Great Bridge, VA to Oriental, NC (Day 19, 20, 21 and 22)

Saturday, October 17th (Day 19)

Air temp 62, water temp 69, winds NE @ 15

We were off the dock at 7:30am to continue our trip south.  It was a pretty morning but a little windier then expected.  In fact, the forecast had changed and the winds was going to stay high at 15-20 knots from the NE all day.  We decided to go anyway and maybe the wind would help us along the more open sections.  Pretty sunrise as we were leaving.

There are two bridges that need to open for us in the first couple hours.  First was the Centerville Swing Bridge.  On the weekends, this bridge was not on a schedule - they were on-request.  As we approached, I called the bridge on VHF channel 13 and they opened right as we got there.  Now I had a slight problem.  The North Landing bridge was only about 4.5 miles away and only opened on the hour and 1/2 hour.  It was 7:52am when we passed through the Centerville Bridge.  I knew we would not be able to motor 4.5 miles in 38 minutes so we slowed to a crawl (<>4 knots) in order to time our arrival for their 9am opening.  If we had left only 10 minutes earlier, we could have saved 1/2 hour.  Oh well.  You never know about these things.  The first bridge could have been slower to open and delayed us anyway.  Such is life.

No problems as we passed through the North Landing Bridge at 9am.  There were two trawlers that had caught us before the bridge so I pulled over and let them pass us slowly.  Now we were free to the Alligator River Bridge in about 60 miles.  We planned on this one tomorrow morning.

We motored through the twisty ICW until a few hours later when we entered Currituck Sound.  This is a long straight-away so we rolled out the jib to help our speed.  The boat ran 6.5 to 7 knots with lower engine RPM almost all the way to Coinjocks.  You have to be careful along this section because the deep channel is narrow.  If you drift more than a couple boat lengths to either side, you will hit bottom.  Plus, the wind was a little gusty so, every once in a while, it tried to turn the boat.  Pay attention!  Laura took this video of sailing down Currituck Sound.

We approached our normal anchorage on the north end of the North River and it was only 2pm.  Even though the wind was still around 20 knots, I didn't think the Albemarle Sound would be too bad because the winds and seas would be from directly behind us.  We decided to "stick our nose out" onto Albemarle Sound and turn west to anchor along the windward shore if the seas were too bad.

Turns out the seas were only about 1 foot and the wind kept our speed up to 7+ knots with low engine RPM.  This would have been a great time to sail across but the winds were directly behind us.  If we fell off 40-50 degrees to run a broad reach with main and jib, I figured it would be dark before we anchored on the other side of the Alligator River Bridge.  So, we just kept the jib pulling hard and low engine RPM which made for a nice ride across the 13 miles of open water.

We sailed through the Alligator River Bridge at 5:45pm then hugged the eastern shore for about 45 minutes until we got into a little bay that offered some protection from the wind and seas.  It was very calm in there so we anchored about 1/8 mile from shore (as shown by our RADAR).  

The Alligator River is notorious for stumps and snags in the bottom.  I could see stumps and branches in the water closer to shore but nothing around us.  We dropped our anchor in 9 feet of water and let out 70 feet of chain.  Keep in mind our anchor roller is almost 6 feet off the water so that makes the dept calculation 15 feet.  Here was our sunset just after anchoring.

We spent a calm evening and were even able to watch a few episodes of our new (to us) series "Man with a Plan" on Netflix staring Matt LeBlanc (Joey from Friends).  It's a fun show.

67 nautical miles today in 11 hours.  577 total miles from Catskill

Sunday, October 18th (Day 20)

This morning I spent a little time troubleshooting our Electro Scan waste treatment system which was display an error and not working.  I check for loose wires and blown fuses but everything looked OK.  Guess I will need to keep working on this.  Here was the sunrise from this morning.

We pulled our anchor at 8:30am.  While I was pulling in the chain, it would pull the boat in one direction then seem to catch and pull in a slightly different direction.  I was a little worried that the chain was catching on stumps or other stuff on the bottom.  When we got directly over the anchor, the windlass stopped and the anchor wouldn't budge.  Oh oh.  I kept pulling in a few inches at a time and finally the anchor came loose but it was like the windlass was pulling up 100 feet of chain instead of 9.  When the anchor finally came out of the water, it had a large stump attached.  A little jiggle of the windlass up-and-down then the stump fell off to snag the next unfortunate boat to anchor here.  We turned and headed back to the ICW channel.

Yesterday, I thought the traffic on the ICW was pretty light.  I wasn't sure if it was because we were a few weeks earlier than normal or maybe the COVID was keeping people from traveling.  Turns out both were wrong - it was the high winds.  Today, everyone was underway and we were passed by over 30 powerboats during the morning.  

A few hours later we entered the Alligator - Pungo Canal.  This is a 22 miles stretch of narrow canal with visible tree stumps on both sides.  It is my least favorite part of the whole trip.  3.5 - 4 hours of trying to keep the boat in the middle plus getting passed by many powerboats and a few sailboats.  There are no tides in this whole section because it is a large area with only limited ocean access.  Instead, the water levels change depending on the wind and air pressure.  This means you never know what the currents are going to be in the canal and today they were against us.  It started at about 1/2 knot and was over 1 knot by the time we excited onto the Pungo River.  This made for an even slower trip than normal.

As we turned south down the Pungo River near Belhaven,  the winds were 6-7 knots on our beam.  We rolled out the full jib and mainsail which kept our speed around 7 knots.  We decided to keep going and anchor somewhere off Goose Creek across the Pamlico River.

We found an excellent anchorage in Eastham Creek near Good Creek Island about 1/2 mile from the ICW which would cut down on early morning powerboat wakes.  We dropped anchor at 6:15pm.  Another long day with 56 nautical miles - about 1/2 of it through the slow Alligator-Pungo Canal.  Pretty sunset tonight.

Monday, October 19th (Day 21)

It was a beautiful morning in our calm anchorage so we took our time and pulled the ancor at 9:15am.  Since we had really booked the past few days, today would be short at only about 30 miles to the marina we had reserved for some work on the boat.

Winds helped most of the day and we sailed for about an hour down the Neuse River before the winds died to less than 10 knots.  We continued on past Oriental toward New Bern and into new waters for us.  Here is a picture of us sailing down the Neuse.  Watch out!  Don't fall over!

 

Laura also took this nice video of the sail.

6 miles past Oriental is Wayfarers Marina.  They have a wood shop and carpenter that was recommended to us by our friends D and Don who are also cruisers but have a house in Oriental.  I talked to the manager Tom on the phone and he gave me detailed directions entering the channel and finding our slip.  I guess I didn't follow them close enough because we ran aground right between the #2 and #4 channel markers.  I was going pretty slow because it was shallow and we were able to motor through the soft bottom to the red side of the channel which was deeper.  No problems the rest of the way in and we tied up to our assigned slip at 2:45pm.

Every trip up and down the coast I try to see how long I can make it before going aground somewhere.  In 2014 I made it all the way from Catskill to Marathon without touching bottom - that was the only time in 30 trips.  We must have only stayed in known places that trip.  This time I had made it a little over 700 miles.  When I travel through new places, especially in NC, I go very slow and try to "feel my way" into shallow areas.  Sometimes, it takes rubbing bottom to find the best channels.  You just have to go slow enough that you can back up and try another direction.  Thankfully, the bottom around this area was very muddy and soft which making backing out a little easier.  Doing the math here you can see we've run aground at least 29 times in the past 14 years.  How many times have I had to call a tow-boat to help us get free?  Only once in Lake Sylvia, Ft. Lauderdale.  That was a hard rock bottom.  The boat didn't plow slowly into it like mud.  It bounced up on top and I couldn't even turn the boat around with full throttle and full rudder.  Ok.  Enough on that subject for now except to say there is a great song by Eric Stone called "If you ain't been aground, you ain't been around".

The slips in this marina have two pilings on each side and a short dock near the bow.  As I pulled the boat into the slip, it was a totally different tie up than I had ever seen before.  Laura asked me what to do and I told her to just get a line on something.  We ended up yelling a bit at each other - I think because we both were frustrated with this dock.  I hate it when people yell on their boat and hate it even more when I yell.  It took us over 1/2 hour to get everything and the lines where I liked them.  Here we are tied up safe and sound.

We took a walk around the marina which is a huge boatyard with 100s of boats "on the hard".  A major problem for us is very limited AT&T access on our phones and no wi-fi.  It sucks being out of touch.

Tuesday, October 20th (Day 22 - Start of week4)

I slept in a bit today (a little too much red wine last night) and didn't get up until almost 9am.  After a quick breakfast, the carpenter came over to look at the work we wanted done.  One of our cockpit drains had leaked for several years over the ceiling near our workbench.  About a year ago I saw the wet, rotted wood and cut out part of the ceiling plywood to find the leak.  I fixed the leaking hose fitting but left the rotted bulkhead, ceiling and wall for another day.  Laura and I are ok with wood but we are not carpenters.  This needed more expertise than we had.  Laura checked around with friends and found this carpenter near Oriental.  Let's get-er-done!

We had pulled off all the molding and moved our stuff out of the way last night.  Eric showed up with an assistant and looked everything over closely.  He estimated 2 days for the repair and around $1,800 including time and materials.  He said he could start on Thursday.  Great!

After they left, Laura played her Dolcimer for a while and I played my flute for a bit in the cockpit. 

In the afternoon, we walked around a bit and found a nice beach only a short distance from the marina.  Laura was back in her element....

We will be here for about a week to get the carpentry work done and a few other projects.  Plus, after the carpentry work, we will be installing 3 new Portlights over the new walls.  That might take us a few days.  Southern Cross is also here but hauled out of the water.  D and Don are on a car trip to Ohio.  They may be returning next Sunday so we will get a few days together.  Laura and I are looking forward to that.

Here are a couple more pictures of Wayfarers Marina.  The first is the entrance channel.

Past this breakwater the narrow channel turns 90 degrees to port and you can see the harbor.  Second Wind is way down the other end around the corner.  This is a big marina!

Sorry if you don't see all the picture or videos.  Not sure why they don't all show up.  It seems to be worse if you follow this blog on a phone.  You can always watch our videos from our YouTube page HERE

Hanging in Great Bridge (Day 17 and 18)

Thursday, October 15th (Day 17)

Air temp 62, water temp 70, winds S @ 10

We needed to get underway today before 8am to make the 8:30am opening of the Centerville Bridge about 3 miles away.  Around 7:30am I checked the weather forecast for the next couple days and it didn't look very nice.  Today, the winds were predicted out of the south in the 10-20 range just as we would be motoring south down one of more open areas, Currituck Sound.  Tomorrow (Friday) there was a cold front coming through which would bring rain and high winds.  We should be able to make it across Albemarle Sound before the nasty weather but the ride down the Alligator River would be a little nasty.  Instead, we decided to stay at the free dock for a couple more days until the weather settled on Saturday.  We were not in any hurry to keep moving as we arrived in Great Bridge a few weeks earlier than the past several years.

The boat traffic on down the Chesapeake Bay and ICW seems less than normal.  There has been open space on the free dock in front of us so I don't feel too bad about staying over the posted 24 hours.  We have wi-fi from the marina across the creek and are tied up to a nice dock in a pretty area that is good for walks.  There is also a commercial area nearby with groceries, hardware and restaurants.  Only issue is safety because we are at a public park and people can walk right up to the boat.  But, we've never had problems staying here other then a few barking dogs.

Later in the morning I walked around the park and it was just beautiful out.  Sunny, warm and light winds.  This really bugs me when we decide to not move because of nasty weather and it turns out to be nice.  Maybe this was the calm before the storm?  Winds did pick up later in the afternoon.

Last night we had planned on going to the local Mexican Restaurant - El Toro Loco.  Around dinner time neither of us were very hungry so we decided to just snack and watch some Netflix.  We decided to go today instead.

As we walked across the bridge around 6pm, we noticed a lot of construction going on near the Mexican Restaurant.  In fact, the Mexican restaurant was gone.  Bummer.  This had been one of our favorite places to stop over the past several years.  But, that's life - things always change.  Instead we detoured to the Kentucky Fried Chicken and ordered their bucket meal.  It was take-out only so we walked it back to the boat for dinner in the cockpit.  It was tasty!

After dinner I found a new series on Netflix called Unicorn.  It had one of our favorite new actors, Walton Googins (Justified, Sons of Anarchy), plus a few other actors we liked.  We watched the first episode and like it.  It was entertaining and not too complicated like some others we've tried lately.  

Temps were still in the mid-70s when we went to bed so I turned on the fan in the bedroom that blows over the bed.  We haven't used it in several weeks.

Friday, October 16th (Day 18)

I didn't sleep well last night because it never got below about 75 in the bedroom.  I did fall back to sleep around 6am and slept until 9:30am.  Guess I needed that nap!

After a quick breakfast we decided to head to the grocery store for a few things we were getting low on.  When we leave here tomorrow, we're not sure when the next grocery stop will be.  Best to keep stocked up.  Plus, the forecast showed the rain starting here in a couple hours so walking there now would be best.

I carried our luggage wheelie and collapsible crate the 1 mile to Krogers.  This would make it much easier to carry the groceries back to the boat.  They had everything we needed and we were back to the boat about an hour later just before the rain started.  Perfect timing!

Temps are dropping during the day today with the passing of a cold front.  We decided to dig out our Mr. Buddy propane heater that we store under the forward V-berth.  Pulling everything out of there is a chore.  Here is everything from our forward cabin all spread around the salon.

Just so you don't get the wrong idea, this is what it normally looks like.....

Lots of rain and wind this afternoon.  Between showers I went out and took a picture of the boat and local park.  As you can see, we are tied up way down the end and plenty of room for a couple other boats in front of us.

Tomorrow's high is only going to be 61 here.  After many days in shorts, we will be back to sweatpants.  But, it's supposed to be back in the 70s after that.

From experience we know we will have spotty phone coverage the next few days until we get down to the Oriental area.  

Ok.  After reading back through this I can see it's a couple slow news-days on Second Wind. That happens sometimes. Sorry for the long-winded details.  Tomorrow we are on the move again!

Reedville to Great Bridge (Days 13, 14, 15 and 16)

Sunday, October 11th (Day 13)

Air temp 62, water temp 71, winds NW @ 10-20

It was a cloudy day with lots of rain in the forecast.  Later in the morning, we decided to take a walk around "downtown" Reedville (really is no downtown) to see the sights before the rain started.  There were lots of large (100-150 feet) fishing boats and fisheries.  Only about 1/4 mile from the house, we saw this marker in a nearby fenced area.

As we walked to the north end of town, we saw this lady in her driveway yelling at a very large turkey.  Now, you don't see that everyday.  The turkey was gobbling away but seemed to be doing what the lady told it.  A short while later she drove by us, stopped her car and rolled down the window.  I guess she saw us looking at her and the turkey so she had to explain that the turkey "..thinks he's a dog".  I wasn't sure what that meant but when we walked back, he put on this beautiful display for us - maybe trying to scare us away like a watchdog?

 

 

On our walk back to Walter and Mary's, I took this nice picture of the boat behind their house.  This is such a pretty area and a great boating community.

It started raining on us a short while later so we headed back to the boat to dry off.

Mary had invited us for dinner and football at the house.  We watched the Giants and Cowboys on TV (first football game I've watched in a few years) then had a nice dinner of homemade chili with corn muffins with good friends.

Later in the evening we walked back to the boat and hit the sack early.

Monday, October 12th (Day 14)

Air temp 64, water temp 71, winds NW @ 15-20

Rain, rain, rain....

It rained hard during the night and it was tough to sleep with all the noise.  In the morning the rain let up a little so I worked on cleaning out our lazarette which I use to hold (4) 5-gallon gasoline jugs for our outboard and Honda generator, a few small fenders and our water hose.  On the way through New York City, we were almost swamped by the wake from a large (100+ foot) powerboat.  Our sailboat rocked so much the Hibiscus plant tipped over and spilled dirt all over the back deck and into the lazarette.  I typically have to clean this out every few months anyway because it get yucky from leaves and dirt.  It is somewhat open to the air and has a dedicated drain - why I think it's good for storing gasoline.

I had been waiting to clean it out because we needed to be at a dock where I had good water pressure for our hose to keep the drain working.  I first used a scraper to remove the dirt and larger leaf pieces from the compartment, then soft scrub and a scrubby pad for the sides and bottom.  The gasoline jugs were pretty dirty too so I cleaned them up with the soft scrub. About an hour later it was looking pretty good and everything was back in it's place.

The rain picked up again just as I finished that job.  It rained hard for several hours then cleared a little just before we walked up to the house for cocktails on the porch.  The wind had finally died and the rain was just a little spit.  Temps were in the low 70s so I was still in shorts.  Here we all are on the porch enjoying life.

Since Halloween is only a couple weeks away, I'll share this picture of Mary's pet spider.  It is about 2 inches across and looks very ferocious.  It has a huge web on the porch and was our entertainment at cocktail hour.  When a small bug would fly into the web, this spider moved about 100 mph to enjoy her dinner.

Laura had bought two roasted chickens at the grocery store on Friday.  We had those plus mashed taters, gravy, beans and Laura's homemade rolls for dinner together.  It was excellent and I ate way too much.

Back to the boat a short time later as we got ready to leave at first light tomorrow morning.  Not sure where we are heading as it depends on the winds and water.  Keep tuned!

Oh.  When I checked the engine over in the evening, the dang fitting on the engine raw water hose is still slowly dripping.  After 3 days there was about 1/4 cup of water in a puddle under it.  I tried tightening it again.  If it still leaks now, I'll have to take it all apart and put more plumbers tape on the fitting.  I was a little frugal with it because I was almost out of tape.  Laura stopped at the hardware store on her grocery run Friday and bought me 3 more rolls.  I'll tape the heck out of it now!

Tuesday, October 13th (Day 15 - Start of week 3)

We were up early this morning.  I had the alarm set for 6:30am but, as usual, I woke up a few minutes before, turned it off and eventually got up.  We were off the dock at 7am with the winds helping a little to push the boat out into the creek.  Undocking went very nice and I motored out of the creek toward Chesapeake Bay as Laura stowed the wet docklines.

After we turned south on the bay, we rolled out the jib and main.  Winds were from the NW which made for a nice broad-reach down the bay.  Winds helped us the whole day but never were strong enough to turn off the engine.  

The boat ran over 7 knots most of the day and even faster when the tidal current turned in our favor in the late morning.  My goal had been to make it to a nice anchorage near Old Point Comfort which was about 55 miles from Reedville.  With the wind and tide helping, we were there by 2:30pm so I decided to keep going.  

As we turned off the bay into the James River, we saw this large (Navy?) helicopter hovering over the water about 1/2 mile away from us.  I was wondering if they were doing or practicing a water rescue.  A short while later I looked and they were still flying low, kicking up a lot of water, and heading right toward us.  I turned north and they turned south but they did come withing 1/4 mile.  We could see a long cable coming down from the helicopter attached to a boat or something on the water that they were towing.  Very weird.

 

There is only one bridge in Norfolk that has to open for us before the Great Bridge Lock - Gilmerton Bridge.  It doesn't open between 3:30 and 5:30pm during road traffic rushhours.  As we entered the Elizabeth River and motor-sailed past the Norfolk Navy fleet, the flood current started pushing us to help our speed.  I timed it nicely and arrived at the Gilmerton Bridge just before 5:30pm.  We were the only boat waiting.

Here is a video Laura took as we entered Norfolk.

 

A few minutes after Laura took this video, she was walking back to the cockpit when the wind changes and jibbed the main from port to starboard.  It must have started really slow because even I didn't hear it until it was right behind me at the helm.  Laura walked right into the mainsheet as it slapped over in front of her and knocked her to the deck.  It all happened so fast neither of us reacted.  As she picked herself up, she said, "At least I didn't loose my phone!".  She still was holding it in her left hand.  Even very experienced sailors and boaters like us still make mistakes.  I should have tightened in the mainsheet after pulling in the jib.  I knew the winds were dying - that's why I pulled in the jib.  Sorry Baby....

A few miles later we pulled into the fuel dock at Top Rack Marina for the night.  This marina is in the middle of nowhere (nothing to walk to) but they have the cheapest fuel in the area.  They didn't disappoint as we saw it was $1.73 / gallon.  They were closed when we arrived but we tied up then hooked up power and connected to the wi-fi.  

It was a long day at 71 nautical miles in 11 hours but a nice ride down the bay.  We've had much worse.  This makes 507 total miles we've logged from Catskill.  We are a little less than 1/3 of the way to Marathon.

I feel like there is a weight off my shoulders now that we are in the calm(er), protected Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).  There are lots of good anchorages on our way south now and we are very familiar with the sights and best places to visit.  This is my 30th trip on the ICW and I still look forward to the sights, sounds and challenge of not rubbing (boat to ground).

Wednesday, October 14th (Day 16)

Air temp 54, water temp 68, winds calm 

We slept in a little this morning as we had to wait for the marina to open to fill up our diesel tank.  Just after 8am I walked around the yard and a worker saw me.  He came down to help with fueling.  We talked a bit while fueling and the marina was pretty dead.  The nice restaurant had closed and I guess their only business was selling cheap fuel.  Bummer.

The boat took 91 gallons which is about average for the 500 miles.  We only sailed one day with the engine off between Annapolis and the Solomon's.  Fuel bill was only $157 plus $50 for dockage with power, water and wi-fi.  Nice!

After fueling we had a quick breakfast then backed out of the marina.  Laura prepared the lines for the Great Bridge Lock just 2 miles away.  There were a couple "rookies" handling the boats in front of us as we entered the lock.  One of them eventually had their 40 foot sailboat sideways in the lock before a crewmember jumped off the bow with a line to haul them over. What was he thinking?

We waited for a few slower boats coming from behind us then eventually locked down about 1.5 feet to the Virginia Cut.  The Great Bridge Bridge opened for us a few minutes later and we tied up to the free dock just south of the bridge for a little time ashore.  

3 miles in 1.5 hours today.

Later in the afternoon we decided to take a walk.  There is a nice nature-walk through the woods right next to our dock.  We always enjoy the pretty scenery.

After our walk I played my flute for a while in the cockpit then relaxed with a couple fingers of tequila.  I watched a few more episodes of "Odd Life Crafting" on YouTube which is my latest binge-watch channel.  This is a young couple in Brazil who bought a steel sailboat that had been on-the-hard for 23 years.  Their videos are about them fixing up the boat.  They post a new video every week.  I am on number 134 right now.  This couple is very cute and funny.  I guess they make me think about some alternate histories for me if it was 40 years ago.  Guess that tequila is kicking in....

Laura's Kindle Fire shit-the-bed last night.  This is our third Kindle that had a problem with the charging port and died.  We thought about it today and almost decided to order her a new iPad (for about $400) but then we found an upgraded Kindle on Amazon that has cordless charging ($125).  We ordered the Kindle plus the wireless charger and had it shipped to Wayfarers Cove Marina (near Oriental) where we have reservations next week to have some interior woodwork done by a local carpenter.  

This carpenter was recommended by our friends D and Don so he should be pretty good.  We have a large section of ceiling, wall and bulkhead near our engine room that is rotted out from a multi-year leak in our cockpit drains that we found last year.  I removed part of the ceiling and fixed the leak but neither Laura nor I are wood experts for this kind of job.  That's for a future blog other than to say this marina charges $6.50 / ft / month ($297.50 for us) for dockage.  For comparison, Burdines in Marathon charges about $1,200 per month (but that is in the Florida Keys during Winter).  I definitely have not seen any other marinas near that low dockage price.  I hope the place not too bad.

We are a little up-in-the-air about our plans for the next couple days because there is only about 1.5 days of decent weather before another front comes through.  The free dock where we currently are is only supposed to be for 24 hours but we've only seen someone checking once in 30 trips.  So, we could probably stay here for another couple days but I think we are going to push on south.  Tomorrow we could anchor just south of Coinjock and cross the Albemarle on Friday morning before the high winds and storms show up.  There is an excellent anchorage in the Pungo River just south of the Alligator-Pungo Canal that has good protection for the predicted north winds.  If we sit out the storm there on Friday, the next week looks excellent for traveling down the ICW.  I'll let you know how it works out!

 

Annapolis, MD to Reedville, VA (Days 9, 10, 11 and 12)

Wednesday, October 7th (Day 9)

Air temp 54, water temp 68, winds S @ 10-20

Another mostly relaxing day on Second Wind.  Winds were out of the south so not a very good day to be heading down Chesapeake Bay.  Instead, we stayed on our protected mooring in Back Creek working a few boat projects and heading out to dinner at a local pub.

I practiced the flute again for about an hour and, somewhere in the middle, I was playing several patriotic songs (seemed appropriate for being close to the Naval Academy and Washington, DC) and had just finished the Star Spangled Banner when a sailboat motored close by to catch the mooring next to us.  The gent on the bow yells over, "Well Done!"  I try not to think about other people listening or I get too nervous.

Our major job of replacing the raw water line to the engine seems to be good except for a small drip on the sea strainer end.  I've tried tightening that fitting with several of the wrenches I have in the well-stocked tool box and haven't found one that will fit in the small area and also clamp down on the fitting.  It's only 1 drop every 30 seconds or so.  I placed a rag under it and will monitor closely.

We showered and put on fresh clothes before heading into Easton for dinner.  We docked at the small park just in front of the Davis Pub and found a nice table on the blocked-off street.  Laura took this picture of the pub.  I'm sitting at the picnic table behind the Lite Beer sign.

After dinner we took a walk around Easton then a little dinghy ride before heading back to the boat.  Here's a picture of Second Wind on her mooring with the sunset in the background.  The catamaran in the behind Second Wind has lots of flags so it's a little distracting.

Back at the boat we hauled up the outboard onto the port aft rail to prepare for our sail down the bay tomorrow.  The winds are supposed to be 15 gusts to 20 in the morning so it might be a little rolly.

We watched the last 2 James Bond movies on the computer and hit the sack.

Thursday, October 8th (Day 10)

Air temp 55, water temp 67, winds NW @ 15

We were off the mooring at 7:45am and it was very calm in the creek with only light winds.  I was a little disappointed because I was hoping for a nice sailing day but maybe the winds were not making it into the protected creek.

As we motored out of the creek the winds picked up and we turned into the wind to pull out the mainsail.  Once on the bay, we turned south, jibbed the main to the port side and rolled out the jib.  With the full main and jib, we need to keep the wind less than about 130 degrees off the bow to keep the main from shadowing the jib.  The wind angle was just enough to keep on course down the middle of the bay.  But, I would rather have turned a little more west to keep the shore closer and the waves a little smaller.  Overall, it was a nice sail for a couple hours as the boat ran between 6.5 and 7 knots.  Here's a video Laura took during the sail.

Later in the morning, the winds increased to over 20 knots (apparent) and pushed us to 8.5 knots.  This meant the true wind was almost 30 knots and the waves built to about 3 feet.  The boat was very overpowered with the full mainsail trying to push the boat to starboard while the autopilot worked hard to turn us back.  When the boat sails over 8 knots we say, "Oh oh.  We're going to break something!"  The forces on the boat are tremendous.  Just think how much power it takes to push a 42,000 boat past it's hull-speed (the maximum speed that a displacement hull can normally run through the water).  If we didn't want to get into trouble, we needed to roll in some of the mainsail.  Here's the problem....  In order to loosen the sail so we can pull some in, we need to turn into the wind - at least to 30 or 40 degrees off the wind.  With a 30 knot wind blowing and 3 foot (and growing) seas, it was going to be a wild ride.  

In order to keep the wind from blowing us over a lot, I rolled in about 1/2 of the jib before we turned upwind.  As we turned, we gradually tightened in the jib sheet to keep the sail working as we sailed from a broad reach to close reach.  It worked pretty well except the boat did heel over to about 40 degrees as the jib caught the now 30-35 knot winds.  As I was rolling in the mainsail, Laura was watching the furler to see how many turns I was taking on the sail.  I stopped at 5 turns which is about 1/3 of the mainsail rolled back on the furler.  Excellent!

I tightened the out-haul on the mainsail, crawled back to the helm and turned the boat back downwind while letting out the main-sheet.  At the same time, Laura let out the jib sheet.  When back on our broad reach course, I rolled out the rest of the jib and we were back to almost 8 knots but the boat felt much calmer and the autopilot was hardly working.  This is how to reef a mainsail while sailing downwind.

By early afternoon the winds had died back to the mid-teens we we repeated the process to take those 5 rolls back out of the main.  We sailed the rest of the way past Cove Point and turned west toward the Solomon's.

At 2:30pm we were pulling in all sails and motored into the Solomon Island anchorage.  We anchored in front of Anglers Pub thinking that maybe we would drop the dinghy and row into the pub for our anniversary dinner.  Today was our wedding anniversary - 15 years.  Yea!

We decided to stay on the boat and I cooked steaks on the BBQ while Laura made the fixin's.  Dinner was in the cockpit watching the sunset which was very nice.  Sailing for over 6 hours then a calm anchorage with great dinner.  Excellent anniversary!

Oh.  I think I was finally able to stop the leaking fitting on the sea strainer.  My larger pair of vice-grips fit in the tiny area and I was able to move the fitting about 1/16 of a turn.  No more drip!  Should have just brought the whole toolbox over there...

Friday, October 9th (Day 11)

Air temp 64, water temp 72, winds calm

Up early again and underway by 7am because the winds were supposed to be out of the south later in the afternoon.  I was hoping to get to Reedville before that happened.

It was very calm as we motored out of the creek with 7 or 8 other sail and power boats.  Everyone was traveling today.  Winds were calm and the bay was flat.  I adjusted the throttle for our normal cruise RPM and the boat ran over 6 knots all day.  Our normal cruise was 5.5 knots but the larger propeller I installed last Spring was working well.

Laura's video of today....

We turned into the Wicomico River around 2:30pm and had about a 45 minute motor to Walter and Mary's dock.  I decided to dock the boat pointing south because that was the direction of the stormy winds on Sunday and Monday.  This meant I had to turn around before the dock and I was worried about the shallow water and not hitting the dock.  It didn't help that our depthsounder alarm kept going off because the water was under 7 feet - we need 5.5 feet.

No problems really as i brought the boat into the dock and Laura tied us up nicely.  A short while later we were tied up and plugged into shore power for the first time since leaving Catskill. Laura walked up to the house to say hi to Mary while I decided on a nap.  Walter was away helping out at the local museum and we were all going out to dinner in a couple hours.

We cleaned up ourselves and the boat then walked up to the house at 5pm.  After a short greeting, we all climbed into the car for the drive.  A short while later we pulled into Good Luck Cellars for their "Wine down Friday" party.  It was under a large tent with lots of tables for social distancing.  We brought munchies and purchased a couple bottles of wine.  There was a food truck that sold local oysters and pork tacos.  I had their fried oysters which were tasty.  Here are Walter, Mary and Laura under the tent.

Behind them is the dance floor and a local musician setting up.  Walter explained that there would be music and we were looking forward to dancing after what seemed like several years.

After munching nice food from the truck, the music started.  I was pleasantly surprised to see many of the "locals" doing complicated line-dancing.  It looked like fun but Laura and I didn't feel like now was the time to learn.  I couldn't even follow their feet!  I was very impressed and took this short video.

We enjoyed the local wines, colorful dancers and good company.  Around 7:30pm we headed back to Reedville and Second Wind.  I didn't sleep well.  Maybe too much white wine?

Saturday, October 10th (Day 12)

We slept in a bit today.  Mary took Laura shopping for groceries and a few items I needed at the hardware store.  It rained most of the afternoon so I put up one of our rear canvas panels to keep the cockpit a little drier.  More rain is expected tomorrow and Monday so we will be on leak-watch.

Our Amazon package had arrived and it included some Wright's Silver polish that I ordered for cleaning up my flute.  I've had this flute for 28 years and never polished it.  I worked really well!  Here is just the silver mouth piece before and after.  I was impressed.

Laura arrived back with the groceries and hardware around 2pm in the rain.  We loaded everything back on the boat and she spent the next hour or so putting everything away.  I had a hard day playing and cleaning the flute so took a nap.  

We watched a little TV (thank you Walter and Mary for the free wi-fi) and Laura made sauteed Grouper for dinner that she had purchased at the local fish market.  As you can see, I spent a few hours organizing our pictures and videos then writing this blog.

If any of the videos are not showing in the blog, you can access all of them on our YouTube channel by clicking here.

We will probably hang here until the weather clears on Tuesday.  It looks like Monday we will see the remnants of Hurricane Delta.  It is not supposed to be too bad by time it gets all the way up here.  

Over the next couple days we will ask around and look at our cruising guides for information on the lower eastern shore.  I'd like to take a few days to see some new places before getting to Norfolk and back on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).

Back Creek, Easton, MD (Day 8)

Tuesday, October 6th (start of week 2)

Air temp 62, water temp 69, winds SW @ 10

We are on a mooring in Back Creek which is about 1/2 mile from Annapolis.  The City of Annapolis maintains moorings in several places around Annapolis including 5 or 6 in Back Creek.  We usually pick up a mooring in the main harbor but there was a small swell coming in from the bay yesterday so we decided on the more protected Back Creek area.

There are marinas lining both shores of the creek from the entrance all the way to the end except for right next to our mooring where there is a small forest of trees.  The marina just to the south of us is a huge boatyard but thankfully, there is not too much noise from folks working on the boats.  Lots of birds and ducks around and it's like we are in a little sanctuary corner of the creek.

Two big events for today.  We DIDN'T work on the boat and we DID get to shore.  This was the first time in 8 days we've been off the boat.

After breakfast, I decided to practice my flute in the cockpit.  I hadn't played in several days and I'm always a little squeaky when not playing every day.  But, it sounded better as the flute and I warmed up.  Laura would laugh because every time I stopped at the end of a song, the birds in the woods around us would be singing and making lots of noise - like they were trying to sing along with the flute.  It was fun.

Toward noon we decided to go into town.  I took off all the "ocean" straps from the dinghy and lowered it into the water.  Laura helped me hoist the engine off the rail using a block and tackle on the end of our mizzen boom.  She lowered it onto the dinghy as I guided it from below.  After securing it to the dinghy and locking it in, I attached the fuel line.  It started nicely on the 4th pull.

We loaded up 2 bags of garbage and our backpack with normal gear - wallets, phones, handheld VHF radio, a sailors Leatherman (gotta bring tools to fix stuff) plus sweater and jacket if it got cooler.  A short time later we were underway.

But wait!  I hadn't checked the gas tank.  I stopped the dinghy to look at the gauge and it read only about 1/4 tank - about 1 1/2 gallons.  This should plenty as our 4-stroke Tohatsu is pretty frugal but I don't like to take chances.  Back to the boat and fill 'er up from one of the 4, 5-gallon jerry jugs of gasoline I keep for the generator and outboard.  Ok. Underway again.

But wait!  Had Laura grabbed my mask?  Nope.  Back to the boat for the mask.  The third time was a charm as we motored out of the creek past our neighbor who was probably wondering if we would go back again for something else.

There was still a light swell on the bay as we motored out of Back Creek so I just ran the dinghy barely on plane as we bounced across the waves for the 1/4 mile run into the Severn Creek to downtown Annapolis and the city provided dinghy dock.  We tied up, locked the dinghy to the dock and WE WERE ASHORE!

Both of our legs felt a little wobbly as we took our first walk longer than 40 feet in over a week.  We do exercise on the boat and workout from going up and down our 8 stairs about a hundred times a day, but legs need to walk.

Where was everybody?  There were about 1/4 of the normal people around the waterfront and shops.  Guess COVID was keeping lots of people home.  

We were both hungry from skipping lunch as we we walked to our favorite lunch spot Chick and Ruths Deli.  They were open but had very few patrons - even for 1:30 in the afternoon.  We sat at one of the tables in front of the store all by ourselves.  There was only 1 cook and 2 servers / waiters when normally there would be 3-4 cooks and maybe 8 wait-staff.

The menu was also about 1/10 the size of their normal menu and they didn't even have the 3/4 and 1 pound burgers.  I settled for the 1/2 pound cheese burger and Laura had the pastrami Rubin sandwich.   We were both looking forward to their delicious chocolate milk shake and decided to split their 33 ounce with 2 straws.  It was just as we remembered - chocolaty, rich and delicious.

After lunch we walked around the Maryland State House where we saw this huge pumpkin.  I figured it wasn't real but we walked over to it and it was!  I took this picture of Laura sitting next to it so you could see the size.  I think it was the biggest pumpkin I ever saw.

After a walk around town, we headed back to the boat.  I needed a nap from all that milk and burger.  We skipped dinner and just had a few snacks to hold us over.  Later we watched two of the Daniel Craig James Bond movies on the computer then hit the sack around 9pm. It was a very nice day that we both enjoyed.

Wednesday we have no plans other than maybe go to the Davis Pub for dinner.  We were there on our way north last Spring with our friends Chris and Bob.  They are at their condo in Jupiter, Florida so we will miss them this trip.

Our plans are to stay here one more night as there is a front coming through tomorrow (Wednesday) that will clock the winds from SW to NW.  It should be a lively sail down the Chesapeake on Thursday to the Solomon Islands then on to Reedville for a visit with Walter and Mary on Friday.

Atlantic Highlands to Annaoplis (Day 4, 5, 6 and 7)

Friday, October 2nd

Air temp 52, water temp 70, winds NW @ 10-15

Today was a down-day on Second Wind.  We could have left for the NJ coast today but the winds were predicted to stay NW for the next 2+ days.  That would not have been good when we sailed around Cape May and up Delaware Bay.  The course up Delaware Bay is NW.  But, if we had wanted to hustle south like in the past, this would have been excellent weather for the 3-day, 2-night trip to Norfolk.  But, now we take our time...

Instead we puttered around the boat a bit and mostly relaxed.  I again checked all my work from the past few weeks on our engine and everything looked ready.  Winds are supposed to be pretty light the next few days so we will be running the engine just about the whole time.

I grilled pork chops for dinner while Laura made mashed cauliflower and brussel sprouts. We had dinner in the cockpit listening to some Howard Livingston on the stereo.  It was very relaxing and good company!

After dinner we were treated to this colorful sunset over the Atlantic Highlands mooring field.

We hit the sack early anticipating a comfortable run to Chesapeake Bay over the next couple days.

Saturday, October 3rd and Sunday, October 4th

Air temp 56, water temp 70, winds NW @ 10

195 nautical miles over these two days.  310 total miles for the trip

We had ourselves and the boat ready for the off-shore trip by 7:45am.  Right at 8am, after pulling up the anchor, we were motoring out behind the Atlantic Highlands breakwater heading north to round Sandy Hook.

Lots of boat traffic this morning on a sunny Saturday with light winds.  Sport Fishing boats were heading out to their favorite spots while cruising powerboats and sailboats were working their way south.  Of the 15-20 boats in the anchorage last night, we were the second last to leave.  The place was almost empty.  "Will the last boat leaving please turn off the lights?"

As we rounded Sandy Hook and turned south, the apparent wind fell off to our starboard quarter and was running about 8-10 knots.  We rolled out the jib and mainsail then adjusted for the broad reach.  As I figured, the winds would only push us 4-5 knots at this angle so we kept the motor running and averaged 6-6.5 knots all day.

Seas were probably less than 1 foot all morning with the light SE swell gradually diminishing.  I considered that since the winds were light, the sea-breezes might take over and move the winds toward shore.  Sea-breezes happen when the Sun heats the air over land.  It rises and pulls are from the cooler ocean.  This creates breeze from the sea - sea-breezes.  This did happen later in the morning and we jibbed our sails to a port tack with the light winds out of the east.

Laura put out her fishing line and a couple hours later I heard the clothespin snap.  We had a bite!  I slowed the boat while Laura pulled in a little 12" bonito tuna (sometimes called Skipjacks).  There are two types of these tuna and this was the "not very good" type - we could tell from the vertical stripes.  I don't think he was much larger then the lure.  What was he thinking?

Laura gave him a reprieve and threw him back.  Grow bigger for next year!

We love to watch the ocean and are always looking for stuff to happen.  Shortly after turning south from Sandy Hook, we saw the water was being churned up in spots.  After checking it out, we saw it was small fish jumping out of the water.  We assumed they were fleeing bigger fish?  Laura took a short video of the action.  What looks like big raindrops hitting the water is actually all the little fish jumping.  A few times I think the boat scared them and a whole line of 100s would jump away from us.

The boat ran well and seas were mostly calm.  Later in the afternoon the winds built from the SW which was the direction we were heading.  I checked the PredictWind app on my iPhone and it showed SW winds until about 7pm when they were supposed to turn NW.  The windchop gradually built to about 1-2 feet right on the nose.  Any higher and we would start losing speed from bashing into the waves. 

The sunset over Long Island wasn't very colorful.  Clear skies and no clouds.

Shortly after sunset the winds shifted to the NW at about 6-8 knots.  Again we ran out the jib and main configured for the beam reach (winds on the side of the boat).  We passed Atlantic City a little while later.

I was texting my friend Dean and this was how I described the sail - "Pretty good night out here but a little chilly.  Currently 59 going down to 49 tonight.  Almost all the windchop is gone that built while we had light winds on the nose.  Boat is barely moving around.  Apparent wind is 7-8 knots at 70 degrees off to starboard (from shore).  Big moon is lighting everything up.  Only running 1,300 RPM (cruise for us is 2,100) to keep our ETA around Cape May after low tide."

From experience, we know that if we arrive at Cape May around low tide, we can catch a helping current up the Delaware, through the C&D Canal and down Chesapeake Bay.  This makes the trip much shorter.  Low tide at Cape May was 3:30am.  We were adjusting engine RPM to get there around 4am.

Our usual watch schedule for off-shore is I stay awake until about 2am then Laura takes over until after sunrise.  Because we'd be rounding Cape May during her watch, we changed shifts.  She went to bed around 8pm and would rest until about 11pm.  Then I would sack out from 11pm to 3am when she would get to sleep again.

Even though the boat wasn't moving around much, Laura couldn't sleep more than an hour or so.  When I sacked out at 11pm, I was almost instantly asleep and probably slept 3 1/2 hours on my 4 hours off.  

Laura woke me up just before we got to the Cape May inlet.  There were several fishing boats heading in and out at 3am and I had to keep a close watch on where everyone was going.  Once past the inlet, the boat traffic calmed down except for the line of sailboats I ended up joining.  Because this was such a nice weather window for the NJ coast, it was pretty busy.  I was 4th in line of 6 sailboats rounding Cape May through the Prissywick Shoals.  This is a shortcut that runs close to shore around the Cape May lighthouse which saves about 2 hours from going all the way out to the ship channel then up the bay.  The only problem is you have to carefully follow your chartplotter to navigate around the shoals.  I've been through here probably 20 times so tonight was no problem.

One very unusual thing happened that was almost unbelievable.  I knew the winds were supposed to shift from the NW to NE sometime near when we were going around Cape May.  That could mean anytime from a few hours before we got there to a few hours afterwards.  I had the jib and mainsail out and sheeted for a beam reach,  As I started my turn through the Prisswick Channel, the winds clocked at exactly the same time.  I turned the boat 90 degrees within about 1/2 hour and never had to adjust a sheet to keep the sails working.  When I set my course NW up Delaware Bay, the winds were 70-80 degrees on my starboard side.  Exactly as when we passed the Cape May inlet heading SW.  This just cracks me up!

The winds built into the low teens and I was able to shut down the engine and give it a rest.  I was hoping this would let Laura sleep a little better as she wouldn't have the drone of the engine only about 10 feet away.  It was a pleasant sail up the bay with a pretty sunrise over Cape May a few hours later.

As we were running up the most open part of Delaware Bay, the winds caused the seas to build a little.  But, it wasn't too rolly and we had a very pleasant day.  Several hours later the seas calmed as we sailed through the more narrow upper bay.

Late morning we turned west again into the C&D Canal.  This man-made canal is about 12 miles long and connect Delaware Bay to Chesapeake Bay.  We averaged over 7 knots as we had the currents with us again.  Lots of boat traffic on a pretty Sunday afternoon in Delaware.

No problems the rest of the day and we anchored on the Sassafras River in one of our favorite spots - just around the first bend.  We call this "stroke point" because 2 years ago I had a stroke in the middle of the night and had to get evac'd off the boat at 4am to Easton Hospital.  I was very lucky that the stroke went away quickly and we were back on the boat 3 days later.  All's well that ends well.

Back to today....

We had a nice dinner of roasted veggies and chicken on the BBQ.  Sunset was very nice at this calm anchorage.

After dinner I heard the bilge pump run.  This is not usually a problem but, for some reason, I decided to check it out.  After looking around the bilge with a flashlight, I saw some drips coming down the port side.  I crawled down into the engine room and found the hose that brings ocean water to the engine pump (called raw water) had just about fallen apart.  I have no idea how old this hose was but it had a leak just below the raw water pump that was a constant small stream ending up in the bilge.  Oh oh.  Time for some plumbing work!

A short while later I was tired and exasperated.  Then I pulled the hose off the fitting under the raw water pump, I could see that the hose had de-laminated inside.  It looked pretty bad.  Here was a piece I cut off hoping it would be better farther down.  Nope.

 Laura pulled out our spare hoses and I told her we needed 1 1/8" hose to replace this (as was printed on the hose).  We didn't have any on the boat.  I was able to eventually use gorilla tape to stop (slow?) the leak and get it hooked back up but we couldn't go too far.  I figured Georgetown Yacht Basin was only 5 miles down the Sassafras River and we'd alter our plans to go there tomorrow.

Also, while working on the bad hose, I turned off the seacock for the engine.  This is the valve that controls the water flow from the through-hull fitting to the engine.  While working on the hose, I could see that there was still a constant stream of water coming out even with the seacock turned off.  No problems with our bilge pumps keeping up but I didn't want outside water coming in the boat if this hose leaked any more.

Monday, October 5th 

Air temp 62, water temp 64, winds NW @ 10-15

39 nautical miles today, 349 total miles for the trip

Needless to say that even though I only had about 4 hours sleep last night, I didn't sleep well.  After only about 5 hours I was awake thinking about this problem.  I was thinking back on all the work I did the past few weeks on our engine cooling system.  I had purchased a new raw water pump and I remembered that the fittings were 1".  Not 1 1/8".  By 8am I had Laura digging through our spare hoses for 1" which she thought she remembered seeing.  She found a piece about 4 feet long which was exactly what I needed.  

We both ended up working in the engine room for over an hour just to get the old hose off.  It was pretty bad and frozen to the fittings.  I had to cut it off the sea-strainer fitting and luckily found another fitting that would work there because the hose was welded to it.  We eventually ran the new hose from the sea-strainer to the raw water pump which I had to take off the engine in order to attach the hose.  Now I understood why someone had switched to 1 1/8" hose - it was much easier to install.  Both ends of the 1" hose were tight as heck.  I had to use vaseline jelly and a heat gun to get the hose on the pump far enough for the clamps.  The other end went together a little easier.  Here's a picture of the old hose.  It was pretty bad.  How was it working at all?

 

Afterwards I was pretty happy to fix this with a new hose we had in stock.  I opened the seacock and started the engine.  There was one slow drip on the sea-strainer that I fixed by tightening the clamp.  It all looked good!

We pulled up anchor and left for Annapolis around 10:30am. A short time later we had the big sails up and heading down the bay.  Here's a video Laura took of the nice sailing today.

I did run the engine for most of the day and checked it often to make sure the new hose, fittings and clamps were working well.  All dry.  Yea!

By 4:30pm we were tied up to a city mooring in Back Creek.  Very nice and calm here.  Tomorrow I will travel into the marina next to us and see if they have the right size hose I can buy for spares.

Plans are to stay here until Wednesday or Thursday depending on the weather.  Winds tomorrow are supposed to be out of the south which would prevent us from traveling down the bay.  Wednesday, the winds are supposed to clock to the NW which would make for nice sailing.  It all depends on when they clock.

Longer term we are going to visit our friends Walter and Mary in Reedville - probably Friday and Saturday.  They have a house with a dock where we can tie up and it includes power and water.  Wonderful people we met through the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC).   

Now I'm pretty tired and ready for bed.  Hopefully, I will sleep better tonight now that the boat is running great again. 

Haverstraw Cove to Atlantic Highlands (Day 2 and 3)

 Wednesday, September 30th

Air temp 65, water temp 72, winds W-SW @ 5-10

Last night was a doozy.  Storms blanketed the whole area and we had winds into the 30s at the anchorage.  The boat stayed pretty solid with only a few sideways gusts that happen when the wind clocks and blows from the side of the boat in a storm.  The sideways gusts are always the worry.  If they are high enough, they will put so much strain on the anchor that it could come out.  So far (knock on wood) that hasn't happened with our Rocna in over 10 years and probably 300 times we anchored with it.

We use AquaMaps on our iPad and iPhone for navigation and it has an excellent anchor watch.  At anytime during the night I can just pick up my phone and see exactly were we are in relation to where we anchored.  It creates a safe-circle around the anchor that you specify how big the circle is by typing in how much anchor chain you let out.  It's accurate enough that I see "feet from anchor" change if I walk forward or aft on the boat with the phone in my hand.

I hadn't slept well the night before (pre-trip jitters) and figured I'd be awake much of the night for the storms so I hit the sack at 7:30pm.  I slept pretty well until about 12:30am when the bigger storms came through.  Then I was awake on-and-off the the next 5 hours with the storms.  Around 6am I finally got back to sleep for a couple more hours.

Here is a screen shot from Google Maps showing where we are.  We're at the blue dot over on the left side in that little cove near the town of Haverstraw.

 

This was a much needed "down day" for Second Wind.  We just hung out on the boat and relaxed.  It was actually was hard for me to relax and it seemed like I should be doing something after working on the boat almost every day for the past couple weeks.  I practiced my flute for over an hour going through my entire list of 47 favorites on 8notes.com.  Laura baked cookies and worked on Christmas presents (she always like making crafty-stuff).  I did work on a few projects I found but nothing more than about 15 minutes.  

It was a pleasant afternoon with temps in the low-70s but the winds stayed in the mid-teens.  We were very comfortable in this anchorage for our off-day.  Our wind generator and solar panels kept up with our power requirements nicely but I did run the Honda generator for about 1/2 hour to give us hot water for showers.

Laura made shrimp and broccoli Alfredo over linguini for dinner and it was very tasty. In the evening we watched a fun movie on the computer - Two Weeks Notice with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant - then hit the sack early again.  The winds picked up during the night into the mid-20s which woke us up a few times.

Thursday, October 1st

Air temp 52, water temp 71, winds W @ 5-10 (increasing during the day) 

50 nautical miles today - 115 total miles for this trip

Winds had finally died down this morning and we were up at 7:30am getting the boat ready for our travel through NY Harbor.  I always try to time our NY Harbor passage so we have the ebb tide helping our speed.  Otherwise you are a victim to the ferry boat wakes for a much longer time.  We only make about 4.5 knots if the current is against us.  Today I had figured if we leave the anchorage by 8am we'd be fighting the flood current until it changed around the George Washington Bridge.  Then we'd have helping current all the way though the Verrazano Bridge.

Pulling the anchor and 140 feet of chain took us about 15 minutes because it was very dirty and caked with mud.  We have a washdown pump on the bow which pumps seawater through a hose we can use to wash the chain.  But it was caked so much it didn't want to come off so it was slow going pulling in all 140 feet.  By 8am we were underway and no problems leaving the anchorage today with about 2 feet of tide keeping us away from the bottom.

We approached the Tappan Zee bridge a couple hours later.  I love the looks of this new bridge.  Here is a picture Laura took from behind us after we passed under the bridge with the morning Sun on the cables.

Our timing worked out excellent and we held 7-8 knots all the way through the upper NY Harbor.  The Ferry Boats didn't seem quite so bad this trip.  Maybe the slow economy from COVID has then running at less than full strength.

We were able to get over by the western shore and Laura took this nice picture of Lady Liberty.  It chokes us up a little to think about all the immigrants that saw her on their way into this country.

We had the mainsail out most of the day and it helped our speed a little.  The winds were only 30-40 degrees off our bow and the boat can't sail that close to the wind.  But, our mainsail added about 1/2 a knot to our speed.  Hey!  Free power!

The harbor opens up after passing Liberty Island and the wind move to 50-60 degrees off our bow.  Now we can sail!  We rolled out the jib and I lower the engine RPM to let the diesel cool down before shutting it off.  Laura took this video of our sail.  Watch it all the way to the end for the fun part.  Even after running this boat over 100,000 miles, we still make mistakes.  Who forgot to put the bungee cord on the Hibiscus plant in case we were pushed over by a wind gust?

 

After running under the Verrazano Bridge, we were able to sail for over an hour, with the engine off, across the lower bay.  We anchored behind the breakwater in my favorite, most protected spot just before the mooring field at 4:15pm.

There are squalls coming through tomorrow morning and this should be a great spot to sit them out.  We will also stay here through tomorrow until Saturday morning when we have a great weather window for sailing (probably mostly motoring) down the coast of NJ, up Delaware Bay and into the Chesapeake Bay.

We could leave tomorrow but the winds are predicted to be N to NW both tomorrow and Saturday.  That's great for sailing down the coast but turning up into Delaware Bay would be right into the winds.  Sunday the winds are supposed to die and actually move south later in the day.  If we leave here Saturday morning around 7am, we will be rounding Cape May sometime around 3-4am on Sunday (110 miles at 5.5 knots = 20 hours).  That is when the flood tide starts at Cape May up Delaware Bay.  We should be able to run up Delaware Bay, through the C&D Canal and down Chesapeake Bay to the Sassafras River during the day on Sunday.  Then maybe Monday to Annapolis where we will sit out another batch of bad weather for a few days.