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.
The C & D canal is the canal that connects Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay. We saw this beauty along this canal.
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!
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!
...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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bristol is yet another of the many small coastal towns we've visited. We enjoy going ashore and walking these small towns to see the sights and get some excercise.
We met a great couple while we were in the Bahamas. They live in Massachusetts and keep their boat on Naragansett Bay in Rhode Island. Their description of the bay is one of the reasons we decided to spend some time in this area this summer. Deb and Pierre, you are right! This is a lovely area. We sent them a quick email when we got here and like cruisers everywhere, they went out of their way to meet with us and show us around .....yes in a car! We had a great time and lunch at the Portuguese restaraunt was excellent. Thanks again for your generosity!
