Weathering the weather, by Chris

Not complaining, I understand that a large portion of the US is experiencing drought conditions, but we have had lots of storms. Everyone up here is telling us that this is quite abnormal. This is a good news/bad news scenario. The bad news is the storms and trying to schedule our movements and arrange anchoring in protected areas. The good news, we are learning a lot about what we and Freedom can handle. The rain is a great way to wash all the salt off the boat and I am becoming more comfortable in a thunderstorm and am getting better at reading the radar. Here is a picture that our friend, Dan Kim, took after the storm passed in Cuttyhunk harbor.

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

Cape Cod visit

We cruised into Cotuit Bay on Cape Cod last Wednesday. Chris sister Ellen and family have a time share house there and we planned on visiting with them for several days.
The channel into the bay is very shallow so we had to time our entrance for high tide. We got good assistance from the local county harbormaster. Plenty of places to anchor and a town dock to gain shore access via the dingy. We can even tie up temporarily, space available, to pick up and drop off passengers.

Family arrived Saturday and we had a short visit and dinner. Sunday night was reported to be stormy/windy so we stayed on the boat. This storm was less than predicted but we've learned to play it safe!

Tuesday I took bro-in-law Pat & son Pat jr out fishing. I managed to find a decent spot & we kept a dozen decent fish. Enough scup, seabass & bluefish to feed all 8 of us! A good day fishing.

Wednesday was sailing day. Took Pat, Rebecca and their children Nellie & Nat out for a daysail. They seemed to like it very much. So we're happy too, you never know with kids! That was a fast 4 days of visiting with the Owens family. We're happy our scheduling worked out. That's not easy with a slow moving boat.

This makes our farthest north & east of the year. We left Cotuit to sail south to Martha's Vineyard. We're now in Vineyard Haven for the night. If the weather cooperates, we'll do some exploring tomorrow.

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

Fourth of July Raft Up

Our friends/hosts invited us to their yacht club raft up for the Fourth of July. Here's a short video of the afternoon...

Hurricanes!

We are moving north, in part, to stay away from hurricanes. Nice try! We left the boat in North Carolina in May, well before the official start of hurricane season and not one but two tropical storms came though the area. The boat did fine in our absence, I tied it down very well to allow for high winds.
Now we're tied to a pier at a friends house near Annapolis and we get hit with a Derecho, often called a 'land hurricane'. Winds were around 60 MPH at the boat and we were fairly exposed to the west, the direction of the storm. Rocked and rolled quite heavily and bumped against the pilings a lot. Did get one very minor dent in the stainless steel rub rail.
OK, none of these were real hurricanes, two tropical storms and a derecho. But still, it's early in the season. Predictions are for a lower than normal hurricane season based on cooler than normal sea water temps in the Atlantic, so lets hope no whoppers are in our future!!

We were going to join 4 other boats for a mini cruise of the Chesapeake Bay today. We've postponed one day. One boat can't get off their hoist because of a power outage, one boat had a power spike take out their electronics and we're concerned about having the same weather conditions as yesterday. So I have time to write blog posts.

Stay cool and keep an eye on the western sky.

Hangin out

Hellow followers, we're still here!

It took us 5 days to move up the Chesapeake Bay from Norfolk to Annapolis. You saw the first day in the video I posted recently. That was fun to sail/surf downwind. But the next day the wind switched hard around to the north. It's no fun to slog upwind into 4 to 5 foot seas. So we sat at anchor for a few days waiting out the winds. Finally got underway and still had a half day of fairly choppy seas.
Our destination was our friends Chuck & Mary's house just north of Annapolis. They have some spare dock space to generously share. We'll stay here a few weeks and spend time visiting with them as well as getting some of the endless projects done. The heat jumped off the scale last week so I added yet another project to the list, replacing the air conditioner. Installing the new unit was pretty easy but ripping out the old one was quite a chore. The unit is under the forward V berth. Gravity worked with me dropping the new 65 lb. unit in. But first gravity had to be overcome in lifting out the old, heavy, rusted unit. I got in some good practice at cursing.

Our friends here belong to a small yacht club and a week long cruise is planned for the Fourth of July week. We're looking forward to having a group to sail with and getting in some Chesapeake touring. This is a BIG bay!
Tentatively, we'll head further north sometime around the middle of July.

OpSail 2012

A Nice Sail Up The Chesapeake Bay

Escape from Lauderdale