08/15/2006, GYB
Our time at Georgetown Yacht Basin is drawing to an end. At the end of the month, we will be sailing Jabulani up to NYC, to put her in a marina in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. There Jabulani will be hauled out, power washed down, and blocked for some winter projects. We are really looking forward to the offshore trip, and we should be have the self-steering working for this voyage.
The picture is the view of GYB from the pool, looking out over the marina. Jabulani is too far away to be seen, but is out on the mooring field, next to the trees.
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07/29/2006, GYB
Saturday was a hot, humid day, but there was work to be done. I am getting the deck ready for painting, and fixed up a few other minor things here and there. One thing I did set up was some cabin fans to run off the excess solar power we have right now. When the batteries are fully charged, like they are now, they can no longer accept any more current from the solar panels. The solar controller essentially dumps this excess energy by converting it to heat. However the solar controller I have has a feature whereby the excess can be diverted to another 12v load. So I connected up one fan to run in the bilge and another to run in the cabin. I am hoping this will move the air around sufficiently to cool and ventilate the cabin while we are away.
| Construction Phase |
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07/08/2006, Georgetown Yacht Basin.
We went by dinghy over to the Sassafras Harbor Café and enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast, French toast, sausages, muffins, coffee, orange juice. Oh, did I mention it was quite a lot of food?
After returning to the boat we spent the rest of the morning packing up, cleaning out and tidying up. I think we left there at about 2 or 3 p.m. to head on back to New Jersey with Brian.
Brian returned to his life on Monday July 10th. He has been such fun to have aboard, a fantastic helper and a great friend.
We have tried to settle back into our lives since our return but have found the adjustment getting back harder that the adjustment of going away. While away all the experiences seem to be able to be summed up as being the flesh that has been added to the long lived dream. May the dream live on and the body of it take shape more and more over the next months.
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07/07/2006, Reedy Point to Georgetown Yacht Basin
It was rather tricky getting out of the now shallow anchorage, but get out we did and turned our nose toward the canal entrance. We were entertained all morning by various ?Pan-Pan?? s” involving yachts that were burning, oil-tankers leaking oil and other pleasure boat mishaps.
We arrived at Chesapeake Inn, in Chesapeake City, radioed in numerous times while circling around the slips to find out where they would have us dock for the time we would take to have lunch. After no response to our inquiries we docked at the most convenient place for us and Philip and Brian went straight to the Office to speak to the Dock Master, though I am still convinced Brian?? s only aim was to procure for himself another cold Coke. The nice lady on duty said that the Dock Master had not come in to work yet but that we were fine just where we were. Later when the Dock Master actually did appear on the scene he seemed most offended that we were at an unauthorized slip. We made peace and explained that we did in fact have the kind lady?? s authorization, but he promptly proceeded, seething in passive aggression, to plop orange traffic cones marked ?Reserved” at all open and available slips just in case another wanderer came into the area looking for a spot for a couple of hours.
While the men set off to fill up with diesel, the kids and I went for a walk back to the quaint little toyshop where we bought Luke?? s dolphin stick to try to buy him another one. I guess being a slow weekday the toyshop was closed. So, no dolphin stick. Sorry young man. On the way back we stopped at the town park that the kids had enjoyed so much on the way down and they had fun swinging and climbing and actually enjoyed it more this time. Another note to self: No diesel available in the whole of Chesapeake City. Go figure!
After a very good lunch we set off again, this time on our way to Georgetown Yacht Basin. We had a calm and easy motor all the way there and after tying securely back onto our mooring we went ashore for a well-deserved swim.
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07/06/2006, Cape May to Reedy Point
We caught the rising tide at 8 a.m. and were out of the mouth of the Cape May Canal by 9 o?? clock in time to encounter the flooding Delaware River with trees and various flotsams causing us to be on our toes to dodge them all.
Three huge ships past eachother and us in the narrowest part of the Bay. It is quite hair-raising to see three massive freighters come barreling down at you when you have nowhere to go. We did enjoy listening to the VHF radio conversations between other mariners and overheard seasoned ship?? s captains chastising other leisure craft for bad seamanship while in shipping channels. Of course, we did our best to be on good behavior.
Despite our inexperience in navigating the infamous Delaware Bay we managed to leave at the perfect time to ride the tide all the way up to the C & D Canal. We motor sailed most of the way and made good time. Having the headsails up made it significantly more comfortable in those conditions.
We decided to anchor just shy of the entrance to the canal and only head on through it on the morrow. Using forward-looking sonar to dodge logs and other debris, we missed various dykes and managed to anchor securely behind Reedy?? s Island. Can you believe, we encountered a 2-knot current while at anchor? Amazing! We enjoyed another beautiful sunset in the cockpit despite having found ourselves once again anchored off another power plant (seems to be a recurring theme of this trip). Dinner was a chicken, almond, honey and famous South African peppadew dish ??" yummy!
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07/05/2006, Great Egg Harbour to Cape May
After listening to the weather report, we had southerlies all the way south toward Cape May and just as we rounded Cape May and turned north, well, so the winds became northerlies. Then we headed into the Cape May canal and could not use our sails anyway!
We changed our tactics that day to stop just enjoying our leisurely sails to focus on getting back to Georgetown, delivery style.
When we arrived in Cape May and started looking around for a good marina to dock at, I happened to be helming when Philip and Brian spotted a tiny little "kayak jetty” and asked me to head over to tie up there for them to get off and go find someone to ask where we should go. As I neared the dock I could see the numbers on the depth sounder getting less and less and I kept calling them out to Philip.
"4”
"3.2”
"2.8”
"2”
"1.2”
"0.5”
"0” Note to self: When the depth sounder says "0” you've run aground.
I had run us aground! How embarrassing, right there between a variety of marinas, ships on one side, numerous fancy yachts on the other.
Some compassionate yachties in an inflatable dinghy came to help us push off. Philip jumped onto the boom and we pushed it way out over the side of the boat while the inflatable pushed on the bow. We were off in no time. The kind fellow yachties also gave us directions to Utsch's Marina. We squeezed our way in to the pretty tight channel there and made it to their diesel fuel dock, where we met Drew, the friendly dock hand.
Once docked, wild horses could not have held Brian on that boat, he was off in no time to find a cold Coke. He came back some minutes later with a Pepsi in hand, looking a bit glum (to say the least). It was a "Pepsi only” marina. Philip went to pay for a slip for the night and came back with a goodie bag from the Dock Master: a bottle of wine, a bag of crackers, some cheese, a bag of biscotti, an area map and a waterproof container on a key chain. What a nice surprise! I would be happy to visit there again.
After moving to a very comfortable slip we took a walk to the marina's store to restock on various provisions, put them on the boat and then, in spite of forecast rain, walked a few blocks to the local pizzeria for supper. We ordered way too much food, in order for us to have enough leftovers to last us for breakfast and lunch the next day. It started to rain while we were there and the rain steadily got harder and harder as our meal progressed. At the end of the meal the rain got lighter and lighter until it was finally just a drizzle.
We walked back to our boat and then on to the facilities before bed. Oh, that's another thing. The facilities were first class. They looked almost like hotel bathrooms, very nice.
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