Northport

I was overdue for a haircut. This home, converted to offices, has a one chair barber shop. "Oscar" has been cutting hair in Northport for 50 years. Cost for a cut...$3.50! Down the street at the jewelers, I stopped in twice for a new pin for my broken watch band and adding an additional link I found on the boat. Both times, no charge. We can stay all day at the town dock, run to the store, wash the boat & fill the water tanks; no charge. We like Northport!

Even without the extra cost savings, it's a nice town. We also have friends here who buy us dinner! We'll be here till mid week when some friends arrive. We'll buddy boat with them down through NJ. He knows some of the less than perfect inlets that require local knowledge. Meantime, we're getting some maintenance chores done. And the weather is perfect!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Cuttyhunk redux

We left Martha's Vineyard Tuesday, cutting through Woods Hole again with the tide. Another scary ride as the swirling currents don't always go in the direction you need to go...and the channel has rocks on the edges! But I'm getting used to this stuff, sort of.

Anchored in the outer harbor of Cuttyhunk around 3pm, an easy day. This place is well positioned for a crossing of Buzzards Bay towards Long Island Sound.

Our friend Dan came to visit us from across Buzzards Bay where he keeps his boat in New Bedford. He sails a trimaran, pictured here. They are very fast, he can go 15 knots fairly easy. We struggle to go 7k in similar conditions. But, we have much more space plus our weight makes a much smoother ride in rough seas. Our friend Chuck rode with us from Norfolk north in June with 30k wind & 8' seas. He has a catamaran, and after riding with us in the rough stuff is considering a switch to our type of boat. All boats are tradeoffs.

Dan rafted with us for the night, we had dinner and plenty of discussion topics till midnight. In the morning, we cut him loose as a storm front was approaching. Turned out to be minor wind but a lot of rain.

After the storm, we bid Dan farewell over the VHF and got underway across Buzzards Bay. No wind, so we motored. Shortly after getting underway, I went to check on things below. Smoke coming from the engine room is generally not a good thing! I hollered up to Chris to cut the engine. The alternator was smoking. I've been fighting various issues with the alternator/charging system for a while. While we drifted in sloppy rolling seas, I swapped out for the spare alternator. Other than some mild queeziness, no issues. Fired up the engine and continued on. We'll be buying a new alternator soon!

Arrived in Point Judith in the PM and anchored in the "harbor of refuge", a big area protected by a stone breakwall. Bought some 'cheap' diesel & gas at a marina Thursday morning before heading west to Stonington, Ct. We've been to all three of these places on the way up. It's nice to know the surroundings and what to expect.

We had good sailing conditions heading east in this area but now it's been pretty calm and back to motoring.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Martha's Vineyard

We sailed south from Cotuit last Friday to Vineyard Haven harbor on Martha's Vineyard. Spent Sat/Sun riding out rain & high winds. Monday we hopped the bus to Edgartown to do a bit of sightseeing. Lots of 17th & 18th century ship captains houses. Of course we had to go down to the harbor & check out the boats and accommodations. We may come here next year. We also stopped for lunch...Mad Martha's hand made ice cream!

After countless trinket shops, we hopped the bus for Oak Bluffs. Took a walk on the beach there and then into town. Different sort of architecture on all the cottages from Edgartown. Had dinner at a small open air cafe Coup deville. Lobster rolls, yum. Hopped the bus back to Vineyard Haven, which is actually the town of Tisbury. Hit the Stop n Shop for a few groceries and dingied back to Freedom.

Tuesday we sailed up through Woods Hole and west to Cuttyhunk. Woods Hole has the most wicked currents we've seen so far. Swirling eddys that run perpendicular to our route, trying to push you into the rocks!  Keeps me awake.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Wild night

We were anchored in the outer harbor of Hadleys Harbor, the inner harbor was packed. The prediction was winds of 15 to 20 from the north and rain. Our spot was exposed to the north. 2 boats came in after us and anchored upwind of our position. A little after dark, it started blowing hard, well over 20 and up to 30 with plenty of rain. As the wind continued to blow hard, we all seemed to be holding well. For the moment.

Around 10pm I looked up through the driving rain to see one of the boats moving rather quickly towards us. They were dragging, and fast! Luckily, the wind swung us to starboard and they flew by to port by about 20'. I couldn't see anyone on deck either, so I grabbed our horn and sounded a very long blast. They scrambled up on deck and managed to stop the drag just in time. They told us later they read 7' on the depthsounder. The shoreline had to be within 50'...all rocks! They spent at least 30 minutes trying to gain control of the situation and get re-anchored. 

Lots of good luck at play here. If I hadn't seen them in time, they would have surely smashed into the rocks. If the wind had pushed us to port, they would have hit us for sure. And, they could have snagged our anchor and dragged us with them on to the rocks. A lot of things could have gone much worse.

My knuckles are getting sore from knocking on wood!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Keeping dry

We sailed about 18 miles from Cuttyhunk to Hadley Harbor this morning. There is a very nice inner harbor with free mooring balls courtesy of the Forbes family who have a home here. It was full so we anchored in the outer harbor. Not as protected, but we should be fine anyway, we have a great anchor and we've anchored in much worse spots.

A few hours after arrival it started to rain. And rain. And rain. One of those days you just hang out and get a few things done.

We're headed to Cotuit Bay tomorrow. Chris sister will be arriving in the area on Saturday for a week long vacation. Should be fun!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Special delivery

We're anchored off Cuttyhunk harbor and the Raw Bar comes by. They deliver oysters, clams, shrimp cocktail direct to your boat. They shuck them right there for you. A great way to suck down a few cold, slimey ones! Mmmmm oysters!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Cuttyhunk

Our boat is anchored in the outer harbor here at Cuttyhunk. Quirky little island town.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Buzzards Bay

I tried to post with a short cell phone video a few days ago. That failed! So I'll encompass that up till now.

We had a beautiful downwind sail from Northport, LI NE to an open bay east of Saybrook, Ct. It was open to the sound so we did roll a little at anchor. Good enough for a quick overnight stop. Next day was a short hop to Stonington, Ct. A nice anchorage behind their breakwater. We launched the dink and rode into town. I'd read reports of a great little fish market with the sweatest scallops around. They have a special flash freeze process. Bought scallops, shrimp & haddock. Haddock was excellent.

Next stop Pt. Judith harbor of refuge. It's a big breakwater sticking out into Block Isl Sound. All day was very dark but no rain till dinner time. "Grillin in the rain, just grillin in the rain" .

We're currently underway for Cuttyhunk Isl at the southwest end of the Cape Cod area. We're looking forward to exploring an old Cape Cod sea town. Reports to follow, stay tuned!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Liberty welcomes Freedom, part 2

We cruised right up to the lower tip of Manhattan, The Battery, and around the bend past the quiet ferry terminal into the East River. First bridge, the Brooklyn bridge, is undergoing a facelift. There are many more fantastic old bridges with beautiful iron work all the way up the East River.

This is where the tidal flow begins to pick up. We throttled back to high idle to save fuel and enjoy the ride and still did 6 knots. We passed the UN and the upper east side with lots of great old buildings. The Empire State & Chrysler buildings looked fantastic.

Half way up Manhattan, the East River turns 90 degrees right toward Long Island Sound. This is the infamous Hell Gate. The current is very fast here and there are huge rock outcroppings deep below that cause numerous whirlpools. We were doing 10 knots through here without much effort. It's a blind corner so I called ahead on the bridge to bridge VHF channel 13 that the large commercial ships use announcing our position & course. As expected, no response. "As expected"? I have a great ap on my Droid called Marine Traffic. It gives me real time AIS reporting that all commercial ships are required to use. It shows position, speed, direction, size and pictures of the ship. A fantastic tool!

So our trip through NY harbor, with proper planning (back slap), was uneventful. I spent most of my time shooting video (to be released soon on youtube) while Chris did most of the piloting. Maybe next time through we'll stop for a brief visit. But viewing from the water was pretty satisfying.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Liberty welcomes Freedom! Part 1

I missed a post! I forgot to write about our NY cruise!

A few posts back I noted that we anchored behind Coney Island, staged for a run through NY harbor. The tidal flow is strong, so timing is important. The currents were in our favor for Sunday morning as was the weather. We got underway around 8am, first landmark is the Verazanno Narrows bridge. It acts like a giant gateway to NYC. We rounded the point and made the approach to the city.

The Staten Isl ferries are notorious for being fast & numerous. But there were only 2 of them running this Sunday morning, making this a piece of cake. We crossed the main ship channel to run up close to the Statue of Liberty and then directly toward lower Manhattan. The new World Trade Center was topped off a few months ago but its upper floors are still getting their glass skin.



Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Now that's low!

Our stop after running through NY harbor was Northport on Long Island. A good stop on two counts. One, good friends Craig & Jen are in the area. Two, the town dock is free to tie up to during the day. That means we don't need to load laundry or groceries in the dink for a mile long ride.

We tied to the dock around 1pm. The dockmaster asked our specs and then had us come around the back side of the dock out of the wind. We made a trip up to town to the laundromat on our bikes. 2 hours later we went back up to the grocery store. Well we tried. It was a STEEP hill. Only one of us made it! Got the groceries put away and took quick showers just in time to join Craig & Jen for dinner.

We were supposed to be off the dock by around 8pm. We came back to the boat around 8:30 to get underway. Not so fast! We were sitting on the bottom. Not a lot but definitely aground. We draw about 5'6" and that's what the depthsounder was reading. The tide range here is over 7'! Our boat was even with the dock when we left but now it was a very long climb down to the deck. This was after dark, sorry no picture. The pic here is in the morning. I talked to the evening dockmaster, she said no problem. Stick around till morning to get underway. So we had a few beers and spent the night.

Low tide is every 12 hours, so around 9am would be the same condition. We got up early and cast off by 6am with several feet to spare. This was our first encounter with big tides. Florida & the Chesapeake are only 1 or 2 feet. Up in Maine they have 20' tides! We'll save that for next year.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

North to New York

We rode out rain & hi winds off Sandy Hook for 2 days. Today we stopped at Atlantic Highlands for fuel before heading to NY harbor. They had the cheapest fuel we'll see in New England. They also had crappy NJ attitudes!

We sailed across choppy waters to outer NY harbor, anchoring behind Coney Island in the shadow of the Verazanno Narrows bridge. We stopped here to time the tides right Sunday morning. We'll be going up the inner harbor, past Liberty & Manhattan into the East River. Half way up the East River is the aptly named Hell Gate. The current runs 4 knots there. You must not hit the ebb when running to Long Island Sound. Lots of whirlpools and other nasty stuff that can ruin your day!

Should be a fantastic morning, can't wait. A good day to follow our spot track, departing around 9am...

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Sumpin Fishy Here

We left Atlantic City before dawn to make Sandy Hook before dark. The plan had one little hang up...severe thunderstorms. We chickened out and ducked in at Manasquan. I did a quick on line check and found dock space; cheap. Shoulda known there;d be a reason it was cheap. We could smell it from a 1/4 mile away. We tied up right next to some sort of fish processing shack. Some sort of loud grinder was wailing away inside the shack. Guys were shovelling 'something' into large vats and the water under the shack was full of foam.

But it was better than the alternative. Weather radar showed plenty of purple over the place we would have been. Likely 40 to 50 mph winds, driving rain and plenty of lightening. We were safely tied up when the front hit us and we only got 35mph winds. Unfortunately, not much rain to give the boat a good rinse. We'll be off very early to continue on to Sandy Hook. Hopefully we'll leave the smell behind!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

4000

We hit 4000 miles since departing last September! What a trip, and we're just getting started.

We left the Chesapeake by way of the C & D canal into Delaware Bay. Many reports warned of a hostile body of water. But the only issue was the continued heat. We installed a new A/C unit when the first of the 90's hit but our little generator can't handle the load, it's only good dockside. Oh well. As we headed down the bay we finally got some ocean breezes. We finsihed the day at Cape May.

Today was a brisk downwind sail with plans on overnighting all the way to Sandy Hook, near NY harbor. But things got a bit sporty; 20+ winds, 6' seas, no moon, unlit fish traps. So we went into Absecon Inlet Atlantic City for the night. No gamblin for us! Up early for the long 14 hour day to Sandy Hook.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Solar

We rented a car for a day to buy the solar panels and do some shopping. Got almost everything done in 22 hours then back to enterprise. We were concerned about overheating so we arranged for a mechanic to do some work on the cooling system too. I figured 4 maybe 5 days to complete the install and a few more things. We finished almost everything in 10 days, just in time for severe storms to come through, so we stayed 2 more days.

But now we have 240 watts of solar. We were running our generator almost 3 hours every day when we sat at anchor. This should cut that back to 1 hour every few days! Yea!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Ft. Lauderdale

We've been thinking of installing some solar panels and a good supplier is located in Lauderdale. So we decided to stop here to do the work. We went a few miles up the New River to the city owned Cooleys Landing, right downtown. The amazing thing about sitting here is the parade of megayachts. There are major repair facilities further up this narrow, twisting river. At least a dozen 100'+ yachts would pass by every day. Some beautiful machinery and some gaudy crap too. Amazing sights.

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

SoBe II

South Beach is amazing. I've never seen so many outdoor cafes. Must be thousands. The art deco architecture goes on for miles.

We met Wally aboard Gypsy Wind and Ben & Jane on Old Rosie. Wally wants us to go to Cuba with him next year. Wally would be great fun, but sorry we'll have to pass.. Old Rosie's name was lifted from a Bob Seger tune. It became apparent Ben didn't name the boat after his wife! The 4 of us took our bikes on a long ride all thru South Beach. A perfect place for bikes, a great day of sight seeing, dining and goofing off.

After a very quick, fun week, we decided we'd better get underway before we spend all our money on lunches & dinners! We stayed off the beach, too much skin. I don't like seeing women in skimpy bikinis cavorting in the sun.

Next stop Ft. Lauderdale, a short day sail up the coast. Got yelled at by the water cops for trying to use the ship channel while cruise ships were present and got yelled at again in Lauderdale for circling around while waiting for a bridge opening; got to close to where there were no cruise ships!



Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

I wanna go to Miami!

We've rounded the corner and are now headed north. We left Marathon for Rodregiuz Key on Sunday. Anchored out there for the night and continued on Monday morning. Had some rain in the AM which we welcome to wash the boat. The afternoon was beautiful. Arrived Miami via Government Cut around 4pm. We had to stand off to wait for the cruise ships to exit; homeland security. But they reopened the cut before the last one was out. So we had to make room for a very large ship. Not a big deal since the cut is huge. Dropped anchor around sunset. Then moved to a better location Tuesday. We're right off Miami Beach, near the police dock. We can tie to the launch ramp for access to the city. First stop, Burger n Beer Joint! 1/2 lb. Prime angus beef burger, all the trimmings and duck fat fries! Oh yea, a beer too. Yummmmm! Easy walk to publix and Fresh Market. We decided to hang out for several days. We'll take the 25 cent bus down to South Beach this afternoon for some sight seeing and dinner.

More 85 degrees and sunny weather! Life is excellent!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

Fail

The McGyver in me failed with the depth finder. As I suspected, the keel, rudder, propeller turbulance messed with the depth finder. No joy. I could have mounted it off the side of the boat and that would have worked...if I had a pole long enough to rig to the side stanchions and reach down to the water. The painters pole would have snapped under the strain if I extended it that far.

So on to plan B. We re-anchored outside the harbor & called the local West Marine. They have a type of depth finder that can drop in replace the existing display. But, I have heard contrary opinions if the old transducer will work with the new display. The only transducer available for the new display requires drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat. I can't work that fast! So I took a chance that the new display would work with the old transducer.

Launch the dink, run to a marina, pay $8 to tie up for an hour (everybody has their hand out around here), walk a mile to the West Marine, discuss options with the manager for a half hour, buy the depth finder, walk back to the dink, run back to the boat, temporarily hook up everything in a manner that would allow return, EUREKA, rewire everything permanently, tie up the dink, go motor around for a while to test, re-anchor, clean up, relax and wait for tomorrow to get underway. Hope we get another great sunset tonite I can actually enjoy. And pray this solution works long term.

Now if I could only figure out what is causing the tach to act up...

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom

The Great Escape

3 long weeks stuck in Marathon is enough. A nice place, but when you expect to spend 1 week and are boxed in for 3, it gets frustrating.  The wind is finally going to switch direction after 3 weeks of continuously blowing out of the east, the only bad wind direction. So it's time to git!

But, earlier this week a boat with an extra tall mast caught a telephone wire that drapes across the entrance to Boot Key Harbor, which pulled the wire about 5' lower. It was set to 65' at high tide. We need about 62' plus another foot for the whip antenna. The wire is now 60' at high tide and 62' at low tide. Now what?

A few guys went to the bridge next to the wire for an elevated view to spot for us. We waited for dead low tide at 1630 (4:30pm) to make our escape. The lowest droop is right at the channel so if you go around the droop, you gain elevation...but the channel shoals to about 5' very quickly and we draw about 5' 6" and this is at dead low tide! Truly ZERO room to spare.

So we cut through the bridge, forced a small power boat out of our way and listened for the guy on the bridge with a radio to tell us how we looked. Looking up from our boat doesn't tell anything. We've gone through 90' bridges and it looks like you're going to hit it. I turned left after the bridge toward the shallow water and then turned back as soon as I heard from the spotter. I didn't know it at the time but he reported that I hit the wire with the top 1" of my whip antenna! Another boat after us caught the wire with their mast and were lucky to be able to maneuver back off the wire while not running aground. Oh, the wind was blowing 15 at our back pushing us toward the wire. Oh, another minor issue; the depth finder decided to crap out! So when I was heading to the shallow water, I was blind to the depth. That's why I turned very quickly as soon as I got the word. But we made it and we're now anchored in the open ocean behind Boot Key ready to sail east in the morning.

AT&T is wrangling the only barge in the keys big enough to fix the wire. They'll be there in another week. And, BTW, the wire is no longer in use and this is the third time in 2 years for this sort of issue. Lots of unhappy people stuck there another week. We felt like Steve McQueen in the Great Escape. We made it under the wire!

As for the depth finder, we still need one. During a most fantastic sunset over 7 Mile bridge, I scrambled to McGuyver a backup. I have a little fishfinder in the dingy. I removed the finder & the transducer from the dink. I have a fiberglass painters pole for extended reach scrubbing. So I cut off the end of the pole and mounted a stainless 1" bracket I have in the parts bin. Bolted the transducer to the end of the pole and tied the pole to the swim ladder. Spliced on a cigarette lighter plug to the power wire and instant depth readings! I just hope the turbulance from the boat, engine and exhaust don't interfere with the readings. Stay tuned!

Posted by Ed aboard S/V Freedom