First Leg - First Stop

   
    We're in Pasadena, MD on shore. We were hauled Monday the 23rd, only 5 days after leaving Mystic. We're here for our annual haul out for painting and maintenance.

     When we left Mystic we went to Port Jefferson. We had light winds and a good current for the early part of the day so when we slowed down it wasn't too bad. We had a little breeze at the start so we saw the genoa for a while. There were about 3-4 other southbound boats there. From there we went to Port Washington with even lighter conditions. All motoring.

     Port Washington has free moorings for transients so it's a nice place to rest, especially since we got there early.

     Next up was a very long passage: through the City and then along the New Jersey coast overnight to Cape May, NJ. We timed Hell Gate pretty well but the passage south had the wind and seas right on the nose which slowed us down quite a bit. We had hoped to go all the way up the Delaware Bay/River but the slow passage made us stop overnight in Cape May. It was a bit choppy because we had to go right into the waves so sleeping wasn't to great.

     The cold front passed through over night so when we headed up the Delaware the wind was on the nose AGAIN. We were headed south, the wind was SE to SW. We started north and the wind shifted N to NW. Sigh. We get used to choppy. Unwillingly. Not big seas but right on the bow. Not comfortable but we made it to the C & D Canal and Chesapeake City.

     We left the C & D in the morning and went all the way to Bodkin Creek which is Pasadena, MD just outside the Patapsco River which leads to Baltimore. Had a nice sail for a change.

     We pushed our luck pushing south in spite of semi-adverse weather because the marina needed us here sooner to avoid scheduled haul outs for other boats. It worked out okay. We've got our work done and I'll be taking the boat to Annapolis to wait for Carol to come back from her job. Also getting the opportunity to go to the NASCAR race in Dover, a 2 hour drive from here.

     Oh, did I mention the buoy in New York Harbor that jumped out and attacked us? A New York mugging? No? Never mind. Nothing  to see here.


    

Summer came late. Fall came early

     It's almost time for us to leave Connecticut and head south again. It's been a little bit of an odd summer. It started off pretty cold and has ended pretty cool. We had a period of very hot weather but it really didn't last all that long. On the other hand none of the severe weather Connecticut got ever reached Mystic where we live now. We had a very near miss right after Labor Day but that's it.

     We did a little boating but much less than when we were not full time liveaboards. Our first rendezvous was at Hamburg Cove where we met up with our Waterbury Squadron friends and caught up with winter events. It was still cold then so they all got to see our cockpit enclosure for the first time. Normally it's been put away before we have any boating get-togethers. We had a short cruise to Block Island for the Fourth of July but the weather kept us from seeing the fireworks. Twice. Too foggy.

     Heather joined us for a vacation cruise (her vacation, not ours) at the end of July and we went to Martha's Vineyard for most of the week. Weather affected this trip also but it wasn't too bad. We had a warm sunny day when we went to the beach at Aquinnah, if you know what that means. Great sightseeing!

     The also great thing about this summer is the chance we had to invite relatives and friends to the boat! Marcy and Chris and the kids had a mini-cruise of Mystic:

     Carol's former co-worker Laverne and husband Walt visited us as well as fellow southern cruisers Bob and Jane from Voyageur. Great meals and conversation even if the weather wasn't that great.

     My cousin Jim and wife Joan also visited us and had a brief weather window that allowed a short cruise. It's fun taking people out of their comfort zones and getting them on the water. No one drowned.

     My sister, Monica came twice to the boat with her kids but they're really the only regular family visitors we get in the summer.

We ended the summer season with our usual rendezvous at Watch Hill/Napatree for the Labor Day holiday. Said good-bye to our boating friends until next spring.

     The oddest event of the season was the uninvited guest we had aboard late in August:

We have no idea how it got aboard and into our main cabin. Swam in, up a hatch or line? In a computer bag that was in the car while we took a walk on a nature trail? Who knows? It was a common Northern Water Snake. A baby but not at all a welcome bundle of joy.

     We're about a week away from departure towards warmer (we hope) weather. Last year was NOT warm. Maybe this year will be. More likely stormy.

     I am going to try to blog more often but we do get so busy. Sunning, swimming, exploring all take up a lot of time.

Home in Mystic

     We made it home!

     After chasing the bad weather and stopping in Atlantic Highlands we headed through the City, New York City. We were not sure we could get going because the forecast was a little shaky but it was okay at daybreak.

     We had the current with us so the trip through the city went pretty quick. They were just attaching the spire of Freedom Tower One, World Trade Center as we were going by.

     Hell Gate was with us so we squirted out of the city and then into Long Island Sound a little later at Throgs Neck Bridge.

     We started to go into Manhasset Bay, Port Washington but changed our minds a few minutes in. We decided to go to Oyster Bay because it was still pretty early in the morning. We anchored there for two nights because we had the opportunity to visit old friends and go out to lunch with them. THANKS Nina and Guy!

     From there we went to Port Jefferson, LI, NY. We got there early and went ashore for the farmer's market and lunch. We hadn't been ashore there in quite a long time. While there it got very windy but when we left the next day the wind was right on the stern so we couldn't sail without many gybes. We don't do that. We called it a day early again and stopped at Mattituck, LI, NY. Again, we went ashore for the first time in many a year. The wind died at sunset but picked up again before sunrise.

     Our last day underway on our winter cruise of 2012-2013 started off pretty boisterous. Four foot seas with the wind out of the north at 18+ knots. We almost couldn't sail because of our course angle and a lee shore to starboard. The wind was supposed to be more NW, not N. That's the way it usually goes for us. We were making good time even with the current turning against us. 7-8 knots at times. We were about halfway along Plum Island when we were forced to turn towards Fisher's Island Sound and start the engines. It had been a very long time since we sailed with no engine assist.

     It calmed down as we neared home. It also got cloudier and colder. Brrrr.

     Home on our mooring in Mystic at noon!

Cape May

     We are now in Cape May, NJ. And it's miserable. Yesterday was miserable, too.

     Boating is miserable. Okay, not really. Just yesterday. And maybe the next couple of days. It's made worse because we're really only a few days from home and we cannot leave. Foggy. Windy. Rough seas. And very slow moving weather system.

     Yesterday we made the passage from the C & D Canal to here. It started off nice. We left at 0500 in the dark with a great current. We flew out of the canal to get to Delaware Bay and actually sailed down the Bay for five hours. Unfortunately it was another six hours to go after that. We bashed into three foot seas into the wind and this makes for a slow speed over ground. This was the better part of the six hours because...

     After we got to the western end of the Cape May Canal entrance we had to go around the cape. We can't go through the canal because of 55ft bridges so we try to sneak around the cape inside all the reefs just a few hundred feet offshore. We've done it before but not into 20kt winds and 6ft seas and against the current. Three hours to go about eight miles. Miserable.

     Now it's blowing in the harbor at near 20 AND visibility is about 100 feet. Stuck. Outside it's 5-7 ft seas from the direction we want to go. Stuck.

     We're only a week away from Mystic but the week doesn't start until we start out of here.

     Miserable.  

Out of the Chesapeake

     We have left Annapolis after three weeks. Sightseeing, shopping, maintenance, and flying off to work all accomplished.

     Small craft advisories for the beginning of this passage but not too bad. More significant were the headwinds and adverse current. Made for a slow day but we are now in Chesapeake City on the C & D Canal. It's only a short distance from Delaware and about 3 hours from Delaware Bay. We head down the Bay towards Cape May, NJ tomorrow. Not anyones favorite passage. And, as usual, the weather won't exactly be great.

     Probably be stuck in Cape May because many days of rain are coming.

Annapolis

     We are now in Annapolis. Weems Creek in West Annapolis to be a little more precise. After a few days Carol will fly off to work and I'll start on maintenance.

     While we were both here we went to the US Naval Academy again. Visiting John Paul Jones' crypt and a couple of the museums on campus.

We were also there to view the daily formation and parade the cadets have preceding lunch. It's a long tradition indicating their willingness to fight and perhaps die for our country. We noticed a little more security than normal and assumed it was because of the bombing of the Boston Marathon. It wasn't. It was because Michelle Obama was visiting. We got to see her observing the procession and her motorcade as she was exiting a while later. She didn't wave. We'll we didn't either.

     BTW: she's in the red dress on the steps.

     It'll be almost three weeks before we leave here and start our final push towards Mystic.

Catching up

     We are now in St Michaels, MD. I haven't had the time to update this blog so there's a lot to catch up on.

     After my last post we went to a spot called Pipeline Canal just before Southport, NC. No issues except for annoying crab pots in the anchorage and a number of passes by very loud Osprey helicopters from the Marine Base. We were also happy the UConn WBB team won their game and was going to the Final Four.

     Next up was the Cape Fear River and a major road block for us: Snows Cut Bridge. It's under repair so instead of a 65' clearance it had only 61'. We have a 65' mast. That's an issue. There is a 4' tide there so we had to time our passage for low tide, a little after 10am. We were 30 minutes late but made it through okay and headed to Wrightsville Beach for the night.

     The next days was cold, rainy and windy. Also slow due to current. YUCK. We ended up okay at Camp LeJeune, the Marine Base with noisy Ospreys. Deserve the noise here. We appreciate being able to use the anchorage.

     From there we went past Beaufort, NC (Bo-fert) to Cedar Creek just south of the Neuse River.

     We said we'd never cross the Neuse or the Pamlico in a north wind and here we were again. DOING IT AGAIN! It wasn't as awful as last year but we still had 3-4 ft. seas on the nose with a 15-20 kt wind. Double yuck! But we made it and stopped at the start of the Pungo River, skipping by Belhaven.

     We were up early the next day to go under the Wilkerson Bridge when it turned very foggy in the Pungo-Alligator Canal. We went aground twice in the narrow canal before following a deeper draft sailboat. A half hour of very scary. Even a barge had pulled over to wait for better visibility. It took us 11 hours to get to Coinjock where we could get internet at a marina. Internet to watch UConn beat Notre Dame. Destroy Notre Dame. Yay!!!!

     From there we had a short day to Great Bridge where we tie up to a free dock to get supplies, fuel and access to a bar to watch the last UConn game of the season.

     UConn - National Champions!

     From there we took advantage of a great weather day to go all the way to Deltaville, VA. Then a second good day to get to the Solomons where we tied up to the Jack and Kathy Locher's private dock.

     We spent a few days there due to stormy weather before heading here to St Michaels. We'll probably spend a few days here also before heading to a work stop in Annapolis.