Winter staging in Jacksonville

 
Tides Inn is currently on a mooring ball at NAS Jacksonville, awaiting our return after the holidays to continue on to the Keys and/or Bahamas. We had a nice trip down mainly on the ICW, but offshore via a great sail from Hilton Head to St Johns River. We had a great rendezvous with Sally and Conrad on "Its About Time" off Hilton Head and hope to meet up with them in the Bahamas.

Heading South via Dismal Swamp

 
Sue, Genny and I are off for Florida. The journey begins with a passage down the Dismal Swamp Canal connecting the Chesapeake Bay south of Norfolk to the Albamarle Sound, NC, near Elizabeth City. The weather and scenery were superb with blue skies and fall colors. We had an uneventful canal and lock passage (the best kind - uneventful that is) except for 3-4 log bumps that are routine for the canal. No problems encountered.
Our destination for this leg of our winter journey is Jacksonville, FL, where we will leave the boat at the Naval Air Station until after Christmas. Then we'll return and sail over to the Bahamas. At least thats the plan now. Leg one is well underway and we should be in Jacksonville by the 18th.
I'll link more pictures as we have time and wifi coverage along the way.

New York City to Norfolk via Cape May

 

Originally, I had planned to depart New York at 0200, as soon as the winds shifted to the northwest. According to the forecast, this would give us nearly 24hrs of northwest winds and allow us to sail to Cape May. However, we were exhausted by the stress and efforts to get through TS Hannah, so I decided it would be better to get a couple more hours of sleep before departing. We awoke at 0600 and were underway by 0630, heading south with 20kts of westerly winds pushing us along. It was not to last though.
By 1100 the wind was down to 10kts and by 1400 it had come around to the southwest preventing us from sailing on course. We resorted to the motor. It was a rough ride with a southeast swell and southwest waves of 2-3ft and steep enough to smack the bow and slow us down. I decided to move us in closer to shore in hopes of finding water with smaller waves. I think it worked somewhat. By 1730, the wind was back to the west so we secured the engine and were sailing again. We watched a pretty sunset and were able to keep sailing along, on course, until 0130 that night when the wind came back around to the southwest and slowly died. It was back to the motor but we were only 30nm from Cape May and not in any hurry to arrive before daylight so we just puttered along. As the sun came up, the wind backed around to the northeast at 6-8kts and gave us a slight push as we motored the last few miles into Cape May. We were anchored and ready for a nap by 1000.

 

We remained at anchor at Cape May that day and all the next as the wind blew from the south and a frontal system with thunderstorms moved through the next afternoon. This was our first afternoon of rain since departing Yorktown a month ago. It rained until about 1600, then was completely still with no wind at all. Good time to be sitting at anchor and not trying to sail someplace.
Cape May is a convenient place to anchor in that it is just about midway between Norfolk and NYC so it breaks the trip into two 24hr trips. Additionally, it is right along the trackline, not more than an hour into and out of the anchorage and back on course. However, it is a small anchorage, often crowded, and not the best anchor holding ground. Arriving at 1000 in the morning, we had the anchorage to ourselves for the day, until boats started arriving off the ocean later in the afternoon. We had put out nearly 100ft of chain in the 14ft depths and taken two attempts to get it to set properly and in the right location. Retrieving the anchor after the first failed attempt, I could see the bottom was a very soft mud. The weight of 100ft of chain would hold us in place in the sticky mud as long as the winds didn’t go much above 20kts. Also, we had to place the anchor exactly at the right location to give us swinging room between the shallow water near shore and the busy channel to the west. Our second attempt was successful. Over the next two days we watched each boat come in, drop an anchor and less than 50ft of chain and immediately secure below. I’m sure none of them knew how iffy their anchoring security was. The next day when the thunderstorms rolled through we had winds in the 20s with gusts to 29kts. Everyone was in their cockpit, but no one dragged.
Initially it looked like another early am departure, around 0200, to take maximum advantage of the northerly winds which were forecasted, but when the latest forecast arrived it reported two full days of northeast winds expected. That would provide us plenty of time to get to the Chesapeake and up to Yorktown with a respectable 0600 departure time. We were able to nap, read and play some dominos during the day taking advantage of the day spent at the anchorage with no commitments. We also were able to get a good night’s rest and were ready to go the next morning for the last leg of our month long trip.

 

Wednesday morning at 0600 we found blue skies and a brisk northeast wind, perfect for our southwesterly sail down the coast to the mouth of the Chesapeake. We were underway in short order and zipping down the coast, across the mouth of the Delaware Bay and heading for the Chesapeake. The mouth of the Delaware is one of the rough areas along the coast where strong tidal currents running into and out of the bay can be opposed to the winds, causing steep wave faces. The waters are also quite shallow and full of shoals that push waves up higher in places. It is not a place to be in a storm as we had found out in an earlier trip in 2004. Today, however, the northeast winds were perpendicular to the current and the waves were benign. The 15-20kt NE winds had created a 1kt surface current running southerly that helped speed us along. We poled out the genoa to windward and sailed wing-on-wing down the coast, making about 6kts STW and 7kts SOG with double reefs in both sails.
I started with double reefs, knowing we could let more sail out if required. As the wind built to 20kts plus, we were doing fine with 2 reefs. Later in the day the winds moderated to 15 and veered more to the ENE. I let out the staysail and we kept our speed up with 3 sails pulling us along. Towards evening the wind backed to the NNE and the staysail stopped drawing, so we furled it in and let a reef out of each sail, still keeping our SOG up in the 7kts. It was a fast trip and our ETA to the Chesapeake moved up from 0600 to 0200. While it was a rolly ride downwind, it was a great finish to our voyage with a fast, easy transit down the coast. It was not to last.
At 0100, we found ourselves approaching Cape Charles. Both Sue and I had thoughts of an easy, enjoyable sail across the Chesapeake to our berth in Yorktown, tidying up the boat and getting all our gear prepared for unloading when we arrived at the marina just after dawn. Then, the dark clouds ahead turned out to be heavy, tropical rain. It started pouring and blowing, shades of TS Hannah although winds were only in the 20s. We rounded the Cape and headed for the Bay Bridge/Tunnel in blowing rain from the beam and quartering seas. It was fitting we got rained on returning to the Chesapeake as, if you recall, we got drenched from thunderstorms on our departure from Cape Charles on the way north. We motored through the Bay Bridge with limited visibility, then once we were clear of the bridge and shallow water, we got out on the foredeck and retrieved the whisker pole, then set the sails with 3 reefs in each and sailed across the Bay at 5kts and sharp, breaking waves on the beam. Fortunately the rain let up but there was commercial and tug traffic to contend with as we crossed the shipping channels in the bay. Having now been up for 24hrs with only a couple short naps, we were a couple of tired, wet sailors making our way down the Poquoson River for the final leg home. We made the turn into Chisman Creek with the wind still blowing at 15-20 and skys misting, made an easy decision that we were not pulling into our slip in present conditions and dropped the anchor and went to bed.

  Six hours later the sun was out, the wind was down and we motored the final mile to our slip and were home, secured to a dock for the first time in 31 days.
We now have 30 days to get ready for departing southbound for the Bahamas this winter. Where does the time go?

Newport to New York City

Sailing from Newport to Norfolk in Sept turned out to be a challenge. Between the tropical storms, hurricanes, frontal systems and persistent southwesterly winds it is difficult to make your way south in September. We ended up breaking the trip into 3 legs waiting out the storm and frontal passages for periods of favorable winds.
Our first leg was from Newport to the NYC area through Long Island Sound. We had a 12 hour window of 10-15kt winds from the south which would enable us to sail westerly through the Sound. We would have preferred to have headed straight for Cape May but the southerly winds would not quite support the SW transit, the waves would have made the trip more difficult, and most important, TS Hannah was rapidly approaching and it would have been a race, into the wind/waves, to get to Cape May in time. And, who wants to be anchored at Cape May when a TS blows through? The anchorage is small, narrow and not the best holding. Instead, we went for the Long Island Sound option. It turned out to be wise.
We departed Newport at 0230 to take advantage of the outgoing tide and to be at the Race, the entrance to the Sound, at slack water (0900) and be able to ride the tide down the Sound. We had to motor into a slight headwind for the first 6hrs until the southerly breeze kicked in right about the time we arrived at the Race. It was solid fog for these six hours, but the fog cleared just as we arrived at the Race, which was great as there were about 20 fishing boats of various sizes (many too small to show up well on radar) fishing there. We had carefully passed Pt Judith harbor as a few fishing boats exited… all were talking on the radio and we coordinated passages in the fog without problem. We then enjoyed 10 hours of fine sailing down the sound with 15kts of southerly breeze on the beam and a 1-2kt current astern. The sky was blue with scattered puffy cumulus and the seas were 1-2ft, near perfect conditions. We were very happy to not be offshore motoring into the 3-5ft waves there. At sunset the wind died and we motored the final 3hrs to Manhasset Bay by Port Washington and dropped the anchor at the first shallow water on the right. We were asleep by 2400 for a couple hours of sleep before heading for the East River to catch the tide at 0400.
The next question was where to ride out TS Hannah? It was forecasted to come up the coast to the Delaware Bay area, then move out to the east towards Nantucket. NYC would catch the northwestern quadrant of the storm with winds from the east to north at 20-30kts. Following the storm there would be northwesterly winds at 15-25kts for 12-18hrs which would be perfect for taking us south to Cape May. We wanted to pick a spot to ride out the modest storm conditions, then quickly exit NY harbor and take advantage of the winds to get us as close to Cape May as possible before the winds died. My idea was to get through NYC ahead of the storm and anchor somewhere near Sandy Hook, NJ, where we would be positioned to exit quickly after the storm passed. So, at 0430 we slipped our anchor and headed for the East River.



We had a fast transit through NYC riding the 4kt tidal current down the East River and 2kts through NY harbor. Making 8-10kts over the ground, we were quickly down to the Raritan Bay. By now TS Hannah was making its way up the coast over Virginia and was clearly tracking further west than forecasted. That meant the winds would be even less than forecasted and the direction would be from the east to southeast to southwest as it passed over NY. I would need a anchorage with good protection from the south. The NJ coastline around the Atlantic Highlands looked like an excellent choice with high bluffs and trees along the southern coastline. Assuming the Atlantic Highlands port behind the protective seawall would be full, we chose to anchor off the Keyport mooring field which still provided good protection from the south.




All went fine, according to plan for the first half of the storm. The winds arrived from the east to southeast at 20-25kts for the first half of the storm from 1400 to 1800. We rode the conditions very comfortably hanging on our anchor chain, never even straightening the chain out to the 150ft of chain I had set out in 8ft of water. We read books, had lunch and dinner and watched the storm progress on the laptop via our wifi link to the internet. Then, as often seems to happen, the storm decided to change course dramatically. While it had come up the coast further west than forecasted, directly over NYC it decided to head east towards Cape Cod as it had originally been forecasted to pass over. That was not good news for us at our anchorage position as it placed us in the western hemisphere of the storm with strong winds from the north, and we had no protection from the north, in fact we had a long fetch across the entire Raritan Bay for the seas to build.
The elongated eye of the storm passed directly over us between about 1800 to 2100 providing a respite from the winds, only about 20kts. Then, the backside of the storm struck. At 2115, the winds shifted abruptly to the north and went to 30kts with higher gusts. Within 30 minutes the waves had built to 4-5ft and the winds to 35kts with gusts to 45kts. We were now on a bucking bronco as the boat pitched up and down the waves, tugging hard and sailing back and forth on the anchor chain. Suddenly, the dinghy which we had secured on the stern of our boat sitting on the scoop stern and lashed securely out of the wind began flailing about wildly. One of the lines that attached to the transom of the dinghy had broken and the dinghy was now hanging askew and being pounded by the 5ft waves as the stern of our boat rose and fell. Hanging on dearly as the stern pitched up and down, I was able to get another safety line on the dinghy front handle, then let it go astern attached to the boat by its bridle line and the safety line. It rode out the rest of the storm tethered behind us, pitching dramatically and tugging hard at its bridle, but doing ok. In hindsight, we should have deflated and stored it below. I had not done this as we were not expecting 40kt winds and large waves, but the lesson learned is to be prepared for the worst case scenario, then happy when it doesn’t occur.
With the wind shift to the north, we were now hanging on the anchor straight towards the mooring field, a direction I had not planned on. I knew after setting the anchor that we had 50ft of clearance between us and the closest boat in the mooring field, and that’s exactly where we were sitting, 50ft away from that boat – which looks real close in the dark with 40kts of wind blowing. Afraid that we might be dragging on the anchor, I started the engine and sat at the helm with that engine in gear and just above idle speed keeping the strain on the anchor line reduced and ready to maneuver should we start dragging. One of the good things about tropical storms is that the winds and rain are quite warm, in the 70s. That means you can sit in the storm for extended periods without getting chilled. Fortunately, the strong winds only blew for a little over an hour and by 2230 things were calming down. As the wind shifted more to the northwest, we were pushed by the wind farther away from the nearest boat and could relax some. It was also clear that we had not dragged the anchor at all so I shut down the engine and retired below. Within another half hour the winds were down to the low 20s, waves were subsiding and the storm was basically over. We went to bed to get some sleep before our early morning departure for Cape May.

Cape Cod to Newport

We departed Provincetown on 1 Sep enroute Newport, RI, anchoring enroute off Cuttyhunk Island. We had a brisk sail across Cape Cod Bay in blustery winds, then a nice transit through the Cape Cod Canal, and beautiful sail down Buzzards Bay until the wind finally died about supper time. We motored the last couple hours into the Cuttyhunk anchorage.



The wind came up during the night at Cuttyhunk making our anchorage site uncomfortable so we pulled the anchor at 2am and set sail for Newport, arriving at first light. Entering Narragansett Bay, one gets to observe the dramatic shoreline scenery of rocks, mansions, the bay bridge and eventually the megayachts and hundreds of other sailboats in the Newport mooring fields. We were able to moor at the Naval War College for a night and visit with some fellow Island Packet owners, then we moved across the bay and anchored off Dutch Harbor and toured the quaint town of Jamestown. Click on the title above the photos for more photos of Newport.

Provincetown, Cape Cod, Mass

Provincetown was described in the cruising guide as a "unique experience" and true to form, as we walked around town on Saturday night of Labor Day weekend, we saw numerous "unique" sights. Sunday afternoon we toured around town again and climbed the Pilgrim's Monument seeing more of this Cape Cod tourist town. If you have never been to Provincetown (as we had not), it is definitely worth a visit but, I don't think we will be returning during another holiday period. Just too many people about. The harbor and the Cape, however, are quite picturesque. I see why so many folks love the Cape in summertime. Click on the blog entry title above the photo for some more photos of Provincetown.

Heading home from Nova Scotia - Leg One to Provincetown

We got underway from Shelburne heading south on Fri morning, 29 Aug, as the forecast was for a couple days of rain in Nova Scotia followed by several days of SW winds – we figured we better take advantage of the two days of northerly winds to get south.
We departed at 0800 on the outgoing tide and headed south with a 15kt NE wind on the port qtr. We poled out the genie to windward on the port side and sailed wing-on-wing down the coast, but about 30deg off course to the east to keep the wind at a good angle on the quarter. A 49ft schooner had left with us and they were sailing with jib, foresail and main all out to stbd side. We slowly pulled ahead from them and 6hrs later they were out of sight. By noon we were off Cape Sable, ready to make the turn to the west so we jibed the main and kept the genoa poled out to the port side. The wind had built to 20kts and the tide around Cape Sable had not turned yet so it was on our nose against the wind creating some steep wave faces and a rocking and rolling ride. The waves had built to 5-7ft and fairly steep. Within an hour, however, the tide changed as anticipated and the waves smoothed out. We now had 20kts astern and a 1.5kt current carrying us along.
Cape Sable is a great place to observe sealife as the tides take the deep waters (600ft) against the 150ft ledges stirring things up. We saw several whale spouts, a couple broaches, and several seals that came close to the boat. No close encounters with whales which was fine with us.
By afternoon the wind continued to veer to the ENE and we had to transfer the whisker pole over to the stbd side and go wing-on-wing again. The wind had eased to 10kts and our speed through water to 3.5 but we had a 2.5kt current with the tide and wind blown current behind us. At 1800 the wind backed to the north so it was time to tack the genoa over to the port side. We left the whisker pole up for awhile but eventually took it down and secured it before dark as the wind was forecasted to stay in the north. The wind was down to 4-6kts and we motored for a few hours. It was forecasted to be 10-15 with higher gusts so we left 1 reef in the main as darkness fell. By 0200 the wind was up to 20 with gusts to 25 and we were glad to have the reef in. The wind blew steady all night long and continued to blow at 15kts until finally quitting at 1800 the following day. We made great progress and were only 60nm from Cape Cod when we had to resort to the engine. All was fine for a few hours until the forecasted 5-10kts from the SW became 15-20kts and opposite the tidal current. The wind kicked up 2-3ft waves with vertical faces and we were faced with bashing our way forward the last 20 miles. There was no need to go fast as it was 7hrs to dawn when we could make port at Provincetown so we bashed along at 3kts. I thought of just stopping and waiting for the wind to die to the forecasted levels, but it was supposed to be even stronger the next day, so figured we better get into port before morning. I put up the staysail, which actually provided us about .3 to .4kts of extra speed, and had the main with 2 reefs mainly up for stability. As we finally made the turn to the south seven hours later rounding the cape at 0600, the wind eased to 10kts (I suspect it was still 15+ off shore). It had been a long, tough night for the crew and we were glad to kill the engine and sail the last 2 hours into Provincetown at 3kts. I’m sure the departing sailboats, with their sails up full in the 10kts of wind were wondering why we were coming in under staysail and deep reefed main. We were just too tired to change the sails and besides, 3kts in a gentle breeze was fantastic sailing. By 0830 we were anchored off the eastern end of the breakwater, almost exactly 48hrs after departing Shelburne. I had a cup of tea, and hit the forward berth for a well deserved rest.

Nova Scotia - Shelburne

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Shelburne and highly recommend it as your first arrival port in Nova Scotia. Shelburne has a lot going for it as a great cruising destination.
The first order of business upon arriving in Shelburne is to check into Canadian Immigration/Customs. Yachts arriving from the US should dock or moor at the Shelburne Yacht Club (this is where Canadian Immigration wants you to be should they decide to inspect your vessel) then call Immigration using the public phone at the Club. A large sign gives you the phone number and procedures. Be sure to read the customs regulations (available on the internet) before arriving in Canada, as the amount of alcohol and tobacco that you can bring with you is very limited. Basically it is 1 bottle of alcohol OR 1.5liters of wine OR 24 12oz beer bottles. Above these limits you must pay an importation fee. Assuming you do not have to pay any importation fees, you will probably be allowed to complete the check-in over the phone. You will be given a check-in number that you post in a port window for the duration of your visit to Canada. Customs will ask you exactly where you are berthed for the first day/night in case they decide to send an inspector to check you out. Be prepared to be boarded by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) boats that patrol the Nova Scotia coast inlets and bays. The RCMP try to intercept and check every foreign boat arriving and, given the small number of foreign cruisers in Nova Scotia, they are fairly successful . As we sailed up the bay towards Shelburne, flying our yellow Q flag, we were quickly surrounded by 3 RCMP boats and boarded. They were quite friendly and professional, but you would not want to have been trying to bring anything illegal into the country.
We also had our dog onboard. We had checked the requirements before departing and knew we had to have official documentation proving rabies vaccination for our specifically described dog, which we had. Customs asked us (over the phone) if we had the documentation and I said, yes. That was all that was required.
Customs/Immigration returning to the US was also relatively easy although you should try to arrive at an official port of entry to minimize any problems. Immigration is trying to inspect every vessel returning, unlike former times when only a phone call was normally required, so they want you to come into an entry port. We reentered the US at Provincetown which is not an entry port. We checked into Immigration via the 800 number and were directed to report ASAP to an entry port where we would be inspected. We eventually got around to doing that. The inspector was friendly and professional and, as we had nothing to declare, it was a quick check, just fill out and sign the paperwork. We had not previously acquired the customs decal and thus were directed to get on the internet and fill out the form and purchase the decal (the inspectors do not process the decals).
The Shelburne Yacht Club provides all the services a cruiser would need, which is good since they are basically the only transient yacht facility in town. They have gas and diesel plus water at the fueling dock. There is a small face dock where 3 to 4, 40 ft boats can tie up for $1/ft. They have approximately a dozen moorings for transients at $15 per night. If you anchor off the town you can still use the town dock or Yacht Club dock for landing your dinghy at $2.50 per night. (The Yacht Club collects the fee for use of the town dock). You can also purchase showers at the Club for $2. You do not have to be a member of a yacht Club to use the SYC facilities. They have limited laundry facilities but there is a good laundromat within easy walking distance from the Club. There is a bar and snackbar at the Club and a nice restaurant one block away. There is a very nice full-service grocery store with reasonable prices about a mile away, close enough to walk with a few bags of provisions.
There is a commercial port facility 1000 yards from the yacht club where you can dock for about 15 cents per foot and $6/day for 30 amp power but you will be berthed up on a fixed dock, with the fishing fleet. In cases of strong storms, the Yacht Club moves some of its boats over to the port facility in order to get berthed behind the breakwater. Given how friendly and interesting the local residents are, it might be neat to tie up to the commercial port for a few days.
There is also a boatyard with travel lift about a mile down the bay which can handle boat/engine repairs if required. The boatyard is not convenient to the town however without some means of transportation.
We chose to anchor right off the town pier and dinghy in/out to that pier. The town pier is actually a boat launching ramp with a floating dock for temporary mooring to support launch/recovery. There is room for two dinghies to tie up at the ends of the dock out of the way of boats being launched. Of course, during the 4 days we were anchored we never saw any boats launched or recovered.
One of aspects we really liked about Shelburne was the absence of crowds of tourists. Having arrived from Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket (and returning via Provincetown and Newport) we were accustomed (but didn’t like it) to having hundreds to a thousand boats at the town marinas, mooring and anchoring fields. The dinghy docks in most of these ports reminded us of the sea lions piled on top of the piers in San Francisco. The dinghies were normally 3 deep and you had to step from dinghy to dinghy to get to the pier. The towns were packed with tourists and restaurants and stores full. At Shelburne, there were never more than 4 boats anchored off the town. There were 3 boats at the Yacht Club pier and a couple in the mooring field. There were several (10-15) tourists in town, most touring Nova Scotia via car and/or staying at the national park across the bay from town. With the small number of visitors in town, it was quite common to start up a conversation with each person you met on the street, restaurant or museum. It was also common to bump into them repeatedly as you wandered around town.
The Shelburne waterfront museum complex is worth the $8 ticket to see the 4 museums that include: wooden ship building facility, dinghy building facility, town history, and a typical 18th century store/home.
When we visited the exchange rate was basically 1 to 1. Prices in stores/restaurants were slightly more than US (Virginia) prices, but lower than New England tourist towns. Gas/Diesel was about $6 per gallon, slightly more than the US (but the same as Nantucket).
We had excellent weather for the 5 days we were in Shelburne with day temperatures in the 70s and nights in the 60s. We had fog one morning until about 10 AM. We had rain two nights, but none during the day. We were surprised how warm it was ashore during the day given that we were freezing in 3 layers of thermals while sailing offshore the night before arriving, but there is a substantial temperature difference between the offshore waters and the land temperatures of Nova Scotia.
Unfortunately we quickly ran out of time to spend in Nova Scotia and could not proceed further north as we had a commitment to be back in Virginia by mid-September. It took us nearly two weeks to travel from Shelburne back to Norfolk as we dodged tropical storms and sat out frontal passages, jumping on the backside of each passing cold front to work our way south. Traveling south in September, 10-14 days is probably the best one can expect to reach the Chesapeake. Traveling north, it was 3 days from Norfolk to Martha’s Vineyard and 3 days from Nantucket to Shelburne.
In many ways, visiting Shelburne was like going back in time 25yrs to a simpler, safer, slower and less expensive time. We will definitely be making plans to return to Nova Scotia next summer.
More photos.

Nantucket Island

Sue and I sailed from Martha’s Vineyard to Nantucket today. We topped off with fuel and water at Vineyard Haven (quite reasonable fuel prices at Tisbury Wharf) and headed out east in zero wind conditions. That was not to last long. By the time we made the turn around East Chop, a SW breeze began to come up. We motor sailed for another hour as we had to charge batteries anyways. Once the batteries were at 80% we secured the engine and sailed at 5kts STW in 10-12kts of wind on the beam. Good news was the 2kt current carrying us due east towards our destination for SOG of 7kts. It was a fantastic sail. Sky was blue without even a puffy cumulus the entire day. Temp 75deg.
We watched a “parade” of classic boats heading back towards the mainland from Nantucket including several older America’s Cup racers, classic schooners and many others. Upon arrival, we learned this weekend was the “Classic Boat Race Challenge Weekend in Nantucket. There are still many beautiful classic boats here visiting in addition to the great ones that live here (not to mention all the sailing megayachts).
With the wind and tide in our favor, our trip over took 4 hours, covering about 22nm. The wind slowly increased along the way over and was about 15kts as we made the turn to the SE heading towards the harbor entrance. Seas were only 1-2ft the whole way. When we made the turn, the apparent wind came up to 17-19kts so we put 1 reef in the main and plunged ahead at 10deg heel and 6.5kts. It was fortunate we arrived in the early afternoon, about 1400, as the wind continued to build. Its been 20-25kts all afternoon. Great for our wind generator, we’ve been banking amps while charging the computer and phones. Too choppy for a dry dinghy ride to shore, so we are napping and emailing this afternoon. Will head ashore tomorrow am when, hopefully, the wind lets up some. We plan to sightsee a bit here, then head for Nova Scotia sometime later in the week. Weather looks good for several days.

Martha's Vineyard

We are currently anchored in Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard. Today was laundry day, so we loaded the dinghy and rode into the town dock, boarded the bus for Oaks's Bluff, did the laundry, bus back to the dinghy and drop the laundry off in plastic bags in case it rains, then set off for sightseeing - all before noon. We toured several towns and the beaches along the eastern shore. Interestingly, each town has its own unique atmosphere/culture. Vineyard Haven is home to the "Black Dog" store, restaurant, bakery, and 3 tall sailing ships as shown in the photo. We had to take Gennie for a tour of the Black Dog establishment. She wasn't too impressed, but Sue found some great things to buy. The weather has been terrific, cool and clear, a welcome contrast to Virginia and the reason we headed up here in August. We watched thunderheads build over the island today and dump rain on the mainland. Too bad for them. Weather was great here. The sky colors are so "different" here than Virginia. Hard to explain in words, but definitely different. I see why the artists love to come to the Mass Cape/Islands areas. Tonight its full moon with a clear sky. Lovely. Monday we head for Nantucket, so our next update will be from there. Cheers from all the crew of Tides Inn.

Sailing Nirvana

We are experiencing sailing bliss. Since yesterday morning the sky has been blue, the winds steady at 10-15kts from NW or W, and seas 1-2ft. Yesterday morning we sailed with all 3 sails drawing on a beam reach across from NJ to offshore Long Island, then as the wind backed to the west we poled out the genoa and sailed downwind all afternoon AND all night long making about 4.5-5kts. We even had a 1kt current in our favor pushing us along. How great can it get.
Well, even better. Last night we both laid in the cockpit during the early morning hours 0100-0300 and watched the spectacular Perseid meteor showers. We saw over 20 meteors during that period, probably more than I've seen in my life before. One lit up the sky like lightening and left a glowing ion trail that lasted for many seconds. Finally I couldnt keep my eyes open any longer and headed below to our luxurious seaberth. What a fantastic day and night.
Today, its more of the same. The sky is blue, wind 10kts from west, seas 2ft. We have temporarily lost the tail current but it will be back when the tide changes. We're south of Block Island now and will arrive in Vineyard Sound at the change of the tide at 1500. Should be anchored in Tarpaulin Cove by supper time enjoying the sunset.
All is well with the world on Tides Inn. Even the dog is sleeping contentedly in Sue's lap.

The voyage to Martha's Vinyard

Sue and I finally departed on Sunday, following a surprise visit from our son and grandchildren on Sat. It turned out to our advantage as Sat winds were light and northerly and Sunday's forecast was southwesterlies and good SW and NW winds for the rest of the trip. We left Yorktown at 8am and sailed in 10-12kt SW winds across and out the Chesapeake with the tide crossing the bay bridge tunnel at about 1300, then turning north up the coast. We set the whisker pole and sailed NE up the coast wing-on-wing in 14-16kts of SW winds and building seas of 2-3ft. At 1700 we had our first thunderstorm roll through with winds to 30kts and light rain. We rolled in the gennie and put 2 reefs in the main in preparing for the storm. Other than a couple close lightning strikes and getting a little wet in our warm weather rain gear, it was no problem. Following the storm the wind kicked up and soon was 25kts gusting to 30, still from the SW. We still ran with the gennie poled out to windward with 2reefs in main and gennie. Making about 7-7.5kts. The ride was pretty wild sailing downwind in these conditions. The seas were up to 4-5ft with occasional higher trains. We were rolling 15-30deg either side of neutral or up 60deg at a time. All internals in the boat and the crew getting a good shaking up. Neither of us had taken any seasickness medicine as you never know which makes your feel worse, the medicine or the sea. The medicine bothers Sue more than me. Note to myself: take the medicine.
As night fell, things began to get interesting, as always. Around 2200 the new VHF DSC let out an ear piercing warning tone, automatically switching to the weather channel and announcing a severe thunderstorm warning: a squall line 30miles long, with nickle size hail and winds to 60kts! heading our way. I turned on the radar and could see the squall line coming over the bay and over the Eastern shore. It looked like most of it would pass in front of us. As we got closer I could see that most of it would pass in front, especially if we slowed down. We pulled in all sails and started motoring slowly on course, then I decided it would be an even better idea to turn 180deg and motor slowly away from the squall line. Nearly all the storms passed in front of us, until the last cell decided not to follow all the rest to the east but to head SE directly over our position. We were soon in a torrential downpour with lightning all around. I turned us back on course and we motored northerly as it was now shorter to exit this storm to the north. Two hours later we finally came out the northerly side, wet, cold, exhausted, miserable and definitely seasick. After the storm the forecast was for northwesterlies, but instead we still had very light SW winds and waves from all directions. We were a bobbing cork with no wind to stabilize the ride. Just what a seasick sailor hates. Sue and my appearance matched our dog Gennie who was making her first sea passage with us, and kept looking at us with her big lab eyes as if to say, "You guys have got to be crazy - you think this is fun?" We were now really wet, cold, tired and totally nauseas, three cold, wet puppies. I sent Sue below to get some sleep, adjusted the reefed sails as best I could (anticipating the strong NW winds forecasted) and we spent the next 4 hours rocking and rolling barely making 2-3kts to the north.
At 0500, the wind died completely and I started the motor waking Sue up. That was ok as it was her turn to come on watch and she could motor the boat northerly while I got some necessary sleep having not had any extended rest in 24hrs. We have the stbd settee set up with a lee cloth and it was the most luxurious bed I have ever gotten into. Pure heaven.
At 0800, I awoke feeling a different boat motion. The northwest winds had arrived. We set all 3 sails in 12kts of NW winds as sailed on course at 5-6kts. The sun was out, the cockpit was drying out and things were looking up - but we were still both a bit seasick. The sun really makes a difference though. At 1200, the wind died, so we cranked up the engine again. At 1400, the engine started losing rpms. I checked the Racor which was fine, but we were still dropping rpms. I changed the secondary filter on the engine, and problem solved. We were off and running again.
The forecast was for NW winds at 20. We had West winds at 4-6. At 1900, the NW winds finally arrived, quickly gusting to 20kts. We put two reefs in the main, 1 reef in genoa and zipped along on course. As darkness set in, the wind slowly eased to 12-14kts and our speed dropped to 3-4kts. We were severely undercanvased, and I kept thinking about letting some sail out, but reminded myself that I did not want to be reefing by myself in the middle of the night when the stronger forecasted winds arrived... so we carried on at 4kts. At 2200, the strong winds arrived going to 22-24 with gusts to 30. We were in good shape with 2 deep reefs in the main. I put out the staysail and put 3 reefs in the genny and we had a good balanced sailplan, sailing at about 6kts during the night. The winds stayed at 20+ all night long and we made good progress to the northeast, but the ride was rough as the waves built to 4-5ft. Our dog, Gennie, was not having a good time of it...scared on her first passage of the noise, the rocking, the banging, and besides, she had not gone to the bathroom in over 36hrs. She laid on the cockpit seat with her harness and tether on, just like her crewmates, and was ok as long as her companions were with her.
Tues morning brought bright sunshine again, winds down to 13-15 from the NW, and we zipped along on a beam reach with all 3 sails out fully deployed, making 6.5kts. The nausea was nearly gone, the sailing was perfect (other than 4-5ft bouncy conditions) and we were making good progress on course. These near perfect conditions lasted till noon, then the wind started backing around to the west (as correctly forecasted for the first time). By 1400, we were back to downwind sailing, so we redeployed the whisker pole. We sailed all afternoon and all night with light westerly winds off port quarter. The best news is Gennie finally let her bladder go this afternoon with our urging and is now resting peacefully with a smile on her face. She'll make a good seadog yet.
Yes, sailing has its scary and uncomfortable times, but its amazing how great it feels when the sun comes out and starts raising spirits. And when the beam reach kicks in with easy seas.... just great.

Departure

Finally leaving the pier on Sunday morning after a great visit from Christopher, Heather and grandkids. We're riding the tide out the Chesapeake in light winds this morning. Good news is that the winds will pick up later today and be out of the Southwest for most of the trip. Should be a speedy voyage. We'll try to send position updates a couple times a day - as long as the HF comms and weather allow. Should take a little under 3 days to get to Block Island area. Planning an arrival by Wed.
Off we go.

Heading for New England

Sue and I are heading north to New England, looks like tomorrow morning looking at the weather forecast. This has been a week of fairly unsettled weather along the mid-atlantic states, with a series of sinusoidal frontal systems moving west to east through the region, resulting in winds shifting from north to south back to north to south with some westerlies thrown in from time to time. I was hoping/looking for 48hrs of steady southwesterlies, very common for these August days, to take us from the Chesapeake to Martha’s Vinyard, but it never happened. (Looks like it might next week). Instead the winds have been shifting almost daily between north and south.
I had hoped to pick our departure day last Monday, looking for the best 48hr window. Each time I checked, however, the forecast model had changed. Now here it is Fri morning, and it still doesn’t look ideal for a nice downwind run, but at least there are no storms forecasted (looks very reliable) so I think we’ll head out tomorrow morning and just accept the 12-18hrs of light headwinds we will encounter until we can catch the SW winds forecasted further north on Sunday. Hopefully, the models wont change dramatically between now and Sunday – however, the track record is not promising.
So, with an increased understanding of the difficulty the weathermen have in making any accurate prediction over 24hrs, and the comfort of knowing none of the forecasts/models since Monday have predicted any winds over 20kts enroute and no major storms/gales, we’ll set out early tomorrow morning. The boat is all packed… we’re taking the cold foods down today… and we’ll spend the night on the boat, perhaps at anchor down the creek, and get a good night’s sleep before heading out at first light. Its about 5-6hrs to the ocean from our marina ( to southeast – taking advantage of the forecast northerlies tomorrow), then we’ll slowly try to work our way to the north into 5-10kts of northerlies until the southerlies kick in sometime tomorrow evening.
We’ll have HF email onboard so will be able to update our blog and the list with position reports and short emails describing the ocean sailing. Since we’re not on a schedule and there’s no bad weather forecasted, we’ll try to minimize motoring and sail where the wind blows us. Hopefully arriving somewhere near Martha’s Vinyard on Sun or Mon. We’ll be monitoring HF Maritime Net, 14300mhz most of the trip. Check our position each day using the link at the top of the blog.

Chesapeake Bay Cruise June 08

We are back home after cruising up the Chesapeake western shore as far as Reedville. We had a very enjoyable trip with lots of great sailing. That's the advantage of not being on a schedule - you get to sail where the wind takes you.
Thursday through Sunday we worked our way slowly to the north, with excellent sailing each afternoon in the sea breezes. One day we sailed all day with the spinnaker up. The other days we were able to use the whisker pole to pole out the genoa and sail wing-on-wing.



Each day we arrived in our selected anchorage spot in the later afternoon. Here we are relaxing on Cockrell Creek just north of Reedville. We toured around town, checking out "Millionaires Row" from the heydays of the Menhaden Fleet fishing. This is a very picturesque town.




Monday evening brought some severe thunderstorms with winds gusting 40-50kts. We had just enough time to securely anchor and prepare the boat for the approaching storms. An hour later the storms moved on ending with a gorgeous double rainbow and brightly silver lined clouds.



Monday and Tuesday we worked our way back to Yorktown with two great days of downwind sailing. By Tuesday we had the whisker pole handling procedures down pat.
A very successful trip with nothing breaking and no emergencies. A good tune up for our planned trip to Nova Scotia later in the summer.

Here's a link to more pictures of the trip. More photos.

Up the Chesapeake

We finally set sail on Tides Inn on Thursday after a month of electronics installations and other commitments. Here’s a photo of Sue up the mast replacing our VHF antenna which was damaged during a strong wind storm during the winter. The new antenna provides much better reception (we can now hear signals from Atlantic City to the NC Outer Banks) which makes us wonder if the previous antenna was perhaps defective to begin with and that’s why the wind bent it?
We were supposed to be heading for NY City to meet up with Greg and Beth at their weekend independent artist show, but the wind gods did not cooperate and we preferred not to motor for 48hrs into the wind. So, like true cruisers, we checked the wind direction and determined where we could go. We’ve been making our way up the western shore of the Chesapeake.

Thursday we were treated with the unique pleasure of seeing the schooner Virginia come sailing down the York River just as we were coming out of the Poquoson River. We zipped up in formation with them and exchanged captain to captain pleasantries, then continued on our way up to Mobjack Bay. I took some great photos of the Virginia under full sail.
Thursday night we anchored along the north shore of Mobjack Bay, just inside the New Point Comfort lighthouse. Normally this would not be a good anchorage site due to its exposure, but the winds were very light.
Tonight we are up a protected creek from Milford Haven. When we arrived the winds were blustery from the south, but they died completely right at sunset so it is now cool and quiet.
The new electronics have been working great. We now have HF radio to get offshore weather and send position reports from anywhere at sea, plus a WiFi antenna that lets us pick up wifi signals from about 1 mile or so. I updated our position via HF earlier, and am now waiting to see if we can get a wifi signal to download photos and these words to the blog.
Hi to all… having a great time…. Too bad you’re not with us!
Mark & Sue

Sailing on Schooner Virginia

One of these days we'll get to sail on our own boat, but meanwhile I spent the past weekend working and sailing on the schooner Virginia.
On Thursday, we sailed from her berth by Nauticus in Norfolk up through Hampton Roads to the city of Hampton where the Virginia would participate in Blackbeard Pirate Days. Friday was a work day and 3 of us sanded and oiled a good portion of the brightwork - pilot house, wheel house and instruments station.
Saturday and Sunday were public visitation days during the Blackbeard festival.

Monday we sailed back to Norfolk by way of 8hrs of crew training in the southern Chesapeake Bay. After many tacks, jibes, sail adjustments, man overboard drills, abandon ship drills, etc... we finally returned to home berth in Norfolk. I now know why Popeye has such huge arms. A cruise on a traditional sailing vessel with no winches onboard will develop some big biceps and triceps. Next weekend its Harborfest at Norfolk. No long sailing days for that festival though.

Meanwhile, my latest and last project for Tides Inn is finished - an external WiFi antenna to improve our laptop wifi range. We are set to sail to NYC next week for the June 14th weekend where we will meet up with Greg and Beth who will be in Brooklyn at a craft fair for the weekend.
Our first chance to try out the HF radio and daily position reports. Stay tuned to the blog to see how it works out.

HF Radio Install

I finally finished installing my new ICOM 802 HF radio with Pactor III email capability. It was quite a job running all the cabling and copper foil that connects the transceiver, antenna tuner and underwater ground plane (2 dynaplates on our boat). Everything seems to be working as advertised. We can now send and receive emails (short with NO attachments) and send position reports to our blog site here.
And, we can now receive weather reports and wind Grib files which will let us know what the weather is doing out there in the open ocean away from VHF local wx broadcasts.

So, we're officially ready for some ocean passages now. We're planning on heading to NYC in June to meet with Greg and Beth, then to Nova Scotia in August to escape the Chesapeake summer heat. Working up for the big trip to the Mediterranean in the future.

Delivery Trip to NYC

Sue and I just returned from delivering a Hunter 280 from Deltaville, VA, on the Chesapeake, to Rye, NY, on Long Island Sound. The trip had a little of everything with some motoring, some nice sailing, some bad weather and a great sunrise as we entered New York harbor.
We motored up the Chesapeake, through the C&D canal and down the Delaware Bay in very light winds. That was a 38hr leg, leaving Deltaville just before noon on the 14th and arriving at Cape May at 0200 on the 16th.
We then spent a full day + anchored at Cape May awaiting the passage of a frontal storm. After a full day of rain, the front finally passed through, of course, at 2300 that night, bringing a 180degree wind change which required us to reposition our anchor in the middle of the night in 20-30kt winds. But once the anchor was reset we (I?) were finally able to relax and get some sleep. The next morning the winds were dying and by 0900 we and the 10-12 other sailboats in the anchorage were ready to get underway to continue the voyage.
We had some great sailing conditions for most of the day with 10-15kts of SW winds pushing us northward. By late afternoon the wind was down to under 10kts, but was forecast to freshen from the west after dark. We reefed the sails down to 2 reefs and motorsailed along. About 2300 (seems the time things always happen) a couple short squalls went through with gusts to 30kts. Good thing we had those reefs in as we were heeled pretty good even with that short of sail. The wind then went back to 10kts or so, which was OK as we didn't need to arrive at NYC until the tide changed at 0600.
We arrived at Sandy Hook, NJ, the entrance to NY outer harbor at exactly 0600 as the sun rose from the east and the winds rose from the west to 20kts. It was a blustery and bumpy ride across the outer harbor close hauled into the westerly winds which were opposing the incoming tidal current. Its good we had the 2kt current on our side as our speed through the water was down to 3.5kts.
Once we finally bashed our way to the Narrows, the NJ shore sheltered us from the worst of the wind and waves and it was good sailing again up the inner harbor. It was early Sunday morning but we still had a bit of traffic with tugs on one side, a cruise ship coming up the other side, the Staten Island ferry zipping across the channel and several pleasure boats out.
We cruised up along Liberty Island and Ellis Island, then crossed over to the North Cove marina on Manhattan to pick up the boat's owner who would ride with us up the East River to the Long Island Sound and Rye, NY.
We then motored the final 5 hour transit to Rye in very light winds and eventually some light showers as we arrived at Toujour Pret's new home in Rye, NY. Overall, a very successful delivery with no untoward incidents enroute. The best kind.
Here are some good photos of the trip. Photos

Tides Inn is back at Dare Marina in the Chisman Creek off the Poquoson River as of 1 April. We had a brisk sail up from Hampton with 15-20kts of southerly winds. Now for a few days of spring cleaning/polishing/waxing and its time to get sailing.
The Inn is open, so come on by.

Riding Caledonia to Guadalupe (click for link to Canadian Sailing Expeditions)

The SV Caledonia finally set sail for the Caribbean on 23 Feb, arriving in Guadalupe on 2 Mar. I ended up sailing (working) onboard for the trip trying to get her ready for her first cruise - which departed on 8 Mar. Sue stayed home minding Gennie and working with Tara.
It was an uneventful passage, with winds on the nose most of the way but, no significant storms/seas as we hurried down always in front of an advancing cold front.
Many of the crew were seasick pitching in the 6-8ft swells and waves, but I with my patch did fine.

I am now finally home and back to retired life - ready to get working on Tides Inn. Here is a link to some select photos. Photo Link

Caledonia to Sail

Here’s a photo of Caledonia still moored at Nauticus. Chris, Heather, Jackson and Ella visited this weekend and we took them for a tour of the ship then a ferry ride. Cool but sunny day. The Caledonia is scheduled to depart on Tuesday so Sue and I will get one last day of work this Monday. Then back to retired life :-).

Winter work on SV Caledonia, from Halifax

No sailing on Tides Inn during these winter months, so Sue and I have been working on the Canadian Sailing Expedition's barquentine SV Caledonia. The boat is here in Norfolk for yardwork. They were refloated on 7 Feb and doing final fitting out at Nauticus wharf at Waterside.
We've mostly been doing odd carpenter jobs like securing galley/pantry shelves, building fire-fighting gear storage locker, building chart drawer, etc... For awhile I was "Mr firedoor closure mechanism" man, but that job is mostly finished.
The Caledonia is being fitted out as a luxury cruise boat that will cruise Nova Scotia in the summer and Guadalupe in the winter. Passengers can pitch in with hoisting the sails if they desire.