The Cruising Life on Altair

It is always important to train new crew members.

On Saturday, Sep. 19, Barbara Wallace joined me with two of her grand daughters, Annie (13) and Maggie (4). This was Maggie first time going out on the boat and all the safety items were in place, cockpit jack lines, a youth lifejacket with tether. The tether gave her full range of the cockpit and she was clear the she could not fall off the boat.

Before we left Annapolis Maggie helped close and lock all the cabinets and drawers. Then we headed for Shaw Bay on the Wye River. As we passed Thomas Point Light, Maggie wanted to know the name of the light house. Then we passed Bloody Point light house and Maggie started looking at the chart plotter. She started to understand the relation ship of the boat to the chart and started asking questions.

We were to turn into the Eastern Bay at G-1 which Barbara pointed out on the chart. Maggie then started looking for the green buoy. She let us know when she saw it and then we planned our turn.

As we were going in the Eastern Bay Maggie started asking was some of the symbols meant. Tone was a radio tower on shore that I pointed out. She was very happy.

Once we arrived in Shaw Bay, we anchored and then watched all the jellyfish swimming past. We had BBQ chicken for diner in the cockpit and then watch all the stars.

Sunday, while we were were sailing back, Maggie watched for buoys, steered and named the light houses.

She got this big smile on her face when I told her were were going to sail and turn the engine off. we were doing 8.5 kts with just the genoa.

The weekend was a great adventure, Maggie went on her first sailing trip and Annie got to see the Milky Way.

I’m closing out the 2014-15 Cruising season in the Virgin Islands. Since arriving in November, I have mastered picking up a mooring Solo on Altair. I had four sets of visitors.

Joel & Tammy came the end of December and we did Foxy’s on Josh Van Dyke for New Year & my birthday, then cruised the BVI for a week. Jeff, my son, was here in January for a week. Barbara visited in February for 10 days. Teri and Patrica were here in March. It was a good mix of visitors and solo sailing over the last six months.

Altair is in Nanny Cay preparing for the World Cruising Club’s ARC USA. Most of the preparation has been completed and the safety inspection was done Monday. That evening was the welcome event and I saw several captain’s and crews from previous rallies.

The Crew is scheduled to arrive on Thursday. I’ll get them trained and then we head for Ft Lauderdale, FL Friday, May 9th.

Ken Dickinson, Tom Griffin and I departed Annapolis, MD around 11 am Thursday, August 7 for a trip to Maine, This was my shakedown cruise for Altair, the plan was over the almost three week trip to check out as many systems as possible and get familiar with how she handled off shore.

We were able to sail the first couple hours as we moved up the Chesapeake Bay then we started motoring. We took the C&D Canal to the Delaware Bay and exited the Delaware Bay just before 6 am Friday then turned north on a course that would take us East of the shallows off Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod.

We cleared Cape Cod on Sunday, still motoring, no wind. Early Monday morning we spotted a fog bank that had formed. Around 8 am we started seeing lobster pot at 12 nm from the coast. at 8:30 we spotted land and the fog started to clear. We were moored in Southwest Harbor, ME on Arcadia around 11 am.

Tom got a car and we explored Arcada National Park Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday evening we did carry out lobster and had a great meal on Altair. The local tide had a 14 foot swing. Tom departed Wednesday evening and had a fight home early Thursday morning. Ken and I spent an extra day on the mooring due to bad weather off shore, 40 to 60 mph winds and 48 foot seas.

Saturday, August 16 after motoring over 24 hours, still no wind, the Hi pressure system is killing us, we arrived in Portland, ME. We went into Maine Yacht Center on the dock and this was the perfect opportunity to do laundry and walk into town for a meal at a Tia restaurant.

Monday, we sailed to Rockport, ME and had to anchor north of the harbor, they could not handle a 50 yacht inside. Tuesday, we took the dinghy in and explored the town.

Wednesday, we sailed to Sandwich, MA just inside the Cape Cope Canal and took a slip. On the way se saw several whales. In Sandwich we walked into town and did some provisioning.

Early Thursday morning we left Sandwick with the tide and headed to Jamestown, RI, across the river for Newport, RI. In Jamestown we took a mooring and took the marina shuttle into the shore for diner. Friday, we went ashore again for exploring.

Saturday, August 23, we left Jamestown sailing with the tide heading home. We were able to sail until entering the Delaware Bay on Sunday evening. We then motored up the Delaware and on to Annapolis via the D&C canal.

We arrived n Annapolis around 2 pm and docked at Jabin’s Dock C-17 which had been home for Keep It Simple of the last 6 years.