A Day on the ICW

We spend many days traveling the Intracoastal Waterway. This is an inside passage that allows protection from the big winds and waves of the North Atlantic ocean. It can be challenging with heavy currents, big tidal swings, lots of boat traffic and bridges.

Here are some pics of our trip from Daytona to Titusville.



We got an early start before dawn but with enough light in the sky to navigate. We were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise.

There are "high bridges" that are fixed. Most are supposed to be at least 65' vertical clearance at high tide. This is good as Freedom needs about 63' (more is preferable).

Here is a picture of a gage on the bridge to help determine clearance. Heights vary with
tide and winds. High winds can drive water to higher levels giving less clearance. This one showed about 64'. 

This is a Bascule Bridge. It is much too low for us to get under. We call the bridge tender on the VHF radio and request an opening. Some will open on demand. Others have a schedule. This one opens every 20 minutes when requested.

Timing for the bridges is crucial. If you arrive too early you have to jockey around waiting. This can be difficult with current pushing you towards the bridge, especially if there are multiple boats waiting with you.

It was an easy day of travel. We arrived in Titusville in time to visit with our friends from Old Rosie, Ben and Jane.

Thanksgiving

Road Trip!

We got the call. Time for a road trip.


Freedom is tied up safe and sound in North Carolina where the cotton is ready for harvest.


Autumn is the perfect time to hit the road.




Love driving through the mountainous areas of North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.


Brrrrrrr.......it is cold in Michigan. Good thing we have warm family and friends to visit.



The reason for the trip? Ed had a big studio shoot.

"She"

"A ship is always referred to as "she" because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder".
 
ADM. Chester Nimitz

New Bern

After picking up our rental car from Enterprise for our drive to Detroit, we ventured into New Bern for a look around and dinner.
They seem to have a thing for bears here.






It's a very nice little town.








And to top it off, it's the birthplace of Pepsi.



Dinner was very good. We'll have to come back and spend more time here someday. Meantime we've temporarily become dirt dwellers and car drivers.

Nice Work!

We replaced an old Taylormade fender under their lifetime warranty. Thank you Taylormade.
A new fender deserves a new fender cover. Chris did a fantastic job fabricating the new cover. Here it is next to an older one. Sharp!

Moving South

It is starting to get chilly, especially at night. It is time to move south.

After you pass through Norfolk, Virginia there is a section with lift bridges. These bridges have restricted openings during the week. The weekends are less restrictive and if you are folowing a tow and barge you can sail through on their bridge opening (they arrange opening reservations). Here is the one we were lucky enough to follow through.





Monday was our day to travel the Albemarle Sound, the Alligator River, and the Alligator Pungo Canal. What a great day with beautiful sights.


Here is Ed using our new traveler controls as we sailed the Albemarle Sound.




The Alligator River is shown below.....not a single gator was seen.










The Alligator Pungo Canal reminds us of our river travels.

Sodden

sod·den

ˈsädn/

adjective

saturated with liquid, esp. water; soaked through.

It's October so we must be in Annapolis for the US Sailboat show.   To say that it rained and was chilly, wet and windy is an uderstatement.  We had a rainstorm stalled over Annapolis and it poured, in buckets, for four of the five days of the show.  Sailors are troopers, we didn't let rain stop us, we donned our foul weather gear and trudged, sodden through the show.  What a blast.



Ed shot videos for Sail magazine. He rigged a plastic bag around the camera to keep it dry. The show must go on.









It was not all work. We spent a lot. A lot of time hanging with friends at Pussers (the local restaurant and bar). And a lot of money on cool boat gear, in fact all the money we made on the Sail magazine shoot.






Monday was the final day of the show. It was bright and sunny.....yay!






We are now getting underweigh to head south.

All American Breakfast

We were invited to breakfast by new cruising friends Craig and Carol. They just started this summer. "Chick and Ruth's" is a local fixture in downtown Annapolis.



Big portions of great food. But this place is better known for leading everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance twice each morning! Everyone stands and faces the flag. Hats off for the men. And loudly, everyone recites the pledge (including "under God").
No, they aren't pledging to the TV in the picture! The flag is in the front room.



This was the Wednesday morning cruiser gathering. Well, actually a CLOD meet. CLOD? Cruisers Living On Dirt. The acronym applied to former cruisers who moved back to land and became "Dirt Dwellers". Lots of cruisers move to Annapolis to sell their boat and then stay here to live. Not a bad choice. We expect this choice to be a LONG way off. But it made for a nice morning of socializing.



We're getting a few projects done, enjoying Annapolis and awaiting the Sailboat show. I have a few days of work there. We'll spend all my hard earned money in the Pussers bar. If there's any left, we'll spend that and more at the show. There's a law that says sailors aren't supposed to have any money so we need to keep legal.

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!