SV Orion - Annapolis, MD

Late December - Year's End

12/31/2007

We are back on Orion after 2 weeks on the road visiting family for the holidays. We had a wonderful time, but are now making plans for our travels in the new year.

Florida's West Coast

It was about a 200 mile drive west across Florida from West Palm Beach to Bradenton. Even though it was still early morning as we loaded the car for the trip, we worked up a sweat by our efforts in the humidity and the warm weather. So, it was with a shock that we opened the door in Bradenton 3 hours later, where we were meeting our nephew Jeff and his girlfriend Becky. The temperature was easily 25 degrees cooler and the wind was blowing to make the point. We quickly changed out of our shorts into jeans and packed the shorts away, not to be seen again for 2 more weeks.

Becky was less than 24 hours out of the snow and cold of Rochester, NY, so this was mild weather for her. We immediately packed up to go to Casperson Beach, a strand south of Venice, where shark’s teeth are supposed to be plentiful. After getting a good sandblasting from a walk on the beach, we enjoyed a meal at a local BBQ place and an evening of playing the Pirates of the Caribbean DVD game. The next day we ate lunch at the Troyer’s Dutch Heritage restaurant, which had a plentiful buffet of Amish cooking. To complete the experience, we asked to eat in the Amish buggy, complete with the familiar red triangles. After lunch, we spent several hours shopping in St. Armand’s Circle, before heading to Smuggler’s Cove to feed the alligators and play miniature golf. Unfortunately, since alligators are cold-blooded, they were not only not eating in the 45 degree temperatures, they were not moving at all, frozen in the same position until the spring (apparently). Miniature golf was still fun, despite the unresponsive reptiles.

We said our goodbyes to Jeff and Becky that night, since we would need to leave early the next day (Dec. 18th), before 2 college students were likely to get up. We needed to make it to our daughter’s house in southern VA where we would spend Tuesday night. (We also needed to make time to stop for fresh oranges in Florida and the Russell Stover Chocolate outlet in SC.)

Christmas in Southern VA

For the first time in several years, we would not be traveling north to Rochester for the holidays. Our daughter had agreed to host the family at her home in Jarratt, VA and the family from Rochester, including Dave’s sister from Bethlehem, PA was making the pilgrimage south. This made for much less travel for us, so we did what we could to help out with the logistics. We cleaned, cooked, shopped, babysat and tried to make ourselves generally useful as we prepared for the first of 2 celebrations on Saturday, Dec. 21st. Our daughter was just getting over a bad ear infection and bronchitis. And a variety of ailments, including a trip to the emergency room for our youngest grandson, was working its way through our son’s household. We tried to work around everyone’s schedule to make the celebrations successful, which everyone seemed to enjoy. The highlight of Saturday’s event was a “treasure hunt” for Adam’s family (Droz in particular enjoyed this), which came complete with a rolled up Treasure Map, clues hidden in various locations and of course the “treasure” at the end. It was a lot of fun for everyone, not just the hunters.

After a more low-key celebration on Christmas Day, we packed up early the next morning for the trip south to Cathy’s family in NC. It was a caravan of 3 cars, but it didn’t take long for the lead cars to leave us in the dust. We didn’t see them again until we arrived at Cathy’s mom’s house in Winston-Salem.

Clint and Droz with train

Christmas in NC

Between Cathy’s Mom and sister’s houses in NC, which are side by side, we spent a lot of time together. This mostly involved eating or preparing or cleaning up from meals. Sixteen mouths require a lot of maintenance. On the 2nd night, we took the kids to see the Tanglewood holiday lights, which were a big hit, especially with Droz. We ended our stay with a “concert” Carolyn had arranged. Each of us was given a whistle and a number. Led with great skill by Cathy’s sister Chris, we fumbled our way through a number of Christmas carols as each played our whistle as directed. It was hilarious, if not exactly tuneful.

After saying goodbye to the kids on Friday and Cathy’s sisters, nieces and brother-in-law on Saturday, we loaded up early Sunday morning to make the long trip south to the boat on Sunday morning (Dec. 30th). This would ensure we were in Riviera Beach well in advance of Pat and Fred’s return flight late on New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve in Florida

We managed to take 2 days to get to Riviera Beach, stopping overnight in Titusville to break up the trip. We managed to buy some more Florida citrus and stopped at Vero Beach to see Bonnie Lass where they were waiting for their window to cross to the Bahamas.

Pat and Fred escaped New Hampshire and the daily snow squalls to the welcome warmer weather of southern Florida. We met them late on New Year’s Eve and brought in the new year on Orion as we caught up with each other’s holiday news.

So, where now?

We still haven’t locked into a destination, but are leaning heavily toward traveling south to the Florida Keys. We also need to re-provision the boat while we have access to a car.

But first, we’re going to Disney World.

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Early December - Failure to Launch

12/15/2007

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We’ve traveled a thousand miles south from Norfolk to Riviera Beach and are leaving Orion there for a couple of weeks, while we travel north to see family for the holidays. It’s been a good trip south and the last 2 weeks were no exception. We did miss out on our planned shuttle launch, but we managed to enjoy ourselves just the same.

Seeing the sights

After enjoying the Christmas parade in Daytona Beach Friday night (Nov. 30th) after we arrived, we spent Saturday morning seeing the town. There was a terrific farmer’s market in the library parking lot, where we stocked up on fresh vegetables and fruit. We strolled through a small crafts fair that lined the main street, and then we made it to the place we had been waiting all year to revisit.

The Chocolate Factory.

Angell’s and Phelps is a working chocolate factory in downtown Daytona. We had discovered it last year on our way through Daytona Beach. It caused us to put Daytona on our must-stop list for this year. The chocolate covered cherries are wonderful.

Armed with chocolate, fresh fruit and vegetables, we were ready to move on south to position ourselves in the best spot for the launch. We would be a little early, but we were well stocked for the wait.

Low water

One of the tedious things about traveling the waterway is the shallow depths that can quickly become too shallow, causing you stop suddenly with the low water alarm sounding in your ears. However, this year, we’ve actually managed to find the bottom more times than we had in years past.

We left Daytona Beach early Sunday morning (Dec. 2nd) for the long trip to Titusville. Unfortunately, this would take us through the Ponce Inlet at low tide. Inlets are notorious for shoaling and therefore the risk of going aground is high. We were not alone either. Seven other sailboats were traveling with us as we made our way south. As we approached the inlet, we listened to two boats ahead of us in the inlet that had gone aground. Reports of 4.5 feet of water were coming back to us from shallower draft boats that had already passed the inlet. We dropped to the back of the pack of sailboats and started working our way through. Just as we came to the shallow spot at the entrance, another sailboat came up from behind and started passing Marianna. Just what you need. Everything seemed to be going OK until we heard Marianna radio that they were stuck. We were not in a position where we could turn around, so we slowed down further and watched to see if they could free themselves.

Shortly, we saw them rounding the bend, as we continued to report on the water depths we were finding. Since Ponce Inlet has a northern and southern entrance to the ICW, we wouldn’t be able to relax until we passed the southern entrance without incident, which we did. We thought we were would be OK from here on out, since we had no warnings about low water in last year’s log for the rest of the route. However, our last transit was apparently at high tide, because a few miles further down the waterway, our depth sounder once again went off and Dave realized that this time we had gone aground. (There is actually another route that bypasses the waterway at this spot that others prefer since it provides deeper water.) We quickly got off, but it was a long day, watching the depth gauge. So, it was with some relief that we arrived in Titusville’s large anchorage and set the anchor for the night (after the 2nd try).

Launch woes

We stayed in Titusville for only one night, since we wanted to get closer to the launch site for the actual launch. We moved about 4 miles further south to a spot just north of the Addison Point bridge. This was just opposite NASA’s huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and within sight of both launch pads.

After anchoring for almost a week within sight of the space shuttle Atlantis’ launch pad, we were disappointed to learn within hours of the scheduled launch time that it was being postponed due to a fuel sensor problem. There was still some hope that it would launch a day late, but we needed to start moving south again. So, we decided to make a short trip to Cocoa Beach and anchor there, where we could see the launch if it took place. By the next morning, we learned that there had been yet another day delay. Since the launch was becoming increasingly uncertain, we decided to move on to Vero Beach, where we had reservations on the 7th. We would still be able to see the launch, just not as close.

This horseshoe crab took up residence on our anchor chain while we sat for so long at Addison Point. He was sorry to see us leave.

By the next morning, we learned the launch had been delayed indefinitely. So, no launch for us this year. Maybe next year. . .

(As an aside, the local reporting on the launch reported that it would have to take place by Dec. 13th or be delayed until January. Why? Because the 17 day mission could not span year-end. Y2K revisited. The engineers were not confident that the computer systems would handle the year change. Can you believe it? )

Boat Stuff

Our long stay at Addison Point gave us some time to take care of a few housekeeping chores. Cathy took the time to do a more thorough cleaning of Orion’s interior, trying to stay ahead of the mildew that can form in the increasing humidity. Dave finally installed a cover plate on the hole for the anchor chain locker, which Skip had manufactured back in Newburyport. That makes it virtually watertight now. Dave also discovered that putting Vaseline on the o-ring in the raw water strainer would solve a problem with the air getting into the strainer.

Moored boats in Vero Beach

Vero Beach Reunion

We were looking forward to arriving at Vero Beach, not just because it is a convenient place to re-provision, but also because we expected to reunite with some of our traveling companions from last year. Bonnie Lass had been in Vero for a few weeks already and Slow Dancin’ was expected to arrive not long after us.

However, we first had to raft up with our mooring ball neighbors, who, unlike last year, were not there to help. With a daymark positioned right at the point where we wanted to turn to make our approach, we were having some difficulty, when our neighbors appeared to help with the lines. Whew!

Dave on dinghy ride

So, we didn’t waste too much time before going to visit Graham and Val on Bonnie Lass. We dinghyed over to their mooring ball, which was close to the entrance and were thrilled to get to see each other again. Before we could finish our hello’s however, we realized an incoming boat had run aground on the shoal at the entrance to the harbor. Cathy scrambled out of the dinghy and Graham hopped as he and Dave sped off to offer their assistance. Although our tiny dinghy and paltry 4hp motor was the least powerful of the several to offer assistance, Dave is convinced it made the biggest difference as he used it to push the bow around and into deeper water to free her. (The others were tugging at the bow and trying to use a halyard to heel the boat over.) The appropriately named Overdraft was underway again. Graham was amazed that the dinghies actually were able to free the boat.

We invited Graham and Val over for dinner the next night on Orion along with Pat and Fred. Since they had both had ties to New Hampshire, they had a lot to talk about and it was a great evening.

Slow Dancin’ arrived with their traveling partner, Fortunate, on our last day in Vero. We stopped by to say hello and were promptly invited for dinner. We had a great time catching up with Ken and Joy and meeting Barb and Dave. They are headed for the Florida Keys this year, which might be one of our destinations after the holidays. We promised to stay in touch and maybe join them later.

The evening ended early as we made our way back to Orion to stow the dinghy and prepare for a pre-dawn departure for Lake Worth, our final destination before the holidays.

On to Riviera Beach – outside or in?

We had been looking for an opportunity to travel outside to avoid the shallow water in the ICW, so we charted a route from Vero Beach that would take us out the Fort Pierce inlet and back in at Lake Worth. As we turned to head out the inlet, we called to a sailboat that had just come in, asking for the conditions. Their report was sobering. They had been underway from Cape Canaveral to Lake Worth but had been forced in by the wind and waves, which unlike the forecast, were coming from the south, not the east. We turned around and headed down the ICW, revising our destination to an anchorage at Hobe Sound, about 15 nautical miles and 6 opening bridges north of Lake Worth. There was plenty of room and the anchorage was quiet for our overnight stay.

The last 15 miles were some of the worst we had traveled. It appears the bridge operators at the first 3 bridges we passed had had a bad morning and decided to take it out on us.   We weren’t close enough, they had to wait for the traffic to clear, they had to wait for the pedestrians to clear, etc.   Annoying as it was at the first bridge, at least we had the current against us, making it easier to stay in one place for so long. Not so at the 2nd bridge. The current was strongly pushing us toward the bridge, but still it wouldn’t open. The sides finally began to rise, but too slowly and we were too close. We tried backing against the current, but the stern was getting caught and swung sideways toward the bridge. We waited as long as we could and finally moved toward the opening while the bridge was still rising. After we cleared, we heard the bridge operator tell boats for later openings to “watch out for the current”. Thanks a lot.

We arrived mid-morning at the Riviera Beach marina. The wind was 15 to 20kts out of the east and the current was running. Getting into our slip would be tricky. We docked the boats at the fuel dock and the floating dock at the outside of the marina. Then we positioned Pat on the dock at the slip and Dave, Cathy and Fred boarded the boats to take them back to the slip. Marianna was the first to go in. The current was not allowing Fred to get steerage in reverse in order to back into the slip. After a 2nd attempt, Dave managed to snag a piling with a line, and with help from the dock we pulled Marianna in. Cathy had similar troubles on Orion but managed to get steerage by pulling into another fairway and backing all the way down to the slip. It was still a bit ugly, but we made it in. It was only noon and it had already been a long day.

Getting ready for holidays

We had 4 days before we would head north for the holidays. We spent the time preparing Orion for the long stay in the slip, doing some Christmas shopping, and getting to know our neighbors on the dock. We met Terry and Margaret on Bonnie, who were from England, having bought their boat here in the US and were planning to sail it back in the Spring. We had helped them into the slip and they had returned the favor. Once we had access to a car, Dave managed to find a Grundig SSB receiver for them, allowing them to get Chris Parker’s weather forecasts as they traveled, when internet wasn’t available.

We also had a visit from our financial planner, Sandeep Sharma, who was planning to be in West Palm Beach to visit with his clients there. He visited us on our boat, which was a real treat.

As Sandeep was leaving the boat at low tide, we realized we had to do something to make it easier to get on and off the boat. The finger piers were easily 5 feet higher than the boat at low tide, making it almost impossible to get on and off. We finally got the marina to put in a ladder which made it incredibly easier to access the boat.

As we made our final preparations to leave, Cathy emptied the refrigerator, so we could turn off everything before leaving. (If the AC power feed fails at any time, the boat doesn’t get reconnected without someone pressing a switch on the main panel. Running the fridge for 2 weeks could completely drain the batteries, which would be bad.) Dave also adjusted the lines to center Orion in the slip. He locked down anything that might look attractive to thieves, which included locking the propane locker. However, the locks had frozen, so he had to lubricate them with WD 40 before the lock would turn.

We spent our last morning enjoying the brunch buffet at the Tiki Restaurant on the waterfront at Riviera Beach. It was as good as we remembered. So, we left Orion at the slip for a couple of weeks as we head north to see family for the holidays.

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Late November - Thanksgiving in St. Marys

11/30/2007

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Sunset at St. Marys

We finally decided to make an outside run to Fernandina Beach, FL from Charleston, which meant we could join the dozens of other boats gathering in St. Mary’s, GA for another Thanksgiving feast. We spent a week there before continuing to move further south at a leisurely pace. We made it as far as Daytona Beach by the end of the month.

Marianna entering St. Mary's Inlet

Goin' Round Georgia

After aborting our initial attempt at an outside run to Florida from Georgetown, SC, we reviewed the weather again for a run the next day. Although the wind would be on the nose, it was predicted to reduce in strength, which should also reduce the wave height and make for a reasonable trip to the St. Mary’s inlet on the Georgia / Florida line. (Thereby accomplishing our goal of bypassing the dreaded shallow water in Georgia.)

We seriously considered a last-minute change of plans to spend Thanksgiving in Charleston, when an opening suddenly appeared at the Charleston Maritime Center. This would have given us a chance to spend time with Dave and Donna on Merlin. Unfortunately, one of the slips would have been a little too shallow at low tide, causing us to reluctantly turn the offer down and commit ourselves to St. Mary’s instead.

Fred’s problems with his refrigeration (which had been the cause of our change in plans to go to Isle of Palms) were determined to be a broken bolt, which he was grateful had been discovered before serious damage had been done to the engine from a compressor breaking loose. Luckily he had the right replacement bolt on board, so the problem was easily fixed before heading out the next morning.  Another surprise for Marianna on the trip to Isle of Palms was a problem with their recently upgraded chartplotter chip. (Apparently, Navionics knew that it had a problem in the Raymarine C80, but had neglected to let their customers know this.) It turned out that the chips available in West Marine stores would not work either, so the only alternative was to live without the charts until we would be in a place long enough to get a replacement shipped.   It’s always something.

We headed out early on the morning of Saturday, Nov, 16th from the Isle of Palms Marina in order to clear the Ben Sawyer bridge and make our way out the Charleston inlet by mid-morning and into St. Mary’s mid-morning on Sunday. Typical of Charleston’s busy harbor, we had a couple of large tankers passing us as we headed out the inlet, both passing each other as we slipped outside the channel to give them the room they needed.

The trip was uneventful, maybe a little stronger winds than predicted earlier in the trip, but they did indeed calm down as predicted. We were escorted briefly by some dolphins leaping high out of the water just off the cockpit, which made for a fascinating diversion in an otherwise uneventful trip.

Thanksgiving at St. Mary's

After spending a night on a mooring ball in Fernandina Beach, we arranged for a slip at Lang’s Marina in St. Mary’s for the week of Thanksgiving. We made the short trip up the St. Mary’s River on Monday morning, Nov. 18th. We took 2 of the last 3 slips at the marina in a harbor already filling with anchored boats. Over the next 2 days, the number of boats grew to almost a hundred (according to the official reservations for the dinner) in a harbor that usually has only a half dozen boats on an otherwise uneventful week. As the mild winds early in the week gave way to a blustery Thanksgiving Day, the anchor dragging began, which made us glad to be on a dock. The reason so many boats were eager to spend Thanksgiving in St. Mary’s was due to the large Thanksgiving feast sponsored by the local merchants. They prepare and serve turkeys and hams (this year it took 17 turkeys), while the cruisers provide all the other side dishes and desserts. Each morning, a net coordinator brought everyone together on VHF 69, providing the schedule for the day’s activities and announcements regarding available rides to nearby stores, such as the grocery, Wal-mart and West Marine. We took advantage of the generosity of Ken on Sparrow to take Pat and Cathy to the grocery store the day we arrived. The next day, Fred and Dave took a “road trip” with Ken to West Marine in Brunswick (which included a stop at a bakery and a BBQ place. It’s a guy thing.) Each evening, we gathered with other cruisers in Seagles, the hotel bar to share hor d’ouvres, some drinks and conversation and even a sing-a-long with the talent of several cruiser musicians. There were free coffee and doughnuts at Read’em Again Books on Wednesday and Thanksgiving Day and other specials from area merchants. It was an amazing week.

The Thanksgiving feast had grown to 250 participants from the 100 boats in the harbor and some extra “drive ins”. There were long tables full of food and the line of people ran out the door and into the street. The morning’s rain disappeared on cue, causing the weather outside to match the festive mood inside. It also gave us more room at tables outside, ensuring everyone had a comfortable place to enjoy their meal.

Dave with Pat, Fred and their daughter, Beth

Another reason for celebration on Thanksgiving was the visits from family. Pat and Fred’s oldest daughter, Beth, traveled to St. Mary’s from New Orleans and spent several days with them. (She also provided transportation, which was greatly appreciated.) Also, to our delight, Dave’s sister, Wendy, her husband, Dave, and daughter Janelle came by for a first-time visit to the boat on their way back to Rochester, NY from Florida. It was a late night arrival, since they left the west coast of Florida the Friday after Thanksgiving. But we were thrilled to see them all the same.

The morning we left St. Mary’s, we awoke to fog, obscuring even the closest boats at anchor

Fernandina Beach, FL

As the week in St. Mary’s drew to a close, we realized we needed a plan for our travel further south. We decided to build our plans around two dates – one was the upcoming shuttle launch on December 6th; the other was the date we planned to get to Riviera Beach for a month-long stay to allow us to travel back north for the holidays. This meant we had very few miles to travel over the next 3 weeks. So, we laid out a leisurely trip south through Florida.

Fernandina Harbor at Low Tide; We were lucky to be far away from this shallow water that has this boat sitting in the mud

Our first stop was back in Fernandina Beach, where we picked up a mooring ball for 3 nights. The mooring balls had been added since our travel through here last fall. Given our problems finding a place to anchor with the uneven bottom, and the number of boats in the anchorage, we welcomed the change. The odd thing about the mooring balls was that the pennant had a thimble in the end instead of just a splice to go over the cleat. Dave attached some shackles to the thimble so we would have a sturdy bridle to hold us for the three days. Since it had only been a few days since we had been aground at dockside, we weren’t surprised to learn that Marianna had been placed a mooring ball too shallow for them. As the 8 foot tide reached its ebb, they stopped swinging with the rest of the field, letting them know that they were aground. The next day, they moved to the ball next to us (which had been assigned to them, but was occupied when we arrived on Monday), giving them plenty of water. Pat and Fred are beginning to feel paranoid. We used the time in Fernandina to see a little more of the town, which included a trip to the Happy Tomato for some great BBQ, Fantastic Fudge for ice cream and fudge, and a trolley tour of the island. Pat and Fred were also able to get the new Navionics chip sent to them here, so their chartplotter was working again.

Since this was going to be the first of several days on a mooring or at anchor, we finally launched the dinghy – “launch” being the operative word. Shortly after getting it in the water, Dave gasped as he realized it was no longer attached to the painter. As the swift current started to carry it away, Cathy gave a panicky call to Marianna. Luckily, Dave and Fred had spent several days in St. Mary’s fixing a number of holes in Marianna’s dinghy, which now appeared to be holding air with some reliability. Also, Fred had already put his motor on the dinghy, so he quickly headed out to retrieve ours before it went out to sea. He lassoed it quickly and dragged it back to Orion. Maybe we should get that painter clip replaced soon. . . .

Cap’s Restaurant

We left Fernandina on Thursday morning (Nov. 29th) in thick fog. We had heard that the fog was lifting shortly outside Fernandina, but that was short-lived. It closed in again and visibility shrunk to less than a quarter of a mile. We slowed to a crawl and picked out each mark and with the help of the chartplotter stayed in the channel. It wasn’t till after 10am that it finally lifted for good. We then proceeded at regular speed toward St. Augustine.

We actually planned to stop just short of St. Augustine at a restaurant with a free dock called Cap’s. We arrived shortly before they opened for dinner, so the dock was empty. Coming upstream in a wicked fast current, Marianna docked first, only to find the current was not only pushing them back, but pulling them away from the dock. After spending some time securing the boat, Fred called back and suggested we raft with them, instead of trying to pull up to the dock. We managed to do this successfully, but soon realized that the hazard here was not the current or the flimsy cleats on the dock or the 6 foot tidal range. It was the wakes from passing power boats, which sent us rocking violently against Marianna. Using every fender we owned between us, we managed to keep the boats apart, although we did find some “Marianna blue” stripes on our fenders. Pat and Fred spent time the next day cleaning the streaks the fenders had created on their hull.

Didn’t we say already, it’s always something.

Once we had secured the boats to each other and Marianna to the pilings, we settled in for some excellent shrimp cocktail on Marianna, thanks to a friend in St. Mary’s who had given them what must have been 5 pounds of jumbo fresh shrimp. It was the last of what we had been feasting on for days. Then we enjoyed an excellent meal in this restaurant, which was in a beautiful setting under live oaks, with a wonderful view of the waterway.

On to St. Augustine, or rather, Daytona Beach

Our next planned stop on our leisurely trip south was going to be a short 4 miles to St. Augustine. Arriving early, we thought we would be able to easily find a good place to anchor on the south side of the bridge. We made it through the bridge at 8:30am only to find the anchorage disturbingly full. Cathy then made a turn into the anchorage just short of mark 10A, in what the charts indicated would be deep enough water. Not so. We quickly ran aground, but managed to spin around and back out to the channel without any damage to Orion, only to our confidence. After poking around a little more with Pat and Fred, we decided to move on further south.

It didn’t take much review of the anchoring alternatives south of St. Augustine to realize we might as well head all the way to Daytona Beach. We had planned to travel there on Sunday anyway. This would get us there a couple of days early and in time to get to the Angell and Phelps chocolate factory on Saturday. We also discovered there would be a farmer’s market on Saturday. What more could we ask for?

So, our ridiculously short day became a pretty long day. We had to make it to Daytona before the last opening bridge went on restrictions. This seemed to be no concern, since we were making good time down the waterway. Then, we saw Marianna’s dinghy go sailing forward of her stern when we realized she was aground. After quickly reversing off, we moved on, thinking we had missed a bullet. However, it was only a few miles further, when Orion was in the same shape, aground and frantically backing off the shoal. This was getting old. We got off easily, but it makes for a tense ride when the depths are that low in the channel. We made it in well before the bridge restrictions at any rate and into the marina well before dark.

Shortly after arriving, we found that the holiday parade would be passing by at 7pm, just outside the marina. After dinner, we strolled over to the street to watch the parade. Since we were at the start of the parade, there weren’t too many people lining the streets, which had the beneficial effect of making more candy fall our way. Not bad.

Toward the Launch

So, we’re on our way further south toward the prime spot to watch the Dec. 6th launch. The weather is gradually warming up as we continue south, but we haven’t put the jeans away completely yet. Maybe next week.

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Early November - Carolina On My Mind

11/15/2007

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After Noel passed us by, we continued our journey south through NC and into SC. We got to see some places we didn’t visit last year -- such as Belhaven and Southport -- as well as making more runs outside to avoid the low water in the ICW. We are trying to decide where we will spend Thanksgiving – it could be Charleston or it could be St. Mary’s, GA. Plans seem to change daily.

Fifteen Seconds of Fame

As Hurricane Noel roared through, the wind and waves kicked up on the sounds and rivers that make up the waterway in northeastern NC. Therefore, we pulled into the Alligator River Marina, which is actually a truckstop on route 64 as it crosses the Alligator River on the way to the Outer Banks. The proprietess, Miss Wanda, is a gracious hostess, and the marina was packed with boats that decided to wait out the storm in a safe harbor.

While we were there, the Raleigh ABC news affiliate sent a reporter to get “local boater” reaction to the storm. With a marina full of northerners headed south, he was hard pressed to get someone “local”. He found a true local guy on his boat headed north to Elizabeth City, but then he had to settle for Cathy, who could claim her NC roots (and she was wearing her Duke sweatshirt for effect.) After the intense interview was over, we scrambled back to our cell phones to raise anyone we could in NC that might be able to capture Cathy’s breakout performance on tape. Every relative in NC was sent on a mission to watch ABC news that evening.

In the meantime, we went on about our business, preparing for a “hurricane party” later that afternoon. What else would a bunch of cruisers with time on their hands do while waiting out a storm? Although there was TV in the lounge, the local stations that were playing didn’t include the one that did the interview. So, we left it playing the weather channel, which is the second favorite thing for cruisers to do – watch the weather – as we socialized with our neighbors on the dock.

To our surprise, in the middle of a conversation, we noticed the interview playing on the The Weather Channel. That meant we’d gone national. Cathy was famous! We got calls from Dave’s sister in PA and e-mails from a co-worker in DC who had seen the stellar event.

Who knows what will be next? Maybe one of those reality shows, then a movie deal. It’s hard to say, but Cathy is not letting it go to her head.

Belhaven

After spending 3 days in the Alligator River Marina, we decided we should move on or we would never make it south. (We had also heard that there was a flood of boats trapped by the storm behind us at Coinjock, and we didn’t want to get caught up in the middle of them. We moved south toward Belhaven, anchoring off the Pungo River for a night and then making an exhausting 2 hour run into Belhaven the next day. We docked at the River Forest Marina and proceeded into town to explore.

Having never visited Belhaven, we were curious about this little town, which is very far off the beaten path when traveling by car. The downtown has some bright spots – O’Neal’s Drug Store, a well-stocked Ace Hardware store, Foxy Flamingo’s excellent hot chocolate -- but it also shows signs of hard times, with many store fronts still vacant from the ravages of hurricane-driven flooding in the past few years. Many houses are also being rebuilt higher off the ground to withstand the next storm that will visit this small town.

We arrived the day before Election Day and decided to stop by for an election day BBQ the next day. What a difference 24 hours makes. There was a lot more activity in the town as people were coming out to vote and more of the businesses were open. We even got to see the quirky Belhaven museum, which is based on a collection given to the town by a woman who liked to collect just about everything. There were lots of historical items and some that were just – well – weird.

Staying at River Forest Marina, we made sure to take the tour that our hosts offered us of the River Forest Manor. The house was built by Mr. Wilkinson at the turn of the last century for his new bride, using a Sears mail order “kit”. However, there was nothing about it that looked “pre-fabricated”. It was a beautiful place, with interesting details in its chandeliers, stained glass, fireplaces and antiques. There was even a bar on the 3rd floor. Perhaps the most interesting story we were told concerned the mysterious death of Mr. Wilkinson in one of the bedrooms after his wife found him with another woman. However, Pat later found a much more mundane description of his cause of death in the manor’s brochure that caused us to wonder where the truth might really lie. We chose to believe the one that made for a better story.

Harry and Dave in Belhaven

On our last morning in Belhaven, we were surprised to see Harry from Linda Sea, who had arrived at River Forest Marina the night before. He was working his way south to Titusville, single-handling his boat until he met up with crew the next week. We stayed in touch for a few days until he got ahead of us on his way south.

Sailing Club of Oriental

We were surprised to receive a response to our October website update that was an invitation to visit a couple who lived in Oriental and had been following our travels via our web log. Tom and Ellie were members of the Waterway Net, which was where we had made the initial contact. Dave and Fred routinely check in to this net with our position and travel plans for the day, The ne t runs from 7:45 to 8:30am on Ham frequency 7.268. (Position reports are given at 8:15am.)

Unfortunately, our timing was going to be bad to see them, since Tom would be busy the day we came through. However, he did invite us to join the mid-week raft-up being held by the Sailing Club of Oriental in the South River, where we were planning to anchor. Sure enough, as we set our anchor, we were hailed by Take Five, the host boat of the raft up. We were given a “water taxi” ride over to Penelope, the cat that was the gathering point. It was a great group of people, although I’m not sure one more person could have been wedged aboard before the evening was done. We were graciously received and enjoyed our time together. You just never know what will happen next.

Cape Lookout Bight

Back Outside

After traveling over 200 miles on the ICW, we were looking forward to getting back outside on the ocean for a couple of daytime hops down the coast. This took away the stress of watching depths and waiting for opening bridges.

For the first hop, we took a tip from Lunasea’s trip south last year and decided to anchor in Cape Lookout Bight to line up for a run south outside from there to Wrightsville Beach. The anchorage had water that was a little deep for anchoring, but plenty of room. There were only 2 other boats in the huge space and we made an easy run the next day to Wrightsville Beach. We wanted to be sure to arrive in daylight, so we left before sunrise to ensure we made it. We got a boost from the 20 knots of wind behind us so we could average almost 7 knots over the trip, ensuring our trip in the inlet before sunset.

Sunset at Barefoot Landing

After a short run inside the next day from Wrightsville Beach to Southport, our next trip outside would take us out the Cape Fear Inlet and almost due west to the Little River Inlet between Sunset Beach, NC and Little River, SC. Since we’d never actually run this inlet ourselves, and since not all the buoys are on the charts, it was a little tense coming in to make sure we stayed in the channel. Having done it though, we would do it again. The channel was well-marked, had plenty of depth and was easy to follow. We made it to Barefoot Landing before stopping for the day, and had an easy time doing it.

Past the half-way point

Southport - A long-delayed visit

Although we had stayed near Southport at South Harbor Village 3 times, we had never actually visited the town of Southport until this visit. We decided to get some exercise and headed out for the long (8-mile) walk from the marina to town. (It’s only 2-3 miles by water.) Since Marianna was docked in town, we made it to their slip and collapsed for a bit before heading out again to explore the little town. Its history is associated with the river pilots and, during the Civil War, blockade runners, which guided ships into the Cape Fear River from the ocean. Many of its historic homes are preserved and a picturesque waterfront park invites a lazy afternoon walk. We sampled a few of the stores which reminded us that Christmas is on its way and managed to find an ice cream store that wasn’t closed for the season.

Back at the dock at South Harbor Village, we caught up with Restless, whom we had met back in the summer on a mooring ball beside us in Atlantic Highlands. They were only a few days away from their destination in Charleston, and were anxious to get there, having enjoyed the trip down from NJ.

Boat Stuff

On our outside run from Cape Lookout to Wrightsville Beach, Fred on Marianna discovered a problem with a couple of his batteries overheating. This problem was persisting as we traveled a couple more days, so we spent a few days at Barefoot Landing to give him time to isolate the problem. We took the same time to equalize our batteries and change the oil, just to stay busy.

Dave also made a breakthrough in using the ham radio to get more weather information. He found the right software to receive weather faxes of the NOAA forecast GRIB charts. This allows us to get detailed weather when an internet connection is not available and/or NOAA marine forecasts are out of reach or not sufficient.   He’s initially using the WeatherFax software, which may not be the final choice for these faxes long term, but it was the first he was able to make work.

Georgetown, SC and then . . .

We headed out from Barefoot Landing on November 15th for Georgetown, SC and a plan to head out to Fernandina the next day. We were dismayed to read the depth sounding when we pulled into our slip, which made us conclude we would be firmly aground when we wanted to pull out early the next morning. In a more unusual move, we decided to raft to Marianna to ensure we could pull out the next morning. As we planned to pull out Friday morning, Marianna found herself aground, but we decided to try to get out anyway. We were both successful, and headed for the Winyah Bay and the ocean.

Unfortunately, a problem with the refrigeration on Marianna early in the trip caused us to turn around and instead take an inside route to Isle of Palms, which is where this entry finds us. We’re still looking to travel south to Florida outside, but we’re watching the weather.

Stay tuned.

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Late October - Family, Friends and Phantoms

10/31/2007

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Great Bridge

We arrived in Hampton on Oct. 17th. Just under 2 weeks later we headed out for the ICW and have made it into NC, just ahead of Tropical Storm Noel. We took time over those 2 weeks to enjoy the company of family and friends, including a Halloween extravaganza with our grandson. We also managed to squeeze in a few projects as well not all of them on Orion.

Solomons to Hampton - Rising Before the Sun

With the shorter days, we wanted as much daylight as possible for the long run from Solomons to Fishing Bay, causing us to leave before sunrise and arrive shortly before sunset. The trip was uneventful, which is a good thing.   Little wind meant we motored the whole way, anchoring Tuesday night (Oct. 16th) in Fishing Bay on the Piankatank River. We had hoped to make contact with Tom and Cathie on Interlude so that we could visit with them while we were nearby their home on the Piankatank. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to connect.

So, the next morning we again left before the sun for the shorter trip to Hampton. The early departure would allow us to avoid the predicted afternoon thunderstorms. We would also arrive a day earlier than expected, on Oct. 17th, which happened to be Cathy’s 50th birthday.

It was another light-wind day, which made it as uneventful as the day before, until we neared the Norfolk area. The commercial and Naval activity picked up as Navy ships were lining up to come into port amidst the large tankers and even the schooner Virginiatrying to make way in the light winds.

We tied up at Joys Marina around 1pm in our same slip beside Steve and Krista on Bay Dreamer and settled in for a couple of weeks.

Fifty-Fifty

Cathy celebrates her 50th

One side benefit of making it to Hampton on Oct. 17th was that Cathy didn’t have to fix her own birthday dinner. Instead, we enjoyed a wonderful meal ”al fresco” at Marker 20 across the bridge from the marina. This was the first of several celebrations over the next 2 weeks with family and friends, including a birthday breakfast with Steve and Krista. Who said turning 50 is a bummer? It seems to be one endless party!

Fred and friend

Marianna arrives in Hampton

Via the Waterway Net and Cruiseheimers, we were following the progress of Pat and Fred on Marianna and Skip and Cherylle on Eleanor M, who left Massachusetts Oct 13/14 to head south. We had agreed to meet Marianna in Hampton. To our surprise, the weather gave them a break and they made it to Hampton in record time, arriving early Tuesday morning Oct. 22nd. We took a break from our construction projects at our daughter’s house and came back to Hampton to welcome them and show them a few sites -- like Cold Stone Creamery and Krispy Kreme. They returned the favor by helping us return our car on Sunday, following us to our son’s house in Skippers, VA and taking us back to Hampton. Since we had been so busy with our kids while we had a car, they helped us do the rounds of shopping to re-provision Orion before returning their rental car on Monday morning.

We also managed to enjoy lunch at our 2nd McDonald’s in as many days, where Fred made a new friend. Dinner was a little more upscale, as we managed to eat piles of seafood at Captain George’s in Virgina Beach.

Ninja Invasion

On the Saturday before we left, we brought our grandson to the boat so he could participate in downtown Hampton’s Halloween celebration. It started in the Virginia Air and Space Center with 2 hours of trick or treating and activities and then moved to the area businesses which were participating as well. The evening ended at the First UMC, where they had a party, dinner and a fun haunted house, that Droz had to visit multiple times. It was a great time. There was one dark event that evening as we had a ninja attack on Orion, which we documented for insurance purposes.

Which witch?

Boat Projects

We spent some of the time in Hampton taking care of on-going boat projects. While Dave equalized the batteries, Cathy refinished the swim platform. Just before leaving, we had a diver clean the bottom and change the zinc. Fred also helped Dave replace the new RACOR fuel filter, a much simpler job than with the previous filter assembly, and the on-engine Yanmar fuel filter. After running the engine under load, we assured ourselves that no air had entered the line and that it would not stall when we got underway the next day.

Or so we thought.

One of our bigger investments for this year was the purchase of a Viking Life Raft. We chose model RescYou 4-person. It comes in a soft-sided valise that fits nicely in our cockpit locker. At about 65 lbs, we can both lift it to toss overboard. The only thing that it lacks to enable it to be certified by the off-shore racing association is an inflated step. It seems to be a good quality raft for the money invested.

Goin’ to Carolina . . .

Great Bridge opens near sunrise

The weather has been more like summer than fall, which has been a dramatic difference from the same trip last year. It is also a lot more fun to be traveling with Pat and Fred. We picked Tuesday, Oct. 30th as the day to leave Hampton for the ICW, heading for Great Bridge VA. This was 25 miles, 7 opening bridges and 1 lock away from Hampton. The morning dawned clear with calm winds, so we were expecting an easy trip to Great Bridge, until Cathy heard something in the engine noise. The rpm’s and the engine pitched started fluctuating, causing Dave to check the new pressure gauge on the Racor filters. To his dismay, the vacuum was up to 15, which was higher than we’d ever seen. The vacuum was the same on both filters. Talking to Fred confirmed that this was not a good thing, but that it might be some dirt in the line between the tank and the filter. If so, the vacuum should drop once the filter picked up the dirt. After a tense hour, the vacuum returned to normal. We tried the engine at various rpm’s to ensure there would be no problem waiting for or powering through bridges. All was well, and we made it through the bridges without problem.

We arrived in Great Bridge after the 12:30pm lock opening and were amazed to see the free dock virtually empty. We tied up along with 2 other sailboats from the lock and proceeded to fill up the dock. We were thrilled with our good luck – something that we didn’t enjoy last year. (We also learned that we were fortunate to have the bridges and lock behind us, since the early morning fog the next day bunched up 40 boats in the canal, forcing some to wait an extra hour for a second lock opening. Ouch!)

Fred prepares Marianna to depart from Great Bridge

We had a short run to Coinjock on Wednesday, so we made a leisurely start at 9am and found ourselves virtually alone until well into the Currituck Sound. This was because the fog had kept the bridges behind us closed until late in the morning. We arrived early afternoon in Coinjock, and began devising a plan to avoid Tropical Storm Noel, which was now scheduled to graze NC and kick up the waters along the sounds we would pass. We decided to try for the Alligator River Marina, putting the Albemarle Sound behind us, and wait out the storm just north of the Alligator River bridge, at the last marina for 55 miles.

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Early October - Annapolis to Solomons Island

10/15/2007

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After a week experiencing the Boat Show happenings in Annapolis, we left for a leisurely cruise in the Bay, with the ultimate destination of Solomons, MD. Dave’s dad joined us for a week during some of the hottest October weather we’ve seen.

Boat Show Mania

The density of people and boats in Annapolis during the boat show is something to see to believe. With 27 mooring balls out of commission due to the expanded temporary docks, anchoring and mooring space is at a premium. With our somewhat smaller length, we qualified for the mooring balls in St Mary’s Cove, inside the Spa Creek bridge, which surprisingly had some availability almost every night. The maximum length allowed is 35’ 11”. We come in at 35.4 feet, so we just made it.

From our vantage point, we could watch the harbor transform. On the Sunday before the show, all private boats were required to leave the inner harbor (aka Ego Alley) by 6:30 pm. The dinghy dock was closed at noon. Also, all boats had to be off the affected mooring balls by noon as well. The materials needed to build the new temporary docks were already positioned to deploy, with huge timbers for pilings, floating docks, and a working barge to drive the pilings. By Monday, the first wave of boats were already in place. Each group had to be brought in before the next set of docks could be put in place, blocking them into their slips. There were stacks of pallets, a convoy of forklifts and truck after truck delivering the goods for the vendor booths that would cover the site.

By Thursday, all was ready for the opening day. However, the high ticket price for this “VIP” day kept most cruisers away until Friday. Friday was therefore a very busy day, with the dinghy docks already full to overflowing long before the 10am start time. We found it hard to see everything we wanted to, despite our arriving as the show opened. We visited the Yanmar booth, looked at several life raft models, checked out the latest in LED lights, among many other vendors there. We got to catch up with Bruce Empey from Neil Pryde Sails, who had worked with us in replacing our main sail. We met Ken and Joy from Slow Dancin’, before meeting up with Dave, Donna, Roger and Amy from Merlin and Shango around 4pm. We closed the show down as we made our last purchase just before closing at 7pm and headed back to Orion, satisfied that we had done the show right.

On Saturday, Steve and Krista from Bay Dreamer in Hampton had come up for the show. We hosted them for lunch on Orion, and gave them a little respite from the heat. (Did I mention how hot it was?!) The show continued on in full steam through Monday, even as we were pulling out and leaving Annapolis behind for this trip.

Dave's dad at the wheel

Just Like Ol' Times

Dave’s dad had joined us in the very beginning as we learned to sail with the Annapolis Sailing
School back in 2004. So, we were thrilled when he accepted our invitation to join us for a week in early October to explore the Bay with a little bit more experience than in those early days.

He arrived Saturday evening, October 6th. After touring Annapolis and the US Naval Academy on Sunday, we headed out Monday morning for the Magothy River. (This was the stop we missed in our original Annapolis Sailing School adventure, since the winds and our inexperience were working against a trip up through the Bay bridge.) We arrived in the anchorage behind Dobbins Island with only 1 other boat for company. That gradually changed, but we had a pleasant night there before heading out the next morning for Galesville. On our way out of the Magothy, we passed the Pride of Baltimore II, which was anchored there. She was attracting a lot of attention from the other boats leaving the river as well. It was good to see her back together again after the terrible dismasting that occurred early last Spring.

We pulled into Pirates Cove, a restaurant and marina in Galesville, MD in early afternoon. This was the first time we had plugged into shore power in over a month, and Orion sucked up all she could. We weren’t there long enough to equalize the batteries, but the full charge has made a big difference in the number of times we need to run the generator. We enjoyed a meal out on the deck of the restaurant as the sun set and skies began to cloud up from the approaching cold front. We got little rain, but were rewarded with cooler temperatures and some NW winds for the next day’s trip to the Patuxent River.

St Leonards Creek

We were able to use our sails some more on this trip. We bypassed Solomons in favor of an anchorage just inside St. Leonard Creek (which we had last visited in July of last year). As the only boat in the anchorage, we enjoyed another quiet evening. The next morning, we had a front row seat as we watched 2 or 3 crabbing boats work a trot line to bring in their catch of crabs on the creek.

The mild cold front that passed on Tuesday night was followed by a much stronger one on Wednesday night. This one brought thunderstorms, rain – lots of it – and strong winds. It also dramatically cooled off the temperatures, which was a big relief. We flew down the river on 25kt winds and higher gusts and a furled headsail. Since we were just heading to Solomons, we took some time to sail around in the river before heading into the harbor. The winds didn’t die down until later Friday afternoon. This kept the harbor full of boats unwilling to tangle with that much wind on the Bay.

We took a day off from traveling on Friday and visited the Calvert Marine Museum, which is at water’s edge in Solomons and hosts the restored Drum Point Lighthouse. It was a very interesting museum, with indoor and outdoor exhibits to explore, and of course, the lighthouse itself.

Since Dave’s cousin, Don, and his family live near Solomons in Lexington Park, we joined them for dinner the evening we arrived and again for a day sail on Sunday.

Talking with friends at Liberty Marina

Liberty Marina

We said goodbye to Dave’s dad on Saturday afternoon, as he flew back to Rochester. Our trip to BWI took us by our old haunts at Liberty Marina, so we stopped to visit some friends there – Harry, Dan and Regina, Grady and Ruth. Harry on Linda Sea traveled south last year as far as Brunswick and hopes to do the same again this year. We exchanged boat cards and promised to look for each other along the way.

Harry on Linda Sea keeps his boat at Liberty Marina in the summer but travelled south to Florida for the winter.

(Not Much) Boat Stuff

If you don’t count the boat show, we didn’t do much on Orion over the past 2 weeks. (It was just too much of a social whirl.) We did manage to squeeze in an oil change, top off the water and fuel tanks, and fully charge the batteries but not much more.

With other friends now underway at various points along the East Coast, we started tuning in more regularly to the Waterway Net on the ham radio, which meats every morning at 7:45am on frequency 7.268. We managed to hear Eleanor M as they began their trip south out of Newburyport and Marianna as they moved toward the Cape Cod canal. Now we can track each other’s progress, even if we can’t talk directly by other means.

The Supreme Court

Doing the Tourist Thing

While in Annapolis, we took a day trip into DC to ”do the tourist thing”, where we visited the mint and the restored Library of Congress building. Being off season, it was a great time to visit, with very few crowds. The Library of Congress building, having been restored to its former splendor in 1997, should be on everyone’s list of things to see in Washington. It is breathtakingly beautiful. We managed to squeeze in some lunch at Captial Q, Dave’s favorite BBQ place before heading back to Annapolis at day’s end.

Further South

We woke up Sunday morning (Oct. 14th) to find Kokopelli, a boat we’d first met in the Bahamas, on the mooring ball next to us. They were planning a month of travels in the bay, but no trip further south this year. Monday night, our last night in Solomons, we left Zahnisers and anchored in Mill Creek. (This is the one off Back Creek, not the one nearby off the Patuxent River.) We had read about anchoring in this creek, but had always passed it by in favor of Back Creek. Although we anchored fairly close to the entrance, we took a long dinghy ride up to the end, where we found many possible anchorages, with navigable waters almost to the very end.

We are now working our way south to Hampton, where we will get to spend some time with our kids and their families before heading down the waterway. We hope to catch up with Marianna and Merlin there before we start out for Mile Zero.

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Late September - In and Out of Annapolis

9/30/2007

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It’s been a quiet, but productive couple of weeks since our last update. We’ve been to Annapolis a couple of times, and, thanks to our reunion with Shango and Merlin, we got to explore a little more of the Chesapeake’s Eastern Shore than we had in the past.

Up Anchor

After spending our first night back in the Chesapeake anchored in the Bohemia River, we decided to take a mooring ball at the Sailing Associates marina in Georgetown, MD for a couple of nights. This would give Dave a chance to dismantle our malfunctioning windlass (that’s the device that raises and lowers the anchor) while it wasn’t being used for anchoring. Unfortunately, he quickly discovered that this wasn’t going to be something he could easily fix. Every turn of the gypsy (the wheel that holds onto the anchor chain as it is fed out) was producing a small pile of metal shavings. Dave feared this meant a gear was quickly being stripped by each use.

Since we were so close to Annapolis, we decided to call our broker at Annapolis Yacht Sales (AYS), Tim Wilbricht, who had helped us locate repair specialists in the past. He suggested we come to AYS to have them look it over and assess the damage first. Since Annapolis was only a day’s sail away, we decided to head there on Friday, arriving shortly after noon in Back Creek. Tim and Chris ( the AYS service manager) met us on the dock. Within minutes, Chris had the windlass capstan off and had determined the problem to be nothing more than a worn pin. Although he didn’t have any in stock, he fabricated one for us and had it reinstalled within a half hour. The windlass worked like a charm, and the entire repair was done at no charge. It’s just more of the excellent service we continue to receive long after our initial purchase from Tim and Annapolis Yacht Sales.

Reconnecting and Re-provisioning

With the windlass repair already taken care of, we now looked forward to a weekend in Annapolis, with a long list of things that we needed and wanted to do. We had several re-provisioning items to take care, which started before we left the AYS docks. While Cathy topped off our water tanks, Dave visited their parts department to pick up some more zincs and some more of the special “French” curtain hooks that keep breaking on Orion. After taking a city mooring in Spa Creek, we took the dinghy to get some diesel to top off Orion.

Over the next few days, we took a trip to Bayshore Marine in Eastport for some more spare parts for the engine and a case of oil to take us through the winter’s oil changes. We visited Annapolis Yacht Sales pre-boat show open house, where Dave got some tips for handling the recurring problem with our auto-pilot’s compass from the Raymarine representative there. We visited Bacon & Associates to put our bikes up for consignment sale, stopped by the Maryland Dept of Natural Resources to renew Orion’s boat registration, refilled our gas cans for the dinghy and the generator, did grocery shopping and got some insurance quotes.

While in Georgetown, we had replaced the lightbulb in the bow navigation lights, but Dave wanted to ensure we had used the right bulb. (The one we had used was one that had been on board when we bought Orion.) When shopping at Fawcett’s for the bulb, he was told by a sales rep that Fawcett’s didn’t carry the bulb, but West Marine did. The Fawcett’s employee practically shoved Dave out the door, handed him his own bike and told him to take it to West Marine and back, without even taking his name. Dave managed to make it there and back in time to return the bike before the man’s shift ended. What a nice town!

Our stay in Annapolis wasn’t all work. We managed to get in a pleasant day sail with Dave’s former co-worker, Rob and his fiancé, Ming on Saturday. On Sunday, we managed to take in the service at the Naval Academy in the morning and met up with Ed and Billie Sutter, from our church in Reston, for supper that evening.

Merlin and Shango depart the Sassafras River

Exploring the Chester River

Although we had reunited with Merlin and Shango at Georgetown for a night while we were there, we parted company while they visited Baltimore and we went to Annapolis. After a long weekend, we came together again behind Dobbins Island on the Magothy River (just north of the Bay Bridge). They were interested in exploring the Chester River, so we sailed across the Bay to work our way into the Chester, a large winding thoroughfare just north of the Bay Bridge on the Eastern shore. We picked a spot on the Corsica River to anchor for the night. There was plenty of room and it was a beautiful setting. The winds were predicted to kick up the next day, so Merlin and we moved over to Langford Creek to pick up a mooring at the Lankford Bay Marina. The marina was a lovely spot to spend a few days, so we stayed through the weekend, taking the shuttle into Rock Hall for their 300th anniversary Fall Fest. It was another beautiful day and a great time.

Rock Hall Fall Fest

But the pressure to find a spot in Annapolis for the coming boat show caused us to leave this quiet refuge and head back to the busy city earlier than we might have otherwise. We felt lucky to secure our current spot on a city mooring, which is where we’ll stay through the Annapolis Boat show on Columbus Day weekend. Merlin and Shango are nearby as are lots of other boats. We’ll be running into quite a few friends over the next few days.

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Early September - Back Home Again

9/15/2007

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Turkey Point Light at the top of the Bay

They say what goes up, must come down. After spending four weeks traveling to Newburyport, MA and 3 weeks enjoying the company of friends there, we pointed Orion southward again and began the trek back to the Chesapeake before the cold winds began to blow. With some favorable weather and some good company, we made it to the Bohemia River (at the top of the Chesapeake) in only 6 days, having returned to the same anchorage that began our journey 8 weeks to the day. With all that we enjoyed on our trip, there was certainly a feeling of being “home” when we dropped anchor in the Chesapeake for the first time in 8 weeks.

Racor 75500 MAX dual fuel filters

Engine Maintenance: Fuel Filters - Two are better than one

With the high recommendations we received about the skill of the Merri-Mar crew, we decided to have some engine work done while we were there. A small fuel leak needed some attention, and our injectors were overdue for cleaning and a compression test. In addition to this maintenance, we decided to upgrade to a dual Racor 75500 MAX fuel filter installation, which allows you to switch fuel filters while the engine is running, effectively taking one of the filters off-line to change at your “leisure” (even while the engine is running). This set-up has much less expensive filters, which are far easier to change than our previous Racor R20S. It also has a vacuum gauge to better indicate when the filters should be changed. Since most fuel emergencies take place while underway in rough conditions, being able to easily change the filters can make a huge difference.

With some consultation with Jay from Merri-Mar, we mounted the new filters ourselves, which are in a much more convenient location than their predecessor, high on the port aft wall of the engine compartment. This caused us to lower the raw water strainer down about 3 feet and slightly change the routing of the water and fuel hoses. It also freed up some space on the starboard side of the compartment where the old Racor R20S filter had been.

Dave didn’t let any grass grow under his feet working out a way to fill the hole created by removing the old fuel filter, installing 2 6-volt golf cart batteries that a friend no longer needed after just a year of use. This would give us a spare “house” battery bank to use when equalizing the primary house bank and for emergency use. Having used Merri-Mar’s resources to determine that our previous spare starting battery was no longer any good, the timing was just about perfect.

Other Boat Stuff

Our extended time in port also gave us time to clean the ugly brown stain from the hull and wax it as best we could, using the dinghy as our scaffold. To see us both perched on different ends of our small dinghy trying to do the wax-on wax-off thing at the same time was a bit comical.

Cathy also used the time and access to Pat’s sewing machines to create some covers for the metal struts supporting the bimini where they now touched the new strataglass enclosure. These covers prevent the glass from being damaged by such close proximity to the heated metal. Since Cathy had never used a sewing machine before, this was about as comical as the dinghy experience, even though all she had to do was sew a series of straight lines. Luckily, Pat is a patient teacher and, if no one looks too close, the resulting covers look presentable.

Skip machined the enclosure for our anchor locker

In the process of discussing various boat projects with Skip from Eleanor M, Dave mentioned the problem we had in finding a cover for the hole on deck where the anchor chain enters the anchor locker. This had been a nagging problem ever since we bought the boat. To our surprise, Skip offered to machine a solution for him. With his considerable skills, some scrap aluminum and a pretty amazing home machine shop, Skip produced a beautifully crafted plate to protect the deck surrounding the hole. He even created a cover to put in place on rougher voyages to keep water out of the anchor locker.

Up (or is that Down East) to Maine

As our time in Newburyport was coming to an end and the most we had done to see anything outside of Newburyport itself was a trip to Wal-mart, Fred took pity on us and invited us on a “road trip”. His stated destination was an appliance store in New Hampshire, but Dave found he could justify the “time off” from working on the boat, by including a side trip to the Fastener Warehouse to get some bolts needed to attach the anchor chain hole plate. It also didn’t hurt that our route would take us by the Lindt Chocolate outlet store.

We got to see a bit of the Naval yards where Fred had worked in Kittery, Maine and the historic Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth, NH. Dave’s purchase of 3 bolts for the anchor plate at Fastener Warehouse expanded into 3 boxes of various sizes of screws, nuts, and bolts, which he swore would pay for themselves in short order by replacing just a few trips to West Marine. We’ll see . .

At any rate, we can say we made it to Maine on this trip, although we did cheat just a little. Fred explained away our confusion about the reference to going “down east” to Maine, which is clearly north east, so wouldn’t that be “up” east? The expression comes from the prevailing easterly winds, which make a sailing trip to Maine all down wind. That’s where the “down” in down east comes from.

AYC mooring field with rocks only visible at low tide. Ouch!

Staging for the Trip South

Although our tentative plan for returning south had been to join Fred as he re-positioned Marianna to the Chesapeake Bay, it became clear that Fred would need more time to finish his projects, causing him to change plans and wait for Pat to finish her work in early October. We then decided to hook up with Dave and Donna on Merlin as they made plans to head south the 2nd week of September.

Merlin, Orion and Jadera docked at AYC

Our plans came together on Tuesday (Sept. 11), when we began our trip with a short trip down the Merrimac River to the American Yacht Club. We joined Merlin there, and later, Jadera, to stage for our departure south early Wednesday morning. (Roger and Amy on Shango had left earlier and were in Block Island waiting for weather to travel to Cape May.) That evening we got together with a group of friends – both those leaving and those remaining ashore -- on the deck of the yacht club for an impromptu going away party. We said goodbye to Pat and Fred and Skip and Cherylle with promises to see them in a few weeks. For others, it might be goodbye until next year. This was a place we would love to visit again – maybe next year.

Newburyport to the Chesapeake Bay

In a conversation with our daughter a couple of nights before we left, Cathy was saying that, once we started traveling, we might be back in the Chesapeake Bay within a week of our departure. Dave scoffed at this suggestion, but, having traveled with Merlin before, it seemed a real possibility. We were discussing a route south that would have us travel from Block Island directly to Cape May. We weren’t sure whether this could be done with a single overnight or not. We kept this as our tentative plan and headed out early Wednesday morning (Sept. 12th), to make as much progress as possible. To our amazement, we made it from Newburyport around Cape Ann, across the Cape Cod Bay and through the Cape Cod canal to Onset, Massachusetts – a distance of 80 nautical miles – in our first day. It took us only 12 hours due to some favorable currents along the way, catching the very last of the ebbing current through the canal. Wow!

The next day, we got a later start, but made it to Newport, RI by mid-afternoon, in time to raft together on the last available mooring in the harbor. You see, the Newport Boat Show was underway and the harbor was very busy. With high winds promised for Saturday, we decided to stay 2 days on the mooring and leave Sunday for either Block Island or Cape May, if we could do it. Since the fuel docks were blocked by the temporary docks for the boat show, Dave made 2 long round trip dinghy runs from Brenton Cove, where our mooring was to the fuel dock in the main harbor and the one in Goat Island to ensure Orion was topped off with 10 gallons to spare. Merlin was planning to get fuel at Goat Island as we left.

As Saturday’s winds were calming down that evening, we got together with Dave and Donna to discuss the plan for travel on Sunday. The forecasts were for winds from the NE 10-15 knots all the way down the coast to Cape May. With seas forecast for 2 to 4 feet, the conditions seemed just right to try to go straight from Newport to Cape May. The only problem was waiting for the fuel docks to open in the morning. This would put us into Cape May after dark on Monday. Dave and Donna said they had enough fuel between their 2 tanks to make the trip, so we decided to head out early the next morning.

Over the course of the first day, the roughest conditions were in Block Island sound. The ocean was smooth as glass. With a little help from the headsail, we were making good time, looking to arrive in Cape May before 5pm the next day.

When, all of sudden, Merlin came to a stop.

They had a clogged fuel filter on their forward fuel tank. Dave was below busily changing filters. Although he made quick work of the change, given a history of problems with the forward tank, he didn’t think he could rely on it to get Merlin to Cape May. Also, there wasn’t enough fuel in the aft tank to get there either. Wediscussed alternatives and decided, since Orion had 10 gallons in cans on deck that we would not need for the trip to Cape May, to pass a can from Orion to Merlin. Even though the ocean conditions were ideal, the mild swells still made this a delicate procedure. With fenders over Merlin’s side, Cathy edged Orion alongside while the two Dave’s proceeded to make the handoff. Cathy got a little too close to Merlin’s outboard propeller, but otherwise we made the transfer unscathed. We agreed to checkpoint in the morning to see if Merlin would need to turn in at Atlantic City to get fuel or could make it on what had been transferred.

Overnight was mostly uneventful. Our bow navigation lights were out, so Dave rigged our dinghy lights in their place. The canvas kept us warm and toasty unlike previous passages. There was no moon, but that gave us a night sky filled with stars.

When morning came, it was clear that Merlin needed more fuel. We briefly considered another transfer, but the seas had built, making the transfer treacherous for both boats. Merlin altered course for Atlantic City, planning to meet up again a few hours after us.

We arrived at Cape May to find both Jadera and Shango and (unfortunately) about 10 other boats anchored next to the Coast Guard station. This was our worst nightmare of anchoring conditions. Tired from 34 hours underway, facing limited space with a 20 knot wind, and, to make matters worse, the windlass started acting up. After about 5 failed attempts and almost 2 hours of trying, Dave’s fatigue was growing and Cathy was feeling like the nightmare wouldn’t end. However, we finally got a good set. We joined Jay, Debra, Roger and Amy on Shango a little later just after Merlin arrived and (quickly) set their anchor.

Although the other boats decided to wait a day for better weather to travel north, we looked at the favorable currents and the tight anchorage and decided to head north the next day for the Bohemia River. After an easy trip through the Cape May Canal -- this time at low tide with an eye on the depth sounder (we saw nothing less than 9 feet), we entered the lower Delaware Bay. Aided by a beam wind up to 25 knots, we had a fast ride up the bay. Within a few hours the wind speed dropped and the angle became less favorable for sailing, but the current picked up, keeping our average speed at almost 7 knots for the full trip. We dropped anchor in the Bohemia River at the top of the Chesapeake Bay before 5pm. Both of us had the inexplicable feeling of being “home” now that we were back in the Bay, even though we’d spent little time this far north.

Reflections on our Northward Passage

We can’t say enough about the trip north. It was a great time and we enjoyed the people we met tremendously. We also learned a bit about traveling in these northern waters, which we’ll summarize for those who are interested below:

Lobster pots, unlike crab pots, know no depth limitations – and they come in pairs. Don’t try to cut between them.
Mooring balls are plentiful. Many have double pennants, which make for a better ride on the anchor, but are harder to attach in high winds, which can result in some yelling and swearing.
Yacht clubs aren’t limited to members and many have launch service, which allows you to operate under the illusion that you actually deserve to be pampered this way.
Currents are a fact of life and need to be heeded. With that in mind, if docking on the Merrimac at max ebb current, it’s better to let Jay drive the boat.
The large tidal range (9+ feet) above Cape Cod and the presence of some nasty looking rocks means you need to pay careful attention to where you are in the tide cycle.
No matter how hot the daytime, the nights are always cool.
The warmth of the reception is unaffected by the higher latitudes and cooler temperatures.

Now that we’re back in the Chesapeake, we need to create a new travel plan for the next few months. In the meantime, we’ll be taking shorter trips and enjoying the familiar cruising grounds.

We’ve also got to get that windlass fixed . . .

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Late August - Provincetown to Newburyport

8/31/2007

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Lobster Boat off Cape Ann

We finally made it to New Hampshire – by truck, that is. Orion now sits in the Merrimac River, near Newburyport, MA, where Marianna, Merlin and Eleanor M live. Marianna and Eleanor M sit side by side on land, both of them getting fitted out for the next trip south. Merlin is a bit upriver on a mooring ball.

For most of the trip and several days after we arrived, we had only a vague understanding of the location of Mass / NH border. We just knew Pat and Fred lived in NH. Although they live in New Hampshire, their boating centers here in Newburyport. So, our “New Hampshire” destination appears to have shifted to Massachusetts as well. Cruisers are nothing if not flexible.

Getting here

Cathy with some of the Carnival 'ladies'

Provincetown

Our last update left off as we began to explore Provincetown. Its history as a seaside artist community has also made it a center of gay life. Although this connection was something we learned from the guidebooks, it took only minutes to discover it firsthand – the most dramatic examples being the over-the-top outfits the many “ladies” sported. The Carnival celebration we happened on was a celebration of gay pride and its centerpiece was an extravagant parade on Thursday afternoon (our 2nd day in Provincetown), which had a “Fairy Tales” theme (pun obviously intended). It’s hard to describe, but you’ll get some idea from the pictures we include below. (Some of the costumes left little to the imagination, so we had to choose our shots carefully.)

Provincetown also lays claim to a long history, dating back to the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620. Although Plymouth is where the newcomers stayed, apparently, they came ashore here first. It was also here that the Mayflower Compact (an agreement on the rudimentary representative government that was to eventually influence the country’s founders) was signed. The imposing tower placed on the high point in town is there to make sure you don’t forget it. Also, in the early 1900’s, before the commercial sailing ships were eclipsed by power vessels, the local Rose Dorothea won a race from Provincetown to Boston, and her lines were recreated in a half-scale model that consumes the 2nd floor of the library. (This “model” is 60 ft long.) The elaborate silver cup awarded to the winner is also on display there.

Scituate

Having made reservations on Monday (August 20th) in Boston, we decided to cross the Cape Code Bay on Sunday and make a quick stop at Scituate (pronounced Sich-u-it). This a small harbor that is a mix of workboats and pleasure boats. What attracted us was the convenience of grocery and laundromat, the latter of which had been a little overdue. We only spent one night there before heading out to Boston on Monday.

Boston skyline from the harbor

Boston

As big city harbors go, Boston was incredibly easy to navigate. There were few big ships and none of them were in motion while we entered. The entrance is dotted with several islands that define the various channels. Since we were coming from the south, we entered via the southern-most Nantasket Roads and then cut north through the Narrows to the more heavily-traveled President Roads channel. To our amazement, we were able to sail almost all the way into the Inner Harbor, where we were to take a mooring ball at the Boston Waterboat Marina. (If we had realized how light the boat traffic would be, we probably would have sailed all the way.)

Our location was right downtown Boston. With Logan Airport’s landing strip on one side of the river and Fanieul Hall / Quincy Market within a block of the marina on the other side, we were in the thick of it. Of course, being in the thick of it also meant that we were a little close to the route of the many ferries and tour boats that traversed the harbor. The definition of a “little close” meant that they would pass between us and the other boats in the mooring field. Dave could have shaken hands with some of the passengers at one point when they passed. One night, the waterfront park at the edge of the marina hosted a concert with a mixture of the Boston Pops Ensemble, a pax de deux from Giselle by the Boston Ballet, ending with a concert by members of the Boston Opera. City life has its rewards.

Cathy had visited Boston as a child, walking the famous “Freedom Trail” with her sisters, (well, part of it) but David had never been there. The first day, we just walked the town, exploring the mix of historic buildings and modern high rises, ending up at Fanieul Hall and Quincy Market. Our second day, we started at the Visitors Center for the Boston Freedom Trail National Historic Site, joining a park ranger who would lead us through the trail, interpreting the history that had taken place along it.

The Freedom Trail is marked by a line of bricks embedded in the sidewalk, which changes into a painted red line as it crosses streets. (The red footprints that Cathy remembered from 40 years ago have long since been replaced.) It starts at the State House, where the earliest signs of the unrest that would erupt in the Revolution began to be seen. The park ranger did an excellent job of giving us the perspective of the evolution of the early Colonial Englishman into revolutionary Patriots. What does it take for a person to turn against his country? It’s an interesting question to consider.

The Freedom Trail crosses from the North End of Boston (where we managed to fortify ourselves with some of the delicious Italian food it’s famous for) across the Charles River to Bunker Hill and ends at the USS Constitution in the old Navy Yards. There were ranger talks at Bunker Hill and an active duty sailor took us on the tour of the USS Constitution, the oldest Commissioned ship in the Navy. It was a fascinating tour, and equally amazing that all of this was available free to the public.

On our 3rd day, we traveled out to the JFK Library, which was an easy subway ride to a free shuttle. It is located on the Univ. of Massachusetts campus overlooking Boston Harbor, with a breathtaking water view. Dedicated in 1979, the library takes you back to the days leading up to the Kennedy presidency, through its almost 3 years and the legacy he left behind. It is a fascinating place.

Newburyport

After 2-1/2 days in Boston, we headed north on the final leg of our journey north. We decided to skip a planned side trip to Gloucester in favor of a single ride to Newburyport. The Merrimac River has a fierce current when it is against you, and we wanted to time our entry right. We left Boston harbor early on a grey Thursday morning and headed round Cape Ann toward the mouth of the Merrimac River. Shortly into our journey, we started hearing warnings from the Coast Guard about entering the river today. The bar that crosses its mouth, combined with east winds and four foot swells was making for treacherous conditions for small craft. We called Fred to confirm that it was wise to enter in these conditions, and he said the Coast Guard was being extra cautious due to a capsized, heavily-loaded 19ft boat the week before. We decided to continue on.

The winds picked up some as we approached the mouth of the river, but it and the large swells we’d had all day were coming at our stern. We couldn’t see anything ahead that told us to change our minds, and we knew the current had shifted by this time in our favor. We were soon to learn what the warning was about. As we came within a few hundred yards of the entrance jetties, the depth dropped to only a few feet, and we were smacked by a wave on our stern that caused Dave to work to regain our course. It was the only one that did that, but we could see why a smaller boat could have been in trouble.

Once inside the river, we passed easily through the opening Rt. 1 Bridge and found ourselves shortly on a mooring at the Merri-Mar Yacht Basin. Fred rode out with Jay on the launch to welcome us in. It was great to see him again. We hurried to get ashore and were reunited with, not only Fred, but Skip and Cherylle from Eleanor M. Pat joined us later when her workday was done. It was a few days before we were able to see Dave and Donna from Merlin, when we joined them for supper.

Pat at work in her truck

Putting Pat to Work

On Saturday, Pat began taking measurements for our enclosure. She took notes on what we wanted and how we used the cockpit for sailing and to access the rest of the deck. We took off the bimini to allow her to stitch zippers on the edge that would be the point of attachment for the enclosure, which she did quickly and returned the same day.

The next day, she returned with some plastic to create a pattern of the enclosure, which would allow her to cut and stitch together the glass and material for the next fitting. We installed the fixtures to ensure that they aligned with the pattern and then she went back to work on the job of building the enclosure.

We had decided to completely enclose the cockpit, and this meant a number of considerations for getting in and out of it. We finally decided to switch the direction of the zippers on the aft side in order to make it easier to exit the cockpit that way. This meant the bimini had to come down again to do this.

While we were waiting for Pat and Angela to construct the enclosure, we took her advice and cleaned and waterproofed the bimini. This required us to take it off and put it back on a third time. We were getting good at this.

On Wednesday, Pat arranged for us to tie up on the dock to enable her to do several fittings more easily. Jay (owner of the marina) made this happen, even helping us with the move from mooring ball to slip, using the currents to navigate Orion sideways in the fairway. It was amazing. After taking another fitting with all the panels in place, Pat made some notes for the final adjustments. By Thursday afternoon, the entire enclosure was done, transforming the appearance of Orion both from within and without. The new strataglass is amazing clear and easy to see through. And the lines of the enclosure are clean and form-fitting to look at. We were thrilled.

As Pat predicted we would, we are fumbling with the zippers a bit and getting used to the need to undo them to get out of the cockpit, but the extra protection they provide is something that will be greatly appreciated as we face the colder weather coming over the next few weeks.

Engine leaks and other stuff

While we were on the dock, Dave asked Jay to look at our engine to check out a few things and suggest changes we might need to make. We had a leak that had just started to appear that Jay determined to be a fuel leak. Also, we had been adding more oil between oil changes that Jay suggested might be caused by the 30 weight oil we’ve been using. We subsequently changed the oil to a heavier 15W40. Next week, Jay plans to zero in on the source of the fuel leak and remove and clean the injectors to see if this, plus the oil change will solve the problem of adding oil.

Skip and Cherylle from Eleanor M

The Merri-Mar Community

It’s hard to describe the welcoming atmosphere at the Merri-Mar Yacht Basin. Dave had only been ashore a few minutes before he was engaged with Skip in a discussion about the work he is doing on the engine. Then he joined Debra to give her an overview of the capabilities of her charting software. This led to many more exchanges of advice and help between Pat and Fred, Skip and Cherylle, Dave and Donna, Jay and Debra and us. We joined a community of boaters for a “dinghy drift” on the river Saturday night, where we tied our dinghy to about 8 others, passed hor d’ouvres and shared stories. Dave, from Merlin took us on an historic tour of downtown Newburyport. We’ve been offered the generous use of Pat’s truck. It’s endless. We have tried, in return, to make ourselves useful to the others here. The effect has been to make us feel at home and very welcome.

Dave and Fred

Sunset over Plum Island

Planning to head south

At one point, we were hoping to head north to Maine, but it’s too late in the season to make that happen. So, we are trying to make plans to head back south, hoping to join some others on the way. We have met Roger and Amy on Shango, who will be leaving the 2nd week in September along Donna and Dave from Merlin. Jay and Debra from Jedora will be leaving about the same time, but traveling straight outside to Norfolk – a little too aggressive for us. And Fred is still considering his plans. We’ll see what we come up with. In the meantime, we are enjoying our stay in this very welcoming community, among many friends.

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Early August - Into New England

8/15/2007

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We’ve traveled the length of Long Island Sound, up the Connecticut River, through the Race, up Buzzard’s Bay, through the Cape Cod Canal and up Cape Cod Bay to Provincetown out on the tip of Massachusetts’ famous hook. We’ve enjoyed our trip so far through these waters that are all new to us. There are many differences, and some similarities to our experiences on the Chesapeake Bay.

PORTS OF CALL

New York - Long Island

We made 2 stops on the Long Island side of the sound.

Port Washington
The first was at Port Washington in Manhasset Bay. The town offers free mooring balls for 2 nights, most of which were readily available on the Tuesday morning (July 31) when we arrived. It was going to be a hot day, which normally would have caused us to take it easy. However, we needed to get a replacement shackle for one that had fallen overboard as Dave re-attached the headsail when it came back from re-stitching. (oops!) So we decided to explore the town and find the promised West Marine that was “a little walk” outside of town. The “little walk” was also a little lacking in shade, but we made it there and back, then turned up the hill and explored this combination of waterfront and commuter town. (It’s only a 45 minute train ride to NYC.) To cool off before returning to the boat, we treated ourselves to an Italian ice. That made the walk worth it.

We spent most of the 2nd day at Port Washington planning our route through Long Island sound, checking on availability of moorings, etc. We decided to stop next at Northport, NY, which was a short trip east, but was supposed to have a welcoming yacht club and a quaint New England town to explore.

Northport harbor at sunset

Northport
Northport was easily one of our favorites ports so far on our trip north. We stayed on a mooring ball at the Northport Yacht Club. With the 90 degree heat during the day, keeping cool became a priority. We took a couple of walks down the tree-lined streets to town seeking shade wherever we could find it along the way (and, of course, the delicious homemade ice cream at Northport Sweet Shop helped). But we could easily beat the heat in the huge pool at the yacht club when we returned, which became our afternoon retreat to cool off and get some exercise in the process. With the launch service, we didn’t have to fool with the dinghy either. This was the life. We stayed in Northport three nights, partially because we liked it so much, and partially because we learned that we might meet the Bravermans there. They were on a weeklong vacation on the sound. We didn’t see them there, but we were too hook up later.

Connecticut – Black Rock and Essex

Our remaining stays on the Long Island Sound were on the Connecticut side of the sound.

Black Rock Yacht Club

We knew that we wanted to visit the Connecticut River, highly recommended by several people we talked to. However, it was a long trip from Northport to the Connecticut River and the prospect of timing the current and the opening RR bridge on the river made us look for a closer port to stage the trip to the river. We decided to try Black Rock Yacht Club just west of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Black Rock is just off the sound, so the entrance was straightforward, but that also made the harbor a little exposed as the winds shifted to the south. The dockmaster put us on a member’s mooring ball however, which gave us a little more protection from the waves. Black Rock also had a complimentary launch, a pool and a restaurant at the clubhouse. We enjoyed cooling off in the pool again. The only disappointment was the dinner we decided to try on Sunday night at the club’s restaurant. Oh well. The view from Black Rock was nice, and there is a nice walkway by the shore, but there is no town or any stores within a reasonable walk from the yacht club. We stayed a 2nd night to wait for some bad weather to pass and then headed to the Connecticut River.

Essex town park

Essex

Although we had recommendations for three different stops on the Connecticut River, we decided to head to Essex, since we discovered that the Bravermans would be there as well. Essex is an historic town, incorporated in 1852, but with English settlement starting back in the mid-1600’s. The town was an important shipbuilding center in the 1700’s. Its most famous landmark is The Griswold Inn (“The Griz”), a restaurant and pub that dates back to 1776. We joined the Bravermans for a drink while we chatted about our experiences and theirs since we last saw them. The next day we took a ride on the Essex Steam Train which took us further north along the Connecticut River, than we were willing to take Orion. It was a nice way to see the river.

Rhode Island – Block Island and Newport

We parted company with the Bravermans again, who headed up to Hamburg Cove for a night before heading back west on the sound. We were instead heading east toward Block Island. This would take us through the Race, at the Sound’s eastern edge and into Block Island Sound, which is bounded by Connecticut, Long Island and Block Island.

House on a hill on Block Island

Block Island

Unlike our stops thus far on Long Island Sound, which were all only a train or car ride from NYC or another major metropolitan area (e.g Essex is on I-95), Block Island is not on any commuter route. Although there are many high speed ferry lines that serve it, they are primarily bringing the many beachgoers who come to vacation on the island, or just spend a day on the beach. This is a family beach resort, and there were enough ice cream shops and T-shirt stores to prove it.

Since most of the island’s shores are exposed to either the Atlantic Ocean on the east or the Block Island Sound on the west, the only practical place to stay is within the Great Salt Pond at New Harbor on the western side. (There is a limited amount of anchoring room in Old Harbor on the eastern side, but it looked very unappealing.) Great Salt Pond is full of moorings. There are 90 town moorings, which we were told were full every night of the summer. There were also hundreds of private moorings and many boats at anchor. We knew we would not be comfortable anchoring here, especially since the winds were predicted to kick up the next day and the water is so deep. We decided to try for a town mooring. If we couldn’t find one, we would simply head out for Newport, our next port of call. When we arrived at 1pm on Thursday (August 9), we were discouraged to see no available town mooring balls. We weaved in and out of the moored boats to try to find a mooring ball that might be free or with an occupant that was leaving soon. Our first and second pass were unsuccessful, although one boater told us that the town would possibly rent us a private mooring ball if we called them after 5pm. That was too late to make us feel comfortable. We decided to make one more pass through the field to see what we could find. Cathy was convinced this was going to be as hopeless as the first 2 passes and tried to begin plugging in the route to Newport on the chartplotter. When we had almost given up, someone on a boat near the back of the mooring field waved to us to say that he was leaving his mooring ball and we could have it. This was unbelievable! Cathy was trying to turn in the tight field to line up on the ball, while giving its current occupant enough room to vacate it. In her haste, she came too close to the boat behind us, snagging their anchor on our lifeline. We disentangled quickly, and moved forward to pick up the mooring ball. The good news was we had a place to stay. The bad news was we had never come that close to another boat before, and Cathy was feeling horrible.

We launched the dinghy, and Dave went over to our neighbors to talk to them about the incident. No one was home, and he couldn’t see any damage from the vantage point of the dinghy. Our lifeline seemed undamaged as well. Dave said that one other thing in our favor was that our neighbors had some weathered fuel cans on deck that meant they might be cruisers and (maybe) a little more forgiving. We decided to go explore the town and see if we could catch them when we returned. When we came back from our brief walk, we hailed the Judith Arlene and told Judy and Ed about the damage. They were extremely gracious about it, but we offered to take care of anything they might find. To our surprise and delight, Judy then invited us to dinner with them and some friends. What a way to meet your neighbors! Not one we would recommend, but they were a wonderful couple and we enjoyed the evening together with them and their friends, Paul and Kathy, tremendously.

Sunset over Newport mooring field

Newport

Newport, Rhode Island is back on the mainland on the Narragansett Bay, a short 25 miles from Block Island. We headed out early from Block Island on Sunday and arrived in Newport by 11am. It is a busy harbor on most days and, on a Sunday, with the Jazz festival underway, it was even more so. Dave was once again at the wheel as he navigated between the huge tanker leaving the Narragansett Bay for the sound and the many pleasure boats heading out to enjoy a Sunday sail. The radio traffic was heavy as well as we tried to hail the Oldport launch for a mooring assignment. After some of the most confusing directions and most disorganized mooring field to date, we managed to tie up to a mooring ball right off the dinghy dock. We headed off into town to explore, stopping at the Seaman’s Church Institute, which offers sailors showers for a small donation and has a beautiful chapel on the 2nd floor. Our next stop was a warehouse sale for Helly Hansen that happened to be going on. Then we toured the International Yacht Restoration School, where some students were finishing up some independent study projects before the summer session ended.

The next day we took the bus to see the famous Newport mansion, The Breakers, which has a breathtaking view of the ocean. The house is huge and its beautifully decorated rooms in near-original condition, giving you a sense of how the upper crust, in this case the Cornelius Vanderbilts, lived at the turn of the twentieth century. I can see why George Vanderbilt (Cornelius’ younger brother) felt compelled to continue the building spree with Biltmore in Asheville.

Massachusetts – Cuttyhunk to Provincetown

Cuttyhunk

We left Newport for Cuttyhunk Island in Buzzards Bay on Tuesday morning (August 14) and were able to sail much of the way. Cuttyhunk is the westernmost of the Elizabeth Islands, which make up the southern boundary of Buzzards Bay. Cuttyhunk is even more remote than Block Island, with only limited ferry service to the mainland. It is a quant island, with a history as a summer resort for a NY fishing and hunting club and then a group of wealthy families who built summer homes here. This was the tightest mooring field we had been in so far, and the mooring balls had no pennants, so we had to navigate the tight field and secure ourselves to the mooring ball with a temporary line so Dave could rig a more permanent pennant. After the Block Island experience, Cathy was much relieved when this went smoothly.

We explored the island that afternoon, and then decided to move on the next day, which would bring favorable winds and currents to travel Buzzards Bay. We initially planned to stop at Onset on the western edge of the Cape Cod Canal. However, the current upon entering the canal was favorable enough, we decided to continue to Provincetown. The only hesitation was that the winds had been building throughout the day. Cathy was a little concerned that they might get too high for comfort as we crossed Cape Cod Bay for Provincetown. The winds were definitely higher than forecast, gusting well over 30 knots, but they were behind us. So we sailed wing-on-wing up the Bay, making Provincetown by 3pm.

Unfortunately, the waves were building behind us along with the wind. Cathy decided it was the better part of wisdom not to turn around and look at them very often. As we made the turn for the final entrance to Provincetown, the waves were a little more at an angle off our starboard stern quarter, but still manageable. Now, the fishing floats were much harder to see as they bobbed in the rough seas. The final mile and half of the trip into the harbor put us abeam to the winds and waves. The water was splashing over the side of the cockpit as we strained to make out the breakwater with the red daymark, which was our landmark for the mooring field. With every mooring ball around us taken and the wind blowing 30 knots, we knew we had no room for error. We would fall back on the boats behinds us quickly if we missed. We had another successful pick-up and were on the ball safely. Why is this always so stressful?

Charts and Other Boat Stuff

Being cheap is a cruiser’s trademark, but we try to balance our “frugal” nature with safety concerns. Our most recent concern that pitted these 2 considerations against each other was concerning the purchase of charts for our Garmin chartplotter. Our model of chartplotter has the annoying requirement that we purchase charts region by region. (Later versions come with all the charts.) In reviewing the charts we needed for the trip, there appeared to be a gap of about 25 miles in the middle of Long Island sound. As we drew closer to this area, which we refer to as the “black hole”, Dave tried to assess what we would be without. Remember, we rely heavily on the chartplotter for navigation. We decided that the area was not one where we would likely stop, so we opted to skip buying these charts. We would rely on our back up paper charts and the electronic version of them on the computer using Mapsource software. The first harbor we entered that forced us to try this approach was Northport. Although Huntington Bay was on our charts, the narrow entrance to the Northport harbor was missing. That meant we had to rely on paper charts, and binoculars more than usual when entering the channel. When this seemed to work OK, we tried this approach again navigating up the Connecticut River. Dave had verified his waypoints on our Maptech electronic charts and we made our way up the River to Essex successfully. Since these were the only 2 harbors affected by the “black hole”, we felt we made the right decision in not spending the extra money on these charts.

The only other boat activities were routine. We changed the oil, refilled with water and re-provisioned in Newport, and did laundry (and more grocery shopping) in Essex. We were once again the beneficiaries of a kind stranger in Essex, who saw us toasting on the sidewalk with our soon to be spoiled groceries. She offered us a ride into town and took us to the marina parking lot. She would take nothing for the ride except our thanks. We are constantly impressed with the generosity of strangers in our travels.

Massachusetts to New Hampshire

If we so desired, we are within a couple of days journey of Newburyport and our friends in New Hampshire. We plan to spend more time in Provincetown, Scituate and Boston first before joining them in a week or so. So, we’ll find out about the Carnival festival in Provincetown and let you know all about it in our next update.

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