Housework?

Housework?   ...   Monday 15 October 2012

Overnight the high winds from the SSW arrived just as forecast. There were some changes in the forecast—wave heights had increased to 4 ft, the wind was predicted to go more to the south and it was going to rain and possibly thunder.  We decided that all things taken into consideration we should stay put.  Not wanting to totally waste the day, we took the boat to the fuel dock where we thought we could fill with diesel, fill with water and pump-out.  We got diesel but their pump-out was in pieces.  So we had to go on to another town facility to pump-out.  This was another of those docks that have the pilings on the outside but unlike the fuel dock there was no one to help.  Another wrinkle was that on the far side of the boat (in this case the starboard side) there was another set of pilings--to add to your boating pleasure.  When I saw these I just wanted to go back to the anchorage.  Mike did a fantastic job of getting that large boat into that killer dock.  The pump-out went fine and we were able to fill with water.  The re-anchoring went well and we turned our attention to some housekeeping.  I did some cleaning inside the boat while Mike worked on getting the soot off the transom.  The stern of our boat is looking pretty good. Then we tackled the bow light again.  Mike made a second effort to trim the wire back to good copper without success.  So we pulled new wire through the bow pulpit and into the anchor locker (by attaching the new wire to the old).  Once all the connections had been made we tried the light without success.  After Mike re-tightened everything the light came on but we aren’t as confident as we might be.  Late in the afternoon we took the dinghy to shore. A longish walk(~1.5 miles) took us to the grocery store for a few provisions.  The long walk back was made somewhat easier by the thought of dinner and more rockfish bites… Just as we got back to the dinghy after eating, it started to rain.  We got thoroughly soaked by the time we got back to the boat. We hope to make an early start tomorrow and take advantage of the NW winds.

Gloria

Farm Buildings near Solomons, MD

The bridge over the Patuxent River at sunset

Solomon's Island and the Tiki Bar

Solomon's Island and the Tiki Bar   …   Sunday 14th October

Solomon's Island is a popular destination for cruisers in the Chesapeake Bay. it has a lot of boating facilities and well protected anchorages. During my quick tour in the dinghy yesterday evening I met John and Cookie who live on their large catamaran at a marina. A lovely couple, I hadn't known them for 5 minutes and they were offering me the use of their car! Can you imagine that happening in Massachusetts or the UK? They told me all about the attractions of the area, impressing on me that the most renowned attraction was the Tiki Bar, which they said was a "dive" but shouldn't be missed. This rang a bell as the Waterways guide also mentions that the biggest annual event in Solomon's Island is the opening of the Tiki Bar in April, which thousands attend. This morning when we took the dinghy in to shore we met a friendly family at the dock who also gave us a run down on what to do in the area. I recall two specifics from the conversation, the "rock fish bites" at Stoney's restaurant were outstanding and rock fish was in season (what's a rock fish?), and no one should drink more than one Mai Tai at the Tiki Bar. I was intrigued - but it was only 11 am ! The wether was absolutely beautiful, cloudless blue skies and warm, in short a perfect day. We walked around for a while and noticed how friendly everyone seemed to be and also how we are starting to see plants that would not survive in New England. It turned out that today the renowned Tiki Bar were hosting their "Doggone Pets festival" (or something like that) and we walked round stalls featuring various animal themes, met lots of people with dogs and chatted to the lady from FOF (friends of Felines). Then it was 1 o'clock and we found ourselves miraculously at Stoney's restaurant where we ate and watched some football. The "Rock fish bites" were fantastic - lightly breaded fish cubes, fried and served with buffalo sauce - the marine equivalent of boneless buffalo wings. The crab cakes were also excellent. We then headed out for the AnnMarie Gardens, which looked quite close on the illustrative map, but turned out to be about 3 miles away. In the end we turned back before getting there and in the late afternoon headed back to the Tiki Bar. This turned out to be all that we could have imagined - excellent Mai Tai's with all the ambiance of a good bikers bar. The seating is on a deck with plastic tables and chairs, the drinks served in plastic cups. Every so often conversation would be drowned by a deafening roar as Harley owners thrilled the crowd with their exhausts and wheelies. One guy tried to impress with his "cigar boat" parked at the dock across the road, but I don't think he really pulled it off. The place was crawling with dogs as the Pets festival wound down and the owners hit the bar for refreshment. Our take on social interactions in Solomon - if you want a date get a bike or a dog! Seriously, it was a lot of fun and we saw some of the Washington Redskins Game. We decided that if we weren't Patriots supporters, Gloria was going to be a Redskins fan and I was going to be a "SufraJet" - i.e. someone who supports whoever the Jets are playing. I can confirm that you (I) can drink two Mai Tai and remain fairly coherent - but after that it was definitly time to head home. All in all a great day. Tomorrow, if the weather develops as forecast we plan to head over to the east side of the Bay to make some progress south using a south south west wind.

Mike

Lady with her dog at the Tiki Doggone Pet Festival

Drum Point Light - moved from it's original ovation to the maritime museum at Solomon's Island

St Peters Church - Solomon's Island

What do we do?

What do we do?   ...   Saturday 13^th October 2012

We set out with some trepidation today as the forecast was for the winds to turn to the south (and blow quite strongly later).  Our goal was to make it from Annapolis to Solomon’s Island.  This trip would be something like 48 miles and should take us about 8 hours, but under adverse conditions, this could seem a very long way.  We set off shortly before sunrise and put up the mainsail almost immediately. Then after about an hour, having charged the batteries and run the fridge compressor, we unfurled the genoa  and sailed along quite nicely on a beam reach for a few hours.  Over that time the wind just seemed to get lighter and lighter, causing the speed to drop from 7 knots to about 2 knots.  We wanted to make sure we covered the distance before the southerly winds set in, so reluctantly we started to motor-sail again.

Facing something like 5 more hours of motoring, you do start to ask yourself ‘what am I going to do?’  If you are actually sailing it seems necessary to pay attention and tend to the sails—not to mention steer the boat.  When motoring we often use the auto-pilot so the two of us are in the cockpit with a lot of time on our hands.  Today Mike made use of some time to phone his mom in the UK.  Somewhat later Mike’s brother Martin phoned, they had quite a little chat.  Around the time of Martin’s call we had decided that we should work on the NY Times crossword puzzle.  A few days earlier we had acquired the paper and so we were all set.  This diversion kept us occupied for a couple of hours (we managed to do the whole thing).  Then Mike made sandwiches for lunch, and shortly thereafter, started a casserole for dinner.  Once he came back into the cockpit, I had a nap on the cockpit seat. Then we were nearing our destination and had to pay attention to boat traffic (including a humungous Navy vessel that seemed to be following us) and to finding our way into the anchorage. 

Having anchored, put the sail cover on and got the casserole in the oven, Mike went off in the dinghy for a ‘voyage of exploration’.  I prepared (with some difficulty) carrot soup—thereby using up an excess of carrots of a ‘certain age’.  Now they boat seems cozy and toasty with the heat from the oven and the lantern burning.  The wind is starting to pick up outside and we feel quite snug—as long as the anchor holds.

Gloria

38 19 43.3 N, 76 27 4.2 W

Ripples on the water - Weems Cove (shot taken early morning yesterday)

Annapolis Naval College at sunrise

Bridge over the Severn River, Annapolis

Gloria shortly after sunrise - wrapped up against the cold

Thomas Shoal Light

Annapolis is a great place

Annapolis is a great place   …   Friday 12th October

We awoke to a clear and sunny day - but boy was it cold on the boat! After a quick breakfast we jumped in the dinghy, rowed to a boat ramp in the cove and walked in to town. We quickly warmed up and it was a beautiful day to see the Maryland State Capital. We were both really impressed with the city - colorful buildings, interesting history, friendly people and good restaurants. The Naval Academy is particularly impressive and it's formal style contrasts well with the brightly painted houses of down town Annapolis. We would have liked to stay longer, but by 6pm we were too tired to keep walking round and too full from our late lunch to have dinner, so we headed back to the boat, picking up groceries along the way. Tomorrow we plan to make more progress down the Chesapeake Bay. It seems likely that we will get held up Sunday and Monday by strong southerly winds if the forecast holds up.

Dave Cosgrove, a friend at AZ suggested that we include a Google Earth link to show our current position. We think this is a terrific idea and will try and do so in the near future (when we figure out how). But for now, here is our current position in a format that you should be able to input directly into Google Earth. To use Dave's words - this should be accurate to within a gnats dick or so …. or according to my GPS +/- 16 ft ... that's some gnat!

38 59 48.2 N, 76 30 17.8 W    

St Mary's Church

St Mary's Church Ceiling

Two friendly guys - one who was out biking around town, the other a guard at the Naval Academy

A colorful street in downtown Annapolis

Bancroft Hall, Annapolis Naval Academy

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A building right next to the Naval Academy

Attractive Shops

The Navy Crew out training

Seemed like a good idea at the time

Seemed like a good idea at the time   ...   Thursday 11 October 2012

That’s a phrase that seems to pop up all the time around here.
Yesterday we had reason to say it when the trip up the mast in the bosun’s
chair went awry.  Today it was more the clothing issues.  The morning
was very chilly with a stiff NW wind blowing.  So on went the layers.
In my case this consisted of the fleece long john legs followed by the
fleece sweat pants followed by the bib-overall foul weather legs.
This lovely outfit was complemented with three fleecy tops and the foul
weather jacket.  It goes without saying that the accessories included
the wooly hat, scarf and gloves.  About an hour after breakfast, I
started to think that it was time to visit the head.  At this point it
was necessary to remove the jacket before one could get the straps of
the bib overalls off in order to start to peel back all the
layers….This is where I started to wonder why bib-overalls had ‘seemed
like a good idea at the time’.
In a perplexing way, our sail down the Chesapeake to Annapolis was to
windward despite going south/southwesterly with northwest winds.  The
wind made the sail quite chilly, especially for the person who was in
the shade of the main.  So all the layers remained in place until we
turned into the Severn River (not THE Severn River for those UK
readers). Suddenly we were both in the sun and with the wind behind
us--hot.  Layers were peeled off in a frenzy of activity.  All those
clothes had ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’.   Now we are moored
in Weems Creek a little cove off the Severn just to the north of
Annapolis. It was a long day but this is a lovely protected spot and
we feel that we did a good days work.

Gloria

Countryside neat the Sassafras river, Georgetown - (taken yesterday)

The William P Lane memorial bridges across the Chesapeake Bay

Property on the Severn River, Annapolis - (where we are moored this evening)

My Wife Never Lets Me Down

My Wife Never Lets Me Down   …   Wednesday 10th October

How lucky am I to be able to say "my wife never lets me down" and it's true, she's a wonderful woman! This afternoon I wish she had let me down - I was half way up the mast in the bosun's chair and Gloria wouldn't, couldn't, didn't lower me! The story actually starts on Monday night in the previously mentioned "anchorage #4". It's dark, rainy and pretty bumpy, and there's this awful screeching of metal on metal. A quick inspection reveals that our aluminum radar reflector is scraping against the side stay because the pulley line that holds the reflector under the spreader has broken. The whole lot is about to come down, I can't really see what is holding it up, but all I can do is tie the lower end off so it isn't scraping and go back to bed. In the morning we recover the reflector from overboard where it presumably fell sometime later that night. So this afternoon we decide to use the bosun's chair to go up the mast and re-thread the pulley. A few simple preparations - Gloria hits the head thinking she's the one who has to go up the mast - I valiantly volunteer to go myself, leaving Gloria to run the winch, and remind her that I no longer have any life insurance. The raising up the mast goes great, I re-thread the pulley and spend a few moments regretting not bringing up my camera and then it's time for the lowering. Nothing. Gloria checks the clutch and can see that the halyard is running free on the winch. When she comes forward she sees that a section of line (from the outhaul) has been dragged through a turning block by the halyard and the whole lot is jammed solid. I manage to get myself out of the bosun's chair and scramble down the mast arm over arm using the ropes that are hanging there. After some messing around we are able to get a wrench into the jammed ropes and lever them out of the turning block, much to our relief. The second trip up and down went much more smoothly and I got a second chance to take up my camera!  The rest of the day was less exciting, but enjoyable all the same. We saw bald eagles from the boat before breakfast. Later in the morning we took our bikes to shore in the dinghy and did a 15 mile ride through the local farmlands.

Mike

A view from half way up the mast - anchored in the Sassafras River with Georgetown in the background

Looking down on the foredeck

Tree Fruit - multiple exposure

Rusty siding on the side of a shed

Some anchorages do, some anchorages don’t

Some anchorages do, some anchorages don’t   ...   Tuesday 9^th October 2012

There are some anchorages that are picturesque and quiet.  There are some that aren’t all that pretty but are well protected from wind and waves.  Really the protection is what you are looking for, attractive scenery is just a bonus. Then there is General Anchorage Area #4 off Reedy point near the entrance to the C&D canal.  This is to a good anchorage what the hard shoulder of the interstate is to a good parking spot.  In reality it’s just an area to the left of the Delaware River ship channel that is marked as an anchorage.  The guide book says it offers no protection from winds from the north, east or south (that only leaves the west).  Additionally it offers no protection from the wake of passing ships and barges …  We can testify to all of this.  We were forced to take additional seasickness meds at bedtime as the boat was bouncing pretty badly.  Another lovely feature of this anchoring spot is that as the current is fairly strong the boat doesn’t seem to point into the wind.  Once the current switches from flood to ebb you swing round.  This seemed to lead to lots of creaking and banging all night—a fantastic complement to the swaying and bouncing. Mike was up at least four times in the night trying to figure out what all the noises were.  Now that I’ve got that rant out of my system, I’ll move on to what happened today.

Despite the cold, rainy weather, we set out before eight o’clock. We made a smooth transit of the C&D canal in just about 2 hours.  Emerging into the Elk River, we followed the narrow channel until we passed Turkey Point.  As we approached the Sassafras River we put up the sails and had a short but pleasant sail into the river toward Georgetown, MD. After anchoring in about 9 ft of water, we had lunch of Ramen noodles with chicken and eggs.  Then we emptied two jerry cans of water into the port water tank.  Two jerry cans of Diesel went into the main fuel tank. Then came the dreaded showers.  These aren’t too attractive on a warm day; this wasn’t a warm day.  A dinghy trip to town allowed us to re-fill the jerries, have a walk and eat dinner in the Kitty Knight House Inn and Restaurant.  Kitty Knight was a lady who persuaded the British commander not to burn down the last few houses in Georgetown by telling him he would have to burn her as well (this was 1813). Anyway, we had a great dinner and an exciting trip back to the boat in the pitch black across about 2 miles of unfamiliar waterway.  

Kitty Knight restaurant and tavern, Georgetown, MD