We got underway (briefly) from the dock at Old Lyme Marina on the first day of Fall 2021. We had been on the dock for about a week for 1000 hour service on our Yanmar engines. This was not our first thousand hour service. We are up to 4000 hours already. We were supposed to have the mechanic aboard for final testing but he didn't show up on time. Cranking up the engine RPMs to make the R.R. bridge opening, we had poor engine speed and strange noises and smells. Sigh. Back to the marina just as the mechanic showed up. A test run showed a leaking injector. This is bad. They rushed the injector to the shop the marina uses and pushed them to take care of the problem. They got it back to us very quickly and after another test run we got underway for good just before noon. Four hours late.
We got lucky with the drawbridge opening but by the time we got to the Sound the wind was up, the seas were up and we were losing the favorable current. Sigh. Oh, and did I mention the rain? Okay, it wasn't terrible. Seas never got above 2ft. and the showers were brief. Could have been worse. It took an hour longer to Port Jefferson, L.I. than it would have if we had left in the morning but we were secure on a borrowed mooring in PJ by dinner time. Late dinner time.
The next day we planned to stay put due to forecast thunderstorms and wind. Overnight it didn't rain and it was mostly sunny, if breezy, in the morning after breakfast when Carol changed our minds about staying in PJ. We got underway in spite of Small Craft Advisories and found it wasn't too bad. For a while. The last hour of the trip was very sporty and we had a couple of quick showers along the way, too. Coming into Manhasset Bay was a bit too exciting as was picking up a mooring. We could not get a town mooring (full) and so we got one that did not afford a free first night. Didn't care. Very rough in the harbor but we could handle it. Experience. Having a catamaran helps, also. We decided to stay a second night in Port Washington but picked up a now open town mooring for that second night. Those moorings are free the first night so it worked out all right. If we had gotten one of those moorings the first day we would have had to pay for the second night anyway.
We had planned on going through the City on the weekend because there is less ferry traffic and we hoped the west side of the East River would be open. They close a security area in front of the United Nations building while it is in session. This year this closure extended into Saturday. We could have waited until Sunday but the weather was better on Saturday for the whole passage off the New Jersey coast. Forecast to be better I should say.
We left Port Washington at 0600 in the dark. As we were going through Hells Gate, a tricky, semi-dangerous spot, we were trying to reach the bridge tender on the east side of the East River. They never responded by VHF radio or by phone, even after USCG intervention. After making us wait 15 minutes, they opened. They then had the nerve to call US(!!!) on the VHF to get our boat name showing that their radio worked and they just ignore boaters.
After we got through the City we headed out into the ocean off New Jersey. It was a really pleasant day. Sunny, warmish, seas about 1ft. and a nice, comfortable breeze. After getting to the Atlantic City area the wind shifted to directly in front of us so the genoa was furled and, as we continued into the night, the breeze picked up much earlier than forecast. This meant the seas picked up sooner than forecast, too. It wasn't too bad until 0100 when it got a little less comfortable. The trip around Cape May wasn't great and wasn't awful as we took the near shore route. We had bread crumbs to help us. We call the GPS track on the screen bread crumbs as it shows where we travelled previously as if we left a trail. Just follow the bread crumbs and you'll be safe because you've taken the route before. Still, it is disconcerting to be just a few hundred feet off the beach and heading straight for the lighthouse before you turn to parallel the shoreline. Since crew was sleeping I did this myself. I could have woken her up if needed but I would only do this if the boat was in serious danger. Doing the waking could be dangerous in itself. 47 years of experience is a factor in making these decisions. Not talking about boating experience here.
After going around the Cape into Delaware Bay things got awful. Big, close seas right on our nose with the wind. These two factors slowed us down as we slammed into every third wave or so, nearly coming to a stop. Things in the boat were tossed about and broken and salt water flying over the cockpit killed the plants on our stern as well as getting us wet. Dinghy got damaged, too.
This may not have been the worst we'd ever had happen to us but it was a good attempt. Close. This lasted about 5 hours before easing to 1-2ft. chop at Ship John Shoal Light. The current stopped hurting us at this point, too. We went into the C&D Canal and then continued through it to the Chesapeake Bay as the anchorage basin in Chesapeake City was full. We went to the Bohemia River and anchored a bit past Veazey Cove. This was open to the wind direction but it wasn't bad.
From Bohemia we went to our usual anchorage in Worton Creek, MD before the Small Craft Advisories went into affect. We are frequent visitors here as it is land-locked, quiet and scenic. Deer and hawks were some of the wildlife we saw. After two days we crossed the Bay to Middle River for the first time. We took some of the secondary channels there and found our paper and GPS chart to be way out of date. Many buoys were missing. Two other electronic chart sources were accurate, however. We managed. We anchored up in Hopkins Creek. Nice but not particularly interesting. Marinas and houses all around.
Just one night in Middle River then we went to Hart-Miller Island. The anchorage was not protected from the wind direction we had but it wasn't too rough. The island was created by joining two islands with dredging material from nearby Baltimore and creating a park. We went ashore for a bit and did some sightseeing before heading back to the boat, having lunch and then getting underway again. We went up Bodkin Creek which was only an hour away and used to be one of our regular stops. From there we went to a newer regular spot: Sillery Bay in the Magothy River. We were actually only about two miles away from our previous anchorage in Bodkin Creek but to get there we had to go out the creek, south on the Bay then up the Magothy into Sillery. Maybe 8 to 10 miles and two hours of motoring. It's a very pretty spot and well protected. After a long weekend there we finally headed for Annapolis.
It was only an easy 2 hour passage and we went into Weems Creek in West Annapolis. We used to come here when we first started cruising south. We anchored here and then we started picking up the Navy moorings that used to be available. Picked up private moorings back then, too. It's a nice spot, close to a grocery store and a favorite bakery. We learned the bakery changed hands recently and is doing some things differently. Jury is still out on how we feel about it. The bread we got was still quite good if a dollar more expensive.
So we are in Annapolis until October 16th we think. We will leave right after we go to the boat show which is later in the month than it used to be. Not happy about that. We plan to look for a city mooring after a few days here. Hope we get one.
