Keeping It Simple

We met a couple, Helmut and Jan from Kennebunkport, Maine on Metta, a Bayfield 29. They have made the trip down the coast to either Florida or the Bahamas 16 times. They do not have refrigeration and the only navigational electronics they have are a depth sounder and a handheld GPS. They started cruising before all of the complex electronics were developed and became popular so they are quite comfortable without. They do have Sirius radio for music and news. This approach does have the advantages of a lot less stress when the systems fail and a whole lot less expense. I can attest to this as I wait for our chartplotter to be returned from servicing by Raymarine in New Hampshire. To be honest we would not give up our comforts and electronics on Ariel. It is all what you become used to. Helmet prioritized their needs as; a good shower, a great mattress, the ability to prepare good meals and then some entertainment. These were also priorities for us as we prepared Ariel.

Navy Football

It got a little exciting Friday as the front passed through. The wind picked up a little, not much but enough to cause a boat to drag anchor. The owners were not on board. One boat in its path moved. The movement was very slow so there was plenty of time to react. After awhile it threatened another boat, without anyone aboard at the time so a few of us used our dinghies to push the boat back into a safe position. It turns out that they had hardly any chain out. We added more chain and it stayed in the new position. The owners arrived back after dark and did a double take as they found their boat had moved to a new location. The Navy Marine Corp Memorial Stadium is close by and this is the second weekend we have been here with a home game. The sound is traveling well today so it is almost as if we were there in the stadium. Both last week and again this week they had a military fly over during the National Anthem and we are right on the approach path so they are extremely low as they fly over. This is a great fall weekend and so far we have had little traffic on the creek.

Exploring Annapolis

We have settled in here in Spa Creek. We moved to another location where we could put out a second anchor off the stern to keep from swinging. The traffic volume on the creek was really high on the weekend as it is popular to cruise up and down the creek. We are almost at the end of the navigable waters so they turn around just after passing us. We are also on the tour boat circuit. After the weekend, things settled down again. We have quite a collection in our little anchorage area. We have Canadian boats from Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Ontario, and boats from New Zealand and the Netherlands. We also have boats from Michigan, Maine and North Carolina. We are getting to know our neighbors and getting great tips. One that really helped was finding out about the free city bus that runs to the Navy Marine Corp Memorial Stadium. Our grocery is very near the stadium so we took advantage of this opportunity. The family on the boat nearest us is from the Georgian Bay area in Canada. Larry and Janet have their children Graham and Claire aboard. They are keeping up their studies with correspondence courses. They have been here all summer getting the boat which they purchased here ready for the Caribbean. They plan to depart soon for Bermuda. From Bermuda it is a southerly course eventually aided by the trade winds to the Caribbean. We are mixing our days with chores and exploring the city. Pictured is the William Paca house and garden, one of the most elegant landmarks in Annapolis. Constructed between 1763-1765, the five-part Georgian residence was built as a town home for William Paca, a wealthy young lawyer who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The estate is well-known for its two-acre pleasure garden featuring five terraces, a fish-shaped pond, and a wilderness garden. The one hour tour is excellent and we recommend it.

William Paca house

 

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Annapolis

We are anchored in Spa Creek in Annapolis. Annapolis is our first real destination and this will be our home base for the next few weeks. You couldn't ask for a better place for an extended stay. The city has 17 miles of shoreline between Spa Creek, Back Creek and Weems Creek. The city has provided numerous dinghy docks, so usually you can tie up very close to your destination. Annapolis has always been a favorite of ours, but until now we had always arrived by car. Arrival by boat the first time is a little intimidating. The harbor is busy and crowded with moorings and anchored boats. We called the Spa Creek Bridge on VHF 13 to request they open as scheduled on the ½ hour. We only had a six minute wait. Spa Creek beyond the bridge is also very congested. Our plan was to anchor off Truxtun Park, well up the creek. While a bit tight we did find a spot just off the shoreline of the park. In October the boat shows are held here so we know this will get much more crowded. From here Linda will be able to get a bus and then light rail to BWI airport once Scott calls with the news of the baby. The trip down here worked out to be a good shakedown cruise and this is a great place to correct any problems. We took our chart plotter into the shop for a software glitch we have been having. Get this, we just took the dinghy to the fifth street dinghy dock, walked a half block and we were at the Electronic Marine to drop off our chart plotter. After than it was on to Market Slip and the Visitors Center to get information to plan some site seeing. We had expected Doug and Sharon from About Time to anchor in the same area. They found us and stopped by in their dinghy. They had taken a mooring in the harbor for $150 per week. They also have a grandbaby due in mid October. They will leave after the week and get as far south as they can before flying back to Toronto when the baby arrives.

Eastern Shore

We are really enjoying Maryland’s eastern shore. This is very rural with quiet anchorages. The shoreline is tree lined, with areas of bluffs and others of grassy marsh leading up to water’s edge and supporting much wildlife. Just beyond the shoreline it opens into farms fields. Last evening we passed close by an osprey perched on a pole while returning to Ariel. We are now anchored in Swan Creek near Rock Hall. This is appropriately named as we passed a swan on entering the creek.

One of the hardest adjustments for us is getting accustomed to the shallow depths here on the bay. At times we only have 2 – 4 feet under the keel. This is very unsettling as the margin for error is very slim.

Learning The Bay

Our plan for Saturday was to spend a quiet day at anchor, but that was not to be, at least for the morning. After the front passed, the as typical winds picked up. We found our nice snug overnight anchorage was not so reliable after all. We slowly plowed through the mud and moved off position and closer to shore. We re-anchored two more times with no success. The 55# Delta was completely buried and even with a 10:1 scope it would very slowly plow through the mud. We did some research and found there are conditions like this on the bay. It was just our luck to find such a spot the first night. We then thought we would anchor up a small creek, but the entry was very narrow and we ran aground. It is just mud so it was not a problem and we were able to back off and be on our way. This was enough to nix the creek idea. We then selected a spot across the river from our original location and found very good holding. The afternoon and evening was much more relaxing. Our voltage regulator has been dead since Old Lyme. We have been running the generator to power the battery charger to keep up with our electrical demands until we could get a replacement. In powering off the mud bar we revved the engine higher that we normally operate and now the voltage regulator is working normally again.

The next day, Sunday, we decided to move Ariel further up the Sassafras River to be closer to Georgetown. We only went two miles but it brought Georgetown into site and made for a much shorter dinghy ride to town. We enjoyed lunch at the Harbor Café at the Sassafras Harbor Marina. The food was excellent and the portions generous. After lunch we continued on another 1 ½ miles to Gelena to buy groceries. We are definitely getting our exercise.

NJ Coast, Delaware Bay, C&D Canal

There are many challenges facing us and some more difficult than others. One which we had thought about and discussed a lot was our overnight passage along the New Jersey coast. We had never done an overnight trip before so this was new territory for us. While anchored in Atlantic Highlands we met Christian and Mary from ‘I Wanda’. They have been cruising since 1993 including three years in the Mediterranean. They are a wealth of knowledge and they advised staying only about 1 – 2 miles off the coast. We adjusted our planned course to be two miles off. We waited until 1:30 pm to depart so we could be sure to have a daylight arrival at Cape May. We stood two hours watches right from the start and powered under sail until sunset. We shortened sail at sunset and motored sailed through the night. It was an uneventful night and we had two other sailboats within one to two miles as displayed on the radar all night. The skies were clear so millions of stars were visible. The casinos at Atlantic City are lit all night so the city is in view for miles before and after passing. We dropped anchor in Cape May just off the Coast Guard training facility at 8:00 am. We took showers and had short naps and then shortly after lunch picked up Doug and Sharon on ‘About Time’ to go into the town of Cape May. We had seen their boat at all of our anchorages beginning in Port Jefferson and they were one of the two other boats traveling through the night with us. They are from Toronto, Ontario and just spent the summer in Maine. After a visit to town we compared plans for the next day over cocktails on their boat and agreed at a 4:30 am anchors up to get out to the mouth of Delaware Bay at the right time to catch a favorable current all the way up the bay and through the Chesapeake and Delaware canal (C&D). We are too tall to use the Cape May canal so we had to go around the outside. There are shoals so picking the right course is very important. We decided on the Cape May Channel which is a middle course. Adding to the challenge was doing this in the night but with the chart plotter we easily picked our way through. Our trip up the bay was very fast with both wind and current favorable. We had decided to anchor in the Sassafras River, again based on a recommendation from both ‘I Wanda’ and About Time’. We anchored in a beautiful spot for a very peaceful night for some much needed rest.

Darkness arriving on our trip down the coast

Sharing space with the big boys on Delaware Bay

Entering the C&D canal

9/11

Last night as the high pressure system moved in, the skies cleared and the visibility improved dramatically. For the first time we could see the lights from the Varrazano Narrows Bridge and the New York skyline. Our special treat was to see the light from the site of the World Trade Center sharp and narrow shining straight up into space. The weather is favorable so we are off later today (9/12) for our overnight passage along the N.J. coast

NYC From The Water

We made our trip down the East River on Monday September 10, just a day before the 9/11 anniversary. Most of the day we were travelling in fog and relying quite heavily on radar, but as we passed Manhattan and then the Statute of Liberty the skies were clear. We ran very close to the shore and it was unbelievable taking in the sights and sounds of the city getting into another work week. Today we are tucked in at Atlantic Highlands at Sandy Hook, New Jersey with on and off showers. The weather looks very good to leave tomorrow for Cape May.

 

Visit To The Big Apple

While waiting for Gabrielle to definitely decide to go move away, we decided to visit New York City. It was an easy trip beginning with a water taxi to the town dock, then a short walk to the Long Island Railroad train station and then a short trip and inexpensive ride into Penn Station. We had a great day in the city. It was nice so everyone was out and about enjoying the weekend. From our vantage point at Top of the Rock in addition to these great views of Central Park and the Empire State Building, we were able to view our planned trip through Throgs Neck, Hell Gate, the East Side and out past the Statute of Liberty.

We Passed Inspection

Today was supposed to be a short routine run from Port Jefferson to Port Washington. There has been very little traffic on the sound during the week. Imagine our surprise as we saw the U.S. Coast Guard speeding toward us. It was hard to believe, but in that there were no other boats we decided we were probably their target. They boarded us for a safety inspection. We actually welcomed the inspection, they were cordial, and we had no violations. Later as we approached Manhasset Bay we could see the New York City skyline and what a sight. We picked up a Port of Washington town mooring which is free the first two nights. We will stay the weekend and make out plans for the coming week.

We Are Off

We are on our way. We had planned a Labor Day departure, but on Sunday our work was done, the weather was perfect, and we just couldn’t resist another great sailing day on Narragansett Bay. We anchored that evening at Dutch Harbor. On Monday we continued on to Block Island, which was our planned original first stop. We always enjoy Block and had not been there yet this summer. It was quite breezy so we did not go ashore. Our first new stop was Old Lyme which is on the Connecticut River. It was a quiet anchorage just past the I95 Bridge. We picked up a few groceries in town which was a very short walk. We are now in Port Jefferson on Long Island. We are staying here an extra day before going on. We will need to slow our pace between now and the middle of next week as the weather early next week is not favorable for our trip down the New Jersey coast.

Retired

My colleagues at Bayer and Deloitte made my last week very special for me. Linda and I drove to Pittsburgh as I needed to return company equipment and deliver the car our daughter in Ohio for storage. Wednesday was my last full non travel day. They arranged an office farewell gathering. I am happy to acknowledge the work of Bonnie Crawford, Lou Vitolo, Jean Sponseller and Shelly Dulesky in putting this together and getting the word out. It was quite a day with absolutely everyone wearing badges with my mug shot taped on. Everyone was Norm for the day. I arrived to be greeted with Norm face cutouts held up in front of everyone and of course the greeting of “NORM”. We had good fun with the usual complement of gag gifts. I was so happy to see everyone including former colleagues I had not seen in a very long time. They had managed to sneak Linda in and she was also one hiding behind a Norm face. I so much appreciate that they included Linda. The day was capped off with dinner at Monterrey Fish Grotto on Mount Washington overlooking the city of Pittsburgh. This was a smaller group hosted by George Bartha. The food was good, the wine was good and the conversation was great. We all had a great time. My manager, Jim Bertino, was out of town for training and could not attend, but Jim had set the wheels in motion for a great last week for me and I very much appreciate that. Throughout the week I received well wishes from throughout the company.