After we left Kittery, we made it back to Rockport, Mass where we anchored this time in the harbor around the back of the performance center. There is a town beach there and many families were out swimming and playing on the beach. A bit chilly for us.
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| Pretty stone gazebo which belongs to the house behind it |
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| View of the Performance Center from the anchorage |
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| Nice sunset in the anchorage that night |
We sailed to Provincetown on northern Cape Cod and then back through the Cape Cod Canal to New Bedford. Greg had been reading a book about the tragedy of the whaleship Essex and we wanted to see the whaling museum there. The museum was great and we saw the Seamen's Bethel (church) where Herman Melville attended services and modelled the Whalemen's Chapel in Moby Dick after this one. In the book, Melville described the pulpit in the church as being designed like the prow of a ship which it wasn't in the original church. As years went by and tourists visited and were disappointed not to see that, eventually the church had one built to look like the one in the book. Melville
actually shipped out on a whaler from New Bedford for about 18 months before he wrote the book. I have been reading a novel called "Ahab's Wife" which is really interesting and even more so after having seen the whaleships and whaleboats and the area where the events actually and fictionally took place. A lot of people from Portugal, Cape Verde and the Azores came to the U.S. as crew on the whaling ships and there is a large Portuguese population in New Bedford. We had dinner at a Portuguese restaurant here (Antonio's) and it was good.
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| The Seamen's Bethel |
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| The pulpit in the shape of a prow (or bow of a ship) |
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| Model of the tryworks where they boiled the blubber from the whales on a whaleship in the Whaling Musuem |
After we left New Bedford we had a great sail down Buzzard's Bay to Woods Hole on Cape Cod. It is a very small town but the people were very friendly. It is a big marine and oceanographic research area with the Marine Biology Lab and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute(WHOI) there. We toured some of WHOI and saw the Deep Sea Challenger that James Cameron had built and went (alone) to the bottom on the Marianna Trench. They have some fantastic equipment there and are doing incredible research at WHOI and at the Marine Biology Lab.
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| The space for the person to sit inside the Deep Sea Challenger |
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| More WHOI exploratory vehicles |
We left Woods Hole on August 26 and sailed up to Narragansett Bay. We went up about 10 miles north of Newport and anchored in Potter Cove at Prudence Island. We decided to stay here over Labor Day weekend because we didn't want to worry about not being able to find a place with room to anchor or an available mooring. We did boat projects: cleaning and waxing the hull, cleaning out the refrigerator and generally cleaning the inside of the boat and fixing little things here and there. We also hiked on the island one day but it just couldn't compare to the views we had seen in Maine.We met Dan and Betsy who sail a Cabo Rico 38 named Wind Weaver and had happy hour on their boat one night. We passed a quiet 6 days or so and then headed out to Mystic Seaport, CT.
We sailed on to Morris Cove near New Haven, CT where we anchored for the night.From New Haven, we sailed to Port Washington on Long Island. This was a very cruiser-friendly harbor with some free mooring balls, a dinghy dock right by a grocery store and a nice library with free internet. We took the LIRR (Long Island Railroad) into NYC for a day and visited Central Park. We saw the Belvedere castle and Shakespeare's garden as well as "Strawberry Fields" which is in Central Park across from the Dakota where John Lennon was killed. We've been reading a series of suspense/mystery novels in which a lot of the action takes place in NYC near Central Park and the Museum of Natural History and the main character lives in the Dakota. It was fun to see the places where the fictional stories took place.
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| Looking out from Belvedere Castle in Central Park |
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| Sailing by the Good old Statue of Liberty |
We had planned to sail straight through from Port Washington down the coast of New Jersey to Cape May but the weather didn't cooperate so we stopped at Sandy Hook and anchored for a few days. We even had to move down from there to Atlantic Highlands to anchor inside of the breakwater after a couple of days because a west wind was building and putting us on a lee shore. But we took the dinghy ashore and explored the Sandy Hook area and the park and beach on the Atlantic side. Unbeknownst to us, the beach was CLOTHING OPTIONAL! That was quite a surprise when we got there.While in Atlantic Highlands, we met Sherry and Dave from Ontario on a Pacific Seacraft 37(S/V Mythago) like ours. They had a sail that had come apart at the seams so we got out the Sailrite sewing machine and stitched it back up. We also made shrimp etouffee and had Sherry and Dave and Christian and Mary from IWanda over for dinner. Mary made a wonderful salad and Christian made some great foccaccia bread. Dave and Sherry brought wine and we all had a great meal!
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| Beautiful sunset our first day in Sandy Hook |
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| Beautiful full moon the same night |
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| Flowers on our hike at Sandy Hook |
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| Sandy hook Lighthouse |
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| Sherry and LizAnn working on their sail |
On September 12, we left Atlantic Highlands and headed for Cape May. We had a great overnight sail and arrived tired but safely in Cape May 23 hours later. The radar quit working about half way down the Jersey coast. This started a LONG troubleshooting session with B&G which is still going on now in late October. We stayed on the anchor in Cape May that Saturday night and left to go up the Delaware Bay the next morning. There was a small craft advisory in effect until 0830 that morning but the wind was in the right direction and the current was going to turn soon in our favor so we set out. When we got out of the Cape May canal, we hit waves about 6 feet high. We pounded through for about 2 hours with waves breaking on the dodger then it gradually got better. By the time we were halfway up the bay, the current was pushing us and we were making 7 knots. We made it all the way through the C&D canal and into the Sassafrass River where we anchored. Sadly, when we went to crawl into our bunk after an exhausting 15 hour sail, the bunk was soaked. The pounding waves had come in through the hawse pipe and into the chain locker and leaked through the doors from the locker into the V-berth. We slept in the main salon that night and looked like the Beverly Hillbillies the next day with the sheets, comforter, and cushions spread out all over the deck.
We sailed to Bay Bridge Marina on the 16th and took a slip there so we could go to the Groco factory to get the head fixed. We had re-built it while we were in Marathon in February but it was still giving us problems. Greg took the pump assembly to the factory and they re-built it and let him watch so he could learn all the little techniques and they didn't even charge us! What great service! At Bay Bridge Marina, we also ran into Scott and Sally who we had met in Port Annapolis on our way north and who also have a Pacific Seacraft 37. They have their car there and so graciously took us to the bank, to mail the radar back to B&G, and to top off our propane tanks. Hope to see them farther South this winter.
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| Greg with Sally and Scott |
We left Bay Bridge on the 18th and went to St. Michael's, MD on the Eastern shore of the Chesapeake. We anchored out and took the dinghy in several times to town. One day the tides were up so high we had to wade through about a foot of water over the dock to get back to the dinghy. It was a great little town with a really good Maritime Museum. We re-provisioned a bit and went to the farmer's market, a brewery and a great Mexican restaurant. We missed the winery and the rum distillery.
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| Cute outhouse at a shop in St. Michael's |
We left St. Michael's and went up the Wye River to Dividing Creek. This was a beautiful anchorage with a park and wildlife refuge. We hiked some trails and met a couple from Australia who left home 8 years ago and are still sailing. They plan to get back to Australia in about 3 years. Don't think we'll make it that long!
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| Blue heron on shore of Dividing Creek |
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| 250 year old Holly tree in the park at Dividing Creek |
We left the Wye River and crossed the Chesapeake on Sept. 24th and anchored in the Rhode River off of Camp Letts, a YMCA camp that was the site of our SSCA gam. (Seven Seas Cruising Association).
The winds picked up to 20+ knots that afternoon and two boats near us dragged anchor. They moved to another area but for once, we held fast and stayed put. The gam started on the 26th and we had 3 days of good seminars and camraderie. We stayed in the Rhode river a couple of days after the gam and visited the Smithsonian Research Center and hiked around their trails and park area. There were pretty marsh areas and good views of the anchorage.B&G got back to us and said the radar unit checked out okay and they are shipping it back to us in Annapolis. Now we have to figure out if it's a wire that is bad or some other problem.
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| Itsy Bitsy Spider, on our hike at the Smithsonian Center |
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| More from our hike |
We left the Rhode River and went to the South River, closer to Annapolis and anchored in Harness Creek. This was a great anchorage with a beautiful park, Quiet Waters Park on the shore. They rent kayaks and bikes here and a walk through the park takes you to West Marine and a grocery store. What more could a sailor want? Oh yeah, a wine and liquor store too. We did a few projects like re-wiring the SSB to get rid of some of the static and noise interference we were getting. We also tried to trouble shoot the radar wiring to see if we could find the problem but everything we tried seemed to be working okay.We met Ross on S/V Black Hawk V who is from Kincardia, Ontario and he loaned us a bike one day so Liz Ann could ride to West Marine to get more cables for Greg to re-wire the SSB radio. Then LizAnn helped Ross identify wires on his boat as he was re-wiring some stuff and is color blind. Ross got some crabs from local fishermen and we provided the Zatarain's crab boil and had a great crab feast one night.
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| Pretty schooner that came into our anchorage at Harness Creek. With Ross's boat on right. |
We went to Annapolis on October 3rd and got a mooring ball in Spa Creek to hang out through the boat show. We spotted our friends' boat right next to us and re-connected with Frank and Diane from S/V Utopia. Ross moved over to Spa Creek too and we all went to happy hour together at the Boat Yard Bar and Grill one night. We got our radar back and tried again to figure out the problem but even having a tech guy provide a new jack for the cable didn't do the trick. He and Greg "rung out" the cable and there seemed to be good continuity. Sue and John, Greg's sister and brother-in-law drove sown from New Brunswick, Canada for the boat show and stayed with us a couple of nights. We all accomplished a lot at the boat show, buying charts for the Caribbean and getting some things fixed by talking with the dealers there. We got B&G to get a radar cable for us and that seemed to solve the problem. We also got Weems and Plath to replace our trawler lantern because it was leaking and Vetus is supposed to mail us new dorades because ours are peeling.
We left Annapolis on Monday, October 13th and sailed to Solomons Island where we anchored in Leason cove. Once again, the radar would not work. We let B&G know and they are still trying to figure it out. We had planned to spend Tuesday there visiting Solomons but the weather was going to get bad on Wednesday and we needed to get farther south. So we went down to the Great Wicomoco River and anchored at Sandy Point on Tuesday and stayed there Wednesday while the rain and winds went through.
We motor-sailed down to Hampton, VA on Thursday, October 16 for the Snowbird Rendezvous. Frank and Diane had attended last year and told us it was a lot of fun. Dave and Sherry (S/V Mythago) who we met in Atlantic Highlands attended the rendezvous also. They had some very good seminars and LOTS of good food. Our friends Paul and Sherry with whom we had sailed in the Bahamas and all the way back to Norfolk joined us on Sunday night and we all went out for a great dinner at the Taproom in Hampton.
We left Hampton on 10/20 and motored to Great Bridge. We went through the locks and tied up to the free docks just before the Great Bridge. We left the next morning and made it to Coinjock, NC where we tied up at the Coinjock Marina and had one of their famous Prime Rib dinners. We had dinner with Bruce and Claudette who we had met at the Hampton Rendezvous. The winds on Albermarle Sound were up to 30 knots and seas were predicted to be 4 to 5 feet today so we decided to wait to cross the sound and instead we moved across the canal to Midway marina and went to the library(to use their wi-fi) and had great crab cake dinner with Frank and Diane at Crabbies Restaurant at the marina.
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| Rainbow over Utopia as we left Great Bridge |
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| Dinner with Claudette and Bruce at Coinjock Marina Restaurant |
