We departed at noon just after the oatmeal loaf was removed from the oven. We arrived at West Point just before dark. We couldn't stay at West Point because of the heightened security so we picked up a mooring across the river at the Garrison yacht club. We just got settled when someone from the club called to tell us that the mooring balls would not hold us and suggested we pull up to the dock. After tying up at the dock we found that there were no banks or ATMs anywhere close by. The yacht club only accepted cash which we were out of. A really nice man at the club offered to drive us into town and back. Rick and Kelly went to get cash while I stayed with the boat. When they returned we went into the office to pay. The office was a combination, train station, news stand, grocery store, coffee shop and bar. We filled out the registration papers while talking to the owner who was both very nice and very Irish. After he learned that our last name was very Irish as well, he ripped up the forms and said no-charge. We thanked him very much and then moved a few feet into the next room which was his bar. We decided to spend our money saved at the bar.
West Point to Tarrytown is a very beautiful part of the Hudson River. There are many large, beautiful homes high up on the hills bordering both sides of the river.
When we passed the nuclear plant near Peekskill we had a courtesy inspect by the U.S. Coast Guard who were guarding the plant. We had to stay west of the actual channel. The large coast guard vessel patrolled close to shore and an inflatable with three young men came along side. They asked me to get a few safety items and while I was down below pulling things out, they quickly introduced themselves to Kelly. They were very pleasant and it was nice to see that during such difficult times for the American's (especially in New York), that they still took time to be pleasant to tourists and wish us a pleasant trip.
We stopped in Tarrytown for fuel and a free pump out before crossing the river and picking up a mooring in Nyack.
Nyack is a nice Yuppy town. They have a Starbucks, which was our first stop, as well as antique stores, women's clothing stores and some nice restaurants but no major food stores.
We were able to pick up a few vegetables before returning to the boat.
Dinner was aboard Suvarov. We spent a lovely evening just gabbing in the cockpit, watching the world go by.
Provisioning day. We were at the farmers market shortly after they opened and purchased a lot of fresh vegetables. We then took a cab ride out of town to a grocery store for $3 U.S. With many bags of groceries the cab driver deposited us right at the dinghy dock.
The Suvie's son and daughter-in-law (Jon and April), arrived about 3PM. Happy Hour was in our cockpit. Jon offered to give Kelly a lift back to Bellville when they head home.
I baked and cooked all day for Thanksgiving dinner. If I don't say so
myself, the meal was great with all the regular Thanksgiving vegetables, deserts
and of course turkey. We all enjoyed the meal so much we forgot about
pictures until we were having after dinner drinks in the cockpit.
We awoke to a cool rainy day. By 11 am we had received a call from Suvarov saying that April and John had decided to head home early. Kelly was offered a ride with them, which she accepted.
We spent most of the day roaming through town. I did a few loads of laundry in preparation for the arrival of our friend Mike tomorrow. Mike is going to sail with us from Nyack to Sandy Hook.
We awoke with almost frost on the deck and winds still blowing northwest at 15 to 20 knots. I made some stew and bread for dinner. We rested most of the day and about 5:15pm decided to go ashore and watch for Mike. We got into the dinghy, looked toward shore and saw him walking down the dock. He had just arrived. The guys spent an enjoyable evening discussing the trip so far.
We are finally leaving Nyack. It was a lovely town and club to visit, but the mooring balls attack the hull so much with the tide changes and wind that I’m glad we’re on our way. We headed out early because the New York harbour restrictions state that we can transit during daylight hours on weekdays only. No stopping in the harbour is allowed.
We could not get over the number of apartment buildings with large water
tanks on the roofs. None of us had seen anything like this before. We saw the
Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building and ground zero where the World
Trade Centre had been located. There was still visible damage to other buildings
in the area and you could both smell and see the smoke.
I thought that since we sail in Toronto harbour, which is a busy place, New York harbour would not be much different. Wrong! The high speed ferries were coming at us from every direction. There was a large container ship passing us from one direction while a tug and barge were coming the other way. In and around all of this traffic were Coast Guard vessels with machine guns ensuring that no vessels stopped or travelled outside of any markers.
We were glad to reach Sandy Hook. We thought we might find Suvarov anchored there but no such luck. It was going to be a rock and roll anchorage because of the high speed traffic nearby but it would make for a good departure point in the morning.
We left early in the morning with a promise of southwest winds 10 to 15
knots. Our plan was to sail overnight to Atlantic City. When we reached Manasquan
we decided that beating to windward was not fun and pulled in. For $20 plus
dinner, we could spend the night on the dock of a restaurant called the Shrimp
Box. We were the first recreational boat to arrive. There were large shrimp and
fishing boats all around us. We had a nice dinner and slept well.
We headed out for Atlantic City again. By the time we reached Barnegat Inlet, I had accused the guys of confusing my home for a boat. No matter which tack we took, we were pounding. Although it was not quite as bad as yesterday, it was bad enough to pull into Barnegat for the night. We went in a couple of miles and anchored in front of some nice houses.
We finally arrived in Atlantic City on Friday October 12th . Poor Mike booked his return flight out of Baltimore, which is not anywhere near here. A few phone calls and he arranged a taxi and then a train from Atlantic City to Baltimore.
When we arrived in Atlantic City, Tropical Storm Karen was heading towards
Bermuda so as well as dropping Mike off, we thought it would be a good place to
wait for better weather. We anchored just inside the inlet near a bridge for the
first night but the wind, current, tide and wake, created rough sleeping conditions. Rick and Mike
decided to sound the depth of an anchorage recommended in our Skipper Bob book.
There were two men standing on either side of the gap in ankle deep water
carrying on a conversation. We really didn't believe there would be enough water
between them to get into the anchorage, but there was. A rising tide and there
was already over nine feet. If we were to sit out the storm that was forecasted,
it would be much more comfortable if we just had to deal with the wind, rain and
tide without the river surge and current. We made it in and Keith and Allison on
Shadowfax, followed shortly after. We had a wonderfully quiet evening.
The next day, we were up at 4:30am for Mike's departure in the dinghy at 5:15am. Later in the morning we did a little sight seeing in the Dinghy, with Keith and Allison. Back at the boat we had a visit from Windigo (New Brunswick), and Sweet Sensation (Mimico Cruising Club, Toronto), wanting to know what the depth was. They were going to leave the other anchorage and join us. I am so glad they did because after all of the preamble this is the beginning of the real adventure.
Rick and I went to bed about 10pm since we had been up so early that day. The forecast was for rain, maybe thunderstorms and wind about 25 mph. Call it intuition or something, but we didn't put the full cockpit enclosure up. Although we had been anchored here overnight in some pretty strong winds, I asked Rick if he could set the alarm on the GPS just incase we dragged. He did, but not properly, so it didn't work. At 12:30AM, I awoke to a man calling "Wind-Borne, you're dragging". It was Frank from Sweet Sensation, a wonder I even heard him with the howling of the wind and whining of the wind generator. He had tried shining a spotlight on our boat but when that didn't seem to awake anyone, he jumped into his dinghy and came to warn us. When I ran into the cockpit (in my PJ's), we could almost reach out and touch the shore. (At this time, I was glad we didn’t have to struggle with the enclosure.) He pulled his dinghy right up to our boat and stayed with us until the anchor was raised. We just got the anchor reset, and the rain started. It rained buckets and buckets, which was wonderful because we had been waiting for a bit of rain to wash the salt off of the boat. Not only that, but Rick had soaked a pair of trousers and socks, in salt water the day before and I have already learned that things soaked in salt water don't really dry. I had set them in the cockpit and had planned to rinse them in fresh water so they could dry and then put them in the dirty laundry bag. There was so much rain that Rick rinsed them a few times while he sat on anchor watch. I made coffee and we both just kept an eye on our position. At 3AM the wind changed from South East to NorthWest. All of the boats swung 180 degrees except us. We swung 90 degrees. We were so intent on putting out enough rode that when the boat started to swing the stern went aground. The bottom is mud so it was almost like putting out a second anchor. I was able to rest a bit better knowing that we definitely were not going to drag for a while. I checked the tide book. High tide would not arrive until 6:30 AM . We both rested for a while. At 4:45AM the tide lifted us and we were swinging properly at anchor.
This is our first day of the journey with just the two of us. All our crew (Kelly and then Mike), have departed. If we keep this up it could be a very interesting journey.
We awoke to see Suvarov anchored by the bridge. They moved into the anchorage
with us as soon as it was daylight and the tide stopped flooding. There's
another front coming tomorrow so we're going to stay put. Shadowfax, Sweet
Sensation and Windigo are leaving and going to try to make it to Cape May before
the front. Suvarov has dinghy outboard problems. Rick and Al checked out the
repair places here, but none of them have the right parts. They'll leave it
until we get to a better Mercury Mariner dealer. Al and Tish came with us in our
dinghy and we did a little sight seeing. That evening we tried to prepare for
the next front. The little bay that we are in is deceiving. At high tide it
appears much larger than it is. The land around us is very flat with absolutely
no trees so there is good protection from the current and river surge but
absolutely no protection from wind. At low tide it is obvious that we are
sitting in the middle of mud flats. Rick and I discussed this and decided that
it was still a good place to be because if we drag anchor again, the worst that
can happen is that we end up in the mud. We put out 100 feet of chain and our 44
pound delta anchor. Rick set the anchor alarm (correctly this time), and we both
decided to read for a while and wait for the storm. We didn't have to wait long,
the wind attacked at full velocity. We seemed to be holding well until the wind
increased and started gusting at 50 MPH (for our friend’s back home that's 80
km). The first major gust literally picked up our boat and we sailed off the
anchor. We saw it happen, felt it happen and with the anchor alarm we even heard
it happen. We started the engine immediately, the anchor seemed to have reset
itself but we were still swinging all over the place.
Within about 15 minutes we
felt our stern in the mud again just like the other night. There was a big
difference this time though. It was about 10:30 pm, which meant we were in a
falling tide. Realizing this and recognizing there is absolutely nothing that
you can do, we decided to get ready for the boat to lay on its side for the
night. The good news is that the storm continued all night, with some boats
reporting that it was hailing, others going aground in not such soft bottoms,
and we didn't even have to sit up on anchor watch any longer. Since we had gone
aground a couple of hours after high tide, we should just drift off at high tide
the next morning. Rather than take a chance, we called Boat US (we have an
unlimited towing contract with them), and asked them to be there at high tide to
pull us off just in case. They said they would arrive about 7:30 to prepare for
an 8:30 high tide.
We closed the thru hulls on the low side to prevent any mud from clogging them. I laid down on the settee (low side), and read and slept for a while. Rick tried to pace but it's really hard to walk on a 45 degree angle, so he eventually crawled into bed and rested a bit until morning.
Boat US arrived as promised, and we were again sitting upright. Rather than wait for high tide, he gave us a little nudge about 1 1/2 hours early. We floated off with no problem at all. He asked if we wanted to go to a dock or if we wanted to try anchoring again. The dockage is $3 a foot U.S. per night. We said we were going to anchor again and get it right this time. We reset the anchor and Rick sat at the helm all day keeping the boat from dancing off the anchor. The wind was still howling at 25 to 35 miles per hour and continued to do so for the rest of the day. I had suggested to Rick that we had to do something because we couldn't sit at the helm all night. . At about 4 pm, the sky changed and we had some stratus type clouds overhead. I called Al, my personal weather forecaster, (pilot), to find out what these clouds were indicating. Al said, the wind would continue. The VHF radio had said the winds would diminish overnight. I believed Al. Well, we weren't going to give up this easy. We decided to put out a second anchor. We put out the bruce with 50 feet of chain. Well, blow me down, the boat came to a complete halt. No more swinging and dancing. We set the anchor alarm again and went to bed. It woke us up twice during the night, 12:30 am and 4:30 am. Each was a wind shift and we had swung a little. We had a good night sleep. We have decided that Lake Ontario sailors (us), obviously have not had enough experience anchoring in nasty conditions. We were fair weather anchorers. We are now a 2 anchor family and Rick has renamed this bay to Experience Bay. The Suvies have nicknamed us "Eileen" or for those that don’t get the joke, it’s "I lean".
The winds started to subside. Along with the Suvies, we decided to head for Cape May. The winds were still out of the west, so the ocean should be nice and flat. We headed out about 9:30 and had a great motor sail to Cape May. We found Shadowfax at a free dock and spent the night with them. They told us their horror stories that happened during the storm. Allison calculated that conditions tomorrow morning are perfect for running up Delaware Bay. We all decided to be ready to leave at 6 am.
We headed out a 6am, in the dark! The Cape May Canal has a couple of 55 foot bridges that are causing everyone a little bit of concern. We should be fine. Rick has calculated that our mast is only 50.5 feet.
We didn't hear the antenna scrape as we went under so I guess he was right.
We arrived in Chesapeake City by 3:30pm. We had traveled the complete Delaware
Bay and the C&D canal (54 miles). We used a headsail with our engine and rode
the tide all the way up exceeding 9 knots at times. There is a very small
anchorage in Chesapeake City we all stayed there for the night. Shadowfax and
the Suvies came over to Wind-Borne for a potluck dinner. Shadowfax has decided
to leave early in the morning to try and catch up to Salt & Pepper. We and the
Suvies are going to sleep late and leave sometime before noon.
Good thing we didn't want to leave early. Shadowfax tried to leave about 7am and ran hard aground in the entrance to the anchorage. We left at about 11:30 on a rising tide, and only had 7 to 8 feet of water under us.
I must keep better track of the days of the week. We said we would try not to travel on weekends. Here we are moving on a Saturday amongst the most inconsiderate huge weekend power boaters we have ever seen. We arrived in Georgetown Maryland and anchored with Sweet Surrender and Windigo for the night. We'll explore town tomorrow and see if we can find parts for the Suvies outboard. Al has promised to teach me how to de-bone a chicken whole, once we find a grocery store.
We spent Sunday in Georgetown and every other little town around looking for a grocery store and Laundromat. We walked most of the day, through farm country. In the afternoon, we moved the boats to the mouth of the Sassafras River so we can head out early tomorrow for Annapolis.
We arrived in Annapolis just before 4 pm. and anchored in Back Creek. The Suvies came over for pork roast dinner. We’ll start exploring town tomorrow.
We found the West Marine Store, Laundromat and library. Tisha and I decided to have our hair cut. The girl who cut my hair seemed a little inexperienced. If she had ever cut hair before it must have been for a marine. She almost shaved the sides and left it a little longer on top. Tisha had a different girl and was very pleased with the results. I’ll just wear a hat for a week or so.
It’s 85 degrees today but a cold front is supposed to move through tonight. It’s a slow moving front and will probably take about 4 days for the wind and rain to pass, so I chickened out. I do not want to sit on anchor watch all that time. So we have moved to a mooring near the town centre.
There is so much to see and do that I want the boat secure so that we can leave it and go exploring the town.
We're still in Annapolis, on a mooring just in front of the Charthouse Restaurant. I know that had we arrived during the boatshow, it would not have been possible to obtain one of these moorings. The view is great and the dinghy dock is right in Market Square. We have been to West Marine a couple of times. In fact I think they know us by name now.
We've learned that when we go to a grocery store, we should first go to customer service and get a bonus card. It takes about 2 minutes and they give you a card on the spot. All through the store you find items with two prices. The regular price and a discounted price for card holders. Another boater we met, showed us his handful of cards, he has made this trip before. Our first time we saved $12 by having a card.
The other thing we like about Annapolis is the Middleton Tavern. It's very
old, established in 1750. They have the greatest Happy Hour. Beer and bar drinks
$2. A bucket of mussels $2, a platter of shrimps $5.
I forget how much for the oysters and clams, but it was all very fresh and cooked perfectly. We've been there twice already.
Tomorrow's the day. The Suvies are coming for dinner and Al is finally going to teach me how to de-bone and cook a chicken whole.
Well today is the day after tomorrow. The Suvies were here last night and dinner was great.
A cold front went through and our temperature dropped from 80-85 degrees to 58 degrees. The winds have been blowing 25-30 MPH non stop for a few days. When we woke up this morning it was so cold we decided to light the fireplace. It was great until one of the large gusts created a down draft and blew the flame out. What was scary was that it re lit itself with a small boom. I decided it was warm enough since I was going to do some baking. The wind and cold is going to hang in there until midweek, so we'll be here until at least then.
Weather is great, we're still in Annapolis. We met Shadowfax again, they were anchored with Soltice Moon. Amazing Grace was on a mooring ball close to us. It's neat how we keep meeting all the friends we originally met in the Oswego Canal
We (we, Tish and AL), toured the Annapolis Naval Academy and Museum. Security is a little tight but unlike West Point, at least we could get in. We had to show picture id and go through a metal detector. The tour was very interesting and free. That evening we went to Middleton Tavern again for happy hour. (I think we are now up to four happy hours there) Tish is really getting into sitting at the bar and meeting people. I don't think she has ever done this before and now it's hard to drag her away.
Al's part for his outboard is supposed to arrive today. We left to go about 10 miles to West River. We left ahead of them and when we anchored it was quite windy so we put out 2 anchors. By the time they arrived there was no wind at all. A beautiful night and great sleeping.
We awoke and found that the current had caused the boat to swing around the anchors a few times. We could barely see the one float for the first anchor. It had been pulled under the water a little. When we moved the boat back a bit using the engine, we immediately found the other float. There was a little thump, thump, and I quickly put the engine in neutral. Sure enough, the prop had caught the float and pulled the line up and around.
Rick, from the dinghy, tried to release the line using the boat hook.
This was our last boat hook because we lost the tip of the other one overboard yesterday. Sure enough, we lost this one today. Two boat hooks in two days.
It didn't matter because it wasn't going to work. Someone was going to have to go into the water. Diving on the prop is certainly not in the list of duties for first mate or admiral, so the captain had to do it. The water was extremely cold (Rick used a different adjective), and there were jelly fish visible right beside the boat. I stood in the cockpit and offered assistance, Al, who had come over to help, was in his dinghy protecting Rick by attacking jelly fish with his boat hook. Rick, hero that he is, dove and found there were 2 wraps around the prop. One little slice with his new rigging knife (a birthday gift from Kelly replacing the one he had lost overboard), and we were free.
We put this down to another adventure and another lesson. (Don't put the engine in gear until both trip line floats are visible.)
We arrived in Solomon Islands and anchored before dark. The Suvies were right behind us and right behind them was Rayga. We met Shirley and Jean on Rayga (from Montreal) in Cape May, and then again in Annapolis. Another boat, Jandy, arrived and we all anchored in the same area. We put out our Halloween pennants and jack-o-lantern. Threw on our costumes, and dinghied over to Rayga with our wine glasses for a trick or treat. While visiting with them, the dinghy from Jandy went by with the people calling ''trick or treat''. They headed over to the Suvies. After our visit with Rayga, we went and joined them on Suvarov. Since there was no one aboard Jandy, this was the end of our trick or treating.
