Annapolis

So glad our friends suggested we come here. One of the most interesting places I have been with so much history and over 100 homes that were built in the 17 and 18 hundreds. Walking the brick sidewalks and going down the narrow streets with the houses right on the walkway as well as viewing the grand brick mansions--it has filled up two days for us. We just happened into a little house and here was a volunteer doing his thing. We spent an hour with him as he talked about his life on the Maryland frontier and even though we have been to many historical things, we learned a lot of new. Do you know where the expressions " it costs a buck". lock, stock and barrell", "don't go off half cocked" come from? Everything he had he either made himself or friends did after the fashion of the frontier times. What a treat. Of course Annapolis also caters to the wealthy and we are most certainly not the biggest boat in the harbor!!!!
We have definitely gotten into the lazy days of summer and are really enjoying the Chesapeake so far.

catching up

We have been very remiss in keeping up our blog. So here is a bit of a catch up. Darrell has given up on blog as we can't seem to get pictures, but i will continue a narrative and if we have a good picture, will send it e-mail. After leaving Bohemia river, we headed up the Sassafrass River to Gerogetown. What a beautiful river with a combination of grand estates, woods, marsh and high banks. At Georgetown off came the bikes and we stocked up on groceries, used the local library for bird information, and talked with folks who were working at a CSA farm. Had lunch at the Kitty Hawk House which is the only building left standing after the British burned the town in 1812. The birds are amazing. An eagle flew right by the boat, blue herons are everywhere as well as ducks and osprey. We found out that the large birds standing on the shore were black vulchures. Many song birds as well, but hard to see and I don't know the sounds. Next we spent a few days at Farilee Creek, again took off bikes and went 10 miles into Chestertown, another old historic place. A week ago we crossed the Bay to the west side, winds gusting to 25, but mostly behind us so it was like riding a surf board much of the time, made excellent time and pulled into Selby Bay on the South River on the west side of the bay to meet with our friends the Andersons. After a week of rain almost every day, we had beuatiful weather and sailed over to the East side to St Michail's, enjoyed a beautiful harbor watching the crabbers go out to pull in their crab lines, toured the marine museum and just spent good days and evenings with friends. After saying goodby to Clair and Cinda, it was off to Annapolis. Happened to be the weekend so pretty busy, but we get the flavor of this boating capitol. Couldn't believe that the morrings are only $25 and that includes showers etc.

Nancy's View

Hello everyone.
Darrell has been donig most of this posting and has become very frustrated with trying to do pictures. I am just giving up on that and if I have a picture I wish to send, I will do it via e-mail as that seems to work. This has been an interesting two weeks and yet it has also seemed as if we are just moving along to get somewhere. We have had to pace our trip so far to account for weather, currents to get through Manhattan, timing to get to the few places along the New Jersey shore where one can go in at night with a sail boat, and with currents to get up the Delaware Bay andthrough the Chesapeake/Delaware canal. We have managed all of that especially yesterday when by leaving at 8 a.m. we were able to ride with the current all of the way from Cape May into the Chesapeake. We even had a beautiful day for most of it, abel to sail for a while and then motor sail often doing over 8 knots over land--the dark storm clouds that gthered in the afternoon seemed to pass around us until we came into the Chesapeake and headed for our anchorage and then it poured rain all the time that I was out setting the anchor. This took a while as we usually really pull back on the anchor in reverse to make sure that our boat will hold even in a good blow and each time we held until Darrell revved it up and then we would let go. We finnally put out a different anchor and decided that weather was quite calm and it would be ok. We were also surprised that the charts say area here was 6-7 feet deep at low tide and our depth was reading about 4.5. We draw about 4 feet. As we talked to some folks today who have been at this for a while, they let us know that it really is deeper and we should adjust our depth sounder AND that with looser soil on top of harder soil, one may need to let the anchor sit for a while (have a cocktail) giving the anchor time to settle through the softer stuff and then pull back to get her set. This is different from our expereince so it was good to get this advice. It is beautiful today and after yesterdays 12 hour travel in sun, rain, and rain it feels good to just hang out and relax.

This is a picture of Nancy against the background of one of the gambeling establishments in Atlantic City. We are still experimenting with getting immages into our block. I'm trying to see if this works.

We have arrived at Cape May New Jersery this afternoon. The Jersey Shore is a very long boat trip. We sailed, motersailed, motored -mostly motored down. We left Barnaget Bay inlet on Monday morning just as the fog was beginning to settle in. We had to hurry so we still had visuals of the markers in this greatly shoeled little harbor. Once in the channel and thereafter we can navigate be instrumentation. We sailed until early afternoon in total fog and entered Atlantic City harbor in the fog. We waited out Tuesday because of foul weather and again this morning departed our anchorage in fog with very poor visability. Once out on the sea it became clearer and came into Cape May using visuals. We will stay here for two days. Get some provisions and explore on terra firma for awhile-may have dinner out and definately ice cream. Its forbidden on the boat. Saturday we will enter the small canal that leads out of here into the Delaware Bay, sail up to the C and D Cannal, through the cannal and into the northern region of the Chesapeak Bay.

New Jersey Coast

We made it this far! started at 0630 this morning and pulled into Baragat Bay at about 1500 today Wind came up from south and it got very choppy. Spray over 10 feet high. We are tired. Plan on early departure tomorow and make for Atlantic City. We thought of direct to Cape May,but we think we'll get to tired. We're not going to try to send a picture tonight because you can see from past blogs what happens to them. There is just an empty space. Does anybody get a picture on your computer. Anybody jhave any ideas?

We made it through New York City today, all the bridges, the huge buildings and Hell Gate. Both our daughters Laura and Sarah together with Mohammad came down in the park under the Brooklyn Bridge to wave to us as we passed by. That was heartwarming. We won't see them for a long while. So across the New York Harbor under the Verizanno Bridge and down to Sandy Hook we went. What a beautiful day. Spent the afternoon lazzing in the sun. As dusk falls we realize that we wil spend the night at anchor here under a full moon. Tommorow we will be up at the crack of dawn. Our plan is to sail or motorsail down the Jersey coast to Barnaget inlet. This manauver can be dangerous under certain circumstances. Dial in tommorow and see how we did.

City Island, NY

We wait through very nasty weather off the shore of the Bronx version of Nantucket Isand. The passage down through New York City has to be well planned to hit what is called Hell Gate at slack. Hell gate is in the East River where the East River and the Harlem River meet. The clash of the currents at max flow is something like the North Atlantic in the middle of the winter. We have planned to leave here at exactly 0830 hrs. From there it is a full day through the East River, through New York Harbor and into Sandy Hook New Jersey. Tune in tommorow to see how the drama unfolds and if we, in fact arrive in Sandy Hook.

Heading OUt

Sunday, May 31 we took off int hte afternoon with good wind and sunny skies. All systems are working well, hope they stay that way and we are now into our boat mode of living. First few days have been a mixture of good sail, no wind, wind in srong direction and good motoring or motor sailing. Anchored at Duck Island, Black Rock Harbor and Stamford. Now just got anchored at City Island before the rain storms hit. Will wait here until weather is clear for going through Hell Gate and down East Ricer to Sandy Hook New Jersey. Currents look good for several days so hope weather cooperates.