Two Bays and two Canals and a layover in the Solomons

Once again we are underway. We are leaving Great Kills Staten Is. NY under sunny skies and fair winds. We have to arrange our departure time so that it will be in our favour to arrive in Cape May NJ just after noon tomorrow which will allow for the current and tide. That means we will be sailing overnight when the winds will be about 5 knots so it will mean a motor sail again. We have done a lot of this type on sailing on this trip as the winds are usually against us most of the way but it's okay as long as we can sail once we get south.

Jack and I have been taking turns at the helm and the coastline of New Jersey looks quite sandy.  We were sailing about four miles off shore and there in the distance was Atlantic City.  Looking back at NYC after it got dark, you could see the Empire State Building lit up for thirty five miles.  The night was very clear , no cloud cover at all and I ( Jack ), thought that there was a lot of stars out until I looked at them with the binoculars, there was millions of them.  I've never seen so many.

We were told by several people if we were going to go into Atlantic City to watch for the shifting sandbars.  Marinas in the area could be reasonable but you would have a ways to go to get to the action.  The marinas to access Atlantic City with no commute run about $6.00 per foot.  Whoops there goes my gambling money. As we had great sea conditions, we continued on to Cape May and saved ourselves a few dollars. In the early morning I took a picture of Atlantic City as the sun was rising. It looked like it was coming out of the water and following us down the coastline as we passed it. When Jack got up he said it`s still here.  You have it in view for about 14 hours or more.

Atlantic City at Sunrise

Finally Atlantic City disappears and Cape May comes into view.  Well I held my breath for a bit as I can here Ron`s voice telling me how terrible it was for him and Meg when they arrived here. Fortunately the wind was down the tide was right and once again we came in without any problems.  Ron it must be the time of year. We found a nice place and got some much needed sleep.

The next morning we went through the Cape May Canal and headed up Delaware Bay. Well stayed in the channel and saw lots of water but had to fight a bit of current against us.  When we got to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, we anchored outside of the shipping lanes for the night.  I was a little uneasy about anchoring here as we seemed to be in the open and too close too the shipping channel.  Right after we anchored, a rather large tugboat and barge anchored about 400 yards away from us  and they were lit up like a small city.  That, and Jack's assurances that we were in a good spot eased my mind.  Needless to say he had no problem through out the night, even with the tides changing direction.  In the morning our time for a favourable tide to help us through the C & D Canal was 1000, so we had a little bit of a sleep in until 0700.

 Cape May

 C & D Canal  What is wrong with this picture? Answer at bottom.

Bald Eagle in the C&D Canal

It was uneventful, no large ships or tugs with barges, just a few bridges that were about 135 feet high to go under but that was about all.  We have been very surprised that we have not run into more commercial traffic, although we did have our fair share of it in Delaware Bay.

The  C & D Canal took us to the Chesapeake Bay.  The first night we went up the Sassafras River and found a nice spot to anchor.  We stayed there for two days just to chill out and wait out a bit of weather. Our next stop was Annapolis and sent three days there on a mooring ball as the weather was going to be stormy for a day or two.  We also met up with a Dave and Lisa aboard Ki Ola Ki who we first met in Quebec and then again in Halifax.

I must say the perspective coming into Annapolis was quite different than from shore. From shore it looked huge but coming into the bay it seemed quite small but it was a nice spot to send a few days.

 Approaches to Annapolis

Moorings at Annapolis

We had to get some groceries and beer so we thought that we would go ashore and grab a bite. Of course football rules in these parts, so we stayed and watched a half game and had a couple.  Each different bar around here supports different teams.  The locals go to their team bar to watch the game.

One day we went ashore and did the Annapolis Naval Academy Tour.  It was quite an interesting place to visit.  On our way back to the boat we went for a walk and did some site seeing and started looking for a place to stop for a coffee and tea but took a look at the sky and thought better of it and headed back to the dinghy. When we got to the dinghy we had to wade through three inches of water that was over the city sidewalk to get to it.  That was surge water from the high winds that day and the high tide. When we left it there it was up against a wall, now it was floating above it and it hadn't rained yet.  As soon as we stepped on our boat the heavens let loose. We were lucky again with the timing.

General Meeting Area at Naval Academy

 Cadets Residence

Inside Cadets Residence

Cadets at lunch. By the way girls they are all single, no married men or women allowed.

Dome inside of on site church.  Everything is on site.

After three days in Annapolis we went to St. Michaels MD. It was a cute spot but we anchored and were not too comfortable with the site we anchored at so the next day we moved on to the Solomons Is. MD. That is where are now.  We went up to the top of the river and found a nice spot for anchoring in shallow water but it was quiet and pretty. We heard that some bad weather was coming in and swells were going to be 3 to 4 feet and we were in less than 8 feet of water so we decided to move up to where there were some mooring balls in about 11 feet of water.

 Solomons Bay

View of Solomons from Bridge

 

We met a very nice couple, Mike & Willie (Wilma) McCarey, that have been keeping a boat in the Solomons Island area for forty years.  They drove us to the grocery store and picked us up when we were finished, then took us to dinner where we exchanged sailing stories of our trip getting here and of their favourite places along the Chesapeake.  The Chesapeake is such a great place to sail and gunkhole.

Tiki Bar or Easter Island?

The answer to the question in the blog, "what's wrong with this picture?"
There is a golf cart on the dock.
 

Standing Still in Long Island Sound and New York City

We were in Pt. Judith Rhode Island planning our next passage to Long Island Sound. Sounds pretty straight forward but we had to give consideration to tides and currents again. We thought this would be a good plae to get some rest but for those who are light sleepers like Linda the fog horns kept her awake most of the night. The three fog horns went off in sequence every two and a half minutes which would not have been bad if there was fog.

There is a section call the race and this is located on the eastern edge of Long Island Sound. The currents here are strong and you need to be entering this area during a flood current.  When you look at 3 to 4 knots coming at you it doesn't seem like alot.  Well with checking the tide books and getting our departure time we went through this stretch of the sound at a speed of about 7 to 8.5 knots. Not bad for a days work but our calculations were a bit off about an hour. Once we were in the sound the current began to change and guess what within an hour we went from doing 8 knots to 1.7knots against the current. Well we then decided that after an hour of this and it was going to keep up for another 4 hours it was time to call it a day.

No place to anchor so we went into a marina run by Brewers. Beautiful place and $2.50 a foot. Well we stayed for one night and got an early start as the current was in our favour at 6 in the morning. The marina was in a very protected place so when we got up everything looked good to go with a forecast of sunny skies and 1 to 1.5 waves. Needless to say some of these weather guys should come out onto the water before they made predictions. The wind was on the nose and the wave height was 4 to 5 feet. Current was with us but only at 1.7 knots so once again we are fighting to make headway.

So the wind is blowing nicely so we set the sails and decide to tack up the sound. After about an hour and half the current has changed and we are about 500 yards ahead of where we started and it is now 3:00 and decision to go back to shore and once again into a marina.

We never expected to take this long to get through the Long Island sound but the next day it co-operated and we got to Port Washington where they have mooring balls. They are everywhere down here. We were told that the town balls are free for the first two days and as we were going to visit friends we decided to take advantage of this deal. After the two days we let them know we are going to stay a few more days and guess what they said no charge well that's a first. We had a great time.

We spent one day in New York City doing the tourist thing, Empire State Building, Times Square, Central Park, 5th ave., the Plaza, Strawberry fields and Macy's. Busy day ending with dinner and a beer.

 Top of the Empire State Building

 Chrysler Building

 Central Park

 Ferris Wheel in Toys R Us Store

 Times Square

 The Naked Cowboy in Times Square

 Self Explanatory

 Statue of Liberty

 Guarding of the UN Building

 Brooklyn Bridge

A Drink to New York

Well our next adventure was to attach hell gate in New York.  For those that do not know this area it is where the East river and the Harlem river come together so once again we are dealing with currents and tides. Well Jack is getting to be an old hand at this stuff but I am still green.  He works the schedule out and in my way I review it. We waited for the right weather and current timing and successfully got through hell gate without incident. We lucked out it was like leaving Port Credit with about 5 knots of wind. I did not mind it being uneventful. As we went down  the east river along Manhattan I took lots of pictures. I couldn't believe how many bridges there where here and I took a picture of each one I will have to start a site just about bridges.

Now for those cruisers who come down the Hudson the blog will get boring for you as you have seen all the sites from here on in.

Yes we went to the statue of liberty then over to Coney island and now we are on Staten island.  We have been here for three days waiting out the weather at Great Kills NY.  If you contact Richmond Yacht Club the mooring balls are $15.00, $40.00 with tender service. use your dinghy they have dinghy wharf.

Well we have a good window for our next leg from Staten Island to Cape May. The weather Sept.11, 2012 for the next 4 days is winds from 5 to 10 knots and sunny. The flood tide tomorrow starts at noon so we are off today around two and will overnight to Cape May and should be there about one or two just in time for the flood tide to go through the Janel at Cape May sea height 1 to 2 feet.

I going to have lunch and we will be underway.  Talk to you soon. I will post some pictures later and Jack will edit it at our next stop.

Marion Mass, Provincetown and Boston

Here we are today in Marion MA.  Jack is ashore and I'm chilling out on deck in about 75 degrees with a nice breeze and a cool drink to boot.

We need a bit of an update since Bar Harbor.  No matter where we are, sometimes it's impossible to get connected to the internet.  What planet are they on?  Hopefully I will get the pictures posted this time.

Anyone out there that can help with some computer training with pictures please forward on our e-mail svxanaduiv@gmail.com.  I am retired don't want to have to think toooooooo hard. Cheryl how do you get the photos to send on e-mails so I don't have to do one at a time.

Donato and Jimmy how are you guys doing. Donato you helped us with this site, now it's time for some more hints of how I an make it better.  Please!

Well back to Southwest Harbor. On our way into Southwest Harbor ME we came across a couple of thousand lobster pots.  They were everywhere, even amongst the mooring field ten feet from mooring balls.  Unbelievable!  no wonder they are depleting the lobster stocks and only getting $3.50 a lb. on the docks right out of the boat.

We must be the luckiest sailors in town, as we came into SW Harbor at high tide.  They have a very large mooring field and we needed fuel and we were not sure where the fuel dock was at the marina that we were going to get fuel at.  We went of course to the wrong side of the marina docks and when Jack said there were no sail boats in this area, we turned into the few remaining boats in the mooring field and went to the other side of the marina.  As we went there there was a large pole with a red and white checker sign with an ospreys nest on top.  They have all kinds of then down here but they are usually on buoys.  We get our fuel and get a mooring ball and all is good.  At the fuel dock the harbor master says on the radio to a boat that wants fuel, that there is a small sailboat (Xanadu) at the fuel dock and they will be leaving soon.  It's started, they say that the farther south you go, the smaller your boat gets is true.

 This is the same area as below at low tide

No rocks at high tide scary

A little later we get in the dinghy and go ashore at low tide.  We couldn't believe what we saw in the area that we had just taken our boat through, the massive under water rocks that were covered by high tide and not marked on the other side of the docks and around the red and white checker sign.  The pictures will show what we mean and we are very lucky that we didn't go aground.

A seal pup stranded on the rocks at low tide.

SW Harbor is home to the Hinkley Boat Building Co.  There is a very large collection of Hinkley's in the mooring field.  Beautiful boats.  We spent two days in SW Harbor and decided to move on.  We didn't want to be constantly on the lookout for lobster pots, so we decided to to make the jump from SW Harbor to Boston, about 165 NM.  We had to get 30 NM off shore to get rid if the lobster pots, even then there was still the odd one or two in as much as 330 feet of water.  The wind didn't co-operate with us and we had to motor sail most of the way.  Our ETA for Boston would have brought us in at 2230, not good to enter any unknown harbour at that time let alone a harbour such as Boston.  On the way to Boston, at 0100 we had over heating problems again.  We got it sorted out and during the day made the decision to activate Plan B, go to Provincetown MA.  Things were going well for a landfall at Provincetown at 1830 and we again had over heating problems.  We nursed our way in to Provincetown in the dark and secured to a mooring ball at 2200.  We ended up staying in Provincetown for 4 days as one of the hoses on the heat exchanger split and we had to have one shipped in from Washington state.

Advertising in Province Town

Afternoon at the bar with the guys

Even though we were stuck there it was a great time.  Lots of bars, great food and entertainment and lots to see and do.  Once again a large mooring area and they pick you up at your boat with a launch.  We met up with a couple that we had met in Port Hawkesbury NS., John and Judy from S/V Castellina.  Small world.  We had breakfast together and talked about where we have both been since we last crossed courses and met up for drinks ashore later that evening.


One night we went to a local bar for a couple of drinks after coming back from Boston on the high speed ferry.  It's Kareoke night and the host was dressed in drag and putting on a femme voice until the contestants needed a baritone back-up singer.  What a laff.  Half the crowd was gay and the other half, I'm not sure, except for Jack and Linda of course.  Did I mention that Provincetown is the gay capital of the USA?  None the less, it's a great place to visit and lots of fun.

We decided instead of sailing to Boston, we would take the high speed ferry to Boston.  Wouldn't you know that morning one of the high speed ferry captains puts the ferry up on a sandbar just outside Boston Harbor.  We heard about it about five minutes after it happened over the VHF radio and were lucky enough to get tickets on the competitions ferry before the rush.  A lot of people missed flights that day.

Passenger ferry carries about 300 passengers ran aground on a sand bar. think someone is looking for a new job

While in Boston we thought that we would catch a Red Sox game.  Not to be.  They had a night game that day, but we did watch batting practice from the Bleacher Bar, great place.  While there, we met a couple from Toronto and a true Bostonian by the name of Phil.  We are everywhere. The next day we left for Sandwich MA to go through the Cape Cod Canal.

Boston Red Sox Stadium.  The Green Monster

Time for some pictures don't forget to give us an e-mail once in a while or try us on Skype.  Xanaduiv

See everyone later.

Jack and Linda