10/24/2009, solomon island, md
"Papa, there is a nice quiet little harbor right here..."
Note to self: How many times do they have to say, "the most dangerous thing on the boat is the calendar"... So today we pushed out of Little Choptank River to try a run south to see some family who were only there one more day. Well, in the open bay was a south (direction we wanted to head) wind blowing 25 knots, 5 foot steep waves as the current was running north to south... all this left us feeling like we should have gone further up the Little Choptank river to hang out, rather than trying to go south!
So we looked for a good out, and it was Solomon's Island, MD on the Poutaxent River. We are now holed up here with a dozen other cruisers waiting for better weather. Off to bed now...
For a look at part of our bash:
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Comments [1]
10/23/2009, Little Choptank River
Navigator checks the charts and currents to plan the day's sail...
Well , we kind of lazed around and didn't leave Tim's creek until 10 am... bad call... as that put us in the dark entering little Choptank Creek. We had planned on going to Cambridge to visit an old sailing buddy, Jen Bendixon... but, he is out of town so we will have to catch up with him in the spring. Looking at the weather for the weekend we decided to bolt for the south end of the Chesapeake... We hope to be in Onancock creek tomorrow before the Thunderstorms start.
Today was a typical Chesapeake day. A submarine siting, some beautiful sailboats, good wind out of the SE. You can tell a lot by the above photo... it is warm now! Yea!What a difference a few degrees of latitude make.
We have traveled 650 miles since we left the Shelburne Shipyard in mid-September... And we filled up with fuel the other day: 29 gallons used since Kingston, NY. The engine has 102 hours on it.
Make sure and check out the "current position" to the left... just click on it and it will show you where we are...
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10/22/2009, Tim's Creek, MD
Another day riding the currents
After sleeping 13 hours we were up and sailing at 0700 so we could catch the favorable current up the Delaware Bay... and we did... Up the bay through the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal (as the current turned) and rode the Ebb current down to Tim's Creek. We are about 25 miles from Annapolis, MD.
We did have a rather close encounter with a very big ship. In the middle of the bay, it kind of crept up on us and there we were center channel! Bill was on the deck, dousing the Spinnaker and Lara and Isobel were at the helm. Folks on SV Coot from VT shot the photo. The perspective gives a sense of how very HUGE these ships are. Our mast is 52 feet tall! We actually were not dangerously close the ship, maybe 2 or 300 yards. Lesson for the day: if you see a ship in the distance, move out of the channel now!
Otherwise the day was uneventful. It has been very nice to have it be warm... 70s to 80s in the cockpit! We are preparing for a shift of wind and some rain tomorrow.
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Heyyyy, Sunrise !
checking in.
Not sure where Tim's Creek is.
You're underway now for sure.
My weathermap looks like pc with occasional showers through the day.
Try to post early this evening where you are cause we are likely to call you from either Gloria's house 757 787 1386 or here.
Have you taken a look at Onancock Creek cause there are advantages, drawback being that you're not HERE visiting with us and we'd love to see y'all for a while.
Plans?
Yeah, it's totally amazing how those big mothers come up on you cause they can be doing 20 knots.
Main thing is they see you.
If we're getting close or look like we may be crossing, I usually hail them on 16/13 to make sure they see me.
SV Tortuga hailing the large tanker off my port bow, do you copy?
Any problem with my present course?
Cause they DO get bigger than that.
Anyway, take care.
Thanks for posting.
love,
j&h
10/21/2009, Cape May, NJ
The water slid by the boat easily for 22 hours.
We left at 2 pm and sailed south and south and south into the night, past Atlantic City and into the warm south. Overnight the temperature dropped to 57 and was in the high eighties when we arrived in Cape May. All three of us are happy to strip off our many layers. At night we even wore gloves. We used the Monitor windvane to steer most of the way. It does really well when the wind is above 10 knots. below that it was not heplfull. It is great to be able to eat, write in the log book, study charts,, etc rather than hand steer the whole time.
Isobel slept well too, some of the time with Lara and some of the time with Bill.... Now, we are all wiped out and plan on eating and sleeping so we are ready for an early departure for the C&D Canal...
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Glad you're there.
We anchored off the CG station.
pea-soup fog just off the Way.
A little unnerving.
Is Chesapeake City next?
Still 2+ days to Harborton from there.
You might think about Onancock Creek - a great anchorage close by the dock to dinghy in and out. Close by Ro and Gloria's new house.
Take care.
Thanks for logging.
hugs.
j&h
10/20/2009, sandy Hook NJ
Here you can see our Laundry Machines: Washer is the red thing in the cockpit and dryer on left, has the diapers almost dry.
Yesterdays sail from Eaton's neck to Sandy Hook was high speed. We timed the departure so the entire time we were with the current. Under sail all the way to Hells Gate in the East River we had perfect winds and clear skies. At that point sometimes reaching 8 Knots over the ground.
We furled the Genoa as we entered Hells Gate and the current increased to 6 knots making our speed over the ground 11.7 knots at one point. Flying! This time we passed the South-street Seaport without event as it was about 1 pm. We continued on the ebb tide through the Narrows, under the Verrazano bridge and into Raritan Bay. At this point the forecast west winds shifted to south and we dropped the sail, completing the last couple miles motoring into the municipal yacht basin at 4:30 pm (1630). It was nice to have some time to do laundry, clean up the boat and go to bed early! When we woke, 1/3 of the boats in the basin had left and headed south using the west winds. We plan on leaving mid day so we can arrive Cape May tomorrow mid day.
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Glad to hear from you.
Congrats on the Sandy Hook arrival.
Sliding down past HellsGate sounds like the trip down the Current Cut in the Bahamas going from the inside of Eleuthera to the outer islands.
After 10, I couldn't keep up with the knotmeter and the boat was a handful because it's really narrow.
So what are the plans?
Down to CapeMay and then up the Delaware, or head out to Ocean City and around Cape Charles?
More comfy going up and through the Canal.
Please keep in touch .
Everything looks great.
Weather is improving.
And Isobel looks real happy.
AS USUAL !
Let us know if there's anything we can do.
love,
joey and helen in harborton
a second thought on the read over.
Doesn't your GPS have an anchor-alarm feature?
I only use mine when the winds are forecast to shift or if I'm in a sensitive anchor site for some reason.
But ours does work great.
Another thing - once I have the anchor down, I take another waypoint mark and zoom in the screen.
I can do a quick check anytime before we turn in, which is when I set the alarm.
I sleep better that way.
Usually in the morning I delete that WP - unless its a great anchorage, and we may come back someday.
When it comes to anchoring, helen and I are kind of pro's.
We've dragged everywhere! : )
Really look forward to seeing you.
hugs and love to all
us
10/18/2009
Eaton's Neck on a cold rainy day with gale warnings out.
Well, we are off again after a longer than expected visit to Mt Sinai and Miller Place. It was great to visit with Lara's Mom and Grandmother. It was also great to get caught up on a few more boat projects... Although leaving this late presents us with days like this. 45 degrees, raining and wind blowing 25 to 30 mph. The boat can handle it all, but the crew is wishing for warmer temperatures!
Yesterday we sailed about 20 miles west along the sound on a broad reach with just our new Genoa out. It was perfect downwind sailing, the only problem was our late departure, about 3:15 pm, had us arrive here in the dusky dusk. By the time we had the anchor down it was dark. 30 minutes later the Coast Guard arrived to ask us to move out of the "channel"! We poked our way carefully a litter further "out" having already found out, the hard way, that it gets shallow fast over there! We were able to tuck just out of the channel. We had a great dinner and slept well, all of us. With the cold forecast, we have decided to stay here until Monday morning. Clean up, rest up, do some projects.
Addendum: Well, just as I submitted this last post, I looked out the port to check our position for the 1000th time... and we were moving! The anchor had dragged. I later realized that we had set the anchor at low tide with 8 feet of water... and with the extra high tide, we had changed our "scope calculation". Not having enough scope, we had pulled up on the anchor, and off we went. Then the engine would not start! I deployed the second anchor which stopped us about 50 yards downwind of where we had been. When I bleed the fuel line using the auxiliary pump I had installed, the engine started. Phew! OK, with all systems go, we pulled up the two anchors and moved back to our anchor spot, deploying both anchors and 150' of scope (7 times the depth at high tide. The two anchors are about 25 yards apart... we would rather have more distance, but there is not much space between the edge of the channel and the shallow water.
Using the Latitude on the radio, which is connected via NMEA to the small GPS I can monitor our position from the nav station. Time for some lunch! The cabin is warmed by our little Espar heater which burns a tiny amount of Diesel fuel.
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10/11/2009, Portland, ME
We are in Portland taking a 3 day course on dealing with offshore medical emergencies. Most "first aid" courses I have taken in the past deal with patching someone up and waiting for the ambulance to show up. Where we are going trained medical help may be days or even weeks away or may involve some kind of risky rescue by Helicopter or big ship.
This course has focused on two things: determining if there is an injury serious enough to risk evacuation and the long term care of injuries that may be not be worth the risk of evacuation but are considered life threatening. Our doctor has set us up with a bunch of drugs, including some heavy duty pain and antibiotics, and during the course we have learned when and how to use them.
This all sounds scary, I am sure. And like having a life-raft and storm sails, this is more gear and knowledge that we hope not to have to use. And it does provide some peace of mind and the confidence to do at least what will make an injured crew-member more comfortable and may save a life.
The only one of our crew not in the course is Isobel. She has been hanging out with Lara's Mom Teri during the day. We have been surprised by how comfortable Isobel has been for hours on end without us. Teri has been feeding her yogurt and some ground up Indian food. Last night she was eating some ground beets and the end of a baguette.
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10/05/2009, Mt Sinai, NY
Ed and Bill install the Wind Generator
Ed made the offer to come help and Bill jumped on the opportunity. Ed traveled all way from VT with the excuse of visiting his parents in CT, then worked three long days with Bill. We started with the Wind Generator, which will be our primary source of power when we are anchored out during our trip. It will generate 300 to 400 watts of power depending on the wind which should support our needs now that we have up graded the boat with LED lighting and an efficient Frigaboat refrigeration. The installation definitely required two people, not only because of the hands needed, but also to figure out the right place to locate it. It had to be out of the way of the Monitor wind vane steering, clear of the main sail and boom, safely out of reach, out of the way of the stern cleats, and not touching anything except its own vibration reducing mounts.
Saturday it rained, so we went inside. Ed worked on installing the SSB and VHF radios into the custom cabinet that was designed and built by Holman Studios to hold the radios and bilge pump controls. He made sense of the spaghetti of wires (antenna, control and network) and secured the equipment. Bill worked on the completing the conversion of the old refrigerator box into a Freezer/Fridge, adding insulation and weather-stripping (no big surprise there!). The new system has a heat exchanger on the outside of the hull, compressor in the engine room and evaporator plate in the freezer. An electronic control maintains the freezer and Fridge temperatures. The system is virtually silent and draws very little power.
Sunday we went back to work on the Wind generator and completed the installation. The fridge was completed, the galley sink installed. The sink now has hot and cold running water, and will have foot pump activated fresh and sea water faucets.
Thanks to Ed for all of his time, good suggestions, energy and enthusiasm.
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Love to all, and Teri too.
10/01/2009, Mt Sinai, NY
The Hudson River early: the frontier.
This morning I had a conversation with Pete, my son. We were talking about materialism and the softening of the American underbelly. He was wishing to live on the "frontier". Although the wild west has been "tamed", there is another frontier... the ocean. This discussion had me finally come up with an answer to the question many people ask me: "why are you doing this?"
Living on the frontier is simple and the focus is on the basics. Staying safe, food, shelter, and preparations for the future. When those are satisfied, we can explore and seek new adventures and new friends.
There is a lot of unknown on the frontier. Some risk, some discomfort, lots of work and the rewards are wonderful experiances like waking to one of the worlds rivers at peace.
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09/30/2009, Mt Sinai, NY
Isobel says: "Feed Meeeeee!"
Lots of people commented on Isobel. So here is another at the feeding station. She eats anything we eat, some has to be ground or chewed up. She doesn't like green peppers...
meanwhile, below decks... Bill has refridgeration running with the latest "keel cooled" heat exchanger. A little more work on the insulation and door, then on to install the wind generator...
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Ed
