We spent most of today cleaning the boat - inside and out - and polishing stainless. Bob put the davit supports on and our dinghy is now stowed on the davits.
The weather looks great for the next few days. We are looking forward to some good sailing. After St. Michael's, our plan is to explore the eastern shore of the Chesapeake.
10/12/07
I spent better than an hour trying to upload photos to the Blog this evening. It isn't an easy process. The Blog program is very limited. I've decided to wait until we get to St. George's Marina where Wi-Fi is available.
The routes and waypoints we created on the laptop Nobeltec software have never transferred to our chart plotter. This morning, Ryan, the tech from Marine Technical Services came out to replace the defective B&G digital display, which is under warranty.
He and Bob have spent the entire day attempting, without success, to get Nobeltec to communicate with Furuno. After many calls to technical support we were disappointed to find that neither Furuno nor Nobeltec have an answer. To add to our frustration, our AIS is not communicating with Furuno. According to the technician, this may be resolved with a re-routing of the AIS signal directly to the Furuno rather than through the multiplexer.
All of these expensive systems that don’t communicate are a source of great expense and frustration! I find it interesting that none of the vendors tell you to expect issues when they sell their products! All we have at the end of the day is another large bill and a small improvement in performance.
We will be sailing to St. Michael’s on Sunday and have reserved a dock at the St. Michael’s Marina for Sunday and Monday. We're looking forward to visiting the Chesapeake Maritime Museum.
10/9/07 – 10/11/07
Tuesday began with a beautiful sunrise; a sunny warm day with light winds.
As we left the Sassafras River one of our B&G digital displays went down taking the remaining four and all our cockpit data with it. We had no wind, speed, or depth information available. Bob took the defunct unit out and fortunately Bill knew how to reconfigure the remaining displays to show all data on two instruments.
We motor sailed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge at 1:30PM and docked at the Naval Academy Mill Creek Marina in Annapolis at 2PM.
At the marina, we found ourselves behind a locked gate. Bob and I went to find the office to check in. At the gate my intuition told me one of us should stay back. Bob said, “Come on” – and I followed him. There was no marina office in sight, our cell phones were on board, the gate was now locked with us on one side and DeLaMer on the other, and there was no one in sight. I decided to try to get back to the boat and Bob continued on. After a long walk, Bob finally encountered a man who gave him a ride to the Marina Office -- 3 and ½ miles away. What we didn’t know is there are two marinas on base, Carr Creek and Mill Creek Marina. We are at Mill Creek and the office is at Carr Creek. The staff gave Bob a ride back to the boat and the code to open the locked gate.
Our Enterprise Car arrived, after being lost on the base for some time, and we took Bill to the Baltimore Airport.
On the way back we stopped at a restaurant he had recommended, the Severn Inn. The setting was lovely; on the water overlooking Annapolis. We hadn’t been seated on the outdoor deck more than 10 minutes when ominous dark clouds and bolts of lighting drove everyone inside.
We docked in Annapolis only five hours before a dramatic weather change. Rain and high winds have continued for two days as a result of three lows converging in the northeast. We feel most fortunate to have arrived at the dock before the inclement weather.
10/8/07 - Monday
We motor sailed from Cape May up the Delaware River using the full main and genoa. Our speed over ground, 7 ½ to 8 knots. The skies are blue, water calm, and the temperature again in the 70’s.
We passed close by the Salem-Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station. Bob reminisced for awhile about his experiences with the three evaluation teams he led there while working for the Institute of Nuclear Power.
We entered the C&D Canal at noon and dropped sails, per their regulations.
Spent the afternoon sailing in the Chesapeake, practicing a few of the sailing maneuvers we had on our list of questions for Captain Bill. He, by the way, is fantastic! We would highly recommend him to anyone in need of a Captain. His extensive sailing experience, love for and ability to teach, enthusiasm, easy going nature, and sense of humor have made him an ideal sailing companion. We are learning every day and gaining a sense of confidence in coastal sailing.
I experienced an interesting phenomenon with sleep deprivation. I discovered I couldn’t maintain concentration for any length of time and I had great difficulty focusing and retaining information. Having never experienced it before, it was disconcerting.
We anchored in the Sassafras River overnight since we didn’t have enough time to make Annapolis before dark. Our reservation was at the Naval Academy Mill Creek Marina, which has only daymarks marking a narrow channel between two shoals. Sunset was spectacular!
10/7/07 Sunday
We passed under the Throgs Neck Bridge at 7:30 AM. Sunny day with great visibility. Going down the East River brought back a lot of memories. This time I had my camera and was able to get some great pictures of the Statue of Liberty, UN Building, Empire State Building and Metropolitan Hospital (where I spent two of my four undergraduate years in college.) I’ll get them downloaded and on the blog when we are in Annapolis.
Transiting from the Verazano Bridge to the Jersey shore was a challenge with all the buoys, markers, and shipping lanes. Bob took the helm and I navigated with the charts, with Bill on my shoulder coaching me through. Another great learning experience.
We passed Sandy Hook, NJ about 11:30AM, temperature was in the 70’s and mostly sunny. We turned the motor off and had a lovely sunset sail at dinner time. As the evening and night progressed, the weather changed. We had quartering seas, waves 2-3 feet, and winds 12-15. Not a comfortable sail. We motor sailed with the main reefed, the genoa partly furled, and the staysail out. Nothing much to see on the New Jersey shore. We expect to be at Cape May early tomorrow morning.
10/06/07
The fog is still present; however the visibility is 2-3 miles. What a difference! We’re on our way to the Race and Long Island Sound.
We turned the engine off at 5:55PM and had a beautiful sunset and evening sail until 8:30PM. Our speed over ground was 6.3 – 7 knots. Seas changed to choppy with 2-3 foot waves.
10/4-10/5
We’ve have had prolonged opportunities to use our radar in fog. We motor sailed in dense fog for over 22 hours with visibility 100’ to 200’ or less. It requires concentration and focus and I guess most of you know whose strength that is between the two of us.
One of our most memorable experiences 10/4 was spotting two Humpback Whales about 150 feet off our port side. One of them gave us a number of spouts and a beautiful view of his tail out of water. And where was my camera? Down below! I did manage to retrieve it in time to snap the last spout. However, by that time the whale was a long way off.
On his night watch, Bill Hooper, our Captain, a Pilot Whale surfaced and spouted less than 20 feet from our starboard side.
Friday afternoon we altered course, due to fog and weather forecasts. We docked at Payne’s Marina on Block Island. Two side benefits, we all got a great night’s sleep and I got to catch up with Tamara. She stills owns the Orange Cat Coffee Shop on Block Island and manages three Inns on the Island.
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