be fine” tend to make us look for another spot. That being said, we were even more limited in choices of harbors as we traveled north.

Our first stop was Swan Creek, just north of Rock Hall, MD, on the Eastern Shore. Although this was advertised as a beautiful anchorage, David was having trouble figuring out how to get to the described anchoring location, when the charts showed the 7 foot channel ending abruptly in 3 foot depths, just before the entrance to the anchorage. We therefore opted to take a mooring ball at Swan Creek Marina. Although the entrance to Swan Creek is well marked, we entered right at low tide, and even the locals were commenting on how much lower the water levels were than normal. It didn’t make us any more comfortable making our approach to hear a power boat on the radio that had run “hard aground” (his words) in Swan Creek, just as we were headed in. (Power boats draw something like 2 feet?) Reading depths that were running up to 2 feet below the soundings, Cathy was grateful that her chartplotter was turning out to be accurate in guiding her up the river and keeping Orion in deeper water. As we picked up the mooring in what the depth sounder said was 5 feet of water (it reads about 1.5 foot less than actual), we were assured by the marina office that there was “plenty of water” for our 5.5 foot draft. Well, I don’t know if I would describe that as “plenty” of water, especially since the next low tide was predicted to be almost another foot lower.

We visited the tiny town of Rock Hall, traveling by foot down the mile and a half from the marina. The cool breezes of the Bay evaporated as we walked down the unshaded 2-lane highway. We gratefully scooted into the grocery store at the edge of town to cool off and browse. When we discovered that the store offered its patrons free rides to/from their marinas, we decided we would indeed do some grocery shopping. We browsed the short distance of Main Street, but found few businesses open, since it was Monday. One that was open was Durding’s. It was delightful, with a soda fountain, some booths to enjoy our ice cream and even penny candy (or close to it). In the corner was a pay phone that apparently was the first in Rock Hall. It was a charming place for a relaxing treat. We explored Swan Creek in our dinghy a little more that evening and discovered that there was a channel through the “3 foot zone” on the charts, which enabled sailboats with our draft to anchor there.

Our next stop was supposed to be Still Pond, an anchorage that both of our guidebooks touted as being a wonderful anchorage. Unfortunately, when we arrived after several hours of motoring, we discovered that every inch of the pond was covered in crab pots. There appeared to be no opening wide enough to allow us to anchor and then swing on the anchor without snagging crab pots. Luckily David had already plotted the course to Havre de Grace, which became our new destination. We had left early enough that we would arrive there mid-afternoon. We picked up a mooring ball at Tidewater Marina, after a long day of motoring up the narrow channel into Havre de Grace.

We poked around the downtown area for the next day and a half, enjoying another ice cream at Bomboy’s and the amazing selection at the Tidewater Marine store at our marina. We also ended up going grocery shopping yet again at the Sav-a-Lot store, which had some great prices and was less than a block from the marina. (This happens so rarely, it’s hard to pass by.) At our mooring, we had a ringside view of the barge traffic from the local quarry. One night, a tug returned back up river pushing a barge, and had to navigate under the railroad bridge, part of which was obstructed by construction. It was impressive maneuvering.

Our next stop was Georgetown, Md, on the Sassafras River, where we picked up another mooring ball at Sailing Associates. It was better sailing weather on this trip and we were able to sail much of the way from Havre de Grace, well into the Sassafras River. This proved to be a more eventful arrival than normal, when David reached over to grab the line from the mooring ball, only to discover that there was none there. Now, what? He quickly grabbed the snubber line with a chain hook as a stop gap to give us time to think about what to do. The best solution seemed to be to use the anchoring bridle David had put together, but not yet used. David reinforced the connection with one of our anchor shackles and then attached a heavier dock line as a backup. It held fine, but needless to say, our departure took a bit longer as he undid all of this hardware. He has since made a mooring pennant out of ¾” line, inserting a galvanized thimble in the end and purchasing a ¾” shackle to attach it to any future “bare” mooring balls.

We stayed at Georgetown for 4 days, but didn’t travel very far on land. Georgetown itself consisted only of marinas, a few restaurants and a Post Office. Galena, the nearest town of any size, was over 2 miles away and also on a unshaded 2 line highway. We weren’t keen about sweating our way through that, since the humidity and heat were on the rise while we were there. We did take advantage of the Post Office, since we had a large package to mail, but lacked the box to send it. The postmistress graciously offered us an empty box of just the right size. On one cooler day, we decided to make the trek into Galena. We had read about Twinney’s, a local restaurant that supposedly served good ice cream. It was still there, but no longer served ice cream. However, its popularity with the locals made us decide to try it out. We had a great breakfast there.

We probably traveled furthest from Georgetown by dinghy, heading up the Sassafras River under the Route 213 bridge for several miles. There were a number of well-appointed houses and properties up the river, and a surprisingly large number of boats, most of which required a bridge opening to go downriver. We discovered, after watching the boat traffic for the few days we were there, that the bridge opens on demand and frequently. It was rare that more than 10 seconds went by between a request for an opening (signaled by a long-short horn blast) and the bridge gates going down and the span rising. Also, the bridge would frequently open up within minutes of closing. Local car travelers must just be used to it.

One other nuance of our stay in Georgetown that we hadn’t yet experienced elsewhere was mosquitos. They descended for about an hour and a half just before and after sunset. Once we understood their pattern, we managed to avoid them.

We left Georgetown, hoping to sail much of the way back to Annapolis. “Small Craft Warnings” had been issued, which we thought would bring strong winds for much of the morning. However, the higher winds, which never exceeded 16 knots lasted less than 2 hours. Much of the day the wind speeds registered at less than 5 knots, even occasionally dipping below 1 knot. It was another long day of motoring back South.

In general, we enjoyed our trip north and the stops along the way. It is definitely a different world from the middle and southern bay. The proximity to the Susquehanna River and other feeders meant a lot more debris in the water, mostly floating logs that required a vigilant lookout. The dull thunder of ordnance explosions at Aberdeen Proving Ground was also a little unsettling at first. These can be heard from just after Rock Hall all the way north to Havre de Grace and up the Sassafras to Georgetown. However, the slower pace and small town friendliness of the places we visited were worth the trip.

Where else?

We haven’t completely abandoned the anchoring for mooring balls, however. We managed to take a trip over to the Wye River off Eastern Bay for 2 nights in mid-August. It was a beautiful couple of days. We also re-visited the first place we anchored (on the Annapolis Sailing School trip 2 years ago) on the Rhode River. Wouldn’t you know it, our first attempt at setting anchor wouldn’t hold? We were experienced enough now to detect it and reset in a different location without incident.

The rest of the time we keep re-visiting a mooring ball in Annapolis. The easy access to services and the lively harbor make it a nice harbor to come back to. We’ve also enjoyed the band concerts from the shore and racers dashing through the moorings to the finish line (They do know what they’re doing don’t they?) and the Sunday services at the US Naval Academy Chapel.

Who’s driving?

We’ve been advised by many long-time cruisers that an auto-pilot would make for much less stressful days, especially on the trip down to Florida and across to the Bahamas. The choice is between a wheel-mounted system, which is less expensive, but also less robust, and a below decks system, which is much more expensive, must be professionally installed, but handles more difficult sailing conditions. David has been consulting with a number of installers and more experienced sailors to determine which way to go.

Where are we?

Following up on the discussion from our last log entry, we have now ordered the Fugawi software package as a backup chartplotter software which uses the NOAA electronic charts. We still plan to upgrade and expand our Garmin charts, but haven’t purchased them yet.

We are also planning to purchase paper charts as another backup. There seems to be a unanimous consensus that the Explorer charts are the best for the Bahamas.

Finally, we are investigating guidebooks for the ICW and the Bahamas, which describe anchorages, marinas and services along our route. Another consistent recommendation for the Bahamas is Stephen Dodge’s Guide to Cruising Abaco, Bahamas. For the both the ICW and the Bahamas, Skipper Bob’s Guides are mentioned as essential by many people we meet. He lists details about costs as well as services along the way. There are also guides by Dozier and other publishers to consider.

Feedback

We were excited to get some unsolicited feedback from our weblog recently. It’s always fun to know that our logs are being read and are (maybe) entertaining and/or informative. In case you didn’t know, we have a mailing list which we notify when we publish an update. If you would like to be added to it, simply click the link at the top and follow the instructions.

Experience Counts

We continue to meet other cruisers who willingly share their experience and advice with us for the next phase of our trip. In Havre de Grace, our mooring field neighbor dinghy’d over and talked about his trips to the Bahamas, answering questions about essential systems and where to go. Similarly, back in Annapolis, another neighbor in the harbor had heard we were looking at auto-pilots and stopped by to discuss them with us. This has been true up and down the bay.

When the wind blows . . .

As Cathy talked to her Mom from the Georgetown harbor, she was asked what were we doing about the upcoming storm. What storm? That turned out to be Ernesto, which was then headed for the Gulf. That direction, of course, changed to an east coast route. We were in Annapolis on a mooring ball, as it became clear that we needed to decide how to handle the winds and rain of Ernesto. The main mooring ball area in Spa Creek off the US Naval Academy wall will handle winds up to 50 mph, but who wants to bob around like a cork in that open water? We decided to move further up Spa Creek to the mooring balls that were more protected, and were also more securely attached to the bottom by helix anchors, not mushroom anchors. David used his newly created mooring pennant as a backup for the one already provided on the mooring ball. Cathy had been sewing chafe protection all summer, using old jeans and whipping line, which was put into service for the mooring pennants, to protect the lines from wearing through during the storm. We tightened everything down and just waited for the winds to blow. Luckily, Ernesto is not a hurricane, so we don’t expect to experience winds that are too bad.

So, we sit here next to the condos in Annapolis (they are close enough to talk to the people on their porches) and wait for the storm to blow over. Here’s hoping this is the worst we get . . .

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Early August - Family Ties

8/15/2006

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Dave steers as we pass the familiar Thomas Point Light.

In our last update, we had just celebrated the arrival of a new grandson, whom we got to visit shortly thereafter. In this most recent 2 weeks we celebrated our daughter’s wedding, and got to see our son’s family again (for a little bit longer this time). We even managed to get some sailing in between family visits.

Gadgets and Gizmos
With no engine problems to worry about, David had to look for other boat projects to work on. Most of these involve our plans for the fall, to travel down the Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW) to Florida.

At points along the ICW, the tidal range is as much as 9 feet. Since we only experience 1-2 feet in the Bay, this dramatically affects the length of the dock lines needed to accommodate this tidal range. We didn’t have any that were long enough. The recommendation is that you have lines equal to one and a half of your boat length. This meant we needed lines 55 feet or longer. (Not to take anything at face value, we actually used some algebra to verify this calculation. Yes, kids. You will use this after you leave school.) Since the cost of lines this long at the local West Marine store would be pretty high, David returned to his favorite shopping location, e-Bay, to find the necessary lines. Although he didn’t find exactly what he wanted there (combination of 5/8” diameter and 55 feet length), he identified a seller who had a lot of variety of rope lengths for sale. He contacted him directly for our specific requirements and was able to purchase the 4 lines at a bargain price.

Another difference between sailing the bay, and traveling the ICW is the fact that we have charts – both paper and electronic – for the bay, and we have none for the ICW. Since we rely so heavily on our Garmin 172C chartplotter to navigate the bay with the detailed electronic charts that we purchased for it that encompass the Bay, we knew we needed to have similar charts for the coast down to Florida. We have also been sensitive to the fact that we don’t currently have a good backup for this chartplotter that we use so much. While we have the charts, waypoints and routes loaded on our PC, along with Garmin’s software that allows us to create routes on the PC, we don’t currently have a way to display our position on these charts on the PC. So, the PC can serve as a backup for the data in the Garmin unit, but not to the real-time navigation. This is a critical component to an effective backup. To do this using our existing software, we would need another Garmin remote GPS unit, which we don’t have. David purchased a less expensive remote GPS that interfaces with the computer, which has given us a limited solution. Garmin has restricted its software to prevent non-Garmin units from displaying position on the detailed charts within its software. It will allow the position data to display on a generic chart that has very general features on it (for example, when in our slip at Liberty Marina on the South River, it shows us as sitting on land) and on the route line that we’ve plotted.

Another wrinkle in our pursuit of electronic charts is that, within the past year, NOAA released free downloadable versions of all of its charts– both simple scanned images of existing charts (called raster charts) and more complex encoded data (called vector or electronic charts). It would be nice to be able to take advantage of all of those free charts, but finding the necessary software becomes the problem.

So, our requirements boil down to the following: 1) expand our charts to include the ICW and Bahamas on a chartplotter at the helm, 2) provide a backup for the helm chartplotter, and 3) get the most up-to-date charts. After a bit of research, we narrowed our choices down to the following that made the most sense for us.

To get the latest charts at the helm, only 2 options make sense for us:

Upgrade to a newer Garmin chartplotter (model 492) that comes with the charts already loaded.
Keep our existing Garmin unit, but buy the most current charts for the ICW and Bahamas and upgrade our existing charts to the latest release.

To provide a backup on the PC, we could;

Find an inexpensive PC software package that would take advantage of the free NOAA charts and our remote GPS unit.
Buy the Garmin remote GPS unit for use with our existing software.

Between the 2 Garmin Chartplotter options, we are leaning toward option 2 - upgrading and expanding the charts for our existing unit. The new Garmin chartplotter does not have the capability of using the PC to map out routes using the detailed charts. It is possible to create waypoints and routes remotely, but we would have to use the generic charts. Also, the new unit currently on sale has charts that are already outdated. While Garmin is hinting that it will allow an upgrade for an additional cost, the combination of these 2 drawbacks makes it more likely that we will stick with the existing unit. We have to pay a fee to upgrade our existing 7.0 version charts to 8.5 and then purchase the 8.5 version of the charts we don’t have. This seems to maintain the most flexibility in creating routes, while expanding and updating our chart base.

For the PC backup, we are leaning toward option 1, purchasing a PC software package to use the NOAA charts and our remote GPS. The risk of hooking up another Garmin GPS to our existing charts is that Garmin only allows 2 GPS units to access the charts. If we hooked up 2 units and either failed, we would immediately lose our backup and would have to purchase new charts to activate a new replacement GPS. Pretty expensive.

Domino Sugar plant in the Inner Harbor

North to Baltimore
Well the confederates made it as far north as Gettysburg, but, so far, Baltimore is our most northerly port. We arrived there on Monday, July 31st and promptly left for 2 days. This was actually a good decision, since this was the week of the intense heat wave rolling across the east coast. So, we managed to avoid 2 days of the 4 day heat wave.. When we returned, we had our air conditioning on board, and we managed to enjoy the amenities of the Harborview marina, which was very nice. Floating docks, attentive deck hands (that met us every time we pulled back in), a “floating” pool in the harbor, an Ethernet internet connection, the essential on-site laundry and very helpful office staff. It was also only a 5 minute walk from the Inner Harbor.

Our first stop in search of enlightenment was the Maryland Science Center on the Inner Harbor walkway. We wandered through 3 floors of hands-on exhibits, which were fun even for us old folks. (The average age was considerably younger.)

The next day we walked over to the B&O Railroad Museum. Railroading in the western hemisphere started in Baltimore, and the Baltimore and Ohio yards used to cover many more acres of downtown real estate than they do today. The museum had the largest number and some of the most unusual rail cars and engines of any museum we’d visited. The roundhouse which is still standing has been restored, with a working turntable. It suffered serious damage in the President’s Day storm of 2003, when the roof collapsed, but it has since been repaired and re-opened. The museum includes a 20 minute train ride as well.

Paragraph.

Actually, there was an “Otakon 2006” conference underway, which is somehow related to video gaming. So, we can’t attribute all of the oddly dressed pedestrians to “typical” Baltimore residents.

We tried another walking tour of the Baltimore sites to try to visit the Shot Tower, north of Inner Harbor. (This is a place where they used to pour molten lead down from the top to make gun shot of various sizes.) Unfortunately, when we got there, it was closed due to excessive heat (tell me about it!), so we consoled ourselves with some delicious sweets from an excellent nearby bakery.

Friday night at the Inner Harbor was lively, with a live concert by a jazz band and other street performers along the walkway. We grabbed something to eat and sat on the balcony of Harborplace while we ate, enjoying the music and the activity.

Friends and Family

For much of the past few weeks, the light summer winds and their direction have prevented us from sailing very much. We’ve had to motor almost everywhere. However, we were finally able to put the sails up again when we took a sail down the Patapsco River in Baltimore. We were joined there by Tracy, one of David’s former co-workers, and his family. We took a spin in the Inner Harbor and then out into the Patapsco where the winds were up. We also had a nice sail from Annapolis (where we went after Baltimore) almost all the way up the South River, as we were moving the boat to Liberty for a week while we went off to the wedding.

And as for the wedding, it was a beautiful occasion. Bonnie and Troy had planned a special event to begin their life together. Many tears (of joy, of course) were shed before it was all over. We were thrilled to be there and be a part of it.

Bored yet?

We are frequently greeted with questions regarding our life on board Orion.

Is it wonderful, exciting, relaxing, fun, a great adventure? OR
Is it cramped, hot, too close for comfort, a lot of work, just plain boring?

The answer to all those questions is . . . yes. At times, each of those aspects is a reality of our life on board. We’ve had opportunities to do things, meet people and learn about ourselves in ways we haven’t had before. It’s also true that part of every life is the routine things that still need doing: shopping, cooking, cleaning, maintenance, etc. You just have to do them in less space and with more concern about how economically you’re using your resources. But that’s OK. It’s just part of the rhythm of life on a boat, and it means that we haven’t decided to pack it in just yet. We have a bit further to go before we’ll close this chapter of our lives.

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Late July - Hot, Hot, Hot

7/31/2006

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Annapolis Harbor during thunderstorm

We finally made it up to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor as July came to an end, after spending most of the past 2 weeks in and near Annapolis, MD. However, as the sun sets on July, we are several hundred miles away from Baltimore, driving to our daughter’s home in southern Virginia. More about that later. The good news is that we’ve had 2 weeks of uneventful engine starts, thanks to some excellent work by another skilled marine engine mechanic, Karl. Even better news is that we are celebrating the arrival of our 2nd grandson, Jayden Kenneth Dieter on July 29th.

Engine woes – behind us?
As we enjoyed the familiar surroundings of the Liberty Marina in Edgewater, including reconnecting with friends there, we hooked up with Karl, of Karl’s Marine Engine Services, Inc. who is a well-respected Yanmar engine mechanic. He spent several hours over 2 days, completing a number of projects on David’s list of more complex engine maintenance items. The most important of these (if you remember from the last log entry) was installing a relay on the starter to solve our engine starting problems. That was actually the simplest of the items he had to do, and it worked great. We haven’t had a problem since. (Knock wood.)

One of the items that was supposed to be simple was replacing and upgrading the raw water intake hoses for the engine from the original unreinforced lines to ones that were reinforced (and therefore less likely to collapse under pressure). This is one of those times, David was thanking his lucky stars that he didn’t try this one by himself. While removing the old hoses, the metal coupling to which they attached broke off due to galvanic corrosion. This meant that, in order to replace the coupling, the raw water thru-hull valve would have to be removed as well. (For those who don’t understand why this would alarm anybody, you need to think about the word “thru-hull”. That means the deep blue sea is on the other side of that hole, waiting to come through the hull (get it?) when the valve is open --- or not there. If you remove the valve that closes the thru-hull, there’s nothing keeping all that water out.) At any rate, Karl was unfazed at the panicky looks on both of our faces. He simply asked for a wooden plug to use in the hole. (Oh, yeah! We knew we bought those for a good reason.) After popping out the valve and (quickly) tapping in the plug, he confirmed that valve was fine, so that all that had to be replaced was the original coupling that had broken. The rest of this repair proceeded (thankfully) without any more surprises.

Karl also replaced the fuel vent hose (which provides a way for air to escape when the fuel tank is filled) with a longer hose to prevent the crimping that caught us by surprise on a hot summer day last year. The crimping had blocked the air flow, creating a vacuum in the fuel line, which (of course) kept the engine from starting. We had to bleed the fuel line in order to get it started. As the summer was heating up, David expected it was only a matter of time before this happened again.  On our particular Beneteau model, accessing this hose is through a particularly awkward access panel. Since Cathy had been the stuckee during last year’s episode (doing the “un-crimping”), she was glad to let Karl have the honors this time. (He also pointed out that by removing another panel, the access was much less awkward.)

We had suspected that, since our fuel gauge always read full, it wasn’t working. So, Karl removed the fuel gauge sensor to check it, confirming that it actually was working fine, meaning that the tank was always full. He suggested we were filling the tank a little too often.  Having Karl around to help with this task was well appreciated, since re-sealing the opening in the fuel tank was tricky. (The diesel tank is right under our bed, so we weren’t too keen to have diesel fuel leaking around the opening.)

The nastiest job that we had Karl do was to change the antifreeze. Those who have done this on a car are probably thinking, what’s the big deal? Well, if you think about doing this on a car, you usually go underneath the car and drain it out a hole in the bottom of the radiator. That’s not too easy to do on a boat in the water. You essentially have to let the antifreeze pour out into the bilge compartment beneath it. Then you suck it up into large buckets to haul off the boat. Since this is not “bio-degradable” stuff, but very toxic, the waste antifreeze has to be hauled to a waste disposal site. This was not a job that we would have managed well on our, with our tiny shop-vac on board, but at least we know how to do it, given the right circumstances.

The biggest advantage of hiring Karl for this work is that he not only made excellent repairs, he took time to explain the things he was doing and let David (and, to a lesser extent, Cathy) watch and help. This will allow us to perform similar maintenance and repairs on our own in the future.

Hand over some of those wooden plugs!

Kindness of strangers
Our week at Liberty (which is on the busy Rt. 2 highway north of Edgewater, MD) forced us to comprehend and use the greater Annapolis bus system in order to purchase a replacement pair of glasses for Cathy, and to visit our favorite consignment store, Bacon.

The first thing we learned was that the number of people who have no clue about the bus routes and schedules (or why you would want to know about it) greatly outnumbers those who are well-informed on the topic.

The second thing we learned is how important it is to know your bus schedule, especially in the heat of late July in Annapolis.

We had researched the buses that would service Liberty that would get us to the mall, where we had the most choices for eyeglasses. These were commuter buses that only ran Monday – Friday, which meant that we had to scramble to catch one shortly after we arrived on Friday.   We were told that the buses ran once an hour. So, when we missed the 12:45 bus, we started our hike up to the bus stop, aiming for the 1:45 bus. However, there was no bus stop sign on our side of the highway anywhere near where we had been told it would be. Just green grass and weeds. Our confidence now being shaken, we decided to walk up the highway “a bit” to find the next bus stop. After walking in the hot sun for “a bit”, we asked a couple of local businesses about the nearest bus stop. We received a mixture of blank stares (“what bus?”) and directions taking us a couple of miles into town. We decided to move on.   The next person we stopped was equally unhelpful, but by now, we were so hot and sweaty, they were probably just trying to distance themselves from us. After another “bit” of walking, we approached a cross-street, where a car had just stopped before turning. We asked the same question. This time the woman driving took a look at our bedraggled appearance and told us she would take us to the mall. Angels come in all shapes and forms -- in this case, driving an air conditioned minivan.

Upon arriving at the mall, we got a bus schedule from the information desk (they couldn’t give us one, but we could look at it) and determined the route to get back. No one was quite sure when the buses stopped running, though. Sigh!   However, we managed to get back to the marina successfully with the schedule information we received. The bus drivers were very helpful, as well. When we asked the commuter bus driver about where to catch the northbound bus when headed into town, he explained that the sign wasn’t there, but that we just needed stand on the northbound side of road opposite the sign on the southbound side, and the bus driver would stop. Simple enough. Right?

Our next attempt to catch the bus wasn’t until the following Monday. We were now confident and armed with information. No problems now. We trooped up to the busstop in time for the 9:45am bus. We stood in our patch of grass and waited. And waited. And waited. When nearly 40 minutes had passed, we tried to decide just how late a bus could be. We were beginning to feel foolish standing in the weeds at the side of a 4-lane highway, but we kept it up a little longer. And a little bit more. And finally, at about 10:45, a bus arrived, which actually . . . stopped. We asked the driver about the “missing” 9:45 bus. He said simply that the northbound bus ran every 2 hours. Only the southbound bus ran every hour. Ohh. He gave us his only bus schedule, which we accepted like it was a piece of gold. This was just a short trip down to the harbor for some sightseeing and a trip to Fawcett’s Marine. It was actually just an excuse to get into some air conditioning, which worked – until the return trip.

This led to our third lesson regarding mass transit, which is that those who rely on the Annapolis bus system for their transportation are not the well-connected or influential, which directly correlates to the amount of investment in this infrastructure.

We hadn’t quite mastered the intricacies of the bus schedule, so having missed the most recent city bus to the transfer point, we decided to simply walk there from downtown. On the map, it looked like a short distance. We missed those little words, “not drawn to scale”. This was the hottest day of the summer so far, so we arrived at the transfer point willing to do anything to get out of the heat. It was still ½ hour until the commuter bus to Edgewater would arrive, and the transfer point is just a parking lot in the hot sun. So, in our infinite wisdom, we thought we would just ride a city bus for a half hour so we could cool off in the air conditioning.

Not a good plan.

What we discovered is that only 1 or 2 of the city buses had working air conditioning. While this was an inconvenience for us, it was a daily grind for the commuters in their work uniforms, the mothers carrying babies, and worst of all, the bus drivers confined to these hot boxes all day in the relentless heat and humidity. We couldn’t believe it. Luckily, most of the commuter buses, servicing the towns outside of Annapolis, were air conditioned. When ours arrived early, we scrambled aboard in grateful appreciation for the invention of air conditioning and the promptness of the driver.

To say that America is not a friend of mass transit would be a vast understatement. The past 2 weeks allowed us to experience the effects of this lack of support and investment in one corner of the country first hand. It also allowed us to experience the grace and helpfulness of fellow travelers and workers in the system despite some difficult conditions.

Kindness of friends
We enjoyed the opportunity to re-connect with some friends at Liberty Marina who live aboard their boats there.   Dan and Regina even let us borrow their car twice to do some grocery shopping. This was a tremendous help, given the previously described bus situation. Getting to the grocery store, and more importantly, getting cold stuff back still cold, would be particularly tricky as the temperatures stayed in the mid-90’s.

We took one day to travel into DC, enjoying lunch with David’s former co-workers at the Corporation for National and Community Service.

One of Cathy’s former co-workers, Katie, along with her husband, Chris, joined us while we were on a mooring in Annapolis harbor. We got to enjoy the live music from Pusser’s Landing Restaurant and the activity in the Annapolis harbor over dinner on the boat. It was fun.

Annapolis skyline at sunset from mooring

Touring Annapolis
After leaving Liberty, we spent several nights on a mooring ball in Annapolis harbor. This was a great way to experience Annapolis, which gave us a little more time to explore the city. We enjoyed a service at the US Naval Academy chapel and got to see the plebe’s practicing the “formation”, where the cadets assembled by unit in a large courtyard and then marched into the dining hall, accompanied by the academy band. We took a tour of the campus, which is a beautiful setting by the water. Something tells me the plebe’s didn’t have a lot of time to reflect on the beautiful setting, since we frequently awoke to a chorus of hundreds of voices counting out exercises on the playing fields near our mooring in the harbor as the sun rose. Once or twice this followed similar sounds from late the night before.

One day we stumbled across an interesting museum about the African American experience in Annapolis and Chesapeake region over the course of 350 years. It was called the Banneker-Douglas Museum, and it was tucked away in a former church building on Franklin Street. This gave a rich picture of a community that flourished in the surrounding blocks of downtown Annapolis before the pressures of development pushed the residences out of the area. It then put this in the context of the history of the African American presence in the region.

Dobbins Island Anchorage

North of the Bay Bridge
We went north of the Bay Bridge for the first time (in our current boat) for a 2 day trip to the Magothy River. We anchored in a popular anchorage north of Dobbins Island. We were far enough north that the jelly fish population had virtually disappeared, so we braved the water for the first time. It wasn’t all fun, though. We used our swim to clean the hull. Of course it’s a lot cooler doing from the water than up on deck.

We were actually anchored between 2 islands. Dobbins is just an uninhabited strip of land with a nice little beach. On the other side of the anchorage is Little Island, which was only big enough for a single house, but one that managed to include a lighthouse tower in its architecture.
Where to now?\
So, why are we on our way to VA? Well, our mail caught up to us on the last day of July and had some pressing correspondence that had a combination of urgency and complexity that required us to visit our daughter’s house (and our records) in VA. It also gave us the opportunity to sneak in a surprise trip to Rochester to visit our new grandson and his family. So, after that, we plan to enjoy Baltimore for a few days, and then its back to Liberty. Our daughter is getting married in a couple of weeks and we plan to leave the boat there while we join her and her fiance for their special day.

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Early July - Fireworks

7/15/2006

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Fireworks at Zahnisers

It’s a drag

They say that you are likely to go through at least one event in your first year of cruising that will shake your confidence and make you reconsider why you’re doing this. We had such an experience 2 weeks ago that shook us up, but only our egos were hurt. Luckily body and boat (and other people’s property) are doing just fine.

As we were pulling into Solomons, MD, after a very long, tiring day of sailing from Sandy Point (on the Great Wicomico near Reedville, VA), we made several attempts at anchoring in Back Creek, a crowded thoroughfare opposite a number of crowded marinas in Solomons. This was the Sunday of July 4th week, which meant it was packed with boats. Also, the beautiful, cooling breezes of the past 2 days had been replaced with sweltering heat and humidity. So, anchoring room was tight and the heat and fatigue were not helping. We tried anchoring 3 different times, and had to start over for a number of reasons. Tempers were flaring and fatigue was setting in. With the fourth attempt, directly opposite Spring Cove Marina’s fuel dock, we seemed to have finally set the anchor in deep enough water and out of everyone’s way. However, our nerves were so frayed, we had little energy to do anything more than sit in the cockpit, and look with some interest at what appeared to be an approaching storm (that had not been in the forecast). The nice thing about the storm was that it was preceded by dramatic breezes that were a welcome relief from the heat. Those nice winds can turn violent however when the storm descends, and that’s what happened this night. As the winds picked up, our anchor drag alarm went off. We dismissed this as being improperly set, as it appeared that the anchor was holding in its new “stretched” out location. As the first raindrops fell, we dashed below. David was trying to get our handheld GPS to note our location in hopes that he could detect anchor drag with that. Before either of us had a chance to think through what might happen, the boat lurched violently around 180 degrees with a nasty tilt. The anchor chain clanked outside the hull. We watched through portholes on opposite sides of the boat to verify our position wasn’t moving as a result of the anchor dragging. It quickly became apparent that we were moving rapidly toward the fuel dock. David flew up the companionway to try to attend to the anchor, while shouting to Cathy to start the engine. As Cathy fumbled with the keys and the ignition, David quickly decided to leave the bow and, instead, fend off the quickly approaching fuel dock. Just as the collision became imminent, the engine roared to life, and Cathy turned the wheel enough to minimize the impact. The anchor dragging and David fending off all contributed to a soft landing on the fuel dock. In retrospect, we couldn’t have been luckier to be next to a dock (instead of other boats, shallow water, etc.). The fuel dock had lines to grab and soft padding on each piling, allowing us to just tie up and wait out the storm.

After the winds died and as the sun was setting, we tried anchoring again, but quickly determined that the anchor was not holding. We decided the better decision was to pick up a mooring ball nearby and make calmer decisions in the morning. Even that was a little bit of an adventure, since we initially didn’t have the right lights on for traveling after dark – pretty important in the busy Solomons harbor. David quickly got them on and we crept up on the busy mooring ball area, David shining a search light to ensure Cathy was aiming at an unused ball. Cathy was intent on keeping just enough headway to ensure we snagged the mooring line – but not any of the other boats in the already crowded mooring area.

After a restless night’s sleep and endless discussions the next few days with more experienced sailors, it was hard to come up with a specific reason why our boat dragged anchor, but none others did. David was concerned that the trip line that he used to flag the anchor location somehow fouled the anchor, preventing it from setting successfully. (However, the attempt to anchor after the storm without the trip line still found the anchor dragging.) Cathy wasn’t sure she was reading the instruments correctly when backing down on the anchor to ensure we weren’t moving. Did we put out enough rode? Was the bottom soft or some other bad holding ground? Was the anchor the wrong type? Despite everyone’s advice, the only sure answer was: experience. You just need to keep doing it.

It took us about a week, but we managed to try again. This time we chose a beautiful, spacious spot on St. Leonard’s Creek up the Patuxent River from Solomons. Despite steady 15 knot winds, we didn’t move. That same experience was repeated a couple of nights later on Mill Creek (this one is off the south side of the Patuxent River near Solomons). We’ve decided to stay away from crowded anchorages for the time being and from anchoring in weather that is predicted to be stormy. If a storm does come up, we’ll have more room (and time) to react, and we’ll have the engine going already!

We’re not sure we understand the root cause of our misadventure, but we’ve tried to learn what we can about how to avoid them happening again. Since our last log entry started by claiming how much “better” we were getting at anchoring, we were just asking for it, I guess.

Engine troubles – again

Our engine starting problems just won’t leave us alone. As we left Solomon’s for another long (45 mile) trip up to Galesville, MD (on the West River), we were flying along under sail in an 18+ knot wind. It was great! We would make Galesville by mid-afternoon, rather than early evening, giving us plenty of time to settle in.

Only we weren’t going to be that lucky.

Around noon, the winds died. They were barely hitting 5 knots and we were going nowhere. Since we had a lot of miles still ahead of us, we decided to start the engine and motor until we might get another good breeze. Only . . . the engine didn’t start. We groaned, annoyed that this problem was back again. However, it takes little effort to switch from the starting battery to the house bank and (surely) that would start the engine as it always has in the past. No such luck.

Now, we were drifting along in the Chesapeake Bay shipping channel with no engine. Cathy tried to keep the boat moving forward under sail, while David looked at the engine problem. It appeared that the starter wasn’t getting the signal to start, but jumping a Yanmar diesel wasn’t the same as jump-starting his old ’69 van. Or was it? Rather than take the chance on his own, David contacted a mechanic at Rockhold Creek Marina in Deale. He had been very impressed with Eric’s knowledge of Yanmar engines when he had originally talked to him about a possible slip at that marina before we bought the boat. Luckily, Eric was there and talked David through some diagnostics and then through the jump-start procedure (which involved some highly specialized tools that we just happened to have – a very large screwdriver). With the engine started, there was no way we were turning it off again, so we changed course and motored toward Deale and Eric’s assistance. Deale has an insanely narrow and shallow entrance channel, that had the low water alarm going off incessantly. However, Eric made time for us and determined that the ground was improperly attached. After reconnecting it properly, the engine started fine. We hoped this was finally it.

Back on the Chesapeake the next day, we had a much shorter trip to Galesville from Deale. But the winds were not nearly as strong, so it wasn’t long before we decided to motor. When we went to start the engine, we had a repeat performance of the day before. This time, David knew what to do, so we were able to start the engine. But it was obvious that the problem wasn’t solved. David tried contacting Eric again to see if we could make an appointment to have him look at it. We were saddened to learn that that morning he was involved in a serious accident that had placed him in the hospital. While checking in at Pirates Cove marina in Galesville, David mentioned the engine problems and Eric’s situation to the owner (Bob). Bob asked his Yanmar specialist to come see us. It happened to be Karl, the same mechanic David had hired to check out the engine early last year before we started sailing the boat. Karl was familiar with the kind of problem that we had and proposed a solution that he had used before to install a relay. Since Karl works mainly in Annapolis, it made sense for us to move north one more hop to stay at Liberty Marina (where our slip was in 2005), to be in a position where he can easily get to us.

You can’t always get what you want . . .

Spending more time in marinas has made it painfully obvious that we need more docking practice. While the ideal slip is at the end of a T with no other boats around and hands on deck to cast lines to, we’ve found this is rarely the slip you get assigned. And, without any lines on those outer pilings, it is frequently difficult to maneuver the boat enough against the wind to back it in to the slip (for ease of power hook-up and getting on and off). We’ve had a few pretty ugly entrances that were saved only by the fact that virtually no one was around, especially not on the boats we narrowly missed in the slips next to us. Here’s hoping that situation improves quickly.

Déjà vu

In the midst of our anchoring fiasco in Back Creek, we noticed none other than Green Dragon, our friends from England, anchored nearby. We enjoyed some more evenings together with Tom and his girlfriend, Mo. Unfortunately, thunderstorms kept rolling through just at dinnertime, so it was hard to actually have more than 1 dinner together, but we did enjoy the 4th of July fireworks from a great location on one of Zahniser’s mooring balls. They just happened to be shot off on July 5th , again because of the thunderstorms. Mo has since headed back to England, and Tom had to accelerate the haul-out of Green Dragon for its winter storage due to a problem with the engine.

It was good to see Margaret and Chris again, our neighbors in Hospitality Harbor. Although our planned anchoring trip was cancelled, we did get to enjoy their company for dinner and a day of sailing. They were also very generous in letting us use one of their cars for a trip to that shopping mecca, Wal-Mart, as well as carting Tom, Mo and us around to a number of stores in search of a replacement pair of glasses for Cathy, and a variety of supplies for our British friends. Thunderstorms can make for a bonding experience as well. While anxiously watching our boats swing on the mooring balls during the next evening after our anchoring disaster, we conversed with our nearest neighbor on the mooring ball, power boaters who had only recently made the transition after 35 years of sailing. They invited us on board for lunch the next day, and we got to see all the spacious pleasures of power boat life. On the other extreme of water craft, we were visited by a father and his 5 year old son on their kayak as we anchored in Mill Creek. Colin (the 5-year old) was learning about boats, so we invited them on board for a tour.

New places
While on St. Leonard’s Creek, we went to visit a local marina that had achieved a certain fame due to the eccentricities of its owner. When we arrived, we discovered that Vera’s White Sands Beach Club and Marina had new owners and everything was either being or had been re-built. The restaurant was the first to be completed, and the food we sampled there was excellent. The docks were being re-built, but most amenities had not yet been restored. It looks very promising for the 2007, if the rest of the restoration looks like the work done so far.

Vera's White Sands Beach Resort

Pirate’s Cove Inn and Marina in Galesville was also an unexpected delight. We enjoyed 2 delicious meals in their restaurant, one that we would re-visit anytime. And the owner couldn’t have been more helpful to us.

Life goes on

We’ve spent the past 24 hours learning how to catch a bus in Edgewater that takes you to the mall (for those eyeglasses) and then re-visiting our friends from our year’s stay here at Liberty. In the meantime, Cathy is reading Chapman’s all about docking procedures and David is waiting for Karl to arrive to fix the engine. Hopefully, this time the fix will be a long-term one. From here, we hope to continue to Annapolis and Baltimore, before turning around and heading south in the bay again.

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Late June - Hooking Up

6/30/2006

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Orion at Riverwalk Landing in Yorktown

This update finds us anchored within only a couple of miles of where we left off in mid-June (which was Mill Creek). We are anchored near Sandy Point on the Great Wicomico, south of Reedville, VA. (By the way, the original Chesapeake Bay inhabitants were not a creative lot, so there are lots of Mill Creeks and Back Creeks, to mention just a few of the repeated names.) In the intervening 2 weeks we’ve traveled over 150 miles in 4 hops, down to Yorktown and back. It’s been a mix of anchoring and tying up at marinas. The Chesapeake summer heat and humidity have arrived earlier than we had hoped. However, we’ve had a number of cooler nights as well.

Hooking up
We’re getting better at the process of anchoring, doing well enough to anchor in 20+ mph winds and finally confident enough to leave the boat at anchor while dinghying (is that a word?) to a nearby marina store.

Setting anchor is becoming less eventful, but not stress-free. We’ve nearly run aground, had to reset the anchor multiple times per anchorage, and had a few “communication” problems between the bow anchor-setter (David) and the helm (Cathy). However, the anchor has always set and held, which is what is important for a restful night. David is continuing to work on an effective snubber line (which buffers the boat from the jerking movement of the anchor chain). The original set-up, with chain hooks through the anchor chain, frequently came loose and had to be re-set. Upon advice from more experienced cruisers, he tried simply tying the line into the chain, but the diameter of the line made this difficult and began fraying the ends. At an amazingly well-supplied marine store at York River Yacht Haven on Sarah Creek near Yorktown, he finally found a chain bridle, a metal plate with a slot in the middle and 2 holes on either side. The chain links fit into a slot in the middle and then, using shackles in each hole, he can attach 2 snubber lines, run from the port and starboard bow cleats. This will balance the load of the anchor chain in front of the boat.

Another concern about anchor chain is ensuring it doesn’t slip and put strain on the windlass. To avoid this, David has been inserting a bolt through the chain, attaching it to the anchor mount at the bow. However, since we couldn’t find a quick release bolt, this can become dangerous if we need to quickly release or retrieve the anchor chain. A friend we met from England suggested a much better solution, to attach a line with a chain hook to the chain on the bow, making for a much safer, easier to release solution.

Power hungry
Amazingly, our power consumption has been far less at anchorage than original expected. We are only using 60-75 amps per night of anchoring. The most time we’ve spent at anchor between hooking up to electric at a marina is 4 nights, which means we’ve not consumed enough of the batteries to require recharging. So, our generator sits idly in its box on deck, unused so far. (Cathy has even indulged in running fans on board for brief periods, despite David’s objections.)

Baby, you can drive my car . . .
As any cruiser will tell you, our dinghy is effectively our car, while we are at anchor. Without it, you can enjoy the peaceful breezes (if there are any) , read a book, enjoy the scenery, but you are limited to the 36 feet of your boat. We finally pumped it up again and mounted the motor on it to explore Fishing Bay, and then later, Sarah Creek, docking at the marina there. Both David and Cathy have taken turns “driving”.

Blowin’ in the Wind
After receiving our anemometer (wind speed measurement) back from Raymarine, Cathy re-mounted it on the masthead, and, voilá!, we had wind speed at the helm. (Wow! A trip up the mast that actually fixed something.) Unfortunately, the day before, the boat speed indicator had stopped working, so many of the cool calculations of true wind speed and velocity made good (whatever that is) weren’t available.

It’s always something.

We had recently cleaned the speedometer, so the likelihood was that the problem was on the outside of the hull. Going up the mast was one thing. Going under the boat was another. Neither David or Cathy was going to be a reluctant volunteer to hold their breath in murky water under a several ton boat and hope to find the problem with the thru hull. But this time, we got extremely lucky. We pulled into Fishing Bay Harbor Marina for a less than 24-hour pit stop to re-supply. Cathy called Under Boats (www.underboats.com), a diver recommended by the marina, on the slim chance that they might be able to dive under the boat and clean the speed thru hull. To our amazement, they were able to come and dive on the boat that afternoon. Apparently, we were incredibly lucky, since they were diving on a boat on the same dock already, and they are normally only in Deltaville one week a month. Chuck Hyde, the diver, cleaned the thru hull and the rest of the running gear of the barnacles that had unfortunately accumulated in the last month and a half in the water. However, he did confirm that the hull itself was very clean, meaning our paint job was working as we had hoped. Before he left, Chuck ensured we could verify the speed indicator was working, allowing us to play with the wind instrument’s fancier calculations, pondering the difference between true and apparent wind speed, during our sail the next day. The job also cost us much less than we had paid in Annapolis last year. Since our zinc is about 2 months from being exhausted, and since the barnacles accumulated on the prop faster than expected, we will likely be calling Under Boats again before the summer is over.

Sitting at the Dock of the Bay

Despite the merits of anchoring, there is nothing like pulling into a marina and enjoying a brief bit of civilization (aka air conditioning and showers). We’ve enjoyed the comforts of 3 marinas on our way to Yorktown and back, all of which we’d visit again.

Fishing Bay Harbor is off the Piankatank River, just south of Deltaville. Words can’t describe the pleasure of slipping into the cool waters of their pool after the heat of the summer day. They have nice bikes with large baskets available for use by the slipholders. With Deltaville about a mile away, this is a tremendous convenience for picking up groceries, boat supplies (at Boat US across the street from the grocery) and doing some banking at the local BBT branch. With the laundry next to the pool, it’s easy to feel “productive” while cooling off. There’s also a nice covered patio to use their wireless internet connection to stay in touch. This is the life!

In Sarah Creek, off the York River across from Yorktown, there is the York River Yacht Haven, which as mentioned above, has the most amazing marine store. It had a number of parts that David had looked for in several West Marine stores and Fawcett’s in Annapolis, without finding them. The staff was very helpful in meeting both our needs and those of some fellow boaters who were anchoring nearby, from England. The marina’s courtesy car saved both us and our British friends from getting drenched on a grocery run, during an hours long thunderstorm that knocked power out and flooded nearby communities. Although we didn’t sample the fare, the smells coming from the on-site restaurant made us wish we had. Cathy was able to relax with a good book on the pool patio again while doing laundry. (The Sarah Creek area is a little shallow, however. Cathy was a little panicked when docking at low tide to see the depth at the slip register 4 feet. (We have a 5’ 5” draft.) Since we didn’t run aground, we now know that the depth sounder is at least 1 ½ foot below the water line. It’s still a little too close for comfort.)

Schooner Alliance at Riverwalk Landing

Right on the York River in Yorktown, the town’s Riverwalk Landing has a county-run transient pier. Situated right in the historic area of Yorktown, the National Park sites are all within walking distance. We probably definitely chose the wrong 2 nights to stay at the marina, based on the weather we experienced. Furious winds and endless rains churned up the York River’s normal 2 knot current to some pretty intense wave action, even inside the marina’s floating docks. However, the staff couldn’t have been more helpful. The dockmaster, Dennis, gave us helpful docking instruction and ensured we were given a slip that was easy to enter and leave. His deck hand, Sam, even drove us to the nearby grocery store in his car. Nothing like personalized service.

You’ve Got a Friend
We’ve had time to visit with family and meet new friends in the last 2 weeks.

As promised, our daughter Bonnie and her fiancé Troy, joined us for a day of fishing. Given our limited skills, we just anchored in Sarah Creek, but all of us (except David, who was focusing on baiting hooks, not fishing) caught at least one fish – croakers, whose name is well earned by the noise they make. Of course, Troy caught half a dozen to the one for Bonnie and Cathy. It will still take some time for the rest of us to catch us with Troy’s skill.

While at Fishing Bay Harbor, a couple from Vermont, who had been cruising for 7 years gave David anchoring advice (including loan of a book on anchoring), giving him enough confidence to anchor out the next night in those 20mph winds. They were also our first on board guests to arrive by dinghy. We watch in amazement as they rode from shore to boat all day in high winds and waves, carrying things to and from shore. One trip included 2 full size bicycles. They tied up to our boat and joined us from some wine / beer and cheese and conversation.

We struck an unexpected friendship with a father and son from Lowestoft, England. Our first evening in Sarah Creek had been a particularly difficult anchoring experience for us, due to the shallow water in the creek and our inexperience doing it. When a boat pulled up uncomfortably close beside us, David called over to ensure they were aware of our anchor position. They called back that they would come over to see us and ensure we were OK. That was how we got to meet Richard and his son, Tom, aboard Green Dragon. Over the next week, we spent part of each day with them, trying to help each other out as we could. Richard had sailed a Beneteau from the West Indies to England many years back and was planning another cross-Atlantic trip next year in the 80’s vintage Hunter he had just purchased. Richard took possession of Green Dragon in Chicago in late April. He had then sailed it through the Great Lakes and, with mast down, powered through the Erie (Barge) Canal. Tom joined him to take the boat down the Hudson to New York City, Ocean City and then into the bay at Norfolk. We heard them describe a powerful storm that they sailed through off Ocean City (max winds 46 knots). With an amazing set-up, including remote auto-pilot, radar and GPS, Richard sailed the boat from below through the worst of the storm. (As a result of this description, we’ve added a few more things to our “need to buy” list as a result. We’ve managed to avoid sailing or even anchoring in some very violent Chesapeake thunderstorms in the past few weeks.) In another hilarious turn, Richard talked about waking up at 6am the morning after the storm to warnings from the Navy that they were about to start “live fire” exercises just ahead of him on his route. He said sailing was the easiest part of his journey. Dodging storms and bullets were the hard part. While Richard was planning to return to England soon after we met them, Tom would be joined by his girlfriend and would sail the boat throughout the bay for next month. We exchanged information about the bay, how to arrange travel for Richard and Tom’s girlfriend, shared rides to the grocery, dinners on the boat and evening refreshments. In exchange, Richard provided invaluable advice on anchoring and sailing, and twice assisted Cathy at the helm in getting into a tricky slip at the nearby marina. We said goodbye late one evening before Richard was scheduled to return home, thinking the odds were that we might never see them again. To our surprise, we looked up to see Green Dragon with Tom and Mo (his girlfriend) on board, at our new anchorage in Fishing Bay, 40 miles north of Yorktown. It’s a small bay.

Green Dragon Crew

We are now on our way to Solomon’s to meet our former neighbors, Chris and Margaret for a night out anchoring in the Patuxent. Then, it’s further north in the bay. Who knows, maybe we’ll see Green Dragon again . . .

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Early June - Anchors Aweigh

6/15/2006

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Sunset at Crisfield

Well, we finally did it. We cut the lines, so to speak, and left our last “home” slip for parts unknown. (Although still limited to the Chesapeake Bay, so they’re not that unknown.) The frantic pace slowed only a little as we neared the last day, and the marina manager graciously gave us a couple of extra days to finish as much of the “list” as we could before we left.

Anchors Aweigh!

Since our general plan has been that we would spend a majority of nights at anchor, we still needed to confirm that all the pieces of the anchoring puzzle were in place and would fit together as expected. This involves not only the anchoring process itself, but also a reliable source of electricity and water.

Although David had purchased the new Delta 35 anchor and 130 feet of chain rode back in March, we hadn’t attached the chain rode to the anchor, because we needed to first mark the rode in standard lengths to allow us to know how much had been deployed. After researching a number of alternatives, we finally went with the recommendation to paint the chain lengths with Rustoleum, using a technique of painting 1 chain link per ten feet deployed (e.g. at 10’, 1 link, at 20’, 2 links, etc.). Since the paint required 24 hours to dry, we once again took advantage of Don’s hospitality and spread the chain out in his back yard to paint and let dry. (We didn’t think the marina would want this all over their transient dock for a couple of days.) All chain rodes also require something called a “snubber”, which keeps the boat from jerking on the inelastic chain. A snubber is nothing more than a piece of nylon rope with a thimble and chain hook in one end, which is hooked through a link of the chain and then cleated. David made 2 of these to ensure we had a spare.

With the anchor taken care of, the next piece was ensuring we could recharge our batteries when anchored several days. We needed to test the generator and the newly installed 55amp Iota Battery charger. This would have been simple enough, except we couldn’t find a waterproof box to house the generator on deck. (Since, once we put gas in it, we no longer could keep it down below.) After looking high and low, we stumbled across a deck box at an Annapolis consignment store, Bacon and Associates. Amazingly, it was exactly the right size for the generator and 2 small cans of gas. With the box safely lashed to the deck, we fired up the generator, connected it to the battery charger, and both worked exactly as expected. A first! The new battery monitor also nicely confirmed the charger was delivering the output expected.

The last thing we had to confirm was that we could drink water from our freshly scrubbed tanks. Since it didn’t make sense to continue buying bottled water, but since we were both waiting for the other to be the first to drink, we were gradually getting dehydrated in this game of chicken. Finally, push came to shove. Since Cathy is always pushing the limits on foods (e.g. eating things past expiration dates, etc.), she drank the first glass. David watched carefully for 24 hours. When she didn’t seem to be too ill, he finally drank a glass too. We haven’t turned green or anything, and we’ve been drinking it for several weeks now.   Phew! (We do continue to filter all water going into the tank, we add chlorine to the tank and, our last defense, we have a PUR water filter on the galley sink.)

Up the mast . . . again

As you may recall, the last trip up the mast was particularly unsuccessful in resolving our anemometer (wind speed) problem. After exchanging some e-mails with Raymarine, it became apparent that we had to return the masthead unit to them for servicing. So, Cathy took another trip up the mast. (She’s getting much better at it. David says he’ll go next time.) Raymarine repaired the part, but couldn’t get it back to us before we had to leave Solomons. It has since arrived at our daughter’s house, so David should be able to mount it again once we connect with Bonnie and Troy for a fishing trip the last weekend in June.

Rope tricks

We had purchased 200 feet of braided line for one of our many anchors, the Danforth S1600. However, it needed a thimble inserted in the end to attach to the anchor shackle. David had been putting his Boy Scout skills to work splicing a number of three-stand nylon ropes, but he had never spliced braided line. Margaret, our neighbor in Solomons, graciously taught us both how to do this and lent her tools (called fids) that are necessary for this type of splice. We successfully put an eye splice in not only the anchor line, but also a new spare halyard we plan to run to the top of the mast. (Something else David will be carrying up there on his first trip. Right?) Also, David shared his 3-strand splicing techniques with Margaret, which she had never done before.

Shopping trips

It seems there is no end to the number of “little” things that are needed before you set sail. We made more trips to local Boaters World, West Marine, Lowes, and Wal-mart to keep buying (and returning) items for the various projects we’ve been trying to finish. We also made a very productive trip to Bacon and Associates, a consignment store in Annapolis. We managed to pick up 2 folding bikes, the deck box, and a number of smaller items for less than $200. David also received an early Father’s Day present, when Bonnie and her fiancé, Troy, took him shopping for a fishing rod and reel and related supplies. (That’s why we’re meeting them to go fishing, so Troy can teach us how to use it.)    On the recommendation of other sailors, we decided to buy another anchor. This was a small 14 lb. Danforth S12, which is now our stern anchor. This will be used as a “brake” for emergencies or to kedge off (i.e., pull ourselves off when we run aground).

Sail Trim 101

We had a few more opportunities to go out sailing with Don, who showed us a number of things we hadn’t been doing which would get more speed out of the sails, especially in lighter winds, which are common on the Chesapeake in summer. This came in handy on our 2 long days of sailing across the bay to the Eastern shore and back in light winds after we left Solomons.

Goodbyes

It’s hard to believe that just a month spent at the marina could generate attachments that made the departure harder to do. Our neighbors, Chris and Margaret, had become friends that we had shared experiences and laughs with. As we mentioned above, Margaret and David exchanged splicing techniques and we helped with dog sitting on one day in exchange for a ride to return our rental car the next day. Also, we watched them return from a harrowing weekend trip to Dunn's Cove on the Choptank, which became instead a very long day trip, when their anchor started dragging as they were on the shore, not on the boat. After they rushed back and caught the boat (which had drifted enough that another boat had to move to avoid it), they were unable to haul their anchor back on board, so they had to cut the rode and leave it at the bottom of Dun Cove. Unfortunately, without another anchor, they had to have a slip for the night, which meant another 10 miles up the Choptank or back to the safety of their own slip in Hospitality Harbor. Home seemed the better choice. As they came back in the Patuxent after dark (first time night sailing for both), they realized that the Solomon’s channel markers are not lit. With a flashlight and their GPS hooked to charts on the PC, they navigated back in, exhausted, after 10pm. We helped them with their dock lines and listened to the story of their day. As the winds howled the next day, they decided it was fate that they came back early, but they spent quite a while talking to David about anchors (one of his favorite subjects) and researching alternatives. We suggested this would be a great Voice of Experience episode for Sail Magazine. (We hope we didn’t spoil it for them by including it here.) It was this experience that caused David to make sure we had bolt cutters (in case we had to sever our anchor chain) and a trip line (float attached to a line on the anchor) so we could be sure of the position of our anchor once it was set.

Where to?

All of our focus had been concentrated on boat mechanics at the expense of any trip planning. When we finally turned our attention to this, we had to make a basic decision. North or South? We finally decided to go south so we could meet up with Bonnie and Troy. Our first stop was across the bay to Crisfield, MD on the Eastern Shore. Crisfield is about as far south as you can go and stay in MD. The marina there, Somers Cove, was recommended by the guide book we were reading, and they had a buy 2 nights, get one free offer that we took them up on. This proved a good choice, since it poured the first day and the winds were gusting above 25 knots the 2nd day.   We took the opportunity to tour Crisfield one day (we had a personalized trolley tour) and visit Smith Island the next (by mail boat).   It was a great first stop. The towns folk were very friendly and the marina was very nice. Smith Island was beautiful. After seeing the village, we sampled some 9-layer Smith Island cake and a delicious crabcake at Ruke’s, from their porch overlooking the harbor. Friday took us back to the Western shore and anchoring in Mill Creek. (We finally put all that preparation to good use.)

We’ll continue to work our way south for another week, and then probably head back north for a while.   We’re still learning a lot about charting our course, sailing, anchoring and, of course, just living in close quarters. Each day brings something new.

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Chesapeake Bay Travels Begin

6/10/2006

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Traveling the Chesapeake Bay without a home port allows us to improve our seamanship and get used to life aboard the boat before heading south. The Bay's soft bottoms are forgiving when you go aground and we still have connections in the area which make it a little easier to make the transition to cruising.

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