Island Bound 2007-2008 - Blog 8

ISLAND BOUND 2007-2008!

Well we are getting close to the four month mark of this trip. It’s a little longer than I had planned on. We are getting tired and getting on each others nerves as any won would in these circumstances. I’m still enjoying the trip very much and it’s changing me a little each day, I hope in some good ways. I’m feeling more seasoned as a sailor and a little more understanding to others needs. We have been grounded once on the intercoastal waterway coming from Southport to Charleston South Carolina. We sat for a little while then worked our selves off the shoal which was just sand by the way and continued on our way. We are traveling with our friends from Australia and Malaysia; Owen, Morina, Robert and Richard. We caught up with them in Georgetown S.C. We are sitting in Charleston SC. Right now waiting out this wind and cold front but will press on in a day or so. The winds and the currents here in the ICW are very strong and with the winds in your face this makes it very difficult to travel on in this area. We pulled a couple more people off the shoals on the ICW last week that had grounded with the low tide and Shallow River. They were not grounded very hard so with just a little pull we were able to get them off the bottom.
We parked in this marina that was some what abandon only to wake with our boat in two foot of water and heeling over to the side. We had to wait 5 hours for the tide to rise and lift us off the bottom. It being a full moon the tide will be as much as a 6 foot difference from high tide to low tide. It didn’t hurt anything just our pride a little. We are 300 miles from crossing over to the Grand Bahamas now and every mile is so crucial and difficult being we are tired and wanting to get to our destination so badly. The days seem to crawl by. I have been working on the boat a lot while Ryan is at the helm. I fixed our stuffing box the other day, it’s where the shaft of the propeller comes out of the bottom of the boat and there is some lubricant in this area to keep the shaft from burning up the bearings. I changed the oil and tightened up more bolts that had come loose in the last 1300 miles of travel. We also put a mount on the back of the boat to hold the dingys engine. I have rigged up a hoist to hold our dingy on the back of the boat; we are using our dingy much more now with anchoring out now in front of marinas to save money. The weather has been great the past week and we made another 178 miles. It has been 70 degrees out and sunny with no wind. Only the past couple of days have been windy and cold. We had 45 mph winds on New Years and today it will be the same. Wednesday it will be 15 mph with the system clearing out and we will take off down the ICW to Beaufort SC then to Savanna GA. I hope you all enjoyed your New Years and the article that was in the paper last week I heard it was nice, I will get some more blogs out soon. We see dolphins every day now and it’s so incredible, to have them come over to the boat to check us out or just say good morning. I have fallen in love with these creatures; they are so pretty and curious of things. I look forward to seeing them now every day. We had one yesterday come over to us turn upside down and swim under the boat looking up at us, remarkable to say the least. Oh I forgot Harry our pelican that has been hanging around for the past few days. You can see his picture under the pictures part of my space or just watch the slide show. We had some fishermen catch a bunch of Mackerel and they gave us some to eat which was just excellent by the way. So I had some left that I feed to this pelican and now I can’t get him to leave the boat. He has adopted us as his family or something. He is there all the time looking for something to eat. So I took a picture of him and named him Harry. Wish all you well and LIVE FOR TODAY. SKIPPER OUT!!!

Island Bound 2007-2008 - Cape May to Delaware

ISLAND BOUND 2007!!

The morning came earlier than I expected it always does it seems. We fired up the atomic four, the atom bomb they call this motor and headed north up the Delaware bay to the C&D canal. “Chesapeake and Delaware Canal”. The Chesapeake and Delaware canal is a man made canal 55 feet deep and 18bmiles long connecting the Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake Bay. The morning was cold as it always is. The sun would be out today as we had blue skies above us. We headed out at 7am trying to make as many miles as we can. The G.P.S said 87 miles and by the time the day was through it turned out to be 103 miles. It seemed like we would never get into the C&D canal as the miles slowly ticked off on the GPS. Around 8 pm we finally found the canal entrance and started down the canal with fumes in the gas tank. We had only 6 miles to go down the canal and we would be in the marina. The miles just dragged those last few till we seen the entrance of the canal and slid in tied up and went immediately to bed.
The next day we finished down the canal to the end in Chesapeake City were they had city docks that were free to tie up to with electric and easy access to the small town. We explored the small town and there kindness and stayed till the next day. The town was very small but lots of small shops in a Cape Town style. The cottages and houses were small and quaint. The streets were all brick and cobble stone.
We left the small town of Chesapeake City in the morning with moderate winds heading for Annapolis Marilynn at 7am. As we rounded the point down the Chesapeake bay some 25 miles down the winds came up strong and forced us into an unprotected marina. It was all we could find to save us from the winds so we made the best of it. The town was Bettertown and it was not better it was terrible. We walked 4 miles to a store only to find it would not take a credit card Debit card so we walked four miles back to the boat all a waste of time. The night found us with terrible winds and the boat rocking so bad it would knock things off the wall. So at 3:30 am we loaded the boat and headed out to Annapolis again some 35 miles away. The winds were strong but from behind us now and we made good time getting to Annapolis by 10:30 am. The city of Annapolis was really a treat. The town is all cobblestone very old 1625 and the Capital of Marilynn. The shops and town is all colonel and very historic. We got to see the Naval Academy and some of the Governors home and were the senate meets. Annapolis was a treat, its also the sailing capital of the United States. There are some beautiful boats here to say the least. Sailing vessels that are 60 and 70 feet long costing a million dollars. We caught up on laundry and got supplies, food, charts and such all within reasonable distance from our own mega yacht. Ya right. So there you have it, we are now heading for Norfolk Virginia some 110 miles south hopefully to some warmer temperatures. Thanks for taking the time to read the blog and look for another soon I will be Keeping you updated as I get internet. This is your captain saying keep it between the navigational beacons. SKIPPER OUT!!

Island Bound 2007-2008 - Atlantic City

ISLAND BOUND 2007!!

Its great to be back on the water yet it is still cold and wet. We sat in Sandy Hook marina for a couple of days due to the windy conditions. I tried to leave on Tuesday rounding the point of Sandy Hook into the Atlantic Ocean only to hit a wall of wind and large waves. The waves were crashing over the bow and we turned around heading back to Sandy Hook for another day. The next morning it was flat calm and we headed for Atlantic City 90 miles away.
As I headed out of New York City I was feeling very low, I was tiered of the cold, wind and rain. I’m exhausted from 1600 miles and living for three months on a 28 ft boat. I’m in need of some space and a little rest from the 10 hours a day on the water. I have to say I really have contemplated selling the boat on e-bay and just calling it quits. Its really been long an hard doing this. It’s very hard for someone to imagine. The Atlantic is unforgiving this time of the year. Think about it we are in a 28 ft boat in the North Atlantic 10 days before the month of December not very appealing to say the least, it’s a far cry from the Islands I imagined. I can only say thank you and I love my Mother. I had given her a call and she listened to my complaining and my down in the mud spirits. She always has the right thing to say to make me go on so my decision to go on goes out to you thank you for being there to listening to me Mothers what would we do with out them??
Sandy Hook was about 25 miles from New York just at the point of the Atlantic ocean. As I was saying we left Sandy Hook on flat seas heading for Atlantic City 90 miles away. The day was great till 1pm. We were making good time till the wind started kicking up and the sea got rough again. We continued till dark and with only 25 miles to go we pushed on with all we had to make it to Atlantic City. At 7 pm we could see the lights of the city but we only had fumes to run on. We started for the harbor and the waves were huge maybe 10 or 15 feet it was becoming gale force winds . The marine radio from the coast guard advised all small craft to get off the ocean immediately. We literally surfed into the harbor trying to keep the boat from going side ways and rolling. As we got into the harbor we tied up and started to clean all the debris up that was on the floor of the boat. It was another 90 miles tacked off on the map. Atlantic City was very cool we stayed at Donald’s place. By that I mean we stayed in the Trump marina owned by Donald Trump. We spent Thanksgiving day there and we headed out to Cape May which was only 34 miles away which would put us into the start of the intercostals waterway and we would be off the Atlantic Ocean till we were in Florida’s South Miami.
We headed out to Cape May on Saturday under decent seas 2 foot waves and a northwest wind. It was smooth sailing just very cold that day around 30 degrees and sunny. We pulled into the Cape May channel and ran down the river to a marina and tied up for the night. We were done with the day by 3 pm and cooking a dinner of chicken sandwiches and fried potatoes. Cape May was a very coastal style town. It comprised of small cottages and dune grass along the shores with many shrimp boats. We had one large shrimp boat that had run aground on off the channel. We talked to them and they just said they would wait for the tide then move into the channel and continue to the marina the were heading for. About 4 hours latter we looked and they were gone. Cape May was like something out of a picture book for sure. The town had a wine festival going on while we were there and so I went down to try some local wines, they were fantastic to say the least. As I rode my bike back to the boat I could tell I had more then I should have. When I got back to the boat I turned in and got ready for the big day tomorrow going the Delaware river to the canal 90 miles away then over to the Chesapeake Bay down to Norfolk Virginia.
Thanks for reading and I will write again soon. P.S Wish you were here S it’s the trip we always talked about. Miss U Skipper Out!!!