Wired!

We are still in Annapolis, enjoying the town and visiting with old friends like Lawrence and Elaine on Elle and I, whom we met last year in Northport, NY.  It had been almost a year exactly since we had last seen them. Here is Elle & I anchored in Spa Creek.  We've also met a few new friends, but most of our time has been spent working on projects.   We had the boat hauled out of the water to inspect the bottom, we needed to make sure that there was no below the water line damage from the lightening strike on Labor Day. All is good with the boat bottom, now we need to replace the wind instrument that was fried.  

One issue on a boat when installing new systems is the wiring!  The idea is simple, attach the new wiring to the old and pull it through.  The reality is a little more difficult.  In an older boat there are dead wires that previous owners left laying around below the floors and behind walls. This makes finding the correct wire among the spagetti of wires difficult.  We are pulling some of those old wires out to get rid of them to make more room and this can be time consuming.  We also ran into some very tight spaces for the wire and tight for us to fit into to guide the wire.  

We have the new wind display and the new tri-data display in place and all wired up, this was the easy part.  We still need to go to the top of the mast and install the anemometer and run the new wire down the 63 feet of the mast and insert the speed wheel into the bottom of the hull.  The speed wheel requires us to pull the old one (opening a hole through the hull UNDER WATER) and QUICKLY install the new one. We'll let you know how that goes.

Sightseeing

We are going to be in Annapolis, Md for a while (over a month).  There is a lot to do here; people to see, places to go.  Although we have been here many times before, we had not toured the Naval Acadamy. What a beautiful campus, here are some pictures.  Among other things; a Wright brothers aeroplane, memorial hall and the beautiful Tiffany window at the chapel.

C & D Canal

The C & D canal is the canal that connects Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay.  We saw this beauty along this canal.

Happy Anniversary!

Today marks 2 years since we cast off from Michigan!

We had temps in the 30's early on, murderous heat and humidity last summer, blasted by a derecho, nicked by hurricane Sandy, dodged a tornado, run aground a few times, caught in a squall and zapped by a lightening strike. No pirate attacks; yet.

We've also had a great trip down the river system, riding in locks 90' high and watching the jumping carp. The Gulf of Mexico greeted us with our first of many dolphin escorts. What a phenomenal experience to see them riding in our bow wake. There have been alligators, sea turtles, skates, rays, barracuda and sharks as well.

We're actually beginning to get the hang of this sailing stuff too. Shutting the engine off and gliding along at 6 knots, listening to the water rushing by never gets old. Motoring down the East River past Manhattan at 11 knots with the fast current is pretty cool too!

Does anyone ever get tired of beautiful sunsets? They're extra special when at sea. But even better were the shimmering jewels of bioluminescence we had in our wake just last week off southern New Jersey, brightest in the moonless night. This just after the spectacular rocket launch that flew right over us.

We've met lots of great people, some real characters and a few buttheads too. Made many new friendships that we expect to last a long time.

Chicago, Mobile, St. Petes, Key West, Miami Beach, St. Augustine, Charleston, Annapolis, Hope Town, New Plymouth, Little Harbor,  Stonington, Edgartown, Newport; all great places to visit and plenty of good eats too! Fresh fish, shrimp, scallops, oysters right off the docks; yum!

Yes, it's been quite a ride these two very quick years. Perhaps it's time to move on to some other adventure?

Not; we're just getting started!

How much?

"At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much."

Robin Lee Graham

Stars On The Water

We made another run through NYC to Atlantic Highlands without incident. Now for the hard part, we don't like the New Jersey coast. The weather is often unfavorable and anchorages are poor. A window of north winds presented itself so we jumped. The seas were kind of sloppy but from behind, so tolerable. As the day progressed, the sea state moderated and we decided to keep going overnight all the way to Cape May. It turned out very well.
By nightfall, the ocean was just a mild roll from astearn, perfect. I received a text from a friend telling us of a NASA ICBM rocket launch in coastal Virginia almost 150 miles away. Maybe we'll see something. We were looking south at the appointed time, wondering if we could see it when a huge orange glow lit up on the horizon. Several seconds later, up comes the big flame of the rocket. Yea, no kidding, we see it! The rocket looked like it was headed right for us! Its low trajectory went just to the east of us. We clearly saw 2 of the stages break away and the new stages light up. The show lasted at least 5 minutes, maybe more. Thanks NASA!
Around 2 AM, I started seeing shimmering in our bow wake. At first I thought it was reflections from our lights on this moonless night. But I soon realized it was phosphorescence in the water illuminating as our bow wake stirred it up. They were like little shimmering jewels glowing in the darkness, flowing along in our wake. They would last from a split second to 3 or 4 seconds and were a continuous stream for about 2 hours. Sorry, they were not bright enough to photograph, but it was truly spectacular.

The weather and the seas stayed very mild so we then decided to keep going. We would have reached Cape May, our usual stop, at dawn. Our fuel level was excellent and the tide favorable so pressing on up the Delaware Bay was an easy decision. With the current pushing us, we did around 8 knots, instead of our usual 6, the whole way up the bay and into the C & D canal. We had another miraculous event on the bay, NO FLIES! The Delaware Bay is typically a nightmare of biting flies. How lucky we are.
Our last concern of the day was space in the Chesapeake City anchorage. No room at the in could be problematic. Our luck held and we found a nice spot in the back to anchor...right next to friends we'd last seen here last time through! It's deja vu all over again on Ground Hogs day!

So one of our most dreaded legs of our coastal cruising provided several of our best experiences!

Electrifying Montauk

We're not big on crowds. A sailing friend of ours keeps his boat on Lake Montauk and told us of how quiet it is even on Labor Day weekend. Visiting another sailing friend and avoiding the crowds over a holiday weekend...perfect.

We took the local bus out to Montauk Light, known as "The End". We're getting used to riding public transportation and meeting all kinds of people. This girl heads back to Switzerland after working here for the summer. The bus driver was an endless fountain of information...endless :)

Some fellow long term cruisers snapped a picture of us in front of the light.

Hurricane Sandy went ashore over 150 miles away in New Jersey. But the storm surge was around 30' high, well over the rock berm at the base of the lighthouse!

We left around noon on Labor Day to catch the slack tide at Plum Gut into Long island Sound. The currents can run quite swift there with potential to make things rather unpleasant. On the way out of Lake Montauk, just after we cleared the channel, a big squall popped up out of nowhere. Wind went from 10 knots to 30 knots with driving rain in about 2 minutes! I slowed down to about 3 knots and then POP! We sustained a lightening strike. The wind display instrument went dark and the chart plotter lost GPS signal. Uh Oh! Chris shut off the power to the instruments and then restarted. Luckily the chart plotter GPS came back on line but the wind display was toast. Blank screen and a buzzing sound isn't good. Chris took the helm, still in the squall, and I started a survey below. Sometimes a lightening strike can blow a hole in the hull! So I opened every floor hatch to search for any signs of water. Nothing there and no other problems apparent, so I went back topside just in time to see that the speed I had set was not fast enough in the strong winds to keep us moving away from a very large floating buoy! THROTTLE UP! We missed by about 20'. The squall moved on quick enough and the rest of the day was uneventful. But we're now faced with replacing the wind instrument, we have no way of telling wind speed or direction. A new one will cost over $1000! Plus I'll need to install a new sensor atop the mast and run a new wire down the mast. Oh joy!

We're pressing on to Annapolis, I have work there again this year. We're staying in a marina right across from downtown from mid September to mid October. Replacing the wind instrument will be added to the list of To Do's while there.

Water, Water Everywhere...

...And not a drop to drink?  One of the challenges of cruising on a boat is the availability of water.  We fill up our water tanks whenever we stop to buy fuel, but that is not always enough.  In New England there are few marinas and lots of mooring fields.  Each of the towns need to accommodate all the boats on their moorings and have a town dock that provides access to water.  In Newport they have an approximately 25 foot floating dock as a water station.  It is in the middle of the harbor, a water pipe runs underwater and is connected to the float.  Here is Freedom tied to the float getting water. Tieing a 42' boat to a 25' float was interesting. Ed almost stood too far back trying to get these pictures!

More, Please.

Hope you like all the beautiful and classic yachts as much as we do. We couldn't resist, here are some more.  The Nantucket Light Ship in the picture was used to mark the Nantucket shoals, a station established in 1854.    The blue hulled sailboat is HUGE, the others are all classic wood....very meticulously cared for.  Some of them are the 12 meter America's Cup race contenders.

Close Reach

We are getting pretty good at interpreting weather predictions.  We use about a half dozen weather sources as well as current and tide predictors. Our trip from Nantucket, MA to Newport, RI was planned accordingly.  We left Nantucket around 11:30 so that we would not face the current from an incoming tide and suspected  that the first portion of our trip would be motor sailing at best, but hopefully as we rounded Cuttyhunk Island we would be able to sail a close reach.  For the non sailors in the group that means that we would be sailing almost directly into the wind.  This is exactly what happened, our interpretation of the various reports was correct. We had a great sail, arriving in Newport harbor at 6:30.  The chart below shows the second half of our trip, it is from the new app that we downloaded onto my tablet.  We were heeled over a lot more than it looks like the photos below.

Another kind of Freedom

Freedom is a fairly common boat name.  This old  beauty has been anchored or moored near us in Newport, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.  The schooner Shenandoah was anchored at Vineyard Haven harbor and these kids were jumping into the water from the bowsprit, another kind of freedom.

Is it safe yet?

He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea.

Thomas Fuller

Security Zone

The Coast Guard announced on the VHF radio that there would be a special security zone around the ferry Island Home.  They did not identify the route that the ferry would take, although they did give a time.  All mariners needed to stay 250 yards away from this vessel.    Don't you just know that Island Home, with it's 3 Coast Gaurd vessel escort turned out in front of us in Woods Hole.  Woods hole is a narrow channel with rocks on both sides and STRONG 3 knot current!  We were able to slow down enough to let the ferry and the escort get well ahead of us.   Below is a picture of  our track through Woods Hole.

Newport

We stopped in Newport RI for a few days and spent almost 2 weeks there. Another captivating place that sucked us in and wouldn't let go.

The best part was the boat show. A constant parade of boats of all kinds, right past our free anchorage.

Here's just a brief sample...